Throughout the mid-70s, the Yamaha RD400 was the final 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 fans alike, revered for its capability to be each a street-legal machine and a formidable competitor on the monitor.
Due to seasoned racer and moto fanatic, Armen Manougian, considered one of these iconic bikes has been introduced into the twenty first Century. Armen has an extended 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 finally established his personal workshop, Allstar Auto Heart. Whereas the store primarily caters to vehicles, he’s all the time reserved area for engaged on highway 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 highway 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 typically 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 many years. Confronted with transferring to a smaller place, John requested his good pal Russ Norman what he ought to do with the bike. Russ, who was already knee-deep in his personal customized initiatives, advised they provide it to Armen, realizing he would do one thing unimaginable with it. Because it turned out, Armen had lengthy wished to construct a traditional cafe racer however had by no means settled on the appropriate mission—till this one fell in his lap.
After buying the bike, Armen stalled the construct whereas different facets of life took precedence. However finally, 5 years later, prompted by Russ’s relentless encouragement, he dragged the bike out, dusted it off, and set to work.
“The bike’s historical past made it an awesome story, attributable to 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 fashionable tech, race monitor pedigree, and traditional fashion into a motorbike that may catch the essence of the traditional RD400 look however with fashionable technologically superior enhancements discovered on present racing machines.”
“Upon analyzing the bike intently I observed the heads had been totally 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 is no such thing as 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 elements already in place Armen continued the theme with the suspension. Quite than becoming an entire late-model entrance finish that may probably throw out proportions, he opted to retain the unique RD400 forks. Nevertheless, internally, issues are removed from inventory. Armen machined the dampening rods so they may 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 underneath 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 stage 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 fully torn aside. Very first thing was to intestine your complete engine and ship a lot of the internals off to Scott Clough of Scott Clough racing,” Armen recollects. “Scott is a legendary former Southern California. highway racer and RD engine specialist. He ported the cylinders and reed cage to deal with V drive 4 carbon Reeds. He honed the cylinders and obtained a brand new set of pistons and constructed the crank utilizing ceramic bearings.”
To enhance Scott’s work, each inner half was polished and cryogenically handled for sturdiness and efficiency, with your 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 because of a beneficiant donation from Russ’ pal 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 unimaginable to cowl all of them, however you’ll be able to relaxation assured nothing was accomplished with no clear outlined goal.
This mission was not simply in regards to the bike; it was a tribute. All through the construct course of, Russ, Armen’s pal and mentor for almost 30 years, was there – pushing him to get it accomplished, 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, gained 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 very best RD400 he had ever seen. An enduring reminiscence of Armen’s good pal is perpetually immortalized by this unimaginable bike.
