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By Eduardo Zepeda
Features

The Yamaha RD350: Cult Classic Two-Stroke History and Why It’s Still Collectible

Credit: Ronald Brown via Hagerty

There are motorcycles you remember because they were beautiful. Others stick with you because they were fast, or because they scared the hell out of you, or because somebody you knew had one and spent an unreasonable amount of time explaining why his was better than everybody else’s. The Yamaha RD350 somehow manages all three, which goes a long way toward explaining why a motorcycle Yamaha built to be affordable and practical has become such a desirable collector bike.

The RD350 was never supposed to be a precious motorcycle. That was part of the appeal. Yamaha built it to be fast without being expensive, simple without being crude and competitive without requiring a factory racing budget or a last name the service manager recognized. You could ride one to work on Monday, take it to the track on Saturday and, if something expensive happened to the engine, fix it without taking out a second mortgage.

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