Bought a new bike

C

chrisf

Over 1,000 Posts
Ever since I finished my CL350 (and CB360 I suppose), I've wanted a Yamaha RD 2-stroke. I perfect bike slipped through my hands, so I ended up buying this 78 RD400. I've never ridden a modern sport bike, so I have no idea how fast they feel. But this one is VERY quick. It looks like shit, which I should be able to fix pretty quickly.

It will be a two-up bar hopper bike for my wife and I. So the plans are:

Clubmans
Painted tins
Anodized wheels
bratsyle seat
Expansion chambers
and maybe, an aluminum oil tank

Pretty fun stuff. Not really a cafe racer, but I've already built two of those. This one will be different. I'm thinking chrome or alumicoated tank with ferarri red paint and some strategic pin striping to accent certain lines. The wheels will either be anodized gold or powdered black.

RD400CafeRacer.jpg


--Chris
 
My daughter took the digi to camp, so all I had was the iPhone. I can take more if you'd like, but she's pretty ugly right now...

--Chris
 
Also, I didn't mention to this group that I broke my hand and it is in a cast. Whilst taking it for an illegal ride, I mistakly popped--and rode--a wheelie through an intersection. Quite the shock...to say the least.

--Chris
 
That thing looks pretty clean. Should be a fun scoot...

So in one word what type of build would you consider it? Cafe, bobber, brat, chopper, cruiser etc...

- Woody
 
Sounds like it should be a great looking project Chris. Sorry to hear about the hand though; is it related to the suprise wheelie?
 
A buddy of mine bought the same bike ('78 RD400) back in the spring and absolutely loves it. He never modified it, just kept it looking stock. Great bike.
 
Just a heads up for you Chris: Chances are better than not that attempting to anodize those wheels will end up with a molten lump in the bottom of the acid bath. Cast alu is extremely hard to anodize successfully, as in 90% or more failure rate since they 'cut' the alu with crap like zinc and tin to make it more 'castable'. I know you can do an industrial surface treatment sometimes called anodizing though the process is different, the end result is a rather unattractive poo-brown and scaly black. I have heard of some joint in Germany doing some kind of 6063 vapor deposition that can then be anodized but I've never seen an example and have not had any luck tracking it down.
 
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