YamahaRS100Dave

Ah, Well spotted Neo. A mate of mine (Dave), after 20 years without a bike was looking for a cheap way to get back on two wheels. I had a rusty old 1978 RS100 that had sat at the back of my garage since 1992 when I'd bought it to help an ex-girlfriend learn to ride, so I ended up selling it to him as a project for a few quid. I've been riding 4 stroke 4 cylinder bikes for donkeys years, there was no way I would ever go back to 2 stroke screamers. Unsurprisingly the RS100 needed a bit of work doing to it after 30 years of sitting around the garage, and as Dave isn't too hot on using the interweb I joined Yamahaclub.com on his behalf in case he needed any help and advice during his restoration. Eventually we got the RS100 back on the road and Dave started coming out on weekend runs with us. I had a couple of goes on it myself while we were out and about. I'd fotrgotten how much fun a small buzzy smokey 2 stroke could be... Within a few months I was scouring ebay for a small 2 stroke for myself, and I ended up buying a good condition RS200 the same colour as the one I'd owned back in the eighties. It didn't seem worth the hassle of changing the membership details, which is why I'm now Yamaha RS200 Stuart with a handle of Yamaha RS100 Dave If I had just restored the RS100 myself in the first place, instead of selling it to Dave, I'd have saved myself a bundle of cash

Thanks for this Neo. Funnily enough I have read another article from Steve Cooper on the RS200, dated the 2nd of July 2022, but this one is slightly different from his last one. I'm not complaining, the more information I can get my hands on the better! All the best, Stuart

Thanks very much Neo, it's nice to know something worthwhile has come out of my frustration and despair

Hi Neo, thanks very much for your research, it's much appreciated. I scraped the soot from the neck of one of the exhausts but it hardly made any difference to the diameter measurements, and I couldn't really feel much of a step inside the neck either so I'm not sure that a ring type gasket fits inside. I've used exhaust paste in the past to seal exhaust joints, but as you say it can be a real pain to seperate them again. A friend has suggested smearing Blue Hylomar on the downpipes before pushing the downpipes into the silencers. it doesn't harden and it copes with high temperatures. If it doesn't do the job at least it won't be a problem seperating the pipes again to clean it off. I hadn't thought about looking for a microfiche for the RS200 as I don't have access to a reader, but after you mentioned being able to read them using a loupe and a strong light I thought I'd have a look. I've now found and bought a microfiche for the RS200 from Germany. it's for a 1980 model, but has the 3L2 suffix so hopefully there won't have been too many model changes during the production run, besides it was only 11 quid so it hasn't broken the bank. As you've mentioned, once I have a part number I can start doing comparisons with other models. Thanks a million for all your help. You've pointed me in other directions that I hadn't thought about, hopefully one of them will lead me to a successful conclusion! All the best, Stuart

Hi Neo, I measured the outer downpipe diameter and inner silencer diameter and they were both 35.5 millimetres. It's almost an interference fit pushing the downpipe into the silencer, but as there were no gaskets in the the silencers I guess the build up of soot and carbon in the silencer necks has narrowed the bores slightly? I need to scrape out the inside of the silencers tomorrow and measure them again, I'll let you know the measurements after cleaning. Thanks again, Stuart

Hi Neo, I checked the outer diameter of the downpipes and the inner diameter of the silencers and there's only a millimetre or so difference between them so I don't think that it can be a teflon ring type gasket now. While I was measuring the silencers I noticed that the suffix code for the offside exhaust is 3L2, which is Yamaha RS200, but the suffix code on the nearside exhaust is 1E8, which apparently is for the RD200! I'm going to look for more info now on how the RD200 silencer gaskets fit to the downpipes. Cheers, Stuart

Hi Neo, thanks for replying so promptly. The gaskets were missing from the silencers so I have no idea what they look like, and I didn't think to ask Fowlers for the parat number at the time, I think I'll give them a buzz on Monday and ask if they'd be kind enough to give me the part number. It's a good idea to measure the inner and outer diameters of the downpipe and silencer and look for a similar size gasket from another bike. I guess the RS100 and YB100 models would be a good starting point. Straight after tea I'll be down the garage to dig out my vernier gauge... Thanks again, all the best Stuart

Hi All, I've recently suffered a mid life crisis and bought a 1985 RS200 similar to the one I owned back when I was younger/happier. The bike is in very good condition overall, apart from the exhausts blowing slightly between the downpipes and and the silencers. I took off the silencers and found there were no gaskets between the downpipes and the silencers, which explains them blowing. I've spent hours online trying to find the gaskets but no luck so far. I phoned Fowlers Parts who were kind enough to dig out the microfiche for my model, but apparently the original gaskets have been discontinued. If anybody has any idea what I could use as replacement gaskets for the discontinued ones I'd be really grateful. Thanks, Stuart