RD350N YPVS
‘It’ll still be talked about in 40 years time’
With prices of good RD350LCs now £8K★ yet those of its successor, the 1983 YPVS and particularly those of that bike’s successors, the 1985 RD350F (faired) and RD350N (naked) still under £5000, it’s worth revisiting both as a riding experience.
On the LC everything is stripped-back, raw and charmingly basic. When you kick it into life you have to move the footpeg out of the way. There’s a lack of plastic covers and the motor is brimming with character. With its lack of bottom end, the LC engine does virtually nothing until it hits its power band, at which point things get frantic as you desperately try to keep the tacho needle above 6000rpm. It’s an all or nothing riding experience that encourages stupidity. It may only have 47bhp but it makes you giggle due to its on/off light switch power delivery.
The 350N, on the other hand, is a far more civilised and refined. There’s no need to move the footpeg as the kick start easily clears it. At standstill it sounds just as eager as the LC when you blip the throttle, but once you let the clutch out there’s more low-end drive that merges into a midrange that, while containing a bit of a zing, hasn’t the LCs abrupt change in character. In many ways the powervalve is more four-stroke in character which makes it less amusing, lacking the LC’s wild edge, a major factor, I’m sure, in why the YPVS isn’t as popular as the LC with collectors today. If you’re after a bike for sunny Sunday laughs that makes you smile, the LC delivers. It isn’t easy or relaxing to ride and its chassis is a little nerve wracking, but it rewards with a ride reminiscent of being an out of control teenager many years ago.
The YPVS, on the other hand, is more just an old bike that while its engine has a bit of two-stroke character, it isn’t as pronounced at the LCs – and that’s where it’s missing out. Against a modern bike the LC is skittish, wobbly, lacking drive, smelly, dirty and a touch disconcerting when you up the pace. But that’s what makes it so special and is why it will still be talked about with reverence in another 40 years’ time.