2 Strokes Down Under

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI ... SS:AU:1123\

1983... but fully faired and looks like original fixings from the pics... also the engine number is the short ones japanese bikes have...

would make a fun project for someone... not me tho LOL

gday jon, i contacted the seller last night about having a look at it, hes only down the road and it looks like i will have a look at it on sunday, and report back,in the meantime did you see this lot, sorry to hijack
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-x-Yamaha-R ... 822wt_1396

jon, what are your thoughts on the rz? does he want to much,would it make a good little collectable bike, parts availability,is it worth restoring ,,all that sort of stuff , i dont have any knowledge of this sort of thing except my rd ,,ken

Well.... who knows what a bike like that is worth, but his start price is about it id say so long as that is the OEM fairing and not an addition as the engine will really need new crank seals if nothing else so whilst it runs work will defo be needed to use it.

The faired bikes are usually 85 F1 models and if this really is an 83 then thats interesting... hence my comments above about rarity. The problem is that Japanese import bikes have little paperwork from new and many just have 'model age' papers so if the bike model started in 83, then they are all 83 models on the papers and when imported they all stay as 83s. I had that with a KDX250 back in the uk, it was rego'd as a 96 from the japanese papers but was a much later bike off the frame number.

parts for these are easy to find, only the fairing panels are getting harder now. everything else is easy and you can easily fit zeel and other stuff to them of the cdi dies etc.

So what is the going rate for an RZ that is a 250 i wonder... its a lams bike, and the 350 is not. there is now no rego break for a 250. the 250 is 45bhp ish and the 350 is 59... everyone upgrades the 250 to 350 anyway... so... upshot... i dunno. Will the 250 ever be collectable in its own right, or is it justa less desirable 350? I cant answer all that...

What i can say tho is that restoring a later RZ is fun just like the LC is, it makes different power and if this is a real F1 its kinda rare and in other markets is very collectible, especially if this is the rare japanese 84 earlier model, which its 34J number might suggest...

But if you spend equal amounts on restoring an LC and an RZ the LC will probably be worth more at the end of the day, but longer term who knows... the younger guys learnt on the RZ and those guys have yet to start buying them back, so maybe those models will gain in value over time. not to make money you understand, but to cover your investment in time and effort really.

Personally i love the 85 more than any other RZ, and I wrote a huge thing about why on the other forum in my build thread, but not everyone agrees and some prefer the naked look or even the later F2s... but most agree the F1 is a rarer bike (one year production) than the other models.

So... did i help?

thaks alot for that jon,it sure did help. i will keep an open mind, ive got the 2 stroke bug at the moment and am only interested in the yam bikes aswell,i couldnt be bothered trying to figure out a 4 stroke and so far the lc has been within my ability,when i have a look at it i will let you know what i think, see ya

Hmmm, maybe would be worth some of us going in together on the job lot for the LC's and then split up for who wants what ???
I can get it back to my shed for a big sort out and can arrange freight to other states if anyones interested ????

no worries Ken, let me know how you go. if you want to stay yamaha you either have to go back to the AC bikes, onto RZs or TZRs etc so maybe this would be a good project as it looks pretty much complete.

The pipes are interesting too. youd have to check the net for the japanese specs but those pipes were late 85 on with these bikes in Aus as they are really F2 pipes. yet they could be standard for a japenese model, i just dont know.

Looks just like the RZ I owned with a different paint job

well these looks just like the normal 85, but are earlier...

I thought the guy had just got the year wrong, to my eye that's an 85 bike, well it would be in the UK.
The swingarm is what you'd not have seen until 85, square ended. The 83's and 84's were still "LC2" bikini fairing models with the flat end plates on the rear fork. The front muddy is the "85" style wrapped around forks with the "variable damper" sticker.

Surely Yam wouldn't have been manufacturing all those details in parallel in 83 while the LC2 was still a brand new model?

Fully prepared to be proved wrong, but confused about Yamaha's habits if so

Still, regardless of all the collectors details, it's all there, and 250 or 350 F1's are nice looking, probably fractionally nicer looking than F2's.
Wonder what a rebuild and paint job etc would run to.

just re-read what you wrote more carefully JonW, interesting what you say about their looseness in designating a model year when exporting. Frustrating for anyone wanting to get details all lined up "just so".

gday,had a look at it yesterday, looked ok, started 1st kick from cold, after a few minutes it died and took awhile to restart,talk about smoke, ive never seen anything like it, looks like it needs a good long hard ride,,would need new tyres,fork seals and a good tune up and service,as he said theres a couple of minor cracks,has been bored out by 1mm,as i said it looked ok but for my way of thinking its probably nearer a 16-1700 bike,imho..

just like to add , as im not familiar with these bikes if it had non original parts i most likely wouldnt know, there was a small scrape on the left hand switch, but the pipes looked pretty good

BRG, these came out in 84ish in Japan i think, its still an F1, but its an RZR250R or something as it was a 'new' model. I dont have all the details but thats what ive found out when looking. The paint is probably original, the japanese had diff colour schemes than we did elsewhere. I prefer the Aussie F1 paint, but that one with the blue looks fine really, if it was repairable id probably do that, paint is $1200-1500 on an F1, 2500 if you do it in Sydney! sigh...

Ken, I would think it would really need crank seals and also new inlet rubbers, drain/clean of oil reservior and pump and a quick carb clean before a proper run unless you were going to rebuild it anyway.

Looks pretty complete and original and probably as good as you will find after so many years. I agree 2500 isnt cheap, but it is a runner and its tidy. With a good motor and with rego its worth 2500 i would think, but as you say 1700 is more like it. Maybe leave at 1500 offer with him and let him come back to you if you fancy it but make sure the tank isnt leaking and the fairing is plastic not fiberglass if you want to restore it fully as OEM you will struggle to get those parts elsewhere.

Ken (an anyone else) here is my thread about my 85 F1, which i bought as a non runner for $400 a few years back.... its not yet done and has a way to go still, in fact its pi55ed me off and got shoved into a corner at the mo, but ive been busy on other things anyway so its no big problem LOL When its done the restoration and upgrade will have cost... er, 'a lot' haha...

http://www.rzrd500.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4650

I should also add... given the choice on a resto of my $400 non running crapper and the one listed for around $1750, I have to say that whilst i normally mandate that buying a busted cheap dead bike is the way as 'you will replace everything anyway', i would be tempted to start with the ebay bike as with the F1 things are pretty hard to find, especially in Aus...

...and if you want to do a full resto then its far better to start with something whole and running thats not had a supercheap repaint and been used as a field bike. My resto has been overly hard work due to busted panels, massacred wiring, dead engines (i had two), bent bars/fairing frames, leaky tanks, missing parts, 'backstreet kid with drill and screwdriver, will travel' modded parts etc etc as all of those things need fixing or new/better parts located, usually from overseas.

Perhaps im still hacked off at my bike, but its fought me all the way, more like some kind of vicious bitey phoenix than a nice rising from the ashes version! LOL!!!

I should also add that doing a full 350 upgrade is not cheap on a 250, there are a lot of parts you will need and 350 cyls are getting harder to find now, better to look at aftermarket pipes and zeel etc if you go that route, and doing that is proper money of course... but probably easier and better kit that tracking down nice OEM 350 parts. Modded is the way i went in the end as thats what we did in the day, so why would you go back to std?! but i did look for a while, thats why i know LOL