YAMAHA RD SPECIALS
Victor Shield and his two riding buddies went in search of wild days past when they created these three Rd-lc-based specials
Victor Shield shows off the reworked RDS he’s made for him and his mates
Victor Shield has been building specials in his shed and at work (Vic’s Classic Autos, Faversham) for over 30 years and got in touch with CB to say that not only had he built his own street tracker, but he’d also built a retro RD for his cousin John and helped his mate Phil get a cracking RD Lc-based Kenny Roberts rep running right.
“I wondered if you guys fancy featuring my recently finished bike – before it blows up in typical two-stroke fashion,” he said with a laugh when he called. “It started life as part of a collection of Yamaha LCS in my cousin’s shed, and during lockdown myself and my cousin decided to build a couple of bikes out of the five we had in various states of repair.
“I built a retro-styled RD, with different paint, tuned engine, modified forks, etc for John, then decided to make a totally different bike for myself, with mods to the frame, forks, swingarm and engine, plus a ton of fabricated, bespoke parts.
As soon as lockdown restrictions were lifted, we were there in Faversham, photographing the three magnificent machines and getting their own stories on the builds...
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I carried on my college work and went into designing vehicles – and this is where my love of specials started.
“At the time, I had an early unrestricted Yamaha FS1-E with a 60cc big-bore kit and clip-ons. I wasn’t old enough to legally ride it on the road, but come my 16th birthday it was ready to be abused.
“The years have vanished behind me and I’ve had quite a few Hinckley Triumphs, air-cooled RDS, bobbers and specials.
“I still have my Trophy 1200 streetfighter, which has been with me for 22 years, but it’s a heavy 140bhp monster and I needed something lighter.
“At the end of 2019, a customer came to me with an air-cooled RD replica and ex-racing Yamaha TZ350 that needed an engine rebuild and good tune up after being butchered by another bike shop. It was this bike that was ultimately the inspiration for me to inhale two-stroke fumes again.
“I never thought I would have another Elsie because, once you have something so good, it’s always difficult to go one better; that comparison is in the back of your mind whenever you ride the bike.
“My cousin was an RD350LC man back in his youth and I knew he still had one in his shed, so I gave him a call and popped around for a chat. It turned out he had five of these collectable strokers in all stages of disrepair and a deal was struck for me to build him a running bike, sell three bikes as projects and keep one for myself that I could build after using the sold bikes for funds.
“Years ago, his Mars Bar-coloured bike was stolen then burnt out. It was 100% original and he chose to keep that for me to restore. As I intended to be on another planet with my build, it didn’t matter to me what I had and took a total bitsa for my project. You see, I’ve always loved the TZ750 flat tracker that King Kenny rode to victory on the Indianapolis Mile and I knew that’s where my project Elsie was going to take me.
“The three bikes and parts were sold for the build kitty, and our two bikes were stripped and parts sent off for blasting and powdercoating. The engines were taken to sunny Hastings to John Floyd, who had previously rebuilt and tuned the TZ engine. What this wizard does not know about two-stroke tuning is not worth knowing and, since we started this project, he and I have become really great mates. My cousin’s engine was rebuilt with new internals and a stage two road tune, while my engine was bored out to 375cc, race/sprint-tuned with larger reed blocks, new
internals, a racing clutch, high-flow water pump and racing ignition system, with the entire engine blueprinted. Carburation was sorted with a pair of Mikuni 30mm TMX powerjets and the reed blocks were replaced with V-blocks.
“Meantime, I’d cut the frame and fitted a Honda CRF motocross front end slotted into some bespoke yokes. At the rear I used Yamaha WR125 wheels, welded the LC frame and WR125 swingarm to take twin shocks and had the lot powdercoated in what’s called ‘American Nickel’ – some call it chrome!
“The wheels were coated in fine-flake gold and rebuilt with stainless spokes. The seat unit was fabricated in aluminium and, to keep the looks clean, I decided to build this bike with no lights and keep it for daytime use only.
“I fabricated some copper end cans and fitted these to a set of early Stan Stevens expansion pipes. The radiator was an aluminium unit that was modified to fit and I used a set of Koso clocks with a GPS speedo added.
“As for the bodywork, I painted it in Pineapple Yellow pearl, Snow White pearl and black, with five coats of clear coat.
“This engine, at best, will cover 20 miles to every gallon of super unleaded, so the need to carry around vast amounts of two-stroke was needed. Now, I don’t like having to use a rucksack and my pockets are only fit for drinking vouchers and my old Nokia, so I needed to fabricate a holder for my oil. As I live and have my workshop not that far from the Shepherd Neame brewery (which made the aforementioned Hurlimanns loony juice) I thought it would be in-keeping with my past, so I made a huge can of Hooligans (pictured below) to carry my much-needed two-stroke.
“The bike has passed its MOT. The insurance company has made me a special policy as there is nothing that has not been modified on the bike. And the government has had its road duty duly paid. Importantly, the bike goes as you would expect a monster-tuned RD to perform.
“One minute I’m grinning from ear-to-ear, the next I’m pulling the engine apart to repair something that has broken. In fact, it’s in bits again thanks to the kickstart lever punching a hole in the engine case when the engine kicked back!
Oh well, it’s a good job I’ve got a TIG welder...”