Which Lc made you fall in love?

[veg]

Interested to see what Lc impacted on you? Bills post about his 250 got me intrigued, so was it A 125? Your first 250?
For me it was the first time I rode my 250 home. I’d had a Suzuki gs550 katana, it was slow fat and crap.
I bought a low miles 250 it had a full fairing, gold wheels and cost me £350.
Junked the fairing and god I had fun on it. It was faster than the 550, handled on Pirelli phantoms and was the first bike I used to wake up extra early just to ride. I was hooked and pretty much through my life kept and Lc of one sort or another in my life, 250’s and 350’s.

[fletche36]

I had a rd 250 e when i was 17 and dropped off the bike scene for a year or two when i passed my car test and then on returning i got an lc 250 . Cant help but smile when i think back to those days and although i love pretty much all bikes the lc and a 250e will always be special to me.

[Chewie01]

For me it was the LC2. I remember seeing the cut away drawing, where you could see through the bodywork and tank in MCN and I knew I had to have one.
I did have a air cooled RD 125 at the time, but the LC2 was a proper bike.

Edit.
This was the picture that did it for me.

Yamaha RD350LC YPVS Drawing by Ian Niblett, on Flickr

[Gitram]

my mate Andy's 350 on a private road...

marti

[risolc]

I was 25 and bought mine after only having a C90 then TS125 that was stolen but the first time I rode it and had the front wheel up with out trying!!! OMG still remember it now. Then ride to work bike, ‘fixed’ sloppy gear change with insulating tape -didn’t last long—lol
Dave

[beardy]

From 78 through to 83 I only rode Kawasaki triples. I had no desire to own or ride any other 2 stroke as in my head I was already riding the best for me. Then my 500 snapped it’s crank and my mates uncle was selling a LC 350 for £600. I bought it as a stop gap and “oh my gawd” what a revelation. Handling and braking and refinement. Only had it a few months and it got stolen so bought another and still ride it 👍🏻

[alanski169]

I had a white and red T reg RD250E when I was 17 which met an unfortunate end on a very wet road possibly too quick on a bend over a manhole cover clipped kerb and we both bounced of a wall I broke a few bones including 3 vertebrae RD was very broken and like a banana by the time I recovered feckin law changed so should have been a 125 and 2 part test erm no think not so I purchased My first of many lc's reg no A190UUU a white and triple blue striped RD350LC and dealer fitted a bendy sidewinder side car so only 1 part test to do happy days rode it home removed sidewinder and L plates naughty naughty only to refit them 2 days before test which I passed So took them off when I got home and sold them both to a mate 6 months later who did exactly the same lol sold as I replaced with a new 31K RD350YPVS. 

[markrd250lc]

Difficult to answer for me, seeing a mk1 RD125LC (1984) for the first time i couldn't believe it was a 125 it looked so big ( i had a RS100), couldn't afford one so brought the RD80LC from a breakers and rebuilt it, a mate let me ride his 350LC ( filters/microns) and i was like im getting one of these when i pass my test.... until i went on the back of a YPVS, now that changed everything, i went to motorcycle city Bedfont a brought an RD350N1 new (£1569), and loved that bike and had it for 4 years, so honestly they all got me hooked, my DT125LC MK1 , the RD250LC that i fitted with a YPVS engine, the N1 i restored and the RD250LC i have now and the RD500LC i never had !! ( couldn't get the finance)  

So i would tick every box up there if i could.

Mark 

[donkeychomp]

My first foray into the 250 world was on an RD A/C bike, then a KH250. But a mate had a 250LC and after riding that I had to have one. The first (of many) was a bog standard 350LC that I got for the princely sum of £250. That got nicked. Got another. That blew up. Got another, that blew up and then got nicked. But looking back, none of that mattered as the LC seed had been well and truly planted. Couldn't imagine life without one now.

Alex

[reedpete]

I’d seen a few two stripe red 250s about and knew a 350 was due to follow…
Then one day I heard a familiar but different sound… as this bike came closer I saw it was two stripe blue…and clocked the twin discs … the anticipatory burble as it past through the 30 mph zone was hair (on the neck) raising… but when it exited with a downshift and a handful of throttle I was truly smitten …
When I managed to finally buy one it was to go proddy racing… everything in between and beyond those two events is way to complicated to write down here !

[geoffb]

My love affair started at 17 when my mate Jon got a 4L1 and I tried to keep up with him on my RD125 air cooled. 🤣 As soon as I passed my test in 1985 I was straight on my first 4L0 Mars Bar with a TZ full fairing and clip-ons. These were the first of many subtle DIY mods.

