Throughout the mid-70s, the Yamaha RD400 was the last word middleweight sport bike. Recognized for its explosive energy and light-weight body the two-stroke legend was an evolution of the RD350. It boasted a barely larger engine, a rear disc brake and extra refined dealing with. The RD400 shortly grew to become a favourite amongst racers and lovers alike, revered for its skill to be each a street-legal machine and a formidable competitor on the monitor.
Because of seasoned racer and moto fanatic, Armen Manougian, certainly one of these iconic bikes has been introduced into the twenty first Century. Armen has a protracted historical past of engaged on bikes, beginning together with his first, a YSR50 when he was within the tenth grade. With an automotive ardour that has grown through the years, Armen ultimately established his personal workshop, Allstar Auto Heart. Whereas the store primarily caters to automobiles, he’s at all times reserved house for engaged on street race bikes, a testomony to his love for the craft.
“The bike was initially owned by John Lau who’s the distribution supervisor at Yoshimura and has labored there for over 40 years!” says Armen. “John had constructed the bike to street race and teamed up with a younger rider named Windell Phillips (who went o to personal Lockhart Philips USA). The bike was raced at Willow Springs Worldwide Speedway and after shedding curiosity they turned it right into a canyon carver and would usually take it up within the Los Angeles hills on the famed Mulholland Canyon on the weekends. ”
By 2016, the RD400 had been sitting idle in John’s storage for a number of a long time. Confronted with transferring to a smaller place, John requested his good buddy Russ Norman what he ought to do with the bike. Russ, who was already knee-deep in his personal customized tasks, recommended they provide it to Armen, figuring out he would do one thing unbelievable with it. Because it turned out, Armen had lengthy needed to construct a traditional cafe racer however had by no means settled on the appropriate undertaking—till this one fell in his lap.
After buying the bike, Armen stalled the construct whereas different facets of life took precedence. However ultimately, 5 years later, prompted by Russ’s relentless encouragement, he dragged the bike out, dusted it off, and started working.
“The bike’s historical past made it an important story, as a consequence of its racing pedigree. Most cafe racers have by no means been raced so it sparked some curiosity in me, particularly with my racing background,” Armen says. “My imaginative and prescient for the bike was to implement trendy tech, race monitor pedigree, and traditional model into a motorbike that will catch the essence of the traditional RD400 look however with trendy technologically superior enhancements discovered on present racing machines.”
“Upon inspecting the bike carefully I observed the heads had been completely different,” Armen explains. “Russ had instructed me John had spent a fortune again within the day on extremely uncommon water-cooled heads made by Revco. These heads merely changed inventory heads and got here with a tiny radiator. The coolant flows by a course of known as thermo-siphon so there isn’t a want for a pump. Additionally, I observed the rear wheel was a really uncommon 18” Morris Magazine wheel, whereas the entrance was a inventory alloy Yamaha wheel. ”
With such premium components already in place Armen continued the theme with the suspension. Slightly than becoming a whole late-model entrance finish that will doubtless throw out proportions, he opted to retain the unique RD400 forks. Nonetheless, internally, issues are removed from inventory. Armen machined the dampening rods so they might settle for gold valve emulators from Racetech and machined a customized adjustable shim stack for pre-load. Mark Atkinson from Velocity of Cheese Racing in Utah made the air-charged fork caps. The customized triple clamps made by Cognito Moto are set again 10mm making the fork-to-stem offset 35mm, versus the inventory 45mm and there’s an Ohlins dampener below the headlight. For the rear suspension, Armen contacted Mike Wheeler at Kyle Racing USA to request a set of customized Ohlins rear shocks.
Mark Atkinson (Velocity of Cheese Racing) was additionally instrumental within the design of the RD’s new swingarm that extends its footprint by two inches. The extraordinary degree of customization continues with titanium axles, customized brake brackets, and a one-off paint job by Matt Polosky that paid homage to each Yamaha’s racing heritage and Armen’s personal racing colours.
This bike’s engine acquired simply as a lot consideration. “Throughout all of the body and prep work I had the engine utterly torn aside. Very first thing was to intestine the complete engine and ship many of the internals off to Scott Clough of Scott Clough racing,” Armen recollects. “Scott is a legendary former Southern California. street racer and RD engine specialist. He ported the cylinders and reed cage to accommodate V drive 4 carbon Reeds. He honed the cylinders and bought a brand new set of pistons and constructed the crank utilizing ceramic bearings.”
To enrich Scott’s work, each inner half was polished and cryogenically handled for sturdiness and efficiency, with the complete engine meeting taken care of by Gus Christensen, one other seasoned knowledgeable. With the engine constructed, Armen added an consumption consisting of machined manifolds by Chariot and a pair of 32mm Mikuni flat slide carburetors. As for the exhaust, it was fabricated by JL exhausts and mounted utilizing spigots and flanges by Mark CNC to match the bigger exhaust porting.
The bike’s electronics have been modernized utilizing a Motogadget M-Unit Blue, permitting for keyless begin, app connectivity, and a simplified wiring harness. A customized sprint housing a Cognito Moto GPS-driven tach/speedo setup was fitted, and even the lights had been up to date with Motodemic’s adaptive headlight system.
Armen’s consideration to element prolonged to the brakes, the place he’s opted for twin Brembo calipers. These had been put in by customized machining the forks to accommodate the setup whereas sustaining a clear, symmetrical look. Even the wheels, which are actually each Morris Mags due to a beneficiant donation from Russ’ buddy Howard Monise, have been coated in Spanish Gold and fitted with ceramic bearings. Infact there are such a lot of customized particulars on this bike it’s unattainable to cowl all of them, however you possibly can relaxation assured nothing was completed with no clear outlined objective.
This undertaking was not simply in regards to the bike; it was a tribute. All through the construct course of, Russ, Armen’s buddy and mentor for almost 30 years, was there – pushing him to get it completed, sharing concepts, and reminiscing about their racing days. Tragically, Russ was battling bone most cancers, one thing he stored hidden from most.
The bike, accomplished simply earlier than Russ’s well being took a flip for the more serious, received Better of Present on the 2 Stroke Extravaganza in Southern California. Russ handed away 80 days later, however not earlier than seeing the RD400 he had helped encourage. After listening to it roar to life, Russ instructed Armen that it was the perfect RD400 he had ever seen. A long-lasting reminiscence of Armen’s good buddy is eternally immortalized by this unbelievable bike.
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