500 Two-Stroke Tech

jackson.40 wrote:The letter is a great find

Steve - this is the letter I was taking about in that other post - the one I said I've had for years, bad fax copy that I had spilled coffee on....

I tried to scan it to send to you, but this one from Mark is of much better quality. Mark - where did you come across this copy?

Also, it is obviously incomplete, what with the 47X and 1GE bikes missing from the list, like Steve pointed out. I was always led to believe that total production was over 7000 units....

Tom,

I was sent the letter by a contact here in NZ who along with his brother and father owned 4 RZ500's between them. These guys are very much into their Yamaha's and race TZ's on a regular basis. The debate about numbers produced and numbers imported to NZ was raised and this letter was his 'slam dunk'. If any of you guys want the JPEG file of the letter, pm and I will send.

Not sure if the 47X... etc has direct relevance to the serial number - mine is a 53G serial number but seems to be a 1GE model. My bike is referred to as an 'N' model on the registration just to add to the confusion.

Anyhow I have asked my local contact at Yamaha if he would mind requesting some production information from Japan, I will give an update if he comes back with anything interesting.

Cheers
Mark.

Hi Mark,I have also sent a letter to Yamaha (Japan) asking for details on the 47x/1ge models and will post up any reply i might get.It looks like that guy`s letter took a year to get a reply .

The old 'pincer' movement eh!!

well back in 1985/86 my first visit for a few parts for the RZ gaskets/ jets etc, it took a few weeks for a parts manual to arrive and kindly a full workshop manual on loan (all 500 pages incl tsi /mods photocopied that night) and returned to yamaha the manual was for 52X RZ500L the parts manuals were 51X and 1GE and I can remember stripping my bike to show the Yamaha dealer my motor and frame serial No's clearly 53g- before ordering all these "47X" parts esp as the parts we wanted were clearly different . jets mine std were 220 , 47X std 195 1GE std 165. when I tried the 165 size my RZ motor siezed...(but was prob the fuel aditives ) but back then every time I needed parts or info it seem to come from Japan... with a diff model no. info. but my original bike is a 5/84 53G mid 200's My bike also had a few other interesting bits, air caps on the front forks std I will post a couple in the model comparison section soon

My RZV frame is stamped 51X 00XXXX, but my motor has no number???
Was this the case with all RZV's.
The motor is original as I purchased the bike new in '87. years ago when I queried it with my local Yamaha dearler he told me it was because it was a domestic version??? And I've not thought any more about it.

Hi Andrew,It is true that the domestic version did not seem to have the engine number stamped just the model code.I have been looking at some 3MA`s and its the same with them ,only the model code stamped on the engine cases.

Could this be my bike coming down the line?
It`s an early bike as it has the carb overflow pipes going through the belly pan head stay`s and a black sidestand spring.

lets me see, yep that is ichiro on the left orhata back right, the guy with his back to us is, why its Steve (jackson 40) !so thats how he knows so much about these bikes!

and don't forget those little reel type things hanging from the tracks above with the curly dangly bits. They're Smurph's aliens!!!

you look at those pics and just like here in Detroit you walk through corp. offices and you see the copo stuff and the people that built them are just like these guys probably didn't even care they were making some history and never gave it a second thought.

Great photo Steve - keep em coming. What would you give for a supermarket style - 1 min trolley dash along those parts racks

Hi,

I'm new here, and I'm from the Netherlands. My RD500LC is a 1GE model and came out of the shop in March of '87. I bought the bike in '93 and it succeeded my RD350LC which I was very happy with at the time the 350 was totaly stripped and restored to original state (including the engine) by myself. Surrely the 500 brings sooo much more pleasure . I had the frame of the 500 repainted as well as some of the smaller parts. The engine was done by myself also (pistons, bearings, crankshaft.. the works). It has been running smoothly eversinse. I don't ride it as often as I would like, but it gives me all the more pleasure when I do...

I don't know any rd500 owners in the Netherlands but there are some (I've seen them a few time's over the years). I'm guessing the 1GE model is standard for the Netherlands but I'm not sure.

Mark

Welcome Mark.

Now, we all really need to see some pics of your bike?

Nick

Thanks Nick.

I just took of the side fairing because the carbs where leaking. I adjusted the floater hight and the problem is solved. It is getting al little dark outside so I had to use the flash...

**edit**
sorry, it is kinda big