I went everywhere on that bike and enjoyed every moment. 😎

[shaunthe2nd]

Apr 18, 2023 20:41:07 GMT 1 alanski169 said:

I had a white and red T reg RD250E when I was 17 which met an unfortunate end on a very wet road possibly too quick on a bend over a manhole cover clipped kerb and we both bounced of a wall I broke a few bones including 3 vertebrae RD was very broken and like a banana by the time I recovered feckin law changed so should have been a 125 and 2 part test erm no think not so I purchased My first of many lc's reg no A190UUU a white and triple blue striped RD350LC and dealer fitted a bendy sidewinder side car so only 1 part test to do happy days rode it home removed sidewinder and L plates naughty naughty only to refit them 2 days before test which I passed So took them off when I got home and sold them both to a mate 6 months later who did exactly the same lol sold as I replaced with a new 31K RD350YPVS. 

Omg sidecar on an LC, like a fine wine with coca cola! So funny but genious.

[doohanno1]

This one....for a number of reasons..

[billbott]

My first LC was a 350 that I bought off a mate. It was the dogs b0ll0cks with every extra you could buy and a ported engine. Went like stink until it blew up. And again, and again. We were pretty poor so it spent a lot more time off the road than on, while I saved for crank, barrel and various other engine repairs. Sold it after about a year having done very few miles realistically. Having lusted after one for so long, I was massively disappointed but just couldn’t get the LC dream out of my head.



So the second one was a converted 250, with 350 top end and small can allspeeds. It had a standard airbox and wasn’t tuned. I went everywhere on it, thrashed the spuds off it, for miles and miles and it was absolutely fantastic!
So you would assume that’s the Lc I fell in love with?
Nope…
The Lc I first fell in love with was Trev Bradley’s bounty 350 with allspeeds. I used to sit outside the off licence on my fizzy and watch him wheelie past regularly. He was a local hero, and no one could beat him. and that’s why I fell in love with LC’s and also why my current 250 is painted in bounty white.
This Polaroid popped up on FB a while back:



Typically, he is no longer with us (drugs)

[JonW]

First LC I ever saw was a brand new just released white/red 250LC parked on the side of the road in the town i lived in and I wanted it even if i didnt really know anything about bikes. It just looked like it was doing 100mph while it was simply sat there, resting at the kerb. I was 12 and my only 'motorbike' experience at the time was fitting a playing card in my bicycle spokes and daydreaming. lol

A few years later I'd progressed through various mopeds that were hotted up and ridden my mates larger bikes when they ket me. One mate wanted to move on from his GSX250E and we went shopping and bought the race winner from the 1985 ProAm race at Zandvoort, it was a brand new (er, 1 careful race win by Jean Phillipe Ruggia 'owned' lol) F1 and I was in love. My mate was too. What a bike. We went everywhere on it and I wrote that story up on my old website where I sleuthed out the history of that bike after all these years to prove it was what the salesman had told us... and it was pretty much all true! Some may remember that story.

I had various mates over the years with LCs and never lost touch with the brand/models. Eg. one mate (Cheshire Youth Trials Champion actually) had a brand new 125, but for me I only ever wanted the bigger bikes... tho I toyed with DT ownership for a while but was more into Kawa/Suzuki/KTM as I slid more into dirt riding and racing. I later would restore a DT200R but thats another story...

In 1990/1 I knew I really wanted a grey F2 and I'd heard they were being discontinued. I went shopping and I didnt have enough money, not even close as I was still a poor student and my car was worth a lot less than a newish RD. Even a slightly dented one at Rafferty Newman's in Southsea was out of my league. Gutted. Around that time I was walking into Chester from my folks place and i hear the sound I loved best behind me. I swivel round and its a brand new grey F2, the bike rides past me and some idiot teenager on the path in front of me simply runs across the road right in front of the bike! The kid is obviously taken out instantly as there rider had no where to go and the bike is horribly damaged, led on its side spewing fuel after the <30mph crash. Im not sure who cried the most, the owner or the hurt kid... or me. What a waste of a beautiful bike! I left my details and I hoped helped the lad get a payout on his bike after my chat with the insurance company. Mental.

What LCs meant to me over all those years was me looking at and listening for every LC engine i could hear going past as you would hear them a lot in the UK of the 90s. The sound of any LC's twin on song or even idling would turn my head in an instant. ACs sounded ok, but I can tell the liquid cooled variety with only minimal sounds on the breeze. One girlfriend suggested I would only ever cheat on her with a car or motorcycle as I only ever had wandering eyes for things with engines and they were usually some kind of LC. lol

In 1995 when I decided I should finally take my bike test (id ridden bigger bikes for years elsewhere but now living and working in the UK i felt i should do things right, i guess i was growing up!) and of course the only bike I wanted was an RDLC and I got chatting to some shops and discovered they were doing deals on the RD350Rs brand new and I didnt even know they still had em, I really thought the F2 had been the end of the line. I bought one with a great deal and loved it, kept it in the fleet for a few years as it remained mint, it even went to the 'ring etc. It went when i wanted an R1 and my mrs wanted my ZX6R so the RD was the sensible one to go... I wish Id never traded it, er, no thats not really true... after 5 years I'd only lost £600 off the price I paid new (from the same dealer) cos it was so mint and the R1 was quite pricy even at 'a drink over cost' lol The 6R would have lost thousands of course and I'd paid the same deal on that one. I bought a lot of bikes back then for good prices... those were the days.

