19-12-14, 09:15 PM
(19-12-14, 02:15 PM)PaulSmith link Wrote: It makes less sense to be known as the company that makes 'widowmakers'. Yamaha are believed to have a lot of potential sales in the seventies across all their bikes because they made the RD350. An absolute nutters bike deeply loved by nutters but it scared off many 'normal' bikers. And bikes that pitch inexperienced riders over the bars, even if they shouldn't be riding them in the first place, do not make good marketing material.
Eh? Well I've got you there, my first proddy racing bike was an RD350LC and that front brake wouldn't have you over the bars even if you fitted a servo. Weedy as hell and really not much different with braided hose, many of the lads didn't bother changing the hoses at all (plus we were all broke anyway, it wasn't cost effective 'lipstick on the gorilla').
And now you say the RD was bad for Yamahas reputation? Ha ha, you could hardly be more wrong, it made many many life devotees to the Yamaha brand, did that bike.
When I raced the RD my commuting bike was an XS250 (for er, 'normal' bikers) in almost any situation the XS was far more inadequate, too heavy, even worse brakes and handled like an armchair nailed to a skateboard. You were better off on a 'widowmaker' (actually I think that moniker was originally aimed at the HIE500)