YAMAHA RD350 VS YAMAHA YZF-R3: ONE BRAND, TWO TWINS, FIVE DECADES

Someday soon, I will also do a standalone article on everything about the Indian RD350, because there are innumerable myths that need to be busted.

- SYED SHIRAZ SHAH

If you Google RD vs R3, the top search result would be my story from 2016. I had been wanting to do that story ever since I rode the R3 at its India launch ride event at the Buddh International Circuit in 2015. I think that even hereafter, every time I get the R3 press motorcycle, I will do some kind of story with the legendary RD350 in it. And why not? All sporty motorcycles launched in India after the RD350 were invariably compared to it, and it's only natural that a parallel-twin motorcycle from Yamaha is put alongside the global legend in some way or the other.

Also, along the way, I will be breaking a few myths about the Indian RD350, just like I did in the previous story eight years ago. In fact, I must add here that while, globally, a lot has been written about the RD350 in the last 51 years, the Indian stories in the last 41 years, have just been limited to rhetorics, omission of the front disc brake, and reduction of 8.5 horsepower on the Indian RD when compared to the 1970s' RD. That's it. No Indian story until 2016, and now, gave you anything more than that.

Someday soon, I will also do a standalone article on everything about the Indian RD350, because there are innumerable myths that need to be busted. But, today, read this story as an appetizer before the main course as the latter would be too informative for most, and way too indigestible for some...

DESIGN

What comes to your mind when you see or hear the word “motorcycle”? If you’re someone like me, whose childhood wasn’t plagued by Instagram, Snapchat, etc., chances are that your mind conjures an image that begins with a round headlamp and ends with two chromed exhausts... Chances are, ladies and gentlemen, that it’s an image of the Yamaha RD350.