Yamaha RD 350 – History of an Indian Superbike

The RD 350 was the very first super performance offering to the Indian Consumers at a time (1983) when the only bikes in India were the Bullet 350, the Jawa (Yezdi) 250 2 stroke and Rajdoot 175 cc 2 stroke. The other two wheelers being geared scooters like Bajaj Priya, Chetak,Allwyn Pushpak, Vijay and Lambretta. The original Japanese RD 350 had 40 bhp but the Indian Editions were detuned to 31 bhp due to lower fuel
quality in India and also to increase Mileage.

The RD was produced from 1983 to 1990 in India. The first edition was called HT(high torque) edition, this edition had 31 bhp. The first sets of RD’s were given to the Indian Traffic Police to help them in nabbing criminals quickly. The Indian Police were used to Enfield Bullets previously and the RD proved to be a handful for them
to control. The result was many accidents by the officials.

The first HT edition of the RD 350 had too much power for the average Indian Rider as back then our Market was not used to such a performance product (and sadly even now). The RD was a crotch Rocket capable of
hitting 165 KM/HR in 6th gear. The RD used to frequently wheelie at the hands of inexperienced riders, being a high revving 2 stroke the bike was uncontrollable except a handful of experienced and matured riders.
This prompted Yamaha to bring a detuned version of the RD 350 LT (low torque) which had 27 bhp with less pick up and slightly better mileage.

The RD used to return a mileage of anywhere between 6 to 23 km/ltr depending on how it was driven. The RD was fully imported in earlier models but by 1990 the bike was manufactured completely by Escorts
Yamaha in India. The name RD stands for “Race Derived” performance and had technology from the Motogp bikes of the 1970’s. The bike had cult status all around the world since it was produced from the early 70’s
in Europe, Japan and America. The bike was stopped production in America in early 1980’s due to stricter emission and sound norms.

Technical Aspects: The RD was a twin cylinder “Reed Valve” air cooled 347 cc engine with each cylinder having a displacement of 173.5 cc. The RD had a slick 6-speed close ratio gearbox with 1 down 5 up pattern. The RD also featured “Torque Induction” ignition technology of Yamaha. The RD could do 0-100 in 7
seconds and a top speed of 165 km/hr in its heyday. The RD could touch 150 km/hr in just 16 seconds and was the first bike to have a tachometer in India.

The RD had twin exhausts and the Indian models had only 150 mm drum brakes at both ends. The drum brakes lacked the bite of a disc and the abroad models had a front disc brake, which was absent in the Indian
models. Coupled with the skinny tires the RD had scary high-speed handling and braking control characteristics. The RD is still the performance benchmark of any production bike in India and even after 25 years no Indian performance bike has even come close to it.