About

Bought locally via eBay, from a gentleman who had accepted it as trade for contracting work, rode it a few times and stored it for 25 years in his garage. After only a little work on the carbs and a good cleaning she fired right up.

I've replaced only the stock bars with clubmans and new grips, taking off the sissybar that was fitted, replacing the front tire, and most recently installing vintage rear-sets and a NOS right-hand mirror. The original intent was to strip this bike down to it's bare essentials and make a cafe racer out of it... however, the bike was in such good condition, and R5s are not all that common (unlike the later RDs) that instead I've kept everything relatively stock with only a few vintage racy bits thrown in.

This thing is suprisingly fast for its size and age, lifting the front wheel in the first two gears and keeping up with bikes twice it's size. It's also extremely flickable and great fun around the city. It was the direct descendant of the Yamaha factory TR production racers. Dirty, loud, crazy quick and relatively affordable when new (and more so now!), it was, and still is, a giant-killer.

An in-depth weblog following it's restoration and modification (as well as motorcycle stuff in general) can be viewed here:

http://lawren.../r5cycle.html

Specs

- 347cc aircooled piston-ported 2-stroke twin
- Autolube oil injection
- twin Mikuni carbs

- steering damper
- 5-speed transmission
- front and rear drum brakes

- 64x54 bore and stroke
- 36 HP @ 7000 rpm
- 28 ft/lbs @ 6500 rpm
- 352 pounds fully fueled

- top speed 100+ mph
- 0-60 in under 4s
- 14s 1/4 mile @ ~93 mph
- 86 mpg

(Almost everything is original, NOS or period-correct)

Factory Options

- sissybar?
- high bars
- passenger grab rail
- complete original toolkit
- original owners manual
- original service manual

Mods

- Clubman handlebars
- ProGrip Superbike gel grips
- bar-end mirrors (now off)
- removed stock driver/passenger pegs and brackets
- Raask aluminum rearsets
- modified kickstart lever
- added NOS right-hand mirror
- relocated stock turnsignals
- removed strap from seat

Browse Related Bikes: yamaha, yammie, yamadog, restoration, standard, metric, hooligan, japanese, asian, r5, r5350, r5c, rd, rd350, ds7, cafe, racer, vintage, twostroke

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