Thread: 2nd hand bike advice

Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi

Many years ago i had a nice RD350. It went 'rather well' shall we say. I had added a new expansion chamber exhaust system for a wee bit more power.
Then one day i bought a UK motor bike magazine, and it had an article on porting the RD350.
OK...say no more...I am a mechanic so had all the gear needed.
The job was done in about 4 hours (also bunged in a new set of rings just while I was in the mood).
The article also said to remove 1mm off the bottom of the piston skirt (on the intake side) for a street bike.
Remove a max of 3mm for a race bike they said...so I removed just 2mm!
Ummm, wow comes to mind. At an indicated 90mph it would gently lift the front wheel as the power band came on. Very controllable.
When standard it would do an indicated 106mph in 6th gear. Now it went past that still in 5th gear.
Loved that wee bike. Can I have it back?
My thoughts? Everyone should have an RD350 in their life.

I was a blue smoke owner when I was younger. Yamaha ITs and YZs, then on the road, an RD400 was my first. Followed by an RZ350, RZ250, then the ultimate, an RG500. It would be great to have them all back.