The Yamaha RD (Race Derived) 350 was the BEST bike that ever came to India. Escorts got this baby here during the early- to mid-1980s, but unfortunately (if predictably) it was not a sales success. With the majority of our riders’ obsession with mileage (’’average kitna deti hai?’’), the RD’s stupendous (for its time) performance was largely ignored. And what a pity that was, for ultimately, during the early-90s, Escorts had to stop production of this bike here... :-(
The bike essentially belonged to the late-70s/early-80s. The glorious era of ring-ding-ding two strokes, Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, and Eddie Lawson. The version that came here was considerably dumbed-down (no alloy wheels or disc-brakes and certainly not the liquid-cooling of the later RZ models that were sold worldwide...), but it was still a 350cc parallel twin which used to kick out 32bhp at the crank. Even more unfortunate were the later versions, which were detuned to about 28 horses, just so that mileage figures would be better!
I made my first acquaintance with the bike in 1989. Those days, I used to be a BIG fan of Kevin Schwantz (still am, of course...), and couldn’t get enough of his wheel-sliding wheelie-popping ways on that AWESOME Pepsi-Suzuki RGV500! A friend bought a black RD, and gave it to me to ride the very first day. As long as I paid for the petrol of course. Thanks mate! :-) I was quite taken by the bike’s performance. It used to sound so absolutely totally completely fantastic, and the acceleration was vivid! 0 - 60 time was about 4.5 seconds, and I used to be able to do an easy 160 km/hr (speedo-indicated) in sixth gear! And wheelies used to be so easy :-) Cold winter mornings notwithstanding, all these antics used to be at the break of dawn, when all roads in Lucknow (my hometown) would usually be devoid of traffic ;-)
The RD was a bit of a sprocket-rocket and there wasn’t really loads of torque available, which could make heavy city-traffic a pain at times - but keep it in the right cog, and rev the reeds of that engine, and it would rocket from turn to turn like nothing else could. Yamaha RX100s and Suzuki Shoguns? Haah! Enfield Bullet 350s? Where’s the museum mate? And no, even the 18bhp Fury 175s hadn’t a cat’s in hell, of keeping up with the RD350. The Yammie ruled!
Gripes? The brakes (drums at both ends) were crap (discs needed, please...) and the suspension was just not taut/firm enough. Get into a turn too hard, and the thing would wallow and weave like a pig. The front would dive like mad if you touched the front brake, which was not such a good thing. The 3.50x18 wheel/tyre combo was also crap, though you could still scrape the pegs, AND the exhaust pipes as well! IF you had the welly. Electrics were intermittent, and the battery would go flat at times.
Whatever, this was the BEST bike ever, and it still does have cult status even now, though it’s no longer produced. With some mods, it could have been the perfect hot-rod! Scratch around the twisties on Sundays, and ride it to work on weekdays. We need a bike like this again. Enough of those 100cc powder-puff economisers! Let’s have a man’s bike again, please.... :-(