An Over-The-Counter Cafe Racer
AN OVER-THE-COUNTER CAFE RACER
Buy it complete for $1150. Buy the conversion parts if you already own a 350 Yamaha. Either way, Boston Cycles is the place.
John Waaser
BOSTON CYCLES is a road-racing-oriented, muIti-brand shop. But, while the woods-riding scene has risen tremendously in New England in the past few years, and Boston Cycles has sponsored some of the top motocrossers in the area, owner John Jacobson just can't get into the dirt thing.
He was a little more enthusiastic, however, when asked to merchandise some fancy gadgets made in France by Eric Sondel for the Yamaha 350. Jacobson had his mechanics set up a cafe racer for display, just to see what the response would be. The display bike has had its up-to-date instruments replaced with older units because the crew that set it up found them more appealing aesthetically. I don't happen to agree. Besides, it would be impractical for them to do that on machines set up for resale, so they won't. Other than that, the machine would sell for $1 1 50, new, with the parts exchanged. That is, the figure would include all of the new parts, plus the labor of installing and setting them up, but the shop would keep aU parts removed in the conversion. This price is based on that of the 1974 Yamaha 350cc Twin.
The gas tank is an absolutely gorgeous formed-aluminum piece of art. But handle it with care; it scratches and dents easily. Cafe racers, it seems, are always meant to be seen and polished, but never ridden. On the plus side, it holds about 4.6 gal. of petrol, which should be good for more than 150 miles of steady cruising. That may not be much, but it's a damned sight better than any Japanese 350 will do with the stock tank. Unfortunately, the assemblers chose to use Tommaselli clip-ons, which do not work well with this tank. The front of the tank extends into the steering head area, for "artistic" reasons only. The Tommasellis have nyloc nuts on the outside that would jam against the tank.
The immediate cure is to mount the bars farther forward than is comfortable. In this case, the left bar is even farther forward than the right one. A more long-range cure would be to modify the steering stops to give less steering lock, which is not really all that difficult. You just drill them, and insert bolts to adjust the lock.
An even more satisfactory cure would be to specify the use of John Tickle clip-ons (made in England), which look as though they might work just fine. Dunstall clip-ons also appear to be adequate in their mounting, but they're some three inches shorter on each side, and might not accommodate the brake master cylinder on the right side, without the necessity of hanging the throttle over the edge.
The permanent solution would be to modify the tank de sign to allow more steering lock, especially since Tommasellis are the ne plus ultra of clip-ons. For now, though, I'd specify the Tickle clip-ons. >
The fiberglass seat is scantily padded, but uses the stock mountings and lock, so you retain the helmet holders and the easy access to the oil tank (oil injection is also maintained), arid to the battery. The toolkit resides in its conventional place, also, though you have to lift the rear of the tank a bit to get at it. These are the advantages of designing a cafe racer conversion for a particular make and model of motorcycleparticularly one as popular as the RD350/R5 series.
But what is it like to ride the beast? The R5 is already th quickest bike in its class. The Sondel conversion enhances this feeling considerably. Not that the weight reduction is that significant, it's riot; but the weight transfer to the rear is in deed significant, and that makes the front end pop up even more easily than the stocker's does. It quickens the handling a whole bunch, as well.
In spite of the fact that I was told that a great deal of time and effort had gone into setting up the controls properly on this particular bike, I had the distinct impression that this was not so. It wouldn't idle properly until we fiddled with the throttle cable, for instance, and the clutch and throttle cables were very poorly routed. This is rather typical of many cafe racers, since the builder often tries to make do with the stock cables, whereas the shorter, lower bars should be fitted with somewhat shorter cables. Stock cables certainly can be used, but they must be routed so that the excess is taken up in large bends near the handlebars.
The shift linkage was stiff, but bearable; the rear brake linkage was intolerable. The rear brake pedal was hard to push, and the brake came on suddenly, without much feel, and wasn't at all powerful. You could use the front brake exclus ively on this bike and never miss the rear one. The front brake, of course, was stock Yamaha, and superb, except that with the modified weight distribution, there was more than normal weight transfer.
Heavy use of the front brake made the forks wallow. This could probably be cured with either oil of higher viscosity, or with different springs and damping. The rear brake problems could be traced to a change in leverage-since a shorter pedal is used-and to the fact that the actuating arms were not parallel-a must when setting up this type of linkage.
There were other problems, too. I had to consciously reach inward for the brake lever, and I felt that it was too narrow. But it missed the kickstart lever by only the tiniest of margins, so it obviously was designed to the limit. Cafe racers should never have kickstarters. The faint of heart should buy one with electric starting, while the staunch enthusiast should practice his rt~nd-bump technique.
I got the impression that the shift lever was too but that never really bothered me once under way. The shift lever barely cleared the sidestand, however, which wasn't too cool. The clutch dragged a bit, which didn't help the shifting situation; and neutral was a find-it-before-you-stop proposi tion.
The seat edges were hard under my thighs, especially on the right side, although it seemed that I might be able to live with that. At any rate, it should be more comfortable for a taller rider, since his thighs would be more horizontal. Raising the pegs a bit might help the shorter riders like me.
• For maximum leg comfort, your thighs should be abso lutely horizontal, but, of course, that increases the adjustment that the muscles in your back have to make to the lower seating position. Never fear, your muscles WILL learn to ac commodate the riding position in time. The best way to help them along is to hit the throughway for about 600 miles with out a rest stop. You won't be able to move for a week, even to straighten up, but after that, you will fit the bike perfectly. Actually, the seat on this Yamaha is low enough so that the riding position is nowhere near as extreme as it looks, and it is quite comfortable even from your first moments in the saddle. I rode the bike through the heart of Boston-hardly its element. The shift and brake linkages, the sticky clutch, the sudden rush of power from the peppy engine, all contributed to requiring a lot of attention and to detracting from the joy of riding. If you can get into a real cut-and-thrust battle with traffic, there's no doubt that the light steering and instant wheelies could make you the scourge of the Detroit Tank crowd.
But I just wish that I could have had this bike on some of the roads near home, where I could have pretended that I was Kenny Roberts, and every car that loomed in sight was Gary Nixon. Then I would have forgotten all about the stiff link ages; and the peaky power band would have been sheer ec stasy.
The large aluminum tank, especially when only partially full, acts as a sounding board for the engine noises. In the city, that, too, was a drag. But on a winding back road, it would have contributed immeasurably to my fantasy.
If you believe that motorcycle riding should never be dull or boring, and if you have access to the sort of roads that cry out to be ridden, this bike will give you all of the thrills that you can expect from a cafe racer. And, at half the price of most, with nearly all of the labor already done for you, it's a hell of a buy.
Better yet, if you already have a 350 Yammie, the indivi dual parts are available. Just contact Boston Cycles.