Yeah, after that I no longer had an RDLC in my fleet but i'd not say I forgot about em... I'd moved onto bigger bikes and Supermoto (the lunacy of LC in the modern world I reckon) and off roads, but in reality I still carried the torch and always had a soft spot for these machines and could still hear one in the distance now and then. In 2009 after moving continent, I located an F1 locally-ish to me (100km away) being sold by a hobbyist tattooist... I still have that F1 and its still not finished haha... and then bought an LC and made it a 421 hybrid and then I bought... well, you know the rest!

So, Im not sure if the first love for me was that first sighting of the 250LC on the side of the road in Alton or my experiences aboard the ex JP Ruggia F1 or the hunt for a Grey F2 and seeing one crash right next to me (unlikely!) or the 350R I bought new and loved to ride... for me this is all entwined together to make one long love affair that's lasted most of my life...

[elsiefan]

The day my mate Stalky turned up at the pub (Kings Arms on the A604) on a mars bar 350, after trading in his Katana 1100. We all rode big four strokes at the time and thought he was mental, after all the plan at the time was to trade up in capacity and power, not down. He just said take it for a spin, come back and apologise! We did and we did! Then we all (bar one guy who hated strokers) flogged our 4T's and got various different LC's and LC2's. 8 of us tear ar$ing around Essex / Suffolk and also a few great trips to the TT. We'd sit at Ramsey Hairpin in a group and wait for a load of big 4T's to go past, then chase them over the mountain! Happy Days on my LC2.

[veg]

I can still remember waking up early. Barely slept. I’d go down stairs, grab my lid my leather and gloves. Key in the ignition, fuel on, choke on, that first kick and the bike started settling in to its two stroke rumble. No idea why but the whole starting procedure of an Lc is just so evocative to me of the fun ahead. The burble as it warms up, riding off down the road as it warms up followed by the blue haze of two stroke smoke and getting it up to temperature knocking the choke off if it hasn’t already. And then just nailing it. The slight lag like an early turbo car then bang heres fun time. Right here right now. The red line approaching as quickly as I can change gear, the front end going light as you concentrate on the traffic ahead. Slamming it down the box without any mechanical sympathy. Pulling up at the lights between two cars. The bike ticking over in a consistent tempo. Resting my gloves hands on the tank. I look left then right at the poor occupants of their tin boxes. I am Lawson Rainey Schwantz all in one. No way anyone is beating me away from the lights I need to be first, no I will be first. I bang the bike into first, the lights are about to change as I blip the throttle ever faster ever higher the revs bouncing up and down. It’s a goooooooooooo green. Slipping the clutch feeling all that power making its way to the rear wheel leaning forward to stop it flipping as I gas towards the rising sun and another day of laughs and smiles in 1980’s Britain. Ahh the memories. 👍

[jackjabba]

I remember getting my first 250LC at 17 years old on L plates, first time riding it home from the dealer wondering what all the fuss was about with it being quick, then it hit 6000rpm, I was hooked. It was a big step up from my KE125.

[JonW]

Apr 19, 2023 7:19:00 GMT 1 veg said:

I can still remember waking up early. Barely slept. I’d go down stairs, grab my lid my leather and gloves. Key in the ignition, fuel on, choke on, that first kick and the bike started settling in to its two stroke rumble. No idea why but the whole starting procedure of an Lc is just so evocative to me of the fun ahead. The burble as it warms up, riding off down the road as it warms up followed by the blue haze of two stroke smoke and getting it up to temperature knocking the choke off if it hasn’t already. And then just nailing it. The slight lag like an early turbo car then bang heres fun time. Right here right now. The red line approaching as quickly as I can change gear, the front end going light as you concentrate on the traffic ahead. Slamming it down the box without any mechanical sympathy. Pulling up at the lights between two cars. The bike ticking over in a consistent tempo. Resting my gloves hands on the tank. I look left then right at the poor occupants of their tin boxes. I am Lawson Rainey Schwantz all in one. No way anyone is beating me away from the lights I need to be first, no I will be first. I bang the bike into first, the lights are about to change as I blip the throttle ever faster ever higher the revs bouncing up and down. It’s a goooooooooooo green. Slipping the clutch feeling all that power making its way to the rear wheel leaning forward to stop it flipping as I gas towards the rising sun and another day of laughs and smiles in 1980’s Britain. Ahh the memories. 👍

This!

