I'm shopping for my first bike, and I found a 1971 R5 for sale locally. It looks in very good shape, with one small gas tank dent, and possibly a new battery required. All original otherwise, orange/white paint job. Seller wants $2500. A few questions.

1. Any ideas on the market values for these R5's? I'm new to Yamaha vintage (looking mostly at Honda's previously).

2. Where can I find more info on these R5's? There seems to be hardly anything in these vintage forums. I can't find much else googling either. Is there decent parts availability?

Thanks for any opinions!

Jason

As a first classic an R5 may be a stretch. If it is mint, and i mean mint running like a new pin maybe but parts and info will be hard to find.

A certain amount of bike experience would help a lot.

For the money your talking about you really do have a massive choice. Any classic from the 70's will apreciate but for a first bike.

Maybe a Dt400 or one of the RD's the 350 is a nice blend of useable bike with spares and knowledge back up. For 2500 beer chits you would get a real nice one.

I will second what Cynic says there , http://www.aircooledrdclub.org.uk/forum/default.asp is a good place for info on the aircooled twins of all ages and sizes

are good for parts in the usa as are in Canada and Nick at will be useful to know as well

For those who do not know what they look like:

If you wanna detailed resto account try this http://www.bikersassociationofnorthdevon.co.uk/projects/YR5project.htm

Hey Sniff , very nice R5/RD .

Another awesome parts suppplier for Yamahas is Yambit's in the UK , Dave Newboult that runs it does an awesome job and great prices !

http://yambits.co.uk/parts_by_bike.php