Like greyhounds and thoroughbreds, they’re groomed for one purpose — to win races. And when they no longer perform to expectations, those raging and aging champions are put to pasture. Or, in the case of the former race bike featured here — a 1972 Yamaha R5 roadster that lived its glory days competing in the 410cc Modified Production Class — it was silently and unceremoniously rolled into a storage container where it sat for years, dutifully awaiting a third life.
This R5 was raced by my older brother, Alan Gingerelli, in Southern California’s American Federation of Motorcyclists (AFM) and Continental Motorcycle Club (CMC) road races from late 1976 through 1978. The bike was prepped and tuned by our friend (and brother from another mother) John Lassak throughout its racing days. When Alan hung up his racing leathers for good after a very successful 1978 season, he purposely rolled the bike into John’s storage container, where it sat for years until the container eventually filled to capacity. That’s when Alan figured it was time to relocate the old racer to his small backyard shed, where it served additional downtime.
Finally, in mid-2023 (45 years later!) John and Alan decided to restore the old gal. Not to her former glory as a tribute or AHRMA road racer, but to return it to the street again. There was one catch: Alan had never ridden it on the street because, from the get-go, he acquired the R5 from a used-car dealer in Huntington Beach, California, with the intent of road racing it.
So when Alan and John recently pulled the old R5 out of mothballs, it needed plenty of TLC to put it back on the road, not the road race track. Foremost, the engine needed a rebuild, only this time, the trusty 2-stroke engine would be readied for everyday use, not weekend racing.
New life for an old bike
As you see, this R5 isn’t a full-on back-to-stock restoration, either. It’s more a “race-storation,” a road-going tribute to the gaggle of Yamaha R5s (and, later, RD350s and RD400s) that competed so brilliantly on SoCal and other road race tracks in America many years ago. In fact, this bike retains many of its original race parts and modifications that originally enabled Alan to win his share of trophies. However, its recent race-storation was the perfect time for Alan and John to replace some dated race hardware with parts originally intended for street use. For instance, the stock foot peg assemblies (rather than the more confining rear sets used on racers that helped increase cornering clearance) make for a more comfortable riding position. Also, new flat handlebars, offering a more upright riding posture, replace the low-slung Thruxton racing handlebars Alan used “back in the day.” Otherwise, and at a glance, this R5 is pretty much what we raced during the 1970s. As a point of historical interest, it was shortly after Alan fetched his personalized license plate from storage that we dubbed the rejuvenated racer “The AFM Bike.” The plate read “AFM 86,” which was Alan’s race number. The plate had never been used on this bike. However, it saw road duty with another RD350 that Alan rode on the street several years ago!
Among The AFM Bike’s original 1970s racing hardware that survived in John’s storage container was the original numbers-matching (to the frame) R5 engine, still packed with its close-ratio 6-speed RD350 transmission. The reincarnated bike also retains its original race-tuned R5 carbs and ported R5 cylinders that boast John’s original porting specs. The modified, blueprinted, and polished ports match exhaust, intake, and transfer port timing for improved breathing and top speed. The engine also benefits from higher compression that, with proper carburetor jetting and tuning, can still effectively burn pump-grade premium gasoline into its race-bred combustion chambers.
Before we continue, we should be clear that, as with any modified race bike, parts swapping plays a major role in keeping an active racer competitive on the track. Fact is, and as any racer will attest, to keep a bike competitive, uniformity and continuity always takes a back row to winning. And so, given that scenario, there might be some contradiction and/or ambiguity in this essay regarding the precise history and application of the bike’s various components. Simply, some of the parts and/or modifications that once again enjoy the light of day with this race-toration may not be the same specific parts that were actually used throughout the bike’s competition days back in the 1970s.
Gentlemen, start your engines!
That said, the bike had finished its racing career with RD350 cylinders that developed much more power than the original R5 barrels they replaced. The RD350 barrels that powered this R5 to victory later served on another Lassak-tuned RD350 raced by the late Dick Fuller, me and finally, an up-and-coming rider named Tracy DeMuro, so there’s no telling where those old (yet fast!) jugs are today (perhaps lurking in the deep, dark and seldom visited recesses of John’s archival storage container?).
Regardless of The AFM Bike’s current parts manifest, in her prime, this R5-cum-RD350 enjoyed a celebrated existence on the track. After John and Alan got the bike’s performance dialed in, and during the 1977 AFM and CMC championships, Alan dueled with Fuller (also on a highly modified R5/RD350) for dominance in the 410 class, and the following year, Alan duked it out at AFM races with the late Gennady Liubimsky and his RD350 from Northern California. The pair finished 1-2 in the 410 class 1978 AFM championship standings (Liubimsky taking top honors). The pair accumulated so many championship points that Liubimsky earned rights to display the AFM’s Number 6 on his number plates for 1979, while Alan was awarded AFM Number 7, the two lowest allotted “championship” numbers among all Modified Production class competitors as determined by their overall points total. Liubimsky was also the top points man of all Grand Prix-class AFM racers in 1978, resulting in him also earning the coveted Number 1 plate for the following year!