(FWIW I am still the first away from the lights, every time no matter the vehicle. All those years of learned behavoirs!)

[tdrpete]

Apr 18, 2023 22:07:24 GMT 1 shaunthe2nd said:

Apr 18, 2023 20:41:07 GMT 1 alanski169 said:

I had a white and red T reg RD250E when I was 17 which met an unfortunate end on a very wet road possibly too quick on a bend over a manhole cover clipped kerb and we both bounced of a wall I broke a few bones including 3 vertebrae RD was very broken and like a banana by the time I recovered feckin law changed so should have been a 125 and 2 part test erm no think not so I purchased My first of many lc's reg no A190UUU a white and triple blue striped RD350LC and dealer fitted a bendy sidewinder side car so only 1 part test to do happy days rode it home removed sidewinder and L plates naughty naughty only to refit them 2 days before test which I passed So took them off when I got home and sold them both to a mate 6 months later who did exactly the same lol sold as I replaced with a new 31K RD350YPVS. 

Omg sidecar on an LC, like a fine wine with coca cola! So funny but genious.

Has anybody got a picture of a sidewinder i remember hearing about these in the uk but never seen one.

[lcmarky]

Apr 19, 2023 10:19:28 GMT 1 tdrpete said:

Apr 18, 2023 22:07:24 GMT 1 shaunthe2nd said:

Omg sidecar on an LC, like a fine wine with coca cola! So funny but genious.

Has anybody got a picture of a sidewinder i remember hearing about these in the uk but never seen one.

reddevilmotors.blogspot.com/2016/02/sidewinder-learner-sidecar.html

[lcmarky]

Original 350 LC did it for me.

I bought one from a mate which didn't run for £500 and quickly went about getting my test done on another friend's CB 125 Super Dream twin thing.

Got the LC going and I will never forget my fist ride on that Elsie..Really wish I still had it.. Must dig out the one and only pic some time.

[lcmarky]

Apr 18, 2023 19:36:12 GMT 1 Chewie01 said:

For me it was the LC2. I remember seeing the cut away drawing, where you could see through the bodywork and tank in MCN and I knew I had to have one.
I did have a air cooled RD 125 at the time, but the LC2 was a proper bike.

Edit.
This was the picture that did it for me.

Yamaha RD350LC YPVS Drawing by Ian Niblett, on Flickr

Thanks for the new screensaver!!

[geoffers997]

….on the wall in my office

I’ve no idea why the two stoke bug bit me - I got a fizzer like most others at 16 and a ridiculously unreliable Benelli two stoke at 17. A collection of two and four cylinder mid range diesels followed which I rode mostly as work bikes.

I got out of riding a bike for a living and bought a stolen and recovered 31k LC2 off a dealer somewhere in Maida Vale. It was a revelation and I loved that thing.

Sold it to get wed (that ended badly) and regretted it for 25 years.

The first LC2 I went and looked at when I decided I needed another one, I sat on it, reached down, pulled the choke, flipped up the rhs foot peg and kicked it over without even thinking about it.

Didn’t buy that particular one but my Herman came along a few months later.

Never say never but I may just keep it forever

[tdrpete]

I have a similar schematic/cutaway of the RD500 i will take a picture and post it also if anybody is interested.

[tdrpete]

Apr 19, 2023 10:31:16 GMT 1 lcmarky said:

Apr 19, 2023 10:19:28 GMT 1 tdrpete said:

Has anybody got a picture of a sidewinder i remember hearing about these in the uk but never seen one.

reddevilmotors.blogspot.com/2016/02/sidewinder-learner-sidecar.html

Brilliant thanks for posting that cheers man.

[nash88]

I had a mate that had a lovely 500 that just seemed to be the best bike ever and I'd still like one now. However, I bought my early 350lc in 1991. It was a bit tatty, and had obviously been raced, but I don't think I would ever part with it now.

[tdrpete]

I am the same age as my lc but a friend of my brothers and mine bought one in the late 90's, which is the one i have today. I have some really fond crazy memories of the times we had including the LC and a vfr 400 that my brother swapped for the lc which he gave to me when i was eighteen. This is the bike i have today and sadly our friend is no longer with us. I will never sell this bike. I did also return the favour and bought a ratty lc on which everything was knackered and gave to my brother and he has just finished it and it is nearly ready for the road. Its not mint by any means but mechanically sound. So i guess the one i have now is the one i fell love with.

[lcmarky]

Apr 19, 2023 14:42:42 GMT 1 tdrpete said:

I have a similar schematic/cutaway of the RD500 i will take a picture and post it also if anybody is interested.

Yes please.  Even though I've had x2 500's I definitely prefer the 350's.

[tdrpete]

I will post it up tomorrow as its in my dads house.