TZ350 and 250 Website

Pierre Mazaloubeaux is French and was born in 1957. He's married with three kids (2 boys and a princess) He's currently Human Resource Development Manager for the biggest wine-maker of champagne (M&C)
Pierre's latest purchase is a Honda RC30 which joins a TZ250 C (which became a 350) a TZ750 C in PEM frame (ex Estrosi), a CB 450 DOHC, a 500 SR (with a 94mm x 94mm engine), and two RD400's.
He began racing in 1999 in the Pro-Classic Challenge with what he describes as: "no spectacular result except an exit in the ambulance at Magny Cours!"

.Roger Gowenlock. was born in the UK in the middle of the 2nd World War and lives in Salisbury Wilts. He was in his twenties in the 60s during the halcyon days of the works bikes and has been a Yamaha nut ever since. Fantastic as the disc valved twins and water-cooled fours were, he says it was the first real GP production racers, the TD2 and TR2, that blew his mind away. With piston ported engines from the road bike, with racing porting, installed in Yamaha's GP frame, the privateer was able to buy a bike, over the counter, for much the same price as an ordinary family saloon car and win GPs and World Championships. Within two years they were breaking the lap records set by the fabulous V4s. It is the early, twin shocked, drum braked bikes that are his favourites. In the garage he has a 1967 YDS5.

He says: "Now come on guys, respect, I know it is not a racer but without this bike our racing bikes would never have seen the light of day! Also you need chaps like me to come and gulp at your historic machines. Due to my domestic situation I cannot participate fully in your activities but I do manage to get out about 6 times a year. I love writing about these bikes and what they achieved and my ambition is to keep writing and reveal Yamaha's glorious racing heritage and show that these much maligned production racers are truly historic machines. I would love to own a TD2 but as it would spend most of its time in the garage it would be a rather selfish piece of indulgence."

We have made a special exception for Roger to be a Member. He doesn't actually own a TZ, TR, TD or TA, but is an enthusiast of the highest degree ! Members of the TZ Owners Club in the UK will definately be familiar with Roger's historical articles in some club newsletters.

Ludy Beumer lives in The Netherlands and is a collector / enthusiast of old Yamahas and has amongst his remarkable collection a TA125, TZ350C (McFadzean-framed), TZ250J, TZ350G, TZ250-V 1992 and 1994, a TD1B currently under restoration as well as a TZ750 and 500 on loan from Swiss Yamaha to parade.

Ludy was born on Aug 7, 1942 vintage and works for Yamaha Motor Europe and anticipates retirement at the end of July 2005. He regularly parades his bikes in and around The Netherlands, occasionally as part of Ferry Brouwer's display team.

Bob Keller is 42 yrs. old, lives and was born in Brazil, of an American father & Brazilian mother. He describes himself as an avid off-road competitor in motorcycle enduros & rallies (he rides a KTM 520). Bob has a degree in Business, and represents U.S. made Jacobs chucks Brazil (a business started by his grandfather, who immigrated from America to Brazil). He's raced cars in the past, but bikes are his main passion. Bob owns a Nikko Bakker framed TZ350 which is currently under restoration, a KTM 520, and some other Yamahas including an FZR 1000, a TZR 250, a TZR 50(!!), and a '98 Honda RS-125, for practicing on the track.

Tag Cumings says: " I've been racing two-stroke Yamahas on and off since college, starting with a 1979 RD400F Daytona Special, then moving to an RD350. I currently own two TZs, a 1995, and a 1990. I'd love to find a project piston-port TZ to restore to complete my small collection! I currently ride with the
Washington Motorcycle Roadracing Association (WMRRA) in the Northwest USA and live in Seattle, WA, USA with my wife and Beagle."

Terry Hill is 43 and works as a Communications Engineer in Queensland, Australia. He is married with 4 kids and enjoys dirt riding with his 21 year old son along with his RD and TZ pursuits.

At present he owns a TZ/RD250 engined "bitza", Modified(Chassis) TZ350A, TZ350D, XT500G, TT500C, Husky framed XT500, Honda 125 Bucket. His two youngest kids (still at home) have an XR75 and a PeeWee 50. In the past he has owned a lot of dirt, road and classic bikes such as Norton, BSA, CCM, AJS, Matchless, Rickman, Suzuki, Yamaha, Ducati and Hondas but he says
nothing has the same effect as an early Yamaha TZ.

