There is a 1973 TZ350 on eBay for sale!! Appears to be the real thing. The auction ends tomorrow (5/21) evening. I have no knowledge of the bike.
Is that the red one? Something about that ad. doesn't seem right to me. Says it's a TZ350 but describes it as a TD3, which was a 250 aircooled bike and from what I can find that is not a TZ frame number.
Wow, your right. It seems like a 350 would at least say TR not TD. I thought I read once that the first water cooled TZs had frames marked TD or TR but not TZ. I could be wrong. The motor shows R5 which could be right for a 350. Maybe it's a 250 with a 350 motor. Hopefully its not an air cooled bike converted to a TZ but that would take frame inspection wouldn't it.
There is some confusion over engine numbers for TZ Yamahas but it appears that a R5 prefix is more than likely from a TR3. I wouldn't touch that bike with a bargepole.
Mike Olmstead had a td1 and I thought I remembered him saying the clutches were on the crank which made them very fragile.
There wasn't really much difference between a TD3 and a very early TZ250 apart from the engine (even then I think the bottom end was the same) so it would look very much like that.
TA250 did not have radiator mounts on the frame. They were the last of the aircooled roadracers. The crankcase, crank, transmission, dry clutch and primary were the same as the first TZ250...the TZ250A, a 1974 model. The TA250 was a 1973, and there was no 350 that year. TA250 was very close to being exactly like a TD3, the 1973 250. TR3 was the 350 aircooled. The TD3, TR3 and TA250 all had four-leading shoe drum front brakes, which were almost universally replaced with disc brakes back in the day. Those brakes are in extremely high demand today.
I remember Frank camilliere taking about them taking those brakes off and throwing them in the dumpster at Boston Yamaha.. so great.
The first TZ350 was available in 1973 and had a drum front brake, as did the first TZ250. I had one, sold it for around $70...
In the USA, Yamahas used an alphabetic code for all models. The last year without the code was 1973. Hence, a 1973 RD350 was designated RD350. A 1974 model was an RD350A, a 1975 was an RD350B, etc. The roadracers used these same codes. The last roadracer that did not was the TA250, introduced in late 1972/early 1973 in America. The first TZ250 came to the US in late 1973, and although few if any of them were titled, the model code was TZ250A, and the MSO designated them a 1974 model. The TZ350A was also a 1974 model. They both came with the 4LS drum front brake. I worked at a Yamaha dealership, and raced a TA250 at the time. I, like almost all of the riders at the time, replaced the 4LS drum brake. I used a Lockheed caliper and a Hunt plasma-sprayed front rotor. The TD3, TA250, and TZ250A had very similar port configurations, and all of them shared an extremely narrow powerband. My TA250 would stall if you attempted to make it pull below about 9,000 rpm, and the pipes effectively shut it off just below 11,000. This was a bike that really needed its 6-speed close-ratio transmission and dry clutch! The TD3, TA250 and TZ250A all came from Yamaha with open stinger pipes on their expansion chambers, and there were many different modifications made by racers to incorporate some kind of mufflers. Some of these solutions actually worked, but many of them hurt the power. I can vividly remember the 1974 Daytona 200, where there were a fleet of the brand-new TZ750A models, which came with slab-sided expansion chambers and open stingers. The sound they made at the start of the 200 was blood-curdling! At any rate I miss my TA250, and the subsequent TZ250s that replaced it. Sorry about the long post.
Not to thread-jack, but I have a TZ250C frame that, I believe, will also work for TZ350 engines, if anyone is interested. Serial number 430-993124. Had it on a shelf for years and have been trying to find a TZ250/350 C/D/E swingarm to go with it. I've recently been focusing on other projects so maybe I can get this to a good home where it'll do more than collect dust. Drop me a message if interested.
If anyone has a C/D/E swingarm they'd be willing to part with, I'll keep the frame to build it up to get it back to the track.
Theo Louwes motors theolouwesmotors.com has part# 1H3-22110-00 swingarm for TZ250c/d/e . According to the website, the price is 371 Euros and they have them in stock. I would think that the rear shock might be a little difficult to locate, but a relatively easy mod. The c/d/e models did not use any linkage, so the fabrication might be really straightforward. Worth looking at, anyway.
