RZ500 Redo

I decided it was time to put a shine on the old girl. Thought some of you might be interested in tracking my progress. Should have her ready to ride this weekend.

Details here: RZ500 Rebuild

I had the opporunity to ride with a guy that had one of these about 15-18 years ago.

Have not seen one since, and gawd they sound magnificant on the pipe.

I hate you. Please post more pictures.

ring ding ding...heart, be still....

Had a chance to buy a RZV500R locally recently but when I was supposed to go look at it I got a stomachflu, was so sick, few days later when cleared it was sold, really, REALLY bummed, was a pretty good price too.

One of these with modern size wheels and brakes off of an R6 or Thundercat, with R6 forks would be magnificent!
Retro-Mod anyone?

I've seen rz's with modern wheels and suspension. looks every bit as awesome as you'd imagine!

As compared to something modern, how fast is it? What is the power comparable to?

Making 85-90 hp and weighing 438 lbs, they were a match for the liter bikes of the day. Up against today's supersports those numbers fall short. But it's not about raw numbers with these bikes. Nothing available today makes power the way these bikes do; and the sounds, the smell of 2-stoke oil burning, the whole experience is intoxicating. I have modern bikes as well, but nothing puts a smile on my face like riding the RZ on a twisty mountain road.

Like these? Both were built from RZ500's by a buddy of mine. He'll build you one too for the right amount of $$, (less than you might think).

Damn, that's magnificent.

GULP......................:eek1

This thread makes my pants fit funny.

Man props, I never had the guts to delve too much into the lower end. Yes, that is a V4 two stroke...with THREE crankshafts :huh

The hp figures are from stock...but there's lot's of room for improvement. Keeping the same displacement but porting, bumping up the carb sizes 2mm to flatslides, ditching the POS steel exhaust for handmade pipes you can get another 30hp over a weekend. The one weakness on the RZ's is the stock unbraced swingarm, once you're above 100hp at the rear it will start to warp (which is what happened to mine).

For pure old school awesomeness (in a crappy pic) I saw this a few years ago, RZ motor stuffed in an OW01 frame, dang.



Then again, one can always dream about the blue haze once again coming to the showrooms...

Actually two cranks, that's the balancer shaft in the middle. When I first got the bike it vibrated like crazy. Turns out the last guy in there had the balancer out by 180 degrees, easy fix though.

Yeah, they're a mildly stressed design from stock. There's a lot of room for more ponies in the motor without sacrificing too much reliability. A popular chassis upgrade is to swap the stock rear fork for the banana arm from an RGV250.

Now that's a mod I hadn't seen yet.

If they built something like that I'd get up off my wallet. Seems like if there was enough of a demand for it, the technology exists to make the 2-smoker clean enough for the greenies.

I've worked through a few issues with the bike and now am back making steady progress towards an eventual completion. Baring any further setbacks, ('bike'' or work' related), I should be done this week.

Here's couple of photos, and a full update appears here on my website.

Nice bike, I love the work you do. And I would say that even if you weren't my husband.

Wow, that looks cool. Nice job. Looks like fun.

A vid of the smoker when you are done please?

What a beautiful bike.

Christmas huh? I grew up in Union Park and had lots of friends in Bithlo and Christmas! It sure has grown since I left in 87!

This looks quite excellent, I must say. This is coming from a guy that probably wasn't even born when this beast was manufactured. I love 2 strokes though. As you can see in my signature I've never owned anything but 2 strokes yet, they hold a special place in my heart. Unfortunately they're becoming a rarer feat in the world of motorcycling each year.