Built Rd350 Cafe Racer Terrorizes the streets! 

Awesome build man. 👏 Love your videos.

Mannn this thing flys

try different oil so maybe the clutch doesnt slip. loving that 2 stroke sound

Maybe if you used the clutch when changing gear's I really think you should be clutching it between gear's

What an incredible machine, am I loosing my mind or did I see a Apison Pike/ E Brainerd intersection during your test ride?? I run a custom metal fab/sheetmetal fab shop not far down the road from you & if you ever need any pipe or tubing or sheet metal or anything else for your builds give me your email and I’ll give you info to contact me if you ever need materials for your projects.

Thanks 👍

@@VasilyBuilds I'd be interested to know the weight when it's all said and done. I bet it weighs much less than stock.

It really did come out nice.

Type of bike you ride with gloves, open face helmet, leather jacket, and a cigarette

Would 20w be too much? I've already got some heavy racetec springs

Like the man says, oil controls rate. Springs carry weight. If ghe spring rate you have serves to carry the load, try increasing oil viscosity from what you have to something higher. If you now have something between zero and 10, you can try 20. It is just oil. Experiment till you find what you like to go with your ride style.

Pretty sure it is slipping.

I personally don't hear a slipping clutch. Given the too large carbs on this bike, the pipes tuned to a different port spec than this one has, unknown porting that sounds anything but radical, and what you have is a peaky bike with street gears, not a slipping clutch. The stock clutch is adequate for highly modified engines, so if it is set up correctly, it will hold. Since he was using only one finger on the clutch, the springs may bee too light.

I've ridden a lot of 2-strokes - it's definitely slipping. Not horribly, but it's there.

Exactly what I was thinking when. he said "poping out of gear"

Defo sounds like was riding clutch Amazing bike thou love your content.🔥

The "Old school" way of shifting (before there were such excellent transmitions) was to hold up on the shifter until the clutch was released and power was applied. Unfortunately back in the day popping out of gear and false neutral were a common.

I thought I heard it also. . Need to adjust the lever so it's more in a straight line w/ his arm. More like pulling it in as opposed to pushing it down. That's got to get really fatiguing the way it's sitting now.

@@prepchris145 I was thinking the same thing about "popping" out of gear. I've never owned an old Yamaha two stroke that didn't. "She's got 5 speeds an' three neutrals."

I was thinking the same thing

Thanks! Yeah I may have to retrofit a banshee clutch in it

@@VasilyBuilds I also think it would be the best option, i was thinking for a future build, maybe if you could get your hands on a 2 stroke suzuki gt750 engine to swap it into a banshee frame? Would be a mental build! Just brainstorming here but 2strokes are so much fun!

@@VasilyBuilds Is it a cable-clutch? If so, leave some play at the lever, so that it's all the way clear. Also, take off your finger from the lever..

Yeahhhhhh. Doubt that one brother. Ive had one of these setup for drag racing back in the day... Even bone stock big boat honda hurricane 1000's from the 90's absolutely destroyed me. Now you may be talking Harley's and gold wings. Then maybe. But "liter bikes" refers to sport bikes and that's a load of BS or you were running liter bikes that had 3 spark plugs disconnected..

First, the Honda Hurricane is not from the same era as the RD350 here in question. Second, if your RD was, in fact, set up for drag racing, then let us all know what its redline was, its top speed, and its speed and time through the traps so we can make a real world comparison. My totally stock '75 RD350 did the 1/8th mile in 9 seconds flat at 90mph in fifth gear, and topped at 112. This is without expansion chambers, and with 28mm stock carbs and stock air filter, redlined at 8,500rpm. This may not seem much compared to a one liter bike that is capable of 150 plus and turns over 11K, but give the bike its due. It was faster than anyones 350, faster than almost all road bikes in the early to mid '70's, and only cost $1,600 new.

@@ArizonaShorty You've proved my point precisely actually. You won't take a 1000 with an ole rd350 unless the liter bike is running badly or the rider is bad. That is the point I was making. It was indeed quicker than bikes bikes in it price range. Even then. Stock for stock. You would not beat an old Kawa 1000 from that era in good knit with a proper rider..sure you can mod the rd, but you can also mod the old kz putting it ahead still. The hurricane was just simply the bikes I was racing mine against. I lost to a LOT of kz's that looked near stock. Mine was 80 thou overbore, lightened crank, we retrofitted some flat slide carbs(with adapters we made) and drag pipes, also had 6 inches welded to the rear of the frame to put the rear tire out more for launching(kinda like how we "stretch" bikes nowadays). Redline was about 9800-10k and ran off a dynatek ignition we had retrofitted as well(if I remember correctly this has been many MANY years ago)The bike was fast. Very fast. For it's size and displacement yes. Very much so. But to say you'll take out 1000's like chump change is a bit of a stretch... The rd350 you could expect around 28-35 HP on a dyno bone stock. Where has even a kz900 made double that if not more. Let alone a kz1000 in good knit would almost triple it.

