1
973 was a pretty good year
to be alive. We could watch
cool television shows like
"Kung Fu" and movies like
American Graffiti and The Exor
-
cist. Disco was still a few years
off, so great music from The
Doobie Brothers and The Edgar
Winter Group ("Frankenstein")
was always on the radio. For
motorcyclists, fun dual-purpose
motorcycles were available in all
sizes, most under $1000.
These motorcycles were mis
-
named as "enduros." An enduro
event is a grueling, masochistic
exercise pitting rider and ma-
chine against Mother Nature on
her worst day—with a headache.
These motorcycles were really
dirt bikes, giving just a little here
and there to be ready for the
street. Big bores weren't too big
back in the day, so Yamaha's
RT-3 360 was at the top of
Yamaha's lineup of two-stroke
"enduro" bikes.
Cycle News tested the 360 in
its November 28th, 1972, issue,
and from the very beginning, the
Yamaha was in trouble. Not be
-
cause it was a bad motorcycle;
rather, the bike came to the test
crew looking as if it had just
gone 15 rounds with Muham-
mad Ali. "Our RT-3 had the marks
of negligence written all over it,"
wrote CN. "The bars were bent
and the forks slightly tweaked.
The chain had been adjusted
and lubricated, but it seemed
that with only one adjuster, the
bike loved to turn right. The turn
indicators…flashed left rear, right
front and left front-right rear."
Whoever had wired the machine
must've been in charge of the
oil change, as the Yamaha was
overfilled by a full quart, result
-
ing in clutch slippage and fluid
puking out the breather. The bike
was also incorrectly jetted.
But motojournalists of the
1970s were both scriveners
and screw-tighteners, so a few
hours of wrenching brought the
Yamaha back to a test-worthy
state, and it was off to a place
called a "cycle park." Three kicks
brought the 360 to life, with
plenty of punch. "By fast," the
staffer wrote, "I mean it com
-
pares favorably with most 400cc
motocross machines." But the
RT-3 also packed usable power.
"Trail riding means using first,
second and third gears. The
Yamaha has the power to pull
long gearing and long gearing it
gets. Coupling this to the usual
CNIIARCHIVES
P148
BY KENT TAYLOR
BAJA TESTED
1973
YAMAHA RT3
Yamaha called its RT-3 360 an enduro bike, but it was also street-legal.
