BARN-FIND BUILD
The term 'barn find' has come in for much abuse over the past few years - so much so that anything described as such must be regarded with suspicion. An amusing Facebook posting summed it up very nicely. The picture showed a bucket of water with a carrot floating in it. The advert said 'Barn find, snowman - will need some reassembly:
So why did I succumb to purchasing a Canadian barn find in the shape of a Yamaha RS? I needed a project and had a yearning to re-live my misspent youth. Although I never owned a two-stroke Yamaha, I rode plenty as part of my part-time job at Wraggs Motorcycles in Mansfield during my late teens. My recollection was that the 250cc to 400cc Yamahas were faster, lighter and handled better than the contemporary Suzukis. The manager of the shop would not let me loose on the Kawasaki triples as he said they were dangerously fast and difficult to handle - and I've still not ridden one since, I'm sorry to say.
The Yamaha advert was from a reputable importer of used bikes and said that this was a 1972 350cc RS, similar to the UK model YRS. It looked fairly complete so, throwing caution to the wind, I went ahead and bought it. Unseen.
When the Yam arrived it was with some trepidation that I peeked in the van to see what I had spent a considerable amount of money on; £1650
