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I received these today from Steve Burgess in the UK. If you're on Facebook in some of the RD groups, you've likely seen some of his work. It's pretty amazing, and really helpful when you can't find parts like this in good condition. Check it out (and ignore the styrofoam dust in the picture.)

Matt

Man. That makes me want to roll the AR80 out and spin it around the neighborhood.

There was an MB5 for sale near here a few months ago, but I passed on it. Now I'm wishing I hadn't. My wallet is glad I didn't, of course.

What a beautiful job you've done on yours, Russ.

- Matt

I hope you have a wonderful birthday my dear friend  

Seconded! Happy birthday, Evans!

The pan on The Abomination is so rusted it's not really usable. Otherwise it'd definitely show up at your house, Tim!

I'm really happy with the Texavina seat. The pins were a little tough to align but I think that's the hardware I swapped over and not the seat itself.

This is The Way.

Some of the pics from that day. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. Will be even better when I have a painted tank on this bike. 

It definitely had us scratching our heads for a bit until we finally got it to fire. That SMELL when it did, though, was pretty awful.

I'll get the pics up shortly. Was very fun day even with this unexpected turn.

I mean, the Whirlpool emblem on there ...

Hi Friends,

I've been working on resurrecting a '78 RD400E for the past few years and am trying to get a decent seat sorted out for it. When I bought it, there was a seat on it which I will call 'The Abomination' and a second seat and cowl for a Daytona. Both of them will fit on the bike with the fender and taillight I have on it. I've been looking at something relatively tame like this:

https://texavina.com/yamaha-rd400-c-d-1975-1977-classic-style-motorcycle-seat-saddle-sku-t9076/

... but ... that's spec'd only for 400C and D. I looked up this thread which gave me pause there:

https://www.2strokeworld.net/forum/index.php?topic=82.0

The weird thing is, I believe The Abomination seat has a C or D pan in it. So that all has me wondering what the incompatibility is between the older seats and the later model bikes. I've attached a couple of pictures showing the Daytona seat mocked up as well as The Abomination. Would any of you RD400 experts weigh in on what my options here are?

Thanks,
Matt

North Carolina's process isn't bad after you've gone through it once (and taken notes if your memory's crap like mine). I've done three bikes here and really only had any trouble with the first one. You do have to bring the vehicle to them for 'theft inspection' so bikes are much, much easier than cars.

VERY much looking forward to meeting this one in person!

This is all fascinating! Probably the Suzuki engineer who knows why there were two different jet tubes died in 2005.

You should go get it. You can basically stash that thing in a closet. Or hang it from the ceiling like a bicycle.

  sweet! i could barely just keep up w that on the Yl1   

sounds like a riot!  you're making me regret selling my 89 DT50.

I'm starting to regret that I didn't buy it from you 😭

He says it's in excellent condition. Why are those pictures lying??