OT: Zimmerman in Print
 

I don't know if ya'll got the Winter 2008/09 issue of Motorcyclist Retro (and I realize its Summer '09 by now) but I was flipping through it on our way to Seattle and stumbled across this photo in the RD350 article. What happened to the days when this was adequate test riding gear?
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/BZ_RD350.jpg

Nice safety Gear, Coach... can I change now?

LOL! Great find.

That bike makes him look tall.

I grew up wanting a pair of sneakers just like that... couldn't afford them til my late teenage years and by then, they were out of style. :(

jeez, where the hell did that come from?

yep, horrible gear. without naming names, we had an enormous bozo working above us who decreed that we needed to be more "in touch" with the readers, and that included riding gear.
he'd also come in when the issue was ready for the printer, and make photo changes, edit copy, etc.
plus he seriously stepped on his schlong by running an in depth piece on a bike that the manufacturer hadn't even told dealers about yet. didn't go over big with the company or the dealer network.
i don't think that photo was even supposed to be used in print. i'm wearing a "sponsor helmet" from my racing efforts and that was highly frowned upon.
the tennis shoes and crap jacket....no idea, unless someone told me to jump on a bike so they could shoot something.

not sure what i'm supposed to be "demonstrating" either....
i just remember that thing as an absolute wheelie maniac.

and yes, i used to be taller.

Matt... THAT was funny!

Not to be a geek or anything .. oops to late ....

Isn't it an Air cooled RD400?
a pre production 400...

RD350 1973 - 1975
RD400 1976 - 1978

http://zratedbikeclub.com/rides/rdbradz.jpg

http://www.maxus.ca/images/1974%20Ya...400%20Left.jpg

You guys' attention to detail is amazing. Mistakes like this must have been why the mag went out of print so fast... jk

If you like 1965-85 Japanese I recommend finding the back issues and also checking out the next iteration "Moto Retro Illustrated"

Yep..that's a 400, not a 350.
tailight is larger
seat is more bloated
cas instead of spoked wheels.
In my opinion, the 350 was better in every respect....especially wheelies!
I owned several of both and always lapped faster on my 350 than my 400.


Oh, to go back to those days knowing what I know now:)

it was a 400. i think it was red and my foggy memory says those fotos were shot, either by rich cox or dave hetzeler, while they were messing with a new camera.

see there, another example of the inept upper crusters, fluster-clucking things. we're screwing around, they slam it into print.

am i wearing those yamaha tennis shoes that never saw light of day?

oh, and the one in ivan's picture has the wrong mirrors on it. and i think it came with only one, not two.

how come nobody ever digs up the good stuff? the kawasaki fire berm, jumping the 1000 GS, the wadded up russ collins road race bike....where's that stuff?

well Brad at least you were wearing pants.

well....that time...in particular...yes.

cripes sake, you go riding ONE TIME without pants (okay that's not true...one time by MISTAKE....without pants)....

Now i know where windbreaker bob came from.:)

I rode my girlfriend to the hospital to see her mother on Christmas Day thru the snow on an RD400:)

really....

At least the gloves look like they are reasonable?

Hey, you had the 'marine layer' even back then? I thought it was a denial word for smog - maybe it really is just a 'marine layer' after all, is that the west coast? I wondered why the LA people I spoke with looked at me funny when I scoffed at their colourful terminology of what I thought was simply smog - whoops :D

I know a guy that had an RD-350, I had a go on it but I didn't know how to ride it properly. He went from an RD-350 to a Hayabusa, scared the bejeesus out of himself and I think it now sits in his shed gathering dust, probably a good thing in his case.

Chewie, the contour of the Los Angeles coastline along with the 6000' to 8000' high mountains around the inland areas make the LA basin an 'ocean bowl' where the marine layer can permeate for weeks at a time. Here we are half way through June and today is the 2nd day the sun has been 'out' this month!

damn double whoops

are