[S@~+#0$#]

Congrats on your "priceless" acquisition. No bike in India including the comet can beat the "Fun to Ride" factor that this bike has. IMO, the Yezdi 350 and the Fury came close but again RD is in a different league all together. Some advise/suggestion from an ex-RD owner(I regret having succumbed to the wish of my folks to sell it but anyways I sold it to a close friend of mine who takes very good care of the bike and allows me to ride it once in a while ). Here goes..

Try and restore the bike to its originality as much as you can. This will require a lot of patience and gujari-hunting but it is worth every bit of money and time. The joy of finding a spare that you need is like finding a treasure. Think twice, thrice or even ten times before replacing an original part with a substitute.... if you search, you will find the spare. There are some RD350 Yahoo groups which will be of help.

I suggest you continue for a few more days with the bike's current mechanic and then find a different mech if the current one is not good.

Good RD Mechanics in Bangalore are:
Torque Center(Zak) in Vijayanagar. Let me know and I can introduce you to him.
Powercrest(Murugesh) in Vyalikaval below the Sankey Road Bridge.
DTW(Shekar) in Shantinagar
Joe on Queens Road

IMO, Chinoy is over-hyped and does not fit into the above league. When it comes to RD, everyone is expensive.... so get used to it. Like cool_sizzlers said, you have to be your bike's mechanic and know everything about the bike.

Don't worry about your silencers, they are original High Torque. Don't give up your point set for a CDI ignition unless you get the original CDI ignition that came with the bike around 1988.

Not to discourage you, but there are a lot of things on your bike that are not original(this is normal and is due to lack of spares)....you have RX100 indicators, Yezdi headlamp unit, switches, yolk and levers are from various bikes. Rear mat like Mud-flap is missing but very important for originality... should be very easy to find a new one. Get orginal seat cover and beeding.... Rao seats in Shivajinagar can do this for you.

Try and get the original Carrier and original high-torque rd's handlebars. Hunt for original indicators(I got a set of 4 indicators from 3 different gujari shops over a period of 4 weeks). FYI, the RD175 and the RD350 share a lot of parts like Engine-kill switch, yolks, levers, mirrors, tail-lamp assembly etc.

Some spares are available at:
MCC in JC Road, Bangalore.
Anand Automobiles on GP Road, Chennai.
Gujaris in all cities.

Sorry for such a long post but this I get mesmerised when I hear the word RD and more so when I hear the sound of its exhaust.....pure music.

[kiran1103]

Santosh : Thanks a million for that wonderful post which will not only benefit me but also other tbhpians and many more. I personally know Zak. He is a wonderful mechanic. Infact my first intention to bring it to bangalore is because of Zak only. I did call him before taking the bike. If u happen to meet him ask him abt me Kiran who owns a Yamaha Rx100 and Shaolin. All are serviced by him only. I did see a orange RD well maintained with him many a times. I will be planning to come to Bangalore this weekend failing which next weekend with the bike. I will also scan the shivajinagar gujiri once when i come there. Once again thanks for that wonderful advice.

[cbr1000f]

Originally Posted by S@~+#0$#

Congrats on your "priceless" acquisition. No bike in India including the comet can beat the "Fun to Ride" factor that this bike has. IMO, the Yezdi 350 and the Fury came close but again RD is in a different league all together. Some advise/suggestion from an ex-RD owner(I regret having succumbed to the wish of my folks to sell it but anyways I sold it to a close friend of mine who takes very good care of the bike and allows me to ride it once in a while ). Here goes..

Try and restore the bike to its originality as much as you can. This will require a lot of patience and gujari-hunting but it is worth every bit of money and time. The joy of finding a spare that you need is like finding a treasure. Think twice, thrice or even ten times before replacing an original part with a substitute.... if you search, you will find the spare. There are some RD350 Yahoo groups which will be of help.

I suggest you continue for a few more days with the bike's current mechanic and then find a different mech if the current one is not good.

Good RD Mechanics in Bangalore are:
Torque Center(Zak) in Vijayanagar. Let me know and I can introduce you to him.
Powercrest(Murugesh) in Vyalikaval below the Sankey Road Bridge.
DTW(Shekar) in Shantinagar
Joe on Queens Road

IMO, Chinoy is over-hyped and does not fit into the above league. When it comes to RD, everyone is expensive.... so get used to it. Like cool_sizzlers said, you have to be your bike's mechanic and know everything about the bike.

Don't worry about your silencers, they are original High Torque. Don't give up your point set for a CDI ignition unless you get the original CDI ignition that came with the bike around 1988.

Not to discourage you, but there are a lot of things on your bike that are not original(this is normal and is due to lack of spares)....you have RX100 indicators, Yezdi headlamp unit, switches, yolk and levers are from various bikes. Rear mat like Mud-flap is missing but very important for originality... should be very easy to find a new one. Get orginal seat cover and beeding.... Rao seats in Shivajinagar can do this for you.

Try and get the original Carrier and original high-torque rd's handlebars. Hunt for original indicators(I got a set of 4 indicators from 3 different gujari shops over a period of 4 weeks). FYI, the RD175 and the RD350 share a lot of parts like Engine-kill switch, yolks, levers, mirrors, tail-lamp assembly etc.

Some spares are available at:
MCC in JC Road, Bangalore.
Anand Automobiles on GP Road, Chennai.
Gujaris in all cities.

Sorry for such a long post but this I get mesmerised when I hear the word RD and more so when I hear the sound of its exhaust.....pure music.

You sure know your bikes well buddy.
RD175? You mean the Rajdoot Yes.. a lot of things including the exhausts are shared with the rajdoot.

How can you tell the cans are HT though? They seem to be growing larger progressivly in diamter from the pictures.

[2L8uLoose]

Congratulations on your new acquasition.. hope you have deep pockets for fuel and parts.. and I say this out of experience..
BTW I get 10-14 km's from my RD.. depends on how far back I twist the throttle!

[S@~+#0$#]

Originally Posted by kiran1103

I personally know Zak. He is a wonderful mechanic. I did see a orange RD well maintained with him many a times.

Zak used to do my RD when I had it and he is super especially with the tunig and setting up the points. The Orange RD belongs to Santhosh, a friend of mine.

Originally Posted by cbr1000f

How can you tell the cans are HT though? They seem to be growing larger progressivly in diamter from the pictures.

Hey cbr1000f, they are HT silencers. LT silencers are more rounded towards the end like in RX100 whereas HT silencers end as though they have been chopped off. Checked out the silencers on Steer's well-kept bike here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vbpicg...?do=view&g=151

[zulfikar]

CONGRATS DUDE.
i had 2 RD with me, HT and one was LT...
HT was with CDI and use to give me a good milage of 18-20KMPL...
and LT was with points and gave me a millage of max 25kmpl but averace 20-22Kmpl...

RD HT with CDI never gave me any problems...
but LT with points gave me a bit of problems when ever i riped the bike and to get the Points set once 2-3 weeks without fail...

RD is a bike which you will have to take care or else the will not take care of ur Pocket...lol

[katalyst]

CBR - RDs down south cost considerably more than RDs in Mumbai and Delhi. Mint RDs sell for more than 60,000 in Bangalore

On the other hand, I have seen RDs go for 17k in Mumbai.

Having stayed and maintained my bikes in both these cities, this doesn't come as a surprise. Mumbai's air isin't too healthy for chromed relics - for sure!

[2L8uLoose]

On the other hand, I have seen RDs go for 17k in Mumbai.

What condition or lack thereof have these poor pathetic machines been in??

[jkdas]

i haves met some guys who are into RD business here at bangy. They bring bikes from North and give it a good work and sell it for 50k up

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by 2L8uLoose

Congratulations on your new acquasition.. hope you have deep pockets for fuel and parts.. and I say this out of experience..
BTW I get 10-14 km's from my RD.. depends on how far back I twist the throttle!

@2L8uLoose, I am sure your car (Octy if I remember right) returns similar or more FE.

I used to use a Bullet500 many years ago that belonged to a Belgian colleague, which he would leave with me when he went home on vacation. It returned something like 20kmpl in city and I used to be like "W.T.F, my M800 returns 16odd kmpl".
But then it sure was fun to ride it.

[2L8uLoose]

@2L8uLoose, I am sure your car (Octy if I remember right) returns similar or more FE.

Yea your right.. but at about 1 millionth the fun factor of the RD!!

[narayan]

congrats man...this post took me back 4 years during my days in bombay when i had a 83 HT...

after i moved down south and bought a car, really did not give the 350 the attention it deserved and it showed in her overall state of health. finaly had to sell her off to someone who was well endowed to take better care of her..

[Jaggu]

nice bike.. give to your trusted mech only or do it yourself with RD's.. trust me

[samybravo]

cool bike can u post a video with good sound quality i love that exhaust note

[chetanhanda]

hey congrats ..
I just love RD's .. nothing sounds as beautiful as a 350 cc 2 stroke idling..
no bike comes close to it in india