25/01/2026
The year is 2027. There's a New World Order, government plans to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 are torn up and trillions of barrels of oil reserves are discovered on all continents... and big 2-strokes are on the menu again.
Yamaha quickly announce a return of some of their most popular models starting with the RD350LC powered by a modern fuel-injected version of the YPVS engine. It makes a reliable 70bhp.
Your left hand twitches at the thought of hovering over the clutch again. You close your eyes and take a deep breath: you can smell the 2-stroke oil in the air, you can hear the crackle of twin expansion chambers, you can imagine your garage filling up with smoke, you can feel the powerband surge from 6,000rpm all the way to 9,500rpm. It's not a massive window but that’s the point – the rush gets you breathing heavy and in the first two gears the front wheel goes very, very light as the mirrors blur.
Snapping out of the trance, you open your eyes, reach for the iPhone 20 and tap the 'buy' button on a nardo grey LC - as all the Mars bar bikes have already gone.
You visit your favourite accessories website - MPS, M&P, Sportsbike Shop and Demon Tweeks have all merged - and order a Micron fork brace, Boyesen reeds and a ten pack of exhaust gaskets in preparation of the new arrival. White Simpson Bandit helmets are all on back order so you make do with a black one.
You've taken up smoking, but this smoking addiction isn't the kind that makes you cough, it makes you grin and whoop and shout COME ON in your helmet.
You salivate at what will come next. You've always fancied a reverse cylinder TZR but their rarity and, like most of that breed, spares availability, have always put you off. Not any more now, things will be different.
But you're getting ahead of yourself, let's enjoy the RD350LC first, then we'll think about the TZRs, TDRs, RGVs and KR1s later. 😊