Kawasaki didn't make a 1000cc bike that I remember until after the RD had run its course. The Kawasaki of the day was the Z1 which was 900cc 82hp bike. This was the only stock bike we saw in the mid '70's that could outrun, much less keep up with, the bike I built and raced, which was a Yamaha 650 twin, modified to 750cc bigger carbs, different cam, and so on. It did the 1/8th mile in 8 seconds at 90ish mph. This was only one second faster than my bone stock RD. The K1 did the 1/8th mile in 7.9 seconds at whatever speed he achieved, but which was not all that much faster than either the 350 or the 750. Would I deliberately put my RD up against a 900cc anything? No. But at the time, the local drag strip ran ALL bikes dead heat, not by brackets, so what we were racing mostly were Harleys, which were lucky to beat 10 seconds in the 1/8th mile. Even my RD beat those. We also raced a TZ350, which only posted a 9.2 second run due to way too high road race gearing. Geared down it would likely have been posting sub 8 second runs, which would only prove that you can get a whole lot of speed out of a 350 if you try. Would I ever try my RD in its current state of build against a bone stock K1? Sure, and probably it would be really close because all I needed was to shave off one second. Could I shave off 100 pounds, pump the engine up to 80 hp and keep up with a K1. No question. But such comparisons are pretty pointless because I would have a bike I could not ride anymore except at the strip where a stock K1 would still be fully street worthy. There are limits to what a 350 can do, but this 350, the RD, was significantly faster than anything in its class without modification. By comparison, the Honda 350 of the same era topped at around 82 mph and was slower than anything going. They didn't even try. The 750 SS Honda of that day was only about as fast as my RD. That is not something Honda would brag about.

I had this bike while it was still considered new. The liter bike I am referring to is the kz 1000. Stop light to stop light they would fall. My tach and speedo would both rotate past the maximum and start over again. The Yamaha factory tech that assembled it shook uncontrollably after his test drive. He said it was the fastest bike he had ever ridden. The stock form of this bike is not fast but this was. My biggest regret is it only had this power for a short time before it wore out. Violent exceleration, unanticipated wheelies. Falling off the back of the bike was a problem.

No, just the RS 50

I have a 2000 plate rs125 30bhp.. going up in value now.. the last ones rolled of the line in 2012.. nothing above 50cc now.. oh I'd love a rs 250 though.. 8-12 grand now 😮‍💨

I always did that and dragged back brake bc flying by driveways ect always prepared for idiot pulling out or dosent see you if im going fast im prepared to stop even faster

Is he kid that flew into the house got hurt i can't remember nevertheless talented kid

There is no problem engine braking, as long as his carb is tuned with correct pilot jet.

Why do you think he's pulling the clutch when he's slowing down geez.

I disagree. This engine will survive nicely, power off engine braking, with fuel mix at around 100:1. Since he is running premix, the mix ratio is likely half that or even richer given the amount of smoke, but the point is there is no harm to be done using the engine to slow down. Two strokes are a thing all their own. If you haven't spent hundreds of hours on them, racing, riding, modifying, you have basis for comparison. Indoubt this engine is making 55hp, but the RD is capable of making that and more. However, it takes an overall coordinated approach to porting and tuning to achieve it, and frankly it just gets peakier the more power you demand. This one needs smaller carbs with partitions to go with the porting as described.

Bruh chill out

@@Flatout56-o8k bruhs been chill fella

Wait til you hear an RG500!

Very smart man, you are.

Definitely agree. After having my bones smashed in a none fault accident that didn't include any extra speed. I definitely wouldn't be adding speed to the risk unless it's a road with no junctions, parked cars etc

Good advice from someone who's been there...A young girl pulled out without looking..."l didn't see him". was on the accident report. My advice would be, to use the race track.

😂😂😂

Ok, boomer. 😂

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang 🤯 🔫 🔫

Those where the days! Would definitely go with the ridged fork assembly before the fluid block. Guess you have to live through not having a front fender in the wet before you realize looking cool isn't everything lol

RD400's were awesome fun, first bike I had on road.

