WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

2 Stroke Street Bikes

Ct5

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Anyone else here interested in these things? I’m a two stroke lover. I grew up racing shifter karts and tuned/driver coached young drivers before real life started. I love the simplicity, the sounds, and smell of a good motor with just a coupla strokes. I get a lot of thumbs ups when I ride the black and yellow Kenny Robert’s bike.
 

Ziggy

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Always wanted one(RD/RZ) in the worst way but sadly it just doesn't make sense for me. (Sigh😔)
That 'Zuki is a monster too.
 

mjc

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I would like an rd350 if I could find one.
 

traquer

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I love two stroke anything! When I was a kid I had electric toys and RC cars and the fun always ended right as you were getting into it.. Pissed me off. Then when I got my first gas-powered toys like go kart, goped, nitro RC car, it was a whole new world! They were all two strokes. Miss my jet ski the most need to get another one!
 

TimeBandit

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I road raced some Kawasaki triples in the late 70's early 80's

S2A, 350cc triple 1973

H1R, 500cc triple, A factory road racer, not sure of the year, it had a front drum brake so it was an early one.
 

Racer56

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I love me some 2 smokes!

On a side note, both Eddie Lawson and the King Kenny Robert's live in Havasu full time. Eddie has one of his world championship 500's in his trophy room.
 

Taboma

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I road raced some Kawasaki triples in the late 70's early 80's

S2A, 350cc triple 1973

H1R, 500cc triple, A factory road racer, not sure of the year, it had a front drum brake so it was an early one.

Blast from the past -- had a 71' H1, then a few years later in the mid 70's picked up a 72' H2, then feeling my luck might run out, I eventually sold them both and bought a Honda XR 500 and stuck with playing in the dirt for awhile. 😁
 

HTTP404

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Don't happen to be selling that RZ 350 are you?
 

SoCalDave

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Had a few over the last 40+ years. Grew up on bikes in the 60' 70's with my friends and found our first Yamaha R5 buried in his parents garage. It was his older brothers bike that had gone to Vietnam to serve this country. Drug that thing out fuel it up and off we went with the front wheel in the air for the summer. What a fukin blast we had on that bike.
Arriving in California in 1979 I purchased a new RD400 Daytona Special from Buena Park Yamaha when they were on Orangethorpe Ave. A lot of mods went into that bike.
Fast forward to 2004 when I found a bone stock 1985 RD500 in a garage in Santa Anna. Original owner that imported it from Europe and was last ran in 1989. Registration was current as no- operational and it had a Meer 2400km on it. I gave him $4500 for it and off I went. Took me about a year to restore it to original condition as all the rubber had deteriorated. Sold it to a collector in 2009 (?) from nor cal.
I did a build thread on RZ500 forums that was very detailed.
No pics on my phone of the R5 nor 79 RD400 but here is one of the 85 RD500.
I can share more pics on rides with Eddie Lawson and Wayne Rainey and the bikes when back in the office.
Love me some 2 smokes...

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bonesfab

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View attachment 977607 View attachment 977608
Anyone else here interested in these things? I’m a two stroke lover. I grew up racing shifter karts and tuned/driver coached young drivers before real life started. I love the simplicity, the sounds, and smell of a good motor with just a coupla strokes. I get a lot of thumbs ups when I ride the black and yellow Kenny Robert’s bike.

Is that a 250? I want a RG500 pretty bad. and a TZ750 as long as we are dreaming.
 

spectras only

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rrrr

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Had a Kawi triple back in the day...

500 with pipes and carbs. No idea why I didn't die on that thing. It was nuts!!!

And yeah, I lived for the sound. 😎

72’ H2 750 Kawasaki triple. Street racing murder machine...oh the fun we had..

Those triples were madness! The throttle had two settings, like a light switch...off and hang on!
 

Ct5

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@bonesfab That KX is badass! Nice collection there. I’ve always wanted an RZ/RD 500 but they’re ungodly priced now days and I’m sure parts aren’t easy to come by. My first bike was a Daytona special just like yours. I had two R5’s also, and after riding an RZ I got rid of the air cooled bikes.

The Suzuki is a ‘91 RGV 250. It was imported from Japan a few years ago. The 250’s are my favorite bike to ride. The power, weight, brakes, and handling are amazing. I can’t ride for long though at 6’ tall the little bikes are hard on the body. The guy I bought my RZ from has a zero mile RG500 and a low mile RGV500. They’re going for huge money right now.

