Hey Sawnee, how about an old RD350. If I had the cash for a second bike it'd have to be something completely different to the cbr. A mate of mine in the 80's had a brand new power valve model and wrote it off with no insurance . He traded on an earlier model that had some racing history and a few mods. It was a real blast!! Very light feel and a wicked power band that would be sure to snap you awake .

 

Yamaha Radian

 

I had an old RD250LC as my second bike. They were always written up as a race bike with just enough road manners to make them road legal. The 350 was a whole lot better & dead easy to work on & hot up. Always wanted to give the RZ500 a go. The only problem with these is the smell of 2 stroke oil. Pew.

 

How can you not like the smell of a stoker???
The trouble is over here the LC's and even the aircooled bikes are really sort after, I saw a white 350LC in original mint up for almost £4000
The Z13 was a corker Pete, what are you going to do to it? back to standard,Mad Max it or just smarten it up and use it?
The RD500LC and the RG500 Gamma were two bikes that just needed a race track and a good ringing out
I did think about a baby Caine but put it on a diet and give it a bit of a tweek here and there or a GPZ 600R..........

 

Four thousand quid???? . Maybe not such a good suggestion then.. I suppose a lot of the cool road bikes from that era are getting pretty pricey over there now. What about a mad two stroke dirt bike? Another mate had a PE 250 that was great fun once we de-restricted it (stupid washer thingo in the exhaust so it complied with some daft regulation) . You've already got the 'cane so I can't see the point getting another big, in line four. I'd be looking for something light and flickable for hooning on the back roads.

 

If you can find one, an 84/85 CB750SC (I'm assuming that's what it is...here in the states is was a 700)...Nighthawk. This is one of the all time great street bikes. Shaft drive, hydraulic valve adjusters, jewel of a motor (a revver...not a ton of tq though)...comfy, good handling.

 

Hey Dave, check out this one. Kinda cool bikes, man. Only one on Ebay in a while, and appeared to be pretty mint. (if the link doesn't work, look on the completed auctions for: 1984 Honda Nighthawk CB700SC (it's the only one)
It was in NC, too.

Do you know if the CB650SC was similar? I see that the 83-85 had the hydraulic adjusters and shaft drive. Obviously didn't look as cool, though...

 

I can see your point about the baby caine, the more thats said about the 2 strokes the more they are playing on my mind.
It would have to be a race rep, I dont do dirt bikes they just never tickled my fancy.
Hmm... there are a few old stokers still out there, what has happened to them all? at one time everybody seemed to have one (normally in bits)
a TZR250 OR RG250 might be good fun

 

TZ 350 would be a lot of fun. They go like the clappers & it's easy to make them go fast. Just two problems. 1) Are they road legal over there? They're not here. 2) The smell. I used to have a denim cut off on my leather jacket & the only time it was allowed to be washed was when I changed from a 2 banger to a 4 stroke just to get the oily smell out. Still it was a lot of fun to ride & worth the pong.

 

My buddy has a Yamaha 250cc race bike. It looks like it would be fun to ride. Quick and light as hell. Obviously not street legal, though. I'm not sure if it's a TZ, though. He says he gets tired of cleaning and working the carbs. (makes sense with open air, I guess)
Hopefully he'll keep it another year, and I can talk him into letting me run it at the track.