Terry says TZ's have for many years been of interest to him but a thing only to be seen at Lakeside Raceway Brisbane, not in a country town where he grew up. Not surprisingly his TZ's are slowly edging the dirt bikes from the shed. He's not racing yet (getting some ride days in first) but is working towards that goal.

Don Henry describes himself as a 50 something (closer to 60) electronics engineer who lives in western Pennsylvania, USA. Don has always had an interest in fast cars and, of course motorcycles. "In 1988 I began racing and building bikes (my first race bike was a TZ125G). I currently own a TZ350E (1978) and TZ250J (1982) and a whole bunch of other projects. I've raced the "E" as a 250, a 350 and a 375 (my favorite!). The long winters (lots of snow and very cold) in Pennsylvania is ideal for bike building. The building I enjoy almost as much as the racing, it just takes a lot longer!"

John Storrie works for a telecommunications company in the UK and raced a sidecar as a passenger for 7 years and then as a driver for the last 5 years.

Ian Dagg is employed by a mobile phone operator and raced a series of solos, from MZ250 to super moto singles in the past, before deciding to passenger with John for the last five years on their TZ350 powered sidecar outfit.

Picture: John is on the right with his passenger Ian Dagg on the left. The shot was taken
at Ty-Croes, Anglesey in North Wales.

The team finished third in the UK F350 championship in 2003 and this year are currently running
fourth.

Dave Gilbert is a 47 year old former Office Equipment Engineer who now drives freight lorries "for an easier life" he says! Dave has been racing for over 20 years and currently owns a TZ350A, TZ250L, Spondon Rotax and a 1966 vintage Montessa 250 single. He finished 2nd in the 2004 FRC 250 Classic Grand Prix Championship.

Allan Kohl is aged 59 and lives in Montreal, Canada. He has an almost completely restored 1973 TA125 which was found barn fresh after 25 years of storage. Just the fairing hasn't been painted as yet.
Allan has 20 other bikes, including 3 ducati singles, and an MV Augusta America (1976). He took part in a track day at Mt. Tremblant, the refurbished formula 1 track from the 60's just North of Montreal on a Ducati Monster. That's as close to racing as he's been to date.

Mike Sherman lives in the USA and was born in 1961. He is a guitar maker (luthier) and owns "Sherman Guitars" and also works as a professional musician (Mike has toured with Buddy Guy, and Johnny Winter). He ran the Custom Shops for Hamer, Washburn, and Ovation Guitars and has in fact made guitars for Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Cheap Trick, Living Color, Eric Clapton, No Doubt, The Cars, Aerosmith, Pantera, The Allman Brothers, Shania Twain, and Heart.

Mike says: " I began racing in 1977 on my TZ 350 D. I love restoring bikes as much as racing them.
I currently own: two `79 TZ 750`s, TZ 250 G, TZ 350 F, TZ 350 D, TZ 250 J, TZ 125 G, TA 125, two `79 RG500 MK 5, `97 Honda RS 250, and two Honda NSR 250`s."

Richard Tracy is a TD1 enthusiast best known for his contribution to Mick Walker's book: "Japanese Production racing Motorcycles". Richard actually wrote the entire section on the TD1 range and did an excellent job of it as well! It's well worth the read.

He has in the last 12 months completed restoration of what is now probably the finest example of a 1962 TD1 in the world. (Certainly the best looking TD1 ever sent via photograph to this website!)

Richard's current project is a Yamaha 1959 YDS1-R. Other bikes in his collection include: Yamaha TD1 + TD1C World Record Sprint Racer, MZ RE 250 ex-Factory GP bike & 1977 MV Agusta 900S (Road Bike).

Other classic Yamaha's previously owned/restored etc - YDS1, YDS2, YDS3, YD2, YD3, TD1, TD1A, TD1B FAHRON, TZ350A, TA125, RD200A, RD250D, RD350LC, RD350 YPVS.

b) Seeing ex-works TD1 Rider Junichiro Uno dropping his crash helmet, throwing his ex works Tohatsu 50cc to his mechanic and running over to see the TD1 in the pits.....!! Yes it actually happened like that !

Race History - 2nd in 400cc class at Ramsey Sprint - Isle of Man 1998 - Yamaha FZR400RR

Richard's track riding is currently limited to Classic Parading..... watch this space though, he has just booked a lesson with Ron Haslam ! He says his riding ambition is to race at the Isle of Man.

