New vintage project!

[311Hemi]

I sold my Victory Vegas a few years ago when we were expecting our first kid. I have been wanting another bike every time summer comes around....but my priorities are in a different place at the moment. My father in law is big into vintage bikes, and has a bunch of them. Recently he bought a lot of 6 bikes and a couple old sleds. Of the bikes in the lot, 3 of them were Yamaha RD's, two 250's and a 350, along with a BMW and a few others. He already has a few other RD250's and he is building a street racer of some sort out of all of them, with a bunch of aftermarket/performance parts as well. He also is just finishing up a mid 70' Honda race bike of some sort that turned out pretty nice (I will have to get pics of that).

Anyways, a few weeks ago he asked me if I was interested in the 350 at all and as of yesterday he gave me a new winter project! I was never really into the vintage bikes....but I think this will be a good experience and the more I read about the RD's to more interested I become. She needs some work, but luckily I have time. The frame was already repainted when he bought it, but the rest of the parts need attention. Needs a new piston, and the tank has some dents that I am going to try to fix. All of the chrome has some rust...so I will clean them up best I can. I don't plan on dropping a ton of money into this bike and don't plane on restoring it perfectly, but plan to have a decent functional bike in the future. Time will tell where this project goes. I have seen some pretty cool looking RD's online....but I am sure they have a good chunk of money invested in them.

Here's what's sitting in my basement now!

[leech~~]

Wow, looks like a fun winter project. You may want to get some help hauling it up from the basement before you put the handle bars on!

[titelines]

Very nice. Post updates as you go, I'd be interested to see your progress. Have fun!

[Grum]

Wow, that brings back memories. My first bike was a 1975 350RD, very fast for a skinny 16 year old, I remember having to almost have to sit on the tank to keep the front tire on the ground. Scary as h3ll on the highway, if a fast moving semi would pass me it would suck me in right behind it! That was a fun summer, until I seized the engine and sold it for $50.

[popriveter]

Love the RD350! I'll probably grow into one of those in coming years, but I'm currently most interested in even littler bikes.

This is my project. 1966 Yamaha YL-1. 100cc twin. Cylinders were off for bore/hone when I took the pic. Maybe I'll struggle to catch up with you sometime next summer.

[311Hemi]

Here are a couple of my father in laws bikes. The silver one is one that he restored, he has the fiberglass molding for the seat but has not started it yet. I think this is a 180?

The other is another one that he has put some work into, I think it's a 175. He had one more smaller one in the garage, I don't remember what that one was though. It might have been a 100 like you have posted above, I know he said it was from the mid to late 60's. All I know is the piston was tiny on that 100! He had a new spare one sitting in the house.

He also has mid to late 70's BMW 750, but he needs a new piston for it. The piston is like $350 new he said....for just one piston!

We had to take them out of the enclosed trailer and put them in the garage so we could use the trailer for sledding...so that's why you see the snow!

[leech~~]

Nice work! I like the low handle bars on the top one!

[titelines]

Both great bikes but I really like that smaller blue one. What a cool little bike to motor around on!

[popriveter]

Those are great. Thanks for sharing! I love how the straight bars and turn signals look on the silver one

[minky]

Those are some nice bikes!

[fishingstar]

I want to see that Rd when it's done