From the archive

An Indian from the turn of last century

It may be a V-twin, but Ifancy my chances at getting away!

Indian may live in the shadows of their Milwaukee rivals these days, but in the early 20th century were leaping ahead with technological advances.

Leaf-sprung front ends, rear suspension, two-speed gearboxes and electric lights were all elements we take for granted that Indian introduced to the USA.But gradually, HarleyDavidson got the bulk of the USpolice market and Indian has, up until now, endured a rough ride commercially, with world wars, the Great Depression and buy outs.

Today, since giant Polaris has owned the company, Indian seems on the up, with, it has to be said, a more up-todate line-up than Harley. But I'm sure there's enough riders for America to have two large motorcycle firms. And as far as the police departments in the USgo? They mostly ride BMWs .... CBG

ONCE UPON-A-LONG-TIME-AGO, THE ORIGINAL Triumph factory at Meriden appeared to rule the world in terms of police motorcycles. Forget the British Empire, Triumph were literally everywhere that required police officers to be mounted on two wheels, apart from the USA,where Harley ruled the roost after the demise of Indian.

Somewhat ironically though, it was Douglas and Chater Lea that provided the majority of official police motorcycles for the Metropolitan Police in the early 1920s after the formation of the Met Traffic Division in 1919, although officers had been allowed to use their own personal mounts for escort duties when required prior to the purchase of motorcycles.

Triumph do though get an early foot in the door with a few motorcycle combinations being mentioned in 1921 for the purpose of directing and controlling traffic in the official history. But, it was after the 1930 Road Traffic Act resulting in higher speed limits for cars that more motorcycles were purchased, including BSAsolos and BSAand Matchless combinations, to deal with the many new motoring offences created like dangerous driving.

Along the way even Brough Superior got a small part in the development of the police motorcycle, but it was not until just prior to the Second World

War that a Triumph appeared in the official list of purchased vehicles for the capital's police force.

In 1938 Douglas, Matchless, Norton, Panther and Rudge are listed as official machines for Motor Patrol duties. After the war it is Triumph who dominates, not forgettingVelocette with their famous LE'Noddy' bike for officers attached to stations, before being replaced by the Panda car! But for most, it is Triumph who are most closely associated with the forces of law and order, even though they came to service use a lot later.

Triumph's success was due in the main to one man, Neale Shilton, the international sales manager for Triumph, who during his 22 years with the Midlandsbased company, created the famous Saint {Stops Anything In No Time) and sold it throughout the world to police and the military.

In 1968 when he resigned, he was taken on by Norton Villiers Triumph {NVT)to design a police bike with the resulting Norton Interpol, a bike not without its problems it has to be said.

When NVT hit the skids in 1975 he failed to keep the 'Interplod', as it became known, going, so he jumped ship to BMWand thanks to his contacts quickly helped the German brand effectively take over the UKpolice market from 1980.{Hisautobiography, Million Miles Ago' details his career as well as being a good read about Triumph and Norton towards the end!)

Since then BMw, along with Honda have managed to survive as one of the major suppliers to the world's police forces, but now face serious competition from the likes ofYamaha. In between there has been the much lauded Honda Pan European and Kawasaki have had a brief nibble, but these days it is just a two-horse race, in the UK at least. Believe it or not, in Europe Yamaha are the number one supplier to the forces of law and order and they have quite a history with the police bike market, albeit with much smaller bikes in other countries and continents around the world.

THERD350B

Take the RD350Bpolice model profiled here, produced in 1974 for the 1975 market, it was in fact one of a batch ordered by the Royal Malaysian Police in early 1975.

It still wears the same paint scheme it did during its five year stint at the sharp end of policing and all

the emergency warning components and radio are also present and correct and from the same period.

Having finished its service life for some reason the bike was imported into France and used by a private owner in the same service condition, before being tucked away in a barn when it started developing problems. It was then found a few years ago by

'Master Mechanic' who had always wanted an RD,but had been unable to afford one in his youth.

An extensive rebuild of the motor then took place including the addition of electronic ignition, with the control box now in place of the battery under the single seat, and the battery now located to the nearside pannier. Originally the owner's intention was to rebuild the bike as a civilian spec machine, but thankfully he realised that he would be destroying the bike's history, so he left well alone apart from the engine and refreshing safety items like the brakes.

Unfortunately, (and perhaps understandably?) for him though, the Gendarmarie would not leave him alone and every time he rode the bike on the road, he came under scrutiny. Often it was just out of curiosity, but in the end it became too much and he offered the bike for sale and it was imported into the UKby a member of the Historic Police Motorcycle Group (HPMG).

Despite popular opinion, there's no evidence to suggest that 'RD' in the model designation stands for 'Race Derived' but a look at its lineage shows it definitely was. In fact, Yamaha started racing in Japan with its first motorcycle in 1955, the 125ccYA-1 known as '.A.katombo'or ;Red Dragonfly; due to its brownred paintwork. It won many races, including the prestigious Mount Fuji event, beating Honda who had dominated the event prior to Yamaha's involvement. Ironically, Yamaha only started racing to promote domestic sales which were sluggish, but seeing how racing promoted the brand they were to continue using various races to promote the new models that were coming thick and fast off the drawing board. These included 250cc machines with the designation

YD and in 1962 came the first 250 production racer, theTD1.

In the UK,Yamaha factory rider Furnia Ito came close to winning the 1963 Isle of Man TT aboard the 250cc Yamaha RD56.But a bad pit-stop cost him 38 seconds, losing to Jim Redman on a Honda as a result by 27 seconds!

Ito's compatriot, Hiroshi Hasegawa, was fourth behind Bill Smith, also Honda-mounted. From then on the likes of Phil Read took world championships, the first in 1964, and the factory dominated the 125 and 250cc class around the world up to 1968,when the factory pulled out of racing.

In 1965Yamaha changed the face of two-strokes, removing their big drawback of mixing oil and petrol in the tank with the launch of the new 'autolube' system, which mechanically metered oil to the big ends, bearings and cylinders. Then in 1967,Yamaha launched its first 350cc street bike, the YR-1;little more than a big-bore version of Yamaha's 250cc twin and a follow-on from the 305ccYM-1that had appeared in 1965.

Three years later the five-speed RSappeared, before the first of the RDrange appeared in 1973 in 200, 250 and 350 format, and followed later by a 125cc version. It was quite a significant model as the engineers changed to reed valves placed in the intake, replacing the piston porting used in the RS.A result of revised port timing was the engines had a wider power-band, so became slightly more civilised and easer to ride. The machines were also the first to see the words 'Torque Induction' on the side-panels and they had seven transfer ports instead of five previously, with new heads and cylinders compared to the RSpredecessor.

The integral gearbox also gained a gear, making six speeds on offer to the rider who also got a disc brake at the front to enable them to stop the bike from speed. (Interestingly in the UKthe first machines had the sixth gear blanked off for some reason!) During its two years of production, nothing changed apart

from the colour schemes, before the 350 morphed into the RD400 and the infamous LCrange appeared, complete with its own race series!

Interestingly a licensed version of the RD350Bwas later assembled in India from 1983 until1990 under the brand name, Rajdoot. There were two models for the Rajdoot 350 - High Torque and LowTorque, although neither were as popular as the Yamaha model beforehand and were unreliable, possibly as they were nearly 100%Indian in terms of parts, which suffered at the time with little real quality control.

Back to the Japanese version, the dimensions and appearance of the road bike frame are very similar to the Yamaha TZ250 and TZ350 series factory road race bikes, differing mainly in weight and front fork rake. It should be said though that the RD frame is nearly twice the weight of the TZ frame thanks to all the additional bracketry.

The RDrolled along on 18in wheels front and rear with a drum rear brake complementing the powerful (for its time) single disc front brake.

Again at the time, the Yamaha RD350was universally liked by the period motorcycle press, testers praising its race-bred performance and broad power-band, stable handling all backed up by decent brakes.

Certainly most journalists liked its bend swinging capability combined with overall nimble handling, useful in congested towns and cities which is no

doubt why Yamaha chose it to become suitable to be sold as a police model in various countries who did not need the larger British and American machines.

When riding one now, you have to remember that things have drastically moved on and riding a twostroke is now somewhat alien with its quite distinct narrow power-band as opposed to the more linear power we have become accustomed to on modern four strokes. Likewise, the riding position is more on, or above, rather than 'in' the bike's contours, the single seat on this still being narrow and functional rather than overly comfortable.

What was then regarded as good handling might now be regarded as not so good, but in fairness it is predictable within the limits set by the skinny (3.25f and 3.S0r) period Dunlop tyres. As for braking, well some twin leading drum brakes from the same period give a little more confidence, but you learn to adjust your riding style to suit!

So the police bike differs little from the 'civvy' version in terms of the basics and will just top the magic ton providing you work the bike hard through the gears, but this would have been sufficient in the environment it was sold into. A white-faced 180kph calibrated speedo with a lock capability (nothing new here then?) to show the errant motorist the speed he was being reported for sits alongside the rev counter and warning lights that shows the rear brake being applied.

Staying with the handlebar area, the switch gear is very different from the high street version with controls for the large round red and blue lights mounted on the large front crash bars, which show signs of having been tested in the past, saving the rest of the bike and rider from damage.

A set of crash bars envelop the top opening panniers which later appeared on the later Yamaha FZ750police bike (and others like the XJ900)as did most of the police equipment on this RD350.On the nearside these offer a mounting point for the large klaxon like siren that actually doubles as the bike's horn or audible warning device and despite the single seat the pillion footrests are still present.

Behind the single seat sits a small, neat radio box with the microphone mounted on the nearside. On top sits a small amber light while a neat spring arrangement enables the ticket to be securely held in place while written on a neat flat surface in front of the short radio antenna.

The rear indicators have been repositioned in a vertical manner and rear reflectors fitted, but no police coloured flashing lights of any description face rearwards, unlike current machines. However, it is very much like any modern police bike in that it remains very much a production model with some extra electrical warning items and contrary to popular belief is not tuned or performance enhanced in any way. (APolice BMWRTPis actually slower than most middleweight sports bikes in terms oftop speed!)

It has to be said that it is rare to find an unmolested machine such as this, still fully-equipped with lights and even the police radio, so no surprise that you do attract some unwanted attention when out and about, even with the lights taped up!

Still it does provide an interesting exhibit at shows of the Historic Police Motorcycle Group (HPMG)and proves that size isn't everything and it should always be borne in mind that you will never outrun a police radio no matter how many ponies you may have lurking in the engine!