Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141048
LO N " '" ~ .... en M M . ~ :;; ~ w For the Tourer, the Racer, the Z W ....l o > o Commuter, the Novice or the Expert. wh oop-de-doos we managed to get it to its limits, hut the same section h as sh a ttered th e handling of every other bike th at w e ha ve rushed across it. We were impressed. Par t of the credit has to go to the RD ·350's fram e wh ich is a fair replica of th e it em s f o un d > on Yamaha's all-c onquerin g road racers. This basic design is also b ehind the co nfide n t co rnering. T he two cylin de r tw o-stroke • engine is low , ligh t, and narrow. Ground clearance w as never a p ro blem. It was possibl e to ground it , but before th en most riders would have ba cked o ff and che cked to see if th e footpeg was still th er e. The tire s are just dandy. Confiden ce on windin g roads also co mes fr o m . th e ex cell ent b ra kes. The 11 .5 in ch d isc is an excellen t co mp lemen t to the RD·350's extra p ower. It n ever did an ything to complain about, n or did th e rear brak e. Despite th e fac t that th e RD ·350 is quite quick (q uar te r-mile times around th e 14 .2 secon d mark) it is possible to rid e closer to its so mewhat dis tan t limi ts m o re o fte n and with more co n fiden ce th an any machine we have experienced. It's going t o win a bundle o f 35 0 produc tion road race s right o u t of the b o x. Our en th usiasm for th e ma chine was qu ell ed only slightly by the few problems that we encountered with it. The lockable seat latch ceased to latch early in ' th e test. It n eeds to be redesigned. It isn 't anything dangerous, h ow ever. The other probl em encou ntered w as an oil leak that lubricat ed th e points and made ignition so mewha t s trained a t times, to th e poin t of bein g n on -existen t. We a re inclined to beli eve that this was a flu ke. T he two previous comp lain ts are min o r an d eas ily remedied. Two others are more d ifficul t: noise an d smoke. These are com mo n bad habits of high p er fo rmance tw o-s trokes. The noise was main ly en gine n oise amplified by th e fin s, n ot e xhaus t n oise. !L is still below th e legal limit, bu t would be anno ying to th e n on -participant, The smoke was only a comp laint wh en the ma chine was first taken on th e freeway after idling ar ound town or when usin g an un su it able oil. Ne ither of these problems will affect th e rider directly, but they will alienate th e people around h im . D espite these co mplain ts, the RD ·350 was extremely popular with the CN st aff. We kept it a good deal longer than Yamah a wished, an d we put over 2000 miles o n it. Despite so me very hard use we never had to do more than adj us t th e cha in . Som e st a ffers felt it is th e m ost de sir able street ma chine on the ma rk et, and few w ould disagree that fo r the pri ce it is one o f th e best b argains ava ilable. RIGHT : The inst rume nt panel incl ude s a light that ind icates when your brak e light is on. BELOW: Two-up comfort is fine except fo r a hard passenger port ion of the seat.