One look at those black painted spannies and you can almost smell the two-stroke. The RD350LC was legendary back in the day. A powerband to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and anyone who owned one was clearly a man’s man. And now they’re back, as apparently some of us never grew up.
This lovingly re-crafted tracker/brat-style RD belongs to two-smoker Jens from Germany. The donor hails from 1981 when the UK charts were ruled by Human League, Adam & the Ants and Madness (who were obviously named after the Yamaha’s power delivery). Over in Germany it was Visage and Soft Cell, but Jens’ inspiration didn’t come from electronic music played by guys with bad hair, unsurprisingly his inspiration came from the Wrenchmonkees, Cafer Racer Dreams, Spirit of the Seventies and Dues (…who are all in our top ten of 2013).
The donor bike was Jens’ track-bike – a 1981 RD which didn’t see any road miles for two years, while it tore up the asphalt on track days.
After an accident at Assen race track (he didn’t elaborate, but it clearly left a mark) he decided to begin the build. Apparently the rear of the frame was bent anyway. Logical solution: Brat-style.
The rear tubes did need some straightening as well as matching up to a rear loop to accommodate the flat seat, which then had to be made from scratch from an aluminium pan which was then upholstered.
The wheels are 17″ rims laced to a rear hub from a Honda Dominator while a KTM donated the front hub. The forks and front brakes are from a Yamaha FZS mated to yokes from Bandit 400. The Rear brake is from a Blade SC44. Jens rewired the whole bike himself, tucking all the fugly bits under the tank.
There are a few purists we know who might be alarmed at this build, but we love it – and we’d like to see more unusual donors for trackers and brats. Thanks for sharing, Jens.
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via The Bike Shed
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