1969 Yamaha R3 Play Racer - 5-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article For Sale

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1969 Yamaha R3 Play Racer - 5-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article
Original, vintage magazine articlePage Size: Approx. 8\" x 11\" (21 cm x 28 cm) each pageCondition: Good
The motorcycle scene is an ever-changing one, and if the truth be known,the American motorcyclist is probablyone of the most fickle individuals around.Whatever is brand new and completelydifferent is what he wants, or what hethinks he wants anyway.A couple of years ago, Yamaha had theaudacity to enter four 350 cc two-stroketwins against the field of 7 50 and 500 ccadversaries. Everybody (except Yamaha)sat back and smiled. Most of them, andthis included a number of so-called ex-perts, felt this would be an interestingexercise but nothing that would reallyconcern them, and at the end of the 200-mile event, three of the 350s were stillrunning, and running strong. As a matterof fact, Mike Duff qualified at over 147miles an hour and shook up a lot ofindividuals, more than a little.Those of you who havd\" never been toDaytona have no idea of the devastatingeffect this racetrack has on all machinery,regardless of the size or displacement.The bankings are as rough as a plowedcornfield (or so they feel anyway) and ofcourse the faster you go, the worse itfeels. Two hundred miles of riding flat outon this type of pavement has destructivequalities that would be difficult to simu-late anywhere else. So what happens?Immediately after Daytona, Yamaha 350gets a big play in the press and at thedealers. Then slowly they started to fadeout. The 350 popularity waned. In fair-ness to all concerned, we must state thatthe earlier model 350s were a long cryfrom the machine you can buy today.The earlier model, YR-1 vibrated morethan a bit and did some strange thingswhen trying to corner hard. Yamaha\'sforte had always been the 250 andunder displacement motorcycles.The earlier model 350 Yamahas didhave their problems, and about that time,several other manufacturers releasedmodels of equal displacement, and mo-torcyclists, fickle as they are, strayedaway from the Yamaha 350 camp to trysomething a little newer and perhaps alittle different. The new Yamaha YR-3 isabout as far removed from its earlypredecessor as one can get. It has amuch wider power range, handles muchbetter, and vibrates far less, but this isonly just part of the story.The styling is vastly improved also.The earlier machines, although they wereattractive, were not exactly what youwould call breathtaking. Appearance is amatter of personal taste, and frankly, welike the 350 Yamaha far better than wehave some of the other offerings by anumber of other manufacturers. Thelines are crisp, clean, with very little...