It’s straightforward to think about any motorcyclist rising up within the 70s fixating on Yamaha RDs. The bikes had been quick and ferocious people who smoke. And their repute was solely enhanced by their shut ties to Yamaha’s manufacturing racers. The end result of that historical past was the 1976 launch of the air-cooled, two-stroke twin, the RD350’s greater brother, the RD400.
Extra suited to consuming up twisty pavement than straight stretches, the RD topped out round 105 mph. It wasn’t the quickest bike down the straights, but it surely greater than made up for it leaning into the corners. The engine and body, each born and refined on the racetrack, used thicker-wall metal tubing with track-spec geometry. In its day, it represented the head of design. In its class, it was unmatched in efficiency, type, and normal bad-assery.
It is a snapshot of the motorbike coronary heart and soul of Bob Marsden, from Windham, NH. Now 45 (he rode his first bike at age seven), Bob spent most of his motorcycling life irresistibly drawn to the sound, odor, and featherweight really feel of the two-strokers.
Some years again, whereas visiting lifelong pal and 50-year motorbike race mechanic Ed Pal, Bob discovered himself eye-deep in weeds staring down a 1976 Yamaha RD400 that had been left to the merciless gods of New England climate, time, and yard rust. It didn’t take him lengthy to persuade his 75-year-old partner-in-crime Ed to drag that lump out and begin bringing it again to life – or higher but – reincarnating right into a classic racer.
Fortunately for Bob, Ed (and most of us for that matter) believes in by no means throwing something away when you need to use or repurpose it later. Ed additionally occurs to know a factor or two about constructing stuff, having spent most of his life as an plane and motorbike mechanic, transferring his manner by dealerships, and even figuring out their weak spots in manufacturing machines on the manufacturing unit degree for Honda.
Having raced because the age of 14, Bob had at all times wished to get again on the observe. Over the following three years, a sequence of setbacks stored the mission stalled, however finally, they arrived. And so did we – to the Loudon Worldwide Speedway up in New Hampshire this previous fall, for Bob’s first time again on the observe in 25 years on his reimagined RD.
However Bob’s story, like all of them, has its twists and turns. We came upon early that afternoon that Bob needed to name it quits, watching him hold up his leathers and switch the smoker over to his racing accomplice whereas he visited the paddocks to take one more IV to get him by the ache. Bob contracted a foul case of Lyme Illness a couple of years again, placing him in a life-threatening state of affairs and forcing the person to decelerate and tempo himself. Arduous to do when he’s combating one other illness known as pace.
The day finally was stamped with pleasure, nonetheless, as they laid down some vicious turns and stuffed our senses with two-stroke lust throughout a morning of follow. Ultimately, it’s obvious that each the boys and the machine have been race developed through the years as Bob and Ed recapture their youth, discovering new life in every little thing they do.
This text first appeared in subject 12 of Iron & Air Journal, and is reproduced right here below license.
Story by Brett Houle | Photos by Adam Fitzgerald
