Make or Break? Yamaha RD350LC/YPVS Hybrid
“Where did you find that?”
With Covid ripping through the UK back in March 2020, it wasn’t the best timing for my mate to conclude the purchase of this tired looking two stroke. He managed to get to south London and back just before Boris shut down the country a day later, phew! He had bought it to restore, but a year later it was still sat on its rock hard Metzeler tyres in the same spot it had landed back last year.
With a bigger two stroke prize having just entered his life he decided to sell it, to me!
“Why did you want it?”
I liked the back story of this bike. My mate had bought it from a family that had owned it for over 25 years. Ok, so they hadn’t done much to look after it, but at least they were two stroke junkies.
The bike originally came from Deeprose of Catford, a south London bike dealer that I remembered from when I lived in Essex. They had a hand in building the bike. They even put their name to it on the tail piece when Dream Machine stuck the 90s inspired paint on. The bike came with some old paperwork that included a receipt from Stan Stephens! Cred indeed. There was also the original bill of sale from the 90s.
“That’s not standard….”
This bike reflects what typically happened to an old LC back in the day, before everyone started turning to restoring them back to original. The Metmachex swinging arm is a chunky alloy one, a very popular conversion still with those that don’t do stock.
The biggest change is the engine. The LC engine is long gone. In its place is a RD350 YPVS engine. The engine bolts straight in, though you do need to use the full YPVS electrics too. With the bike came a pair of Micron exhausts, though well past their best!
“What happened to it next?”
I mentioned to a friend of mine that I had it and might be parting with it. Within 3 texts we had sealed a deal! A week later he arrived and took ownership of the ‘Q’ reg LC special. The funny thing is, within one weekend in his custody he did more to fix the bike than me and my mate had done in well over a year!
Article provided by Scottie Redmond
