Rd400

[Sparky]

It's been awhile since I've posted. Sold my GS and I've just been lurking and tinkering with my goldwing while looking for a new project. I found one I'm interested in. A friend of my wife is selling 3 Yamaha rd400s. I've been researching but thought I'd see if anyone had any experience or input on them. Seller is wanting $500 each. I offered $400 each on two as my buddy is interested as well. The third looks more like a parts bike so we may see about getting all three if they will deal a little. Still haven't checked them out in person but they have some cosmetic mods like fairings and such. And the wheels have been painted but that's nothing I can't change

[Sparky]

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[Sparky]

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[Sparky]

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[Deuce]

I never heard anything but good about them back in the day. Not sure what 30 + years will have done to them, though. The 2 you posted don't look like they've been abused.

[GS1150Pilot]

I never had one of the early 2-strokes, but the RZ350's I owned were awesome fun!

[Sparky]

Just from the pics, which I know can be deceiving, they don't look too rough. I thought it would be neat to have an old 2 stroke to run around town on and whatnot. Nothing for long trips but it would definitely be a conversation piece. My biggest concern is fitting on one since I'm over 6ft lol

[GS1150Pilot]

They are a riot to ride. I grew up on 2-strokes offroad, but on the street, there is something otherworldly about them.

[tkent02]

They are wheelieing fools, for fools who would wheelie.

[grana]

Hi
Very sort after here in the uk . Snap em all up

http://www.aircooledrdclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=869.0

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1976-Yamaha-RD400-Classic-/182253910479?hash=item2a6f2df9cf:g:6kgAAOSwIgNXvDZg

[limeex2]

Buy 'em all. Make 1 good one, keep what you would like for spares and sell the rest. Right now, anything old is in. Properly set up, which can be interesting on a 2 stroke, they are a blast to ride and with a set of pipes, nothing beats passing a group of Harleys with smoke coming out of the "stingers". Just like this forum, there will be a forum on Rd/Rz's and there will be a guru for motors/brakes/suspensions.

[Buffalo Bill]

Kinda easy to resell those at maybe 2-4 times that price.
I wanted one or the 350 but the prices kept climbing up, over $2000 for unrestored.

[RichDesmond]

Buy 'em all. Make 1 good one, keep what you would like for spares and sell the rest. Right now, anything old is in. Properly set up, which can be interesting on a 2 stroke, they are a blast to ride and with a set of pipes, nothing beats passing a group of Harleys with smoke coming out of the "stingers". Just like this forum, there will be a forum on Rd/Rz's and there will be a guru for motors/brakes/suspensions.

Big +1. I've had 5 RD350s, a couple of RZ 350sand an RZ500, 2 strokes are just stupid fun. $1500 for all 3 is very reasonable, just go get them.

[chuck hahn]

400s are the hardest to find from what i see. All three together would cost you what just one would normally . I would get all 3 and make one bone stock runner or two if theres enough there. probably fetch 2,000 to 2500 each easily when running.

[850 Combat]

Those are both 1977 by the stickers on the tank. I've owned 3 RD400s and a 350. Most prefer the 350, but I like the 400 better. Everything is available pretty much. HVC Cycles sells an amazing amount of stuff for them. https://hvccycle.net/vintage-parts-catalog/ The one I still own has an engine built by Scott Clough, who is one of the top 2 stroke enginge builders in the country, I think. Lots of transfer port work that really helps with mid range power. http://home.earthlink.net/~scloughn/ He built a RZ350 that ran 182.656 mph at El Mirage (If you haven't been to a speed trial, you should consider going. Quite interesting) At a lot of vintage races, the fast entrants race each other on Scott's engines.

at $500, those bikes are under priced. I would buy. They were a fad about 15 years ago, and it has died off a little, but they are pretty fun. I would sell mine for the price of three of those plus $500.

I used to go the USA 2 Strokers.com http://www.usa2strokers.com/forum/default.asp web site a lot when I was building. I bought some stuff from http://www.motocarrera.com/ Mine has their rearsets.