My 1986 RZ250

[Richie_rich]

I'm pretty certain the round headlight F2's that we're available in Aus were specials put together by Yamaha Aus to get rid of the stock of naked RZ250's, hence they round headlight as they utilised the existing headlight on the naked bike in a top fairing designed to take it.

I really like the styling of the N1 350's, but don't think any were available this end of the planet? (250's either for that matter?)

[JonW]

Rich, Jason (LB) and I have been trying to find info on these round light models for ages now. Even checking everyone we can find online for the construction of their fairing, and while we thought all the units were GRP, it seems Alex has/had a plastic one. This would mean that it was OEM, wheras the GRP construction obviously points to 'local addition'.

The other thing that makes me think these bikes were YAM OEM is that they have the OEM F1/2 fairing brackets on the frame (headstock and under the tank) that the N models didnt have AFAIK as the N has the clocks attached to the triple tree, not the frame.

There were some aftermarket full fairings made for the earlier bikes that used a (the OEM?) round light and some angle iron for the frame to work as brackets, but those are different to the 87/88 from what I can tell. Arron has one (or 2?) of those and Jason has seen them.

Agree the N models are cool. I never liked them as a teenager, but appreciate a good naked bike better now...

[Richie_rich]

Interesting Jon! I wonder if Yamaha Japan issued a kit to convert slow shifting stock then? Possibly for the home market that they made available over here?

From memory the instruments on the naked RZ differed from the faired in that the idiot lights ran along the bottom under the speedo / tacho compared to the little binnacle of 4 above the temp guage on the faired bikes. Which ones do these round headlight ones have?

[Richie_rich]

One more thing - are we talking about the blue ones?? I've only ever seen the round headlight blue RZ's (with the fairing) never any other colours.

[JonW]

Interesting Jon! I wonder if Yamaha Japan issued a kit to convert slow shifting stock then? Possibly for the home market that they made available over here?

From memory the instruments on the naked RZ differed from the faired in that the idiot lights ran along the bottom under the speedo / tacho compared to the little binnacle of 4 above the temp guage on the faired bikes. Which ones do these round headlight ones have?

you raise a good point there, tho how many of the bikes Yam Aus brought in is anyones guess, but Im not thinking they had a warehouse full at any point, its a small market, just look at the low frame/engine numbers we have.

Yes the N models have the same clocks in a different binnacle with a steel top plate and the idiots lights on the plate not the 500 style cluster. I dont actually know what the round 87/88 models have, would be good to find some owners, but most of those bikes seem to have vanished over the past 5 years or so. :/

[JonW]

One more thing - are we talking about the blue ones?? I've only ever seen the round headlight blue RZ's (with the fairing) never any other colours.

Yes Ive only ever seen blue ones... well I saw a red one once, but it was a nasty paint job LOL

[pkay]

Interesting Jon! I wonder if Yamaha Japan issued a kit to convert slow shifting stock then? Possibly for the home market that they made available over here?

From memory the instruments on the naked RZ differed from the faired in that the idiot lights ran along the bottom under the speedo / tacho compared to the little binnacle of 4 above the temp guage on the faired bikes. Which ones do these round headlight ones have?

Mate having both an 84 and an 86 you are correct. Thetre are a host of other little things that are different as well so if it was just adding a fairirng you'd spot it a mile away.

[Richie_rich]

Jon, I've just had on of those moments of clarity that seem to occur less and less as I grow older... I'm on holiday in Fiji with the family and after my last post decided to go to he gym to sweat out all the overindulged food I've been scoffing over here whilst I can't play with anything bike related. Anyway I remembered where I heard that story from regarding the fairings fitted to shift stock.

Going back quite a few years when I was searching for an early RZ I enquired about a very nice naked blue RZ250 that had been converted to 350. It was in NSW and I spoke to the owner who turned out to work for a Yamaha dealer. The bike was very nice and had loads of new genuine parts on it (c/- his work).

As mentioned it was naked but came with the full fairing as part of the spares cache and it had a round cutout in the top fairing. He told me at the time that Yamaha had added fairings to help sell them. The instruments were proper naked RZ ones with the idiot lights below the speedo.

Of course I have no way of confirming this, but that's where I heard it from.

Interesting if nothing else!

[Richie_rich]

Interesting Jon! I wonder if Yamaha Japan issued a kit to convert slow shifting stock then? Possibly for the home market that they made available over here?

From memory the instruments on the naked RZ differed from the faired in that the idiot lights ran along the bottom under the speedo / tacho compared to the little binnacle of 4 above the temp guage on the faired bikes. Which ones do these round headlight ones have?

Mate having both an 84 and an 86 you are correct. Thetre are a host of other little things that are different as well so if it was just adding a fairirng you'd spot it a mile away.

Yep understand all that mate, im just talking about this mystery round headlight full fairing 250. Over the years I've owned every model of RZ available (in NZ at least) which included the 83K, 84L, 85FN & 86FS and as you say lots of little detail changes between them.

[JonW]

Jon, I've just had on of those moments of clarity that seem to occur less and less as I grow older... I'm on holiday in Fiji with the family and after my last post decided to go to he gym to sweat out all the overindulged food I've been scoffing over here whilst I can't play with anything bike related. Anyway I remembered where I heard that story from regarding the fairings fitted to shift stock.

Going back quite a few years when I was searching for an early RZ I enquired about a very nice naked blue RZ250 that had been converted to 350. It was in NSW and I spoke to the owner who turned out to work for a Yamaha dealer. The bike was very nice and had loads of new genuine parts on it (c/- his work).

As mentioned it was naked but came with the full fairing as part of the spares cache and it had a round cutout in the top fairing. He told me at the time that Yamaha had added fairings to help sell them. The instruments were proper naked RZ ones with the idiot lights below the speedo.

Of course I have no way of confirming this, but that's where I heard it from.

Interesting if nothing else!

Im freezing here in Sydney, so very jealous of you sweltering in Fiji m8!

Interesting backstory, good work remembering it. Makes me intrigued as to whether yamaha created these fairings here or in Japan, im guessing here since Ive never seen on on a Japanese site, and those guys love a different model if they can find it. hmm...

I can only assume they did a round light version so they could use more of the parts of the original bike, but it seems a lot of work just to shift some stock, tho maybe they also couldnt copy the OEM top fairing legally at the time, the mystery deepens...

[JonW]

Interesting Jon! I wonder if Yamaha Japan issued a kit to convert slow shifting stock then? Possibly for the home market that they made available over here?

From memory the instruments on the naked RZ differed from the faired in that the idiot lights ran along the bottom under the speedo / tacho compared to the little binnacle of 4 above the temp guage on the faired bikes. Which ones do these round headlight ones have?

Mate having both an 84 and an 86 you are correct. Thetre are a host of other little things that are different as well so if it was just adding a fairirng you'd spot it a mile away.

Yep understand all that mate, im just talking about this mystery round headlight full fairing 250. Over the years I've owned every model of RZ available (in NZ at least) which included the 83K, 84L, 85FN & 86FS and as you say lots of little detail changes between them.

My understanding is that the 83 and 84 were basically the same, the 85 is as disussed above (a mix of 83/4 with 86-on forks and front fairing, plus some dedicated parts), the 86-92 models F2/N2 were also all the same throught the years, then the R came out and that was an F2 with FZR fairing but has a host of other diff parts as well.

But as Rich says, this discussion is really more about the mystery of the Aussie on Round Light 87/88s.

(apologies to the OP, but I think were learning stuff )