Yamaha RZ350 - First Custom bike build

Had to have been 2000 or so when I built this one. Back story is RZ350 was my high school dream bike and I'd never let the dream die. Turns out bikes had gotten a lot better since then. Bought for $800 as a rough looking runner. So excited to take it on that first ride. Hated it. Bike was slow, had crappy brakes, worse suspension and felt like moped.

This was day one of buyers remorse. Stared at it for a month or so and came up with an evil plan.

Dent in tank was from hand controls. It had no doubt been laid down. After much rumination, it became clear that I needed to build what the RZ would have become had it not been banned.

So, I had a buddy at Yamaha who flowed me a set of R1 bodywork and that gave the bike some real direction. Found a set of old (and slightly bent) TZ wheels at the shop (worked at PM at the time). PM also supplied the brakes (super trick race calipers and floating rotors). Swingarm was FZ600 and forks are GSXR1100. Above is inital mockup of all the goods. Intent was for it to look as original as I could.

Still sporting the TZ slick (I never did find the correct tire), I had the wheels straightened and powdercoated satin black (failry very oem look). Raask rear sets did the job, but always seemed a bit clunky to me. Chambers got the freshening up and silencer cans went to a very neutral bronze ano. Nothing was polished or fancy.

This is post paint, but still not quite road worthy. R1 tail sits on its original Aluminum subframe (heavily mod'd to bolt to steel RZ frame) and battery is in tail section. Corbin sent me an R1 seat and I cut the hell out of it to blend in with the RZ tank. Super wide chambers required a 5" plate at the bottom of the fairing (where the two halves came together). End result looked like it belonged. GSXR fork legs gotthe bronze ano treatment as well as spring for the much lighter RZ. Oil injection tank resided inside of the right side of the fairing (viewable while riding)

Race calipers and floating rotors made for some amazing brakes for such a light bike.

Corbin did a great job with the rough foam I had carved out.

What if the RZ had survived. My fake plate pondered it for all to see.

Doing a shoot for work and snuck my bike in!  Wrapped it up shortly after this. Won several shows and was teh talk of a a couple of bike nights (Had a guy argue the bike was a a gray market import). At full noise, it was a thing to behold and motor mods made for about as much hp as it was going to reliably give up. Under 300lbs, sticky tires and hella brakes bike was quite a handful. Power delivery was tough to control, though. Leaving a light was a battle between stalling and crossing the intersection on one wheel. I never did master it. Bike demanded it be kept at blisteringly high  RPM and every ride felt like it would be my last. A few months into it I finally admitted it was more bike than I was rider and sold it for a bunch of cash. Turns out you can't really go back.