They've been balanced by a shop

@@VasilyBuilds What type tires are you running?

@@TheShepard5348 pirelli sport demons. They're tubeless but I'm running tubes with them

Just saw that, and was going to make the same recommendation. The bike is DIME, 70's suspension sucks. Riding it often, replace from the triple clamp to the front tire, leaning enduro.

Suzuki even made a water cooled 750 2stoke called the gt750

Yes this kid has some real talent. Safe driving is not one of them. Riding bikes all my life (66 now) things happen awful fast. I had an RD in my day and it is not possible to take it easy.

Just be prepared for worst scenario at all times especially on acceleration. Be better at stopping than going fast . When I relax when stupidity happens

It is not easy to ride slowly on a fast bike. Ask anyone with a modern super bike why they do wheelies at 80 on the highway or why they lane split at highway speed plus 60. Personally I would save the full power pulls for open country, but we all ride according to our own sense of mortality

Agree

Interesting! A monoblock design could work

@@VasilyBuilds maybe. Or I might keep the standard barrels and make it into a triple. Alan millyard is doing a similar project with a kawasaki engine. You would find that interesting. The only thing with the yz barrels is the high RPM and having to design a waterpump. Also how far I would be going from the classic design

You can try, but you would be wasting your time.

Thanks! I have some super dope spots to visit once I make the bikes more reliable!

No kidding, but what is done is done. A few heat cycles do not break in a 2 stroke, nor a 4 stroke either. This bike would originally get around 55 mpg just riding around. During the first 100 to 200 miles, the drill was slightly enriched oil mix, no more than half throttle except for occasional blips, and no full throttle pulls. That would mean maybe two full tanks for your bike. Too late to do that though. Still, take it easy on the pistons for a while yet.

Stay tuned! I had to throw a hint out

All true, but..... he has almost no ride time on this machine, the suspension needs work, and at speed, making lane alignment changes can be easier said than done. So.... slow down until you get the build right, and get used to how it handles. Wider handle bars will help here but may not fit the whole cafe thing. Keep it in mind that cafe bikes were not made for road racing.

Water Buffalo. 👍💪

Triples two strokes are the best sounding engines

It's okay to engine brake a little

Actually, the oil injection system is straight line related to throttle position, and at idle, offers a ratio around 100:1. That is extremely lean, but more than adequate for closed throttle. Once you rev up to catch the lower gear, you are back in the 35:1 world, so what is the issue? Here, he is using premix, so at closed throttle coming down through the gears, he is much more likely to foul a plug than hurt the engine.

The suspension geometry has been hacked to the point that no one knows how this bike is set up, but the front brake appears to be okay. The stock front disc was very effective. I have done full panic stop from 110mph to dead stop in 300 feet and no tire skidding. That is not bad for a 360 pound bike on skinny tires.

You own a ypvs at 16? 👀👀👀👏👏

At 18yrs old I had the 350lc then the ypvs then on my 20th birthday I bought a 500gamma. I've always had 2stroke dirt bikes too. The love for a crackling 2stroke never dies.

i have ridden street and dirt since 1971 and frankly I often have a finger on the clutch lever. Since my brain controls the finger pressure, it isn't an issue. I can have a death grip on the bars and still not trigger the clutch. Only our host can say whether he tends to ride the clutch too hard.

Control speed wobble by making sure the front and rear are tracking the same line, by adjusting rake to match stock spec, and by adding a fork brace. The stock bike used the steel front fender as a brace. Your forks don't appear to be stock, either in width or rake. The damper can help, but will not cure a tendency to flutter at speed. Remember that there is no alignment control between lower and upper forks, only the axle shaft which is usually not enough. Install a fork brace and see if that changes things.

I agree that you don't need the orings in the clutch. When you take the clutch apart to look for signs of slipping, leave them out.

they've been removed and a fzr1000 clutch has been installed

Yeah it was very hard to tell even when riding it. Maybe it's just the smooth powerband

A slipping clutch is usually pretty obvious when riding because the engine speed will spike but the bike does not accelerate. I didn't see that in your video. If a person has never ridden a classic 2 stroke motocross bike, they may be completely unfamiliar with the power band delivery on a ported 2 stroke engine. In your case, the power peak is likely made more severe due to lag in the low and mid range, and while that might feel "smooth", it really suggests there is room for improvement off idle to half throttle. I don't know how you are ported, but my guess is that the combo of your tuned pipes and overly large carbs are creating the power void down low which disappears rapidly when the pipe starts to work.