The Yamaha RD 350s were bad to the bone, too. I used to street race one for a guy. We only drag raced, no curves or anything. The only thing under 500cc that could come close were the Kawa 350 triples.

I weighed 148 pounds back then and motocrossed. I didn't have a street bike but was dating the guy's daughter that owned the RD. He was larger and not a good rider. And drank too much, too often. So, he would get about half drunk up at a tavern, talk $hit to the other bike owners, and then have to look me up for the matches.

The biggest challenge was controlling the wheelie at launch. Up on the handle bars at the hit and then I wouldn't use the clutch to shift. Just reach down with my hand and row it through the gears by blipping the throttle. Quicker that way and helped to keep my head down, too. I could be in 3rd before most others would be getting out of 1st and able to get to full throttle. Faster, more powerful bikes would start coming on hard, but there just wasn't room for them to catch me. I have always been curious what the 60' was on that thing.

Many matches were with Harleys. Hogs riding hogs. By the time they were done slipping the clutch to get rolling, I was in 3rd or 4th gear and gone! Same with a lot of other large bikes. Those little RD 350s were so light and quick that they were very hard to beat. Even by most larger bikes.

But like I said earlier, the larger Kawa triples were the big boys on the block at that time. The first '69 750 Hondas had larger cams than the subsequent ones and were noticeably faster. Some of them ran pretty good, but couldn't touch the Kawas as long as the guy on the Kawa could handle it. Which most really couldn't.