Kawasaki H’s are awesome, they look like the power to brake situation would be a little hairy though.

@http404 I would sell it for the right price. DM me if you’re serious about it. I have the stock exhaust in perfect condition to go with it. The rest of the bike is stock, just a little jetting change for the new JL pipes.
 

bonesfab

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@bonesfab That KX is badass! Nice collection there. I’ve always wanted an RZ/RD 500 but they’re ungodly priced now days and I’m sure parts aren’t easy to come by. My first bike was a Daytona special just like yours. I had two R5’s also, and after riding an RZ I got rid of the air cooled bikes.

The Suzuki is a ‘91 RGV 250. It was imported from Japan a few years ago. The 250’s are my favorite bike to ride. The power, weight, brakes, and handling are amazing. I can’t ride for long though at 6’ tall the little bikes are hard on the body. The guy I bought my RZ from has a zero mile RG500 and a low mile RGV500. They’re going for huge money right now.

Kawasaki H’s are awesome, they look like the power to brake situation would be a little hairy though.

@http404 I would sell it for the right price. DM me if you’re serious about it. I have the stock exhaust in perfect condition to go with it. The rest of the bike is stock, just a little jetting change for the new JL pipes.

That's my problem I am 6-4 and don't fit on the rz's very well. More collector than rider anyway. Just reliving my abused childhood with all the shit I wanted but couldn't afford.
 

bonesfab

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Is that your KX500? I want to do the same for mine when the finances align but haven't really decided on a kit. I'm leaning towards a battery kit but not too sure really.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

Yes. I bought it off a buddy of mine. He has a collection of odd and weird bikes.
 

Taboma

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Those triples were madness! The throttle had two settings, like a light switch...off and hang on!

I was living in an apartment, working as an electrician and still sporting my official Army haircut when I bought my 71' Kawai H1-500.
That bike was so much fun, light switch throttle and hang on indeed. 😳 My younger neighbor high schooler was wanting to make a few bucks, so I put him to work waxing and detailing this beast one Saturday, while I was attending to some regularly unscheduled wrenching on my "It's always something" 1970 AMC AMX.
After returning from a lunch break, he was proud to show me he'd finished and indeed he'd done a nice job, it looked great ---- well except one thing looked a bit too great. :rolleyes:
The seat, why does the black seat look so shiny ? 🤔 When asked, he beamed, "Because I got some of Dad's ArmorAll, it makes vinyl shine" 😖
I tried to wash it off, but didn't want to use anything to harsh, and figured oh well, I'm pretty strong, YEAH RIGHT, NOT 🥵 Hang on, ummm sure OK 😂
Thank God he didn't ArmorAll my grips. 😁

The 500 was crazy fun, the 750 pure insanity, probably alive today because I didn't keep either and decided to ride with the cactus. Didn't own another street bike for 15 years, until a buddy traded me his Harley for a car of mine he wanted.
 

Yoshiro

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Love the Kenny Roberts bike!

The smell of 2 stroke makes me horny, especially castor oil.
 

TomD

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Had a friend that had a Kowi 750 2 stroke with pipes on it. He raced flat track and was a talented rider. Any way we were going to go get subs for lunch. Come on we'll take the bike. Well I wasn't so sure i wanted ride with him beside he didn't have an extra helmet. So another friend had a chrome Army helmet(bad idea LOL):D but no strap. He found a piece of wire to strap it under my chin and off we go (Very bad idea). :D He takes off front wheel in the air for 3 gears with me on the back holding on to him for dear life then settles it down back on 2 wheels. I thought we were going to go down a couple of times. He was right at home doing this shit there and back to his house. I'll never forget that ride, never rode with him again. We laughed our asses off recalling that ride several years after that.:D He died about ten years after that. Way to young, chemical reaction of cleaning product in enclosed area breathing in the fumes. Sad:(
 

Taboma

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Had a friend that had a Kowi 750 2 stroke with pipes on it. He raced flat track and was a talented rider. Any way we were going to go get subs for lunch. Come on we'll take the bike. Well I wasn't so sure i wanted ride with him beside he didn't have an extra helmet. So another friend had a chrome Army helmet(bad idea LOL):D but no strap. He found a piece of wire to strap it under my chin and off we go (Very bad idea). :D He takes off front wheel in the air for 3 gears with me on the back holding on to him for dear life then settles it down back on 2 wheels. I thought we were going to go down a couple of times. He was right at home doing this shit there and back to his house. I'll never forget that ride, never rode with him again. We laughed our asses off recalling that ride several years after that.:D He died about ten years after that. Way to young, chemical reaction of cleaning product in enclosed area breathing in the fumes. Sad:(

Sad about that bike owner --- but you survived that craziness !!! I can't imagine one piped, it was an On-Off switch as it was, holy shit. 🥵 I took the Factory Triple Pipes off my Yamaha 1200 jetski because I got tired of the On-Off trait. It was fine for racing, but I couldn't just ride with anybody, I'd have to run full tilt, then wait, then full tilt and wait, so I went back to stock and mellowed it out.

I lost my brother in law off the back of my 750 one day leaving an intersection. 😂 I guess he'd relaxed his grip just at the WRONG moment I hit the switch, front end stands up, which was pretty much the norm with somebody on the back, but then suddenly I realize, I'm alone. :eek: Yup, turn around and he's dodging cars while flipping me off. 😂
 

Mike K

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Yes ! Cruised Ortega and big track at Willow on old RG’s and RZ’s back in the day ... loved the cool look of those Toomey pipes ... yeah so cool ... still have my old ‘88 GSXR 750 Slingshot ... it sat in my living room for years and my wife was cool with that .
 

SoCalDave

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I have posted some of this here on RDP before but here's some pics for the ones that may have missed my RD500 build.
Also some pics from a couple of our rides back in 2009. Great group of guys to ride with out of Temecula especially Lawson and Rainey.

My restoration thread. http://www.rzrd500.com/500phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7589&sid=886ca1dd1a7e548db31d0493ef7061bd

The day it rolled out of the previous owners garage in 2008. It hadn't see seen the light of day since 1989.


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Flying_Lavey

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Yes. I bought it off a buddy of mine. He has a collection of odd and weird bikes.
If you get a chance and can see what kind of lighting kit is on there, that would awesome! I gotta imagine that thing on the street would be a blast! Exactly why I want to dual sport mine.
 

Ct5

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@SoCalDave

Awesome bike. I think I’ve seen that build thread before. Did you do all the engine work yourself?
 

SoCalDave

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@SoCalDave

Awesome bike. I think I’ve seen that build thread before. Did you do all the engine work yourself?
Thanks Ct5. Yes I did all the work myself. Was fortunate that the engine had been fogged when last run in 1987 or so. Hone marks were still fresh in the bores and piston skirts looked like new. I replaced ever seal/gasket on the engine as the time spent in storage deteriorated everything. I didn't even attempt to start it once I got it home with the crank seals being shot there was a big risk of it ingesting air through the seals and going lean.
I was fortunate enough to have a boss that had a daughter that worked in the parts department at a Yamaha dealer in Calgary, CN. Ordered almost $1,800 in parts and with her discount it was just under $800 to my door. :p You can't buy parts from any dealers here in the states as these bikes were never sold here.
I really do miss that bike...

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nowski

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I bought my 1977 RD 400 (identical to the one pictured) back in the summer of 1980 from one of the neighbor kids. I loved that bike and put on a few of my own touches like pipes and 1/4 fairing. However my RD400 ownership had a bitter sweet ending for me. About six months after I bought the bike the kid I purchased it from was shot and killed in a drug deal gone bad. Afterwards the kids younger brother came over and begged me to sell him the bike, he wanted something positive to remember his older brother by. I hated to part with the bike but knew how much it meant to the younger brother. Although my ownership was short lived selling it was the right thing to do...

RIP Robbie RIP...



1977 RD400.jpg
 
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Tank

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People like him make me feel better about my issues. A friend told me about a guy that has a few Daytonas. maybe the same collection.

Possibly. You may know the guy. Local dude. Shit ton of hotrods too. Mostly Chevy stuff.
 

nowski

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I had the pleasure of knowing Wayne (7th - 12th grade) back when we were kids. Here's an inspirational video (26 years in the making) I'm sure you'll enjoy...

 
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