YAMAHA RD500 LC
As we celebrate 65 years of brilliant bikes from Yamaha, it’s only right to have another look at their ultimate two-stroke race-replica…
Steve Cooper celebrates another classic in Yam’s 65th year!
When the rumours began to percolate through that Yamaha was about to launch a machine that was ‘just like Kenny’s’ the public’s expectation was suitably piqued.
Were they going to be let loose upon Her Majesty’s Highways on a notionally sanitised OWR racer? Were they about to be forced to contend with potential high-sides as the bike spun its rear wheel then hooked up? Would they have to perpetually fight to keep the front end down? Just how close to a works half-litre racer was the RD500LC going to be?
If June 1980 was anything to go by, fans of the tuning fork brand were in for a treat. The then arrival of the RD350LC had caused something of a stir because the bike was being touted by the press and dealers as something akin to the legendary TZ racer twins. Even if the reality was a little different, the liquid-cooled 350 captured the public’s imagination like little else and demand swiftly outstripped supply. Was the 500 going to be cast from the same mould?
The specifications looked interesting with almost 90bhp on hand and quoted dry weight of 180 kilos. Top speed was said to be close to 150mph with standing quarters of 11.7 seconds. Certainly better than a lot of stuff out there at the time and not exactly shabby. Demand proved to be high and some cheeky would-be owners found they could turn a tidy profit by selling their new bikes on at higher than list price. Many owners of larger machines (some twice the capacity of the Yamaha) were even trading down in order to own what was then the most desirable piece of kit
out there.
The bike looked and sounded like a sanitised racer and for many owners that was more than enough, but not for some. Deeper examination revealed the bike was delivering closer to 75bhp and with fluids was weighing in at nearly 200kg. And yet this really still wouldn’t have been an issue if Yamaha hadn’t launched their ultimate 350 twin just the year before. The 350 Powervalve offered almost 60 horses in a svelte package that was under 150 kilos, and even if it wasn’t as fast as the 500LC or came with the same bragging rights it was still a supremely good all-rounder and, crucially, was substantially cheaper. When the inevitable tweakers, modifiers and tuners got on top of the twin it was also supremely easy to make them fly as well. Suddenly the 500 looked to be too expensive, too complicated and certainly too expensive.
It was probably always inevitable that Yamaha would feel obliged to offer a large capacity, roadgoing, two-stroke multi and the 500LC wasn’t their first attempt either. Back in the early 1970s the firm had been seriously close to offering the GL750; essentially a pair of detuned TZ350 top ends on a common crank case. Ironically this abandoned road bike would become the legendary TZ700 race bike so Yamaha had something of a reputation for playing around with fate. The race replica they finally offered
Joe Public turned out to be something of mixed bag in terms of the technology used, but arguably they went down that route for good commercial reasons.
The motor is in essence a pair of TZR250S (which kept development costs down) with a few differences. It’s not a true V4, but rather a square four opened out. The motor borrowed some of its DNA from the 1983 OW30, but with the rear pair of cylinders facing backwards. The 50-degree angle used precluded the fitting of four carburettors within the V so one pair are bolted to each side of the engine with their inlet tracts turned through 90 degrees. The set up is arguably a compromise, but works well enough in the real world. Obviously both power and reed-valves feature as key must-haves on any Yamaha stinkwheels. Some have countered that the biggest two-stroke road machine Yamaha made is too marred by both practical and engineering concessions to be a true race replica, but the bike has always had a strong following.
Some who have ridden the RD500 accuse it of being overly dumbed down and falling some way short of its true potential. Others suggest that you’d be better off either with a blueprinted/tuned 350 YPVS. For ultimate bragging rights of the genre Suzuki’s RG500 Gamma is The One to have, but that potentially misses the point. If you cut your teeth on a Fizzy, then progressed to an RD250, then the 500LC is the only big two-stroke Yamaha for you. Some swear by them, others swear about them, but there’s no disputing the fact that Yamaha’s RD500LC was the first of the breed and for many still king of the heap.