2 Strokes Down Under

Hi all, new to the forum and 2 stroke road bikes (so new i don't even have one yet lol), although i've played with them a bit in dirt bikes and jetski's. I've got a 2009 street triple r which i've done a bit of cosmetic work to and i love it but i'm keen to start on a 2 stroker as a bit of a project. I'll probably be in the market in the next couple of months for a 70's to early 80's 250-400 that needs some tlc to build a cafe/custom out of to keep me busy in the shed. I'll chuck in a pic of the streety just for fun!

Ignore the haters, if you want to build a "cafe racer" you go right ahead. Try to avoid doing it an RD or RZ if you can, or do it to a 4 stroke.

What 2 stroke floats your boat, one of the fellas here has a nice r1-z for sale methinks..

Nice 4 strrrrrr.... strrrrr... Strrrr.. oke by the way.

Haha well i'm not really aiming to build a cafe racer in particular but i do like the look of a bike that's stripped down to the essentials with low down bars or clip-on's and anything like that just seems to get lumped in with cafe racers these days. I do like the RD's and that earlier shape rather than the later more chunky frame styles. What are the GT380's like compared to the RD's?

Hi Waggy , welcome to the forum regards Graham.

Don't know anything about the GT's, they aren't nearly as popular as the Yamaha's although IMHO they have a nice look to them. For my age and resultant preference anything pre LC gets lumped into the "nice to look at but I wouldn't buy one" basket, rd400 excepted, unless the motor would fit into a nice hybrid. I keep thinking there has to be a good air cooled motor out there that will fit into a mono shock SRX 400 / 600 chassis. Some of the older big engines hold appeal, like 750 triple although they are gaining to much value to cannibalise.
There are some hard core pre LC fans on this site that might be able to guide you if there is something that takes your fancy on evilbay or gumtree.

Goop luck, I look forward to hearing about it, with pictures.

This is for sale with most of the work already done in the factory
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Welcome Waggy, good luck on the quest for a two stroke, lots of knowledgeable people on this forum to assist you with your chosen direction.

Like your current ride also! The ST3 is a great bike and has the spirit of a RD/RZ350 I reckon - my daily ride is below!

That's a nice looking streety, what shock is that i see poking out?

waggy wrote:That's a nice looking streety, what shock is that i see poking out?

It's a fully adjustabe ELKA shock. My ST3 isn't an R as I bought it before the R's came out. Wasn't happy with the suspension so fitted a Daytona front end and the ELKA shock (among other bits & pieces!), then of course Triumph brought th R out....

you have good taste in diesels. Welcome.

Just bought "most" of an RD350 from eBay today so it looks like i'm on my way to building a custom 2 stoke. First i just have to do the around 10 hour round trip to pick it up lol

Welcome aboard, make sure you start a thread for the project, will be interesting to see what you do with it. Never be afraid to mod your bike, its yours, ignore the haters... unless you want to build a cafe racer in a weekend, listen to them then LOL

Pics, ASAP please..

If you have "most" of one then the cafe racer line is a logical way to get it back on the road, go for it. Hacking up a perfect original bike is one thing, but getting a scrapper back to life is saving rather than destroying ;-)

No good pics yet really only the ones from ebay, i pick it up next weekend so pics will come when i have it home. what i've bought is more jigsaw than motorbike at this point though haha