Derek Skinner is 57 years old and from Splisby Lincs in England.He first raced in 1972 at Cadwell on a 250 Ducati Mach 1 then progressed in 1973 to a TD1-C Yamaha-winning his first race at the end of that year.
In 1974 Derek moved on to a TD3 having a successful season winning 2 club championships and many top 3 finishes.

In July 1975 he progressed to a TZ250 A which he raced quite successfully until retiring at the end of 1976.
He got back into racing in 1984 riding an LC 250 that was also used on the road.
In 1985 Derek's spanner man Mark Jarvis bought a 250C/E which Derek rode for him with reasonable success winning his class on several occasions. He rode this bike until 1987 when Dave Seidel acquired a ex Tom Herron TZE rolling chassis. They stuck the 250's bottom end in it and converted it to a 350G.
Dave sponsored Derek on this bike for that season and at the end of the season Derek bought it from him and rode it until 1990 when he finished second in the Forgotten Era 350 factory championship despite missing a few rounds
(for financial reasons!)
In 1989 Derek also rode a TZ125 H kindly loaned to him by Mick Cram, an ex racer from Skegness.
On this bike he had a very successful season usually beating everything except the then new RS125 GP Hondas.
Derek finally retired at the end of the 1990 season due to being "skint" (broke).
He says: "I`m now thinking of having another go-- at 57. I know you think I must be mad.So if anyone knows of anyone who would be kind enough to let me have a go on a bike again (classic or vintage prefarably)--please get in touch. at mail@skinner5la.freeserve.co.uk ".

Tony Tongue is a 48 year old former TZ owner who began roadracing back in 1979 on a converted Suzuki SP370 trailbike, winning a championship and coming third in another the next year after stroking the bike to 450cc.

Next on the agenda was an RD350LC racer which was quickly swapped for a TZ250 E, then 3 meetings later that was traded on a TZ250 F. After experiencing headstock cracks, a pattering front end as well as a spate of seizures he at least solved the latter, realising that the float heights had been set too low!

Today Tony works as a carpenter, does a bit of skydiving, and goes scratching on his GSXR1000 whenever he can.

"Dear Sir, please consider this my application for inclusion on your website. I have been directed here by the honorable Don Henry, in exchange for his invaluable assistance in renovating my TZ250K. I acquired the rolling chassis "26J-000162" in 2003, and have begun in earnest to assemble an engine for it in hopes of returning it to the track.
I am (gulp) 37 years old, divorced, and I have a 2-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter; I live in Washington, USA. I also have most of two RZ350s (RD350LC to you), an '82 Canadian model RD350LC, a '75 RD350, an '83 PW50 for the little 'uns, a '99 KTM 200EXC and a '79 XR500 flat tracker.
I am in the process of assembling the parts to build an engine for my K model, and, as I mentioned earlier, Don has been very helpful and directed my to your site. I aim to learn all I can about this fascinating machine, and hopefully avail myself of your members' assistance in acquiring pieces and information for my project."

Klaas Tjassens' history in motorcycle-racing was NOT on a racing bike. As a native from Assen, Holland, however, motorcycle racing was in his blood as long as he can remember. As a visitor of the Dutch TT since 1955 and other European GP’s in the sixties and seventies, two-stroke Yamaha’s played an important role in his motorcycle-life.

From the early nineties Klaas made more than 100 oil-paintings of the GP-stars and bikes that visited his birth-town once a year and one of them of course was a certain Jarno Saarinen. After meeting the family and former wife Soili of Jarno in the late ‘90’s, his admiration for the Fin only grew and since 1998 he first wrote Jarno’s book, “Jarno Saarinen, the Flying Finn” ( Click here to read a review of this fantastic book .... http://www.tz350.net/book_reviews3.htm#jarno ), then built a replica of Jarno’s first real racing-bike, a 250cc. Tunturi-Puch, and last but not least built a replica of Jarno’s 1972 title-winning Yamaha, based on a TZ250A.

Charles Beijen was born in 1955, manages a building contracting company, and lives about 80km from Assen.

Long before he was old enough to ride a motorbike legally on the road he rode on similar 50cc Dutch bikes called “Brommers”. The legal max. speed was 40km/h. Like the similar Dutch 50cc world champions the max.speed of 40km/h wasn’t enough for Charles so a Zunndap (KS50) tuned up to 90km/h or a YAMAHA (FS1) 105km/h was much better!

