Terrific twin!
If you were after a totally unbiased review of this month’s subject matter then apologies because that’s most emphatically not going to be happening! Why? Because a 1973 Yamaha RD200 was the first real motorcycle I ever owned and our test bike is the closest I’ve been to SAR 47M for more than four decades!
Yamaha’s 195cc twin also provides me with a very direct and poignant link to my dad who had ridden bikes since the early 1930s. The old fella was amazed at the RD’s performance and relative level of sophistication to such a degree that he frequently ‘volunteered’ to park in our council garage 10 minutes’ walk from home. The fact that it regularly took him over an hour to get back home with my bike’s keys was never lost on me; he positively adored the little twin and would have ridden it as much as me given the opportunity – and the keys!
Some memories take little rekindling and the 1974 RD200A in camera is essentially the same machine, give or take a few Iwata-applied vinyl decals. It sits in the late summer sunshine glinting away as the Candy