1972 Yamaha R5 Rat Bike The Yamabomination

[Maritime]

It kinda looks like one of the bikes off Mario Kart, I love that game for the Wii, I have won every race on all the bikes

[AWDimprezal]

It's kind of a shame... kinda like when you see a camero turned into a monster truck. But,... awe, never mind.

Or almost as bad as spelling CamAro wrong. 

[Swapmeet Louie]

Or almost as bad as spelling CamAro wrong. 

Well.... Maybe I started building and my own words as well.

[bradj]

I love this bike i read through the build on 2strokeworld a while back, i just hard tailed a dt250 last night, yamaha made a shit ton of bike dont listen purist chat room dick licks that i sure you will hear from, (if not on this site than some where for sure) there enuff perfect one to know what they looked like

[Swapmeet Louie]

The word Rat when applied to any build to me just means, Didnt take any time to take some pride in the quality. Does it look fun? of course. But so are fat chicks... ya just dont show them off

[Ritz cracker]

how is it shifting with the jockey i was thinking about doing one like urs but not sure do u like it but nice build i love the rat bikes and i like to ride fat chicks to just tell my wife

[Swapmeet Louie]

you like bird shit too...

[theholybull]

There is a lot of time and effort that went in making this bike look the way it does. I will admit that it is much less laborious than doing a full on resto.  It is however much less expensive as well. The bike will eventually be "nice" but at this moment most of my money is being saved for the 74 RD350 cafe I'm building. I just find it funny that when I cut the frame on it and stretched the tank no one gave a damn because it fit their preconceived notions of what a custom RD should be.  This bike was built to enjoy, and believe me I enjoy it. It gets more attention than any other bike I've built, and most of it is good attention.  The best part is I don't have to wash it. I really don't mind the fact people don't like it, it does however bother me that people tell me that "rat" = half assed because that just ain't true.

[Swapmeet Louie]

rat= small block chevy. Hence the term Rat Rod. Can put a small clock chev in anything. And there cheap  Then it went to anything that was flat black with red wheels. Now, it means crap. Think about it... Rat, lives in dirt, filth, untidy, undesirable...   I'm from Orange county born raised H.B. where the term came from 15yrs ago. It was never intended to be a compliment. trust me....

[CrescentSon]

I would say what you have here is a survival bike.

A la Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_bike

Rat bikes are motorcycles that have fallen apart over time but been kept on the road and maintained for little or no cost by employing kludge fixes.[1][2] Survival bikes look similar to but are different in purpose from rat bikes — they are modified for stylistic reasons.
...
Survival bikes are bikes that may appear to be rat bikes, but are not. They are influenced by the Mad Max films. The term survival bike itself originated in the British motorcycle press particularly Back Street Heroes,[7] and the now-defunct AWoL in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Not a difinitive ruling, but it is a bike designed to look like a junk pile. As long as it is relatively safe, and makes you grin, who really cares. I like the concept, even though it does in fact look like bird shit.

[theholybull]

I always heard that the rat motors were the big block chevs and the small blocks were mouse motors. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.  No matter if we call her a rat or a survival bike I like it.  Speaking of bird shit it's sitting in the barn with a garbage bag over the seat getting covered in the stuff. A little additional patina never hurt anything. 

[VonYinzer]

I think the problem lies less with the "look" than the way the bike was built. Although I have to admit, any of the killer RDs being used as anything but go fast machines hurts my heart (or whatever that shriveled up thing in my guts is) its your bike. If ya want to chop it, than do it, but do it right. The whole hardtail made using the swinger thing that folks do is just dangerous and looks shabby. The use of otherwise good and somewhat hard to come by bits in a manner like that is a bummer. A bike built to purposly be "ugly" seems (to me) to be a waste of time and money. Theres a guy local to me that has an original 40s era HD flathead that he has "ratted" out. Its got all the goofy shit. Bullhorns, random crap hanging off of it. The motor dumps oil everywhere he parks it. The exhaust is half assed together from bits and pieces. The bike runs like shit, and so on. Everytime I see it, it kills me that with 1/2 of the energy he put into making it that way, it could be a badass vintage scoot.

[Swapmeet Louie]

The plan was to do a full rear triangle but the way the frame is under the engine it would be a real pain in the ass and its just not worth the effort. If i decide to do a full triangle I just have to cut off the swing arm, and weld the bottom tubes to the wheel plates on the swing arm and remove the swing arm bolt, after of course i completely rebuild the frame. I agree it looks much better but you know what?

Fuck it, Its a rat.
[/quote]

In other words... you intend it to be crap. Building it right would take to much "effort". you said if first.  Its just clear the bike went backwards in every aspect. Performance, looks , and quality... And Im not a purist. I've never owned a stock bike. Ive just never purposely let one get shit on either, because Patina is cool...? Any paint job that has true patina looked 100 times better when the paint was new.

[theholybull]

I can't see how using the factory swing arm weld in place with struts is any different than bolting in a set of struts, and how it's dangerous. But I'll take your word for it. I like the bike, I'm done defending it. If you like it  thanks, if you don't like it that's cool too, you cane tell me you don't like it, just don't be a dick about it.

[theholybull]

I finally got around to putting a proper front fender on the rat, I picked it up a couple weeks ago at vintage days. It had a run in with a deer so it was wrinkled all to hell. I cut it in half narrowed it 2 inches and beat it kinda straight. After "painting" it to match i mounted it up and now she looks, well i'm not sure how she looks but i like it.

Anyway the pics:







Next is to find an old set of bags.