ITS ALIVE!!!!

rodneya · September 29, 2019, 10:53:17 PM

After sitting in boxes for 34 years she is finally alive again.
73 RD350 that was crashed at 360 miles and written off by insurance, sold to a shop, repaired and sold to a guy who raced it in the 70'snd early 80's.
Was then sold to somebody with plans of restoring it cause he sandblasted the hell out of everything with really abrasive media, then it just sat. Probably cause he could not get it registered.
Sold again to a guy with a seized 74 looking for a motor. Well with 30 year old seals and gummed up carbs he never got it running well.
I bought both bikes as he would not sell the parts bike separately. Its taken me a while to actually get working on her, biut Ive nbeen collecting parts for a while.
Turns out she is super low hours. Still had factory pistons in with no blow by.

I installed a vape ignition rebuilt the motor with Pro X pistons.
The frame had been cut here and there as it was a race bike and the harness was garbage.
Still working on the modified DG pipes ( for now, plan on making my own later) but I could not resist firing her up.
Took a while to get the petcock rebuilt as I had a bit of a spaz attack and put it back together with the wave spring behind the little handle. Took me a while to figure out why it was pissing fuel everywhere.

Four kicks and she roared into very noisy life. All lights and indicators working. Even the kill switch works. That really impressed me as I hate wiring .

Still gotta finish the exhausts, tidy up the angry tarantula of a wiring harness, little bitta paint and switch out the tires that are almost as old as me, figure out the cable rear brake mounts and a few little things and she will be ready to rip again

svgarage · September 30, 2019, 12:17:34 AM

Bravo! I love a good story! Congrats on bringing her back from the dead. I can relate, as I'm just finishing up my project, which has been non-oped for 25+ years. Today I've been hacking together 3 different harnesses and I'm just praying for the best. Sounds like you got the right skills to hunt down the gremlins on your bike and get through the problems.

Greaser Greg · September 30, 2019, 10:04:37 PM

cool looking bike. looks fun! thanks for sharing the inspiring story.

350GUY · October 01, 2019, 07:16:37 PM

Very cool looking bike! Congrats!

rodneya · February 03, 2020, 01:24:48 PM

Got my 520 sprockets from Economy installed and she is finally moving under her own power for the first time in over 3 decades.
Still needs tuning and finishing up, but looking way better than when i bought her.

m in sc · February 03, 2020, 01:33:55 PM

bravo! well done indeed, i like that a lot.

rodneya · February 03, 2020, 02:42:04 PM

Just waiting for my fork brace and top triple to arrive so that I can mount the front fender.
Then find a decent looking swing arm.

RDFL · February 03, 2020, 04:33:51 PM

Great looking bike, is it still uni's in last pic?

rodneya · February 03, 2020, 04:51:17 PM

Quote from: RDFL on February 03, 2020, 04:33:51 PM
Great looking bike, is it still uni's in last pic?

Yes, I just took the second stage foam off as they are a bit squished in against the frame.

85RZwade · February 03, 2020, 09:52:54 PM

Great resurrection! Love those shouldered rims, and your pipes came out really nice. Do you know what kind of tank you have? It looks great. Good job,
Wade

rodneya · February 04, 2020, 12:01:15 AM

Quote from: 85RZwade on February 03, 2020, 09:52:54 PM
Great resurrection! Love those shouldered rims, and your pipes came out really nice. Do you know what kind of tank you have? It looks great. Good job,
Wade

Akront rims are cool.
Not sure about the tank, although I spoke to the guy who owned it back in the 80's and he mentioned that it was on the bike when his brother in law bought it in 73 from a shop that rebuilt it after a crash. He thought it was a handmade tank from England.

Pipes are just DG's that I bent the front to fit tighter underneath and re welded the last cone to fit under the foot pegs. With Tyga silencers.
In hindsight it would have been way easier to just make a new cone for the last section instead of trying to modify the old mangled one.

rodneya · February 04, 2020, 10:23:59 PM

Love getting new parts.

Top triple, tach block off and fork brace arrived today

RustyRD · February 04, 2020, 11:16:11 PM

Always good to bring a RD back to life

The wire wheels with akront rims are one of favorite wheel setups. Just such a classic look.

85RZwade · February 05, 2020, 01:25:59 AM

Nice looking top clamp, is that the one Economy sells?
Wade

rodneya · February 05, 2020, 01:49:06 AM

Quote from: 85RZwade on February 05, 2020, 01:25:59 AM
Nice looking top clamp, is that the one Economy sells?
Wade

Dont think I have ever seen triple clamps on Economy's website to be honest
I got this from Tractech Manufacturing in Niagara.
I think HVC sells some of his stuff.
Great guy, he did not have the correct size fork brace available, or silver top clamps so he made them for me.
Had a discussion with him about making a swing arm as well, and he is interested. Probably a 2.5" aluminum section bent to shape instead of cut and welded with a CNC rear piece similar to the Motolana arm.

News:

ITS ALIVE!!!!