RD500 Harris track bike

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I suspect he found it was a lot harder to ride fast than a modern 4 stroke, it's a lovely bike to take to shows and stand round talking bollocks and showing everyone how great you are, but the actual riding experience is a bit shit.

[Screwdriver]

It was a great bike in its day and very easy to ride fast. That was almost forty years ago...

It didn't feel like it at the time but it is heavy for a 500, you don't have the featherweight, scalpel like precision of say a late RGV250. But it was insanely fast for a road bike and very single minded being impossible to ride slowly. Not for any practical mechanical reason but because you just have to hear that noise and when it's making all the right noises, you're already flying.

Chances are the chap bankrupt himself building it and suddenly realised there are vastly superior machines available for way less money. Shame the 500 two strokes didn't develop any further than they did in parallel with the filthy diesel motors or we'd have 200 bhp strokers in a 130kg package. Now that would be something worth having.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Some people just like building stuff, maybe it's that simple. I'm the same with Lego...build it, then almost immediately take it apart

[Skub]

It's pretty impressive visually. I'm not sold on the long seat unit,but he'll be tied to that by the spannies length,I suppose.

[The Spin Doctor]

Why 19,997 pounds and not 19,999?

Is the two quid off the deal swinger?

[G.P]

Impressive but I think I'd rather have this and spend a few £k on it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165343489193 ... SwospiAV5L

[Screwdriver]

or you could buy this and throw a LOT more money at it...



(yes I would sell it too, I'm never doing anything with it)

[Yorick]

Impressive but I think I'd rather have this and spend a few £k on it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165343489193 ... SwospiAV5L

250s are horrible things to ride.

[G.P]

Impressive but I think I'd rather have this and spend a few £k on it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165343489193 ... SwospiAV5L

250s are horrible things to ride.

I had RDs and LCs back in the day and loved them, although a 750/4 was much more relaxr way of getting around

I rode an RS250 once, it was manic but really made me smile.

[Yorick]

Impressive but I think I'd rather have this and spend a few £k on it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165343489193 ... SwospiAV5L

250s are horrible things to ride.

I had RDs and LCs back in the day and loved them, although a 750/4 was much more relaxr way of getting around

I rode an RS250 once, it was manic but really made me smile.

You'd hate them now

[Screwdriver]

You'd hate them now

They are a sheer joy to ride. No they're not as fast as a modern four stroke plonker but they raise the heckles.

It takes some skill and precision to ride a hairspring trigger, lightweight two stroke. It is difficult to do no doubt about it but get it right and it is insanely rewarding. I don't ride a bike to win prizes or record a laptime, I (used to) ride hard for fun! And the razor edge handling and manic powerband is only half the fun...

Yes, it's the noise! It literally raises the heckles when the bike is screaming at you as only a two stroke can. It is such a primitive almost primeval response. The engine sings. It is expansion chamber music.

For example:

F1 is a bit boring now, no matter how many tricks they try and pull to artificially introduce excitement. I mean, they sound ok, sort of but watch any race from the pre rev limit era and turn the sound up. It is the most extraordinary howl and for extra differential to really give this experiment a twist, watch and listen to an electric Formula Eeeeee going just as fast if not faster. It could not be more boring or antiseptic.

Two strokes rock and the more cylinders the better.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I can confirm that compared to a modern bike a 350 YPVS is a bit shit but fun.

[Yorick]

I raced both the 250 & 350 LC in same season.
350 was heaps more fun on track.
350 was cool road bike.
250 was hard work.

[Screwdriver]

I raced both the 250 & 350 LC in same season.
350 was heaps more fun on track.
350 was cool road bike.
250 was hard work.

Same here. I raced both 250 and 350 LCs. The 250 was identical* to the 350 except brakes and nowhere near the horsepower. It was a bit dull in comparison of course. The 350LC was and still is a brilliant machine, great fun but clearly needs to be looked at though rose tinted specs.

The 350YPVS also was always an ugly duckling dressed in an 80’s shellsuit. They always had flexible frames (which was fun!) but the YPVS motor is still an amazing zingy power plant in its own right. Ideally the YPVS motor gets shoved into a better frame but it’s still a brilliant little machine. Mine is dressed up like a Mito with RGV250 running gear and dirt tracker style.

And that brings us to the RGV250 which is the latest/greatest of the strokers. Effectively the pinnacle of bikes from that era before the emissions regulations killed all the fun. I still have one or two kicking about in the shed but they are too expensive currently for me to restore/rebuild (I kept crashing them). Obviously the CR500 gets a mention (I have a couple of those too) but they are not as much “fun” especially if you have a faint heart….

So much as I still adore the older LC’s it’s really the RGV I was thinking of as the 2t connoisseurs track bike.


*obviously as a restorer, I am aware of all the other detail differences

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I had an early TZR250, it was a bit disappointing after a 350 YPVS