Six appeal
In its past life, The AFM Bike also scored a celebrated class win at the AFM’s annual Ontario Six Hour where, in 1977, Alan and I, with John serving as tuner and pit crew chief (with help from Alan’s friend Art Wells), won the 410cc class by two laps. In the process, we finished fifth overall in a field of 93 entries (250cc, 410cc, 550cc, 750cc, and Open classes combined). Not bad for a bike that Al purchased used the previous year for $350. For the record, The AFM Bike’s RD350 engine also powered Thad Wolff and me to first in class and sixth overall at the 1978 Ontario Six Hour, with Fuller and Alan a strong second and seventh aboard an RD-powered TD2 they specially assembled for the race (running first in class and third overall at one point until handling issues slowed them down). And just to put a signed, sealed, and delivered stamp on this brief racing sidebar, a few years later, Lassak himself came out of retirement to team with DeMuro for the AFM’s Riverside Six Hour. John built a special RD400 engine that he shoehorned into the same ’78 Six Hour TD2 chassis to win the 410 class (and second overall!). While our RD350 Six Hour bikes could top 140mph, the monstrous 400 that John and DeMuro rode reached speeds of 150mph and more on Riverside’s long straight. All of those bikes were equipped with Bassani expansion chambers, too.
And that was the beauty about Yamaha R5/RD350/RD400 street bikes. They were compact 2-stroke-powered racers sporting sturdy frames similar in structure to what Yamaha engineers originally gifted the RD56, a race-bred quarter-liter bike that made a lasting name for itself in international 250cc Grand Prix competition during the early 1960s.
Name-game dropping
In the beginning of 1970, savvy AFM racers, including Mike Devlin, Fuller, and others, showed up at the local Southern California road races with their R5s ready to win. And for pennies on the dollar, those little 2-stroke engines could be modified to hoist any skillful racer onto the victory podium in Modified or Box Stock Production classes. The list of successful RD racers includes Alan Barbic, Bob Crossman, Bob Tigert, Scott Clough, Dale McCreary, John Glover, Malcolm Hill, Thad Wolff, plus many, many other top-flight racers who etched their names in R5 and RD lore. And, to place an exclamation mark on the previous sentence, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Mike Baldwin and the late Wes Cooley dabbled aboard RD Yamahas before graduating to the Big Leagues.
Before we get back to The AFM Bike, a bit of shameless marketing is in order: In 1983, Lassak slipped another of his modified RD400 engines into his aging twin-shock TD2 chassis for DeMuro to compete in the AMA’s Formula 2 Championship Series. Despite competing against a full field of liquid-cooled and fully seasoned racing TZ250s, DeMuro wasn’t outgunned with his air-cooler bike, to say the least. The 400-powered hybrid displayed plenty of top-speed performance, enough such that the class’s top dog, the late, great Randy Renfrow, couldn’t overtake DeMuro on the straightaway at Kent Speedway in Washington. That prompted the experienced 250 rider to boldly march into Lassak and DeMuro’s pit spot, where he introduced himself, pausing to stare slack-jawed at the Frankenstein bike before asking, “What is that thing, and how did you get it to go so fast?”
By 1995 Renfrow hired Lassak to tune his Honda RS250 for AMA competition, and from that point until Renfrow passed away in 2002 from race-related injuries, he never worried about being passed on the straights again. That’s how influential the RD series of street bikes could be to American racing, in this case, helping one tuner — John Lassak — to define and refine his 2-stroke tuning skills that he later applied at the AMA’s professional level. After Randy’s passing, John figured it was time to conclude his race-tuning career, too. Ironically, and by chance, his final days at the track had paralleled his early days. See, helping Lassak in Renfrow’s pits was Randy’s devoted brother Shawn. I’m proud to say that John began his racing odyssey with the Gingerelli brothers, and he concluded it with the Renfrow brothers!
Back to the bike
Let’s get back to the race-toration; despite parts variations, many R5 and RD (350 and/or 400) components were interchangeable, a factor that allowed one rider (in this case, my brother) to facilitate his 1972 R5 with countless parts that, through thoughtful and skillful tuning and riding, enabled him (like many other racers of that era) to post himself at the front of the pack. Perhaps the most noticeable parts swaps on The AFM Bike are its gas tank and seat. Gone is the original R5 tank with its archaic twist-off cap, replaced by a slightly more refined RD350 gas tank (circa 1973-1975) with a lockable cap. Swapping gas tanks wasn’t by choice, though. See, the original R5 gas tank “got crushed,” as Alan put it, “in my Riverside crash.” That merry incident took place at Riverside’s second-fastest turn, Turn 2, in the track’s fabled Esses, where a top RD rider could take flat out in sixth gear … if he was careful or if another rider didn’t run him off the track.
A Phoenix rises from the ashes
Ironically, it was with that same Lego-like interchangeability that allowed Alan and John to bring their old racer back from the track to the road. The quest began with John rebuilding the engine while Alan treated the frame, suspension, swing arm, side panels, what have you, with cleaning solvent and lots of scrubbing and rubbing. Slowly, the wheels, drum brakes, and mufflers began to reveal themselves as honest-to-goodness motorcycle parts.
At this point, a side note that justifies the R-5 front drum brake is in order: Alan and Fuller both agreed that their R5’s drum brakes reduced unsprung weight over an RD’s disc brake, resulting in easier turn-in for cornering and better fork damping manners. As for the drum’s braking force, John had traced down a source that could precisely arc and turn the brake drums and shoes to create a maximum braking surface area. And through careful adjustment by John, he could eliminate brake-shoe drag, yet enjoy prompt shoe/liner contact the moment Alan squeezed the brake lever. Result: Alan was able to stay alongside the disc-brake RDs when entering corners without sacrificing superior handling into and through corners due to less unsprung weight.
Back to the restoration: All nicks and scratches on the gas tank were filled and smoothed, then readied for paint. Slowly pieces like the battery box, headlight nacelle, you name it, began to look new again, while the wheel rims and spokes were freshened up, too.
John also discovered a durable and easy-to-apply rattle can paint, Dupli Color, that offered a variety of primers and base-coat colors to choose from. Almost in unison, though, both men agreed that the bike deserved to be painted in Yamaha’s international white with red stripes paint scheme, a combo similar to what was on all the factory-backed Yamaha Grand Prix racers (plus the 1979 RD400F Daytona Special). With all parts — including the Dick’s Cycle West racing seat — prepped and cleaned, John applied primer, followed by the white base coat and red trim. He laid down some pinstripes along the color edges, and he sent to Europe for the familiar gold and black tuning fork decal similar to what was found on all Yamaha production and factory racers’ gas tanks from the ’60s and ’70s. All parts were then clear-coated, and The AFM Bike was beginning to look like a team player again!
However, the mufflers proved to be a challenge because they showed some minor dents and dings here and there, plus the original chrome plating was tarnished. Locating a chrome shop in California is like finding a needle in a haystack, so they elected to do what some racers did back in the ’70s; John pointed an aerosol can of heat-resistant semi-gloss black at the scuffed and buffed mufflers that they had previously smoothed out, then fired away. Had this been a race bike, they would have applied a few mounting tricks we used to do that tucked the pipes in closer to the frame for added cornering clearance, but no need; this isn’t a racehorse anymore.
As for the racing seat, it’s a leftover from our sponsorship with Dick’s Cycle West, a popular name during the 1970s for cafe racers seeking solo seats, large-capacity gas tanks, fairings, even rear-set foot controls and more. Interestingly, none of us could recall which bike the seat was mounted on “back in the day.” When rescued from storage, it sported a multi-color paint scheme that I traced back to one of my old RD racers, but the like-new seat pad didn’t match up with the bike in the photo. So …?
It’s alive!
With the painting and parts replacement completed, it was time for John to slip the engine into its rightful place of honor. A minor tune-up followed the carbs were synced, and the bike was ready for its first ride since 1978. A few ceremonial kicks with the starter lever and the engine coughed to life. After the 2-stroke engine’s gentle exhaust burble settled into a lilting idle, it was time for its first ride in 45 years. The tuner always gets the first shot at riding a new bike, so John swung a leg over the saddle, blipped the throttle one more time for good measure, then slowly puttered out of the housing tract, steering his way to the long, straight section of road nearby. After a few warm-up passes, he gave it full wick, and the R5’s tachometer did a complete — and rather quick — sweep to 8,500rpm. It was just like the good old days, that piston-port engine sounding so sweet and angry at the same time.
The bike looks much like those that we put on the racetrack back in the 1970s, and it wouldn’t take much effort to prep it today for a racetrack foray, either. A set of slightly longer rear shocks to lift the mufflers further from the pavement and to minimize some of the wiggle those RDs were known to give through the corners, plus juice up the fork’s damping with heavier fork oil, slap on number plates to their respective placements, and you’re ready to go racing! A set of Dunlop K81R tires might also be in order for additional grip, but tire choice is subjective to the rider’s preference.
Yet, even if The AFM Bike never ventures onto a race track again, it’s ready to fire up for a casual or spirited Sunday morning romp along Cycle magazine’s infamous Racer Road. And for those and many more reasons, Yamaha’s fabled R5/RD-series bikes should go down in history as one of the most spirited, user-friendly, vicious, and successful designs in motorcycling. We can end this narrative with that, but let’s not. Another high-speed pass with The AFM Bike is certainly in order for Alan, John, and the rest of us old war horses anxious for another glance at how much fun we had during those wild and ruckus RD Days. MC
