1972 YAMAHA R5 350
By the late 1960s Yamaha’s production racers, the TD (250cc) and TR (350cc) were enjoying unparalleled success on racetracks around the world. But the racers’ street bike counterparts — Yamaha’s bread and butter consumer products — were showing their age.
Compared to other contemporary middleweight models on the market, bikes like Honda’s CB350 and Kawasaki’s Avenger A7 350, Yamaha’s DS6 (250cc) and R3 (350cc) models relied on 10-year-old technology to lure customers into dealer showrooms. No surprise, sales began to lag.
That was about to change in 1970 with the launch of two all-new models — the DS7 (250) and R5 (350). Beyond engine displacement, these new models were joined at the hip in many ways, sharing similar and updated platforms.
But when Yamaha Motor Corporation released those two models (the R5 in particular) the folks at headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan, had no idea that the new roadsters — both powered by all-new air-cooled twin-cylinder 2-stroke engines — would have a lasting impact on amateur road racing in America. And the R5, in particular, did exactly that.
The R5’s engine, like the DS7’s, had horizontally split cases, a welcomed improvement over the R3’s vertically split lower-end cases. The top end was a new design, too, meant to deliver a wider power band than the R3’s. Wrote s editors for their January 1971 issue, “The new 350’s power
