Hey all, if you are reading this, then I guess you are interested in Yamaha RD200′s, or perhaps vintage Japanese two-stroke bikes. Welcome!
The story goes something like this (I will try to keep it short). I was visiting dad one day (last week) when we started chatting bikes, and I asked him if he still had his Yamaha bike, thinking that there was only one. Well, he has two, one which he crashed, and one which he didn’t.
Turn’s out, the bike sitting out the back, in the weather, for 30 years under a tarp, is complete. “What bike is it” I ask. “A 70′s Yamaha RD200″ he says. Hrmm. A quick google on my iPhone tells me the bike is fairly rare these days. He goes on to talk about the days he was riding before he had a nasty crash (on the other wreck, also in the back yard, also an RD200, more on this later).
Dad bought this bike off a “young fella” for about $180. Hang on dad… a young fella? C’mon, you were maybe 24 yrs old yourself back then! Dad rode the bike for a very short time until one day it wouldn’t start, he just let it sit. Well actually, dad had a nasty bike crash that pretty much ended with dad never riding again. The RD (not the wrecked one) sat and sat, and seized up.
It’s been sitting under a couple of tarps, in the open, out the back, in the weather, for 30′ish years, un-touched. I had to take a look
Stay tuned for my next post (with pics) of the uncovering.