The first real motorbike was a 50cc DKW (RT98, an ex-police bike). A few little changes later and it looked like a “Brommer”. This was necessary because if you are under the age of 18 you can’t get a license to ride a motorbike in Holland and you had to watch out for the police.Next was a BMW 250cc (R27): a real bike for a boy of 18 after the prior 50cc efforts!

Later bikes included : BMW R75/5, BMW R100S, BMW R100RT, BMW K100RT, and lastly a BMW R1100RT which Charles still owns.

Late in the seventies he obtained his racing licence, enabling him to compete in the “Sportklasse Nationelen” with the BMW R75/5. Charles actually built a Kawasaki H1A (1969) racer for the 500cc class but never got around to racing it. In 1978 a HONDA 500 four came along. It was tuned up to about 70-75bph with Yoshimura parts. 4 years later he gave racing away, but not riding on the public roads with the R75/5.

In 2002 the “motorvirus” (motorbike fever!) infected Charles again and he started looking for an old vintage racebike to restore, stumbling across a “Yamaco” (Yamaha engine in Butaco frame). Charles has actually set up his own website featuring his well known Yamaco which can be found at: www.yamaco.tk.

Hans Ruf is a 58 year old aircraft engineer, lives in the north of Switzerland and owns a company that produces surface technology (textile fibres) for the aviation industry. He has worked in the past developing mid-sized planes and as a sales manager for aircraft and also managing director of an aircraft maintenance company at Zurich airport.

Hans used to race cars in the Porsche Cup, Formula 3 and German competitions for about 25 years but gave up serious competition in the cars in 1995 apart from a few fun races here and there.

He bought his first TZ ( a 350 G) in 2005 and has restored it ready to begin hill-climb racing in August 2007. (See http://www.bergsprint.ch/ ). Hans also owns a 1968 50cc Minarelli 50R and a 1969 Honda RSR125.

Ross writes: "Hi again mate, well, I started racing scooters on a Lambretta in 1973, bought an Aermacchi 250 which I ran for half a season before part 'exing' it for a TR2b and that's where the love affair started, this was followed by a TR3, which I converted to TZ spec in 1975 and raced together with a mates TZ250a. For 1976 I 'stuck my arse out the window' and bought a new TZ350c and straight away got some tremendous results until a big 'off' at Croft in July 76 after which I lost confidence and rode like a tosser the next time out and that with the finance payments on the bike persuaded me to pack in.

For the next 20 odd years I knew there was 'unfinished business' and it was only a matter of time, the big problem was my weight and I kept saying "next year" till 1999. Got a Honda single and had a go, got the 94TZ before the end of that season and never looked back.

Last week at Oulton Park I got my first ever pole position after a 20 min qualifying session in very wet conditions against a few very quick Oulton specialists, and 18 250GP bikes I came out on top, over 2 seconds faster than the next 250!!! Bloody incredible for a 6'1" 21 stone 51 year old.

I'll enclose a photo of me, my bike and Mark Heckles (he's on the left) who rode it last year while I was recovering from my first outing on the new '06 TZ when I broke 7 ribs, collar bone & fractured my sternum, I've made top 10 at every meeting bar 1 this year thus far so needless to say I'm having the time of my life in 2007."

David Fevrier

David writes: "Hello, my name is David Fevrier. I am a 40Y old Frenchman and I work in Frankfurt in the banking industry. I'm a 2 stroke fanatic, and started racing 350 RDLC in my 20's, I have a
large collection of RDLCs. I've had a TZ for many years but always felt I wasn't talented enough to ride them. This changed this year, I rode my 1981 TZ250 H and it was a revelation !

I also own a 1976 TZ C which I am in the process of restoring. I am a member of the LC club de France, and TZ club de France, which I thank for their support !"

Glynn Bond

My Name is Glynn Bond I am currently conventing an RD125 (1973) in to a TA 125. I live in Townsville Australia. My other bikes include a T125 converted to Cafe racer and a GPZ500. At this stage I have not raced but I hope to once I complete the TA.

Nick Travers lives in Christchurch England.

Nick says: "I've always loved Yam 2 strokes and ,after various YDS7/R5 /RD400 road bikes I'm now rebuilding a TZ350B. The frame seems to be a one off, utilising a C type shock, and the motor currently has a 250 top end but its progressing!
I raced Ducati TT2's at club level over here in the '90s. Looking forward to putting those old rivals, the TT2 and TZ 350 ,up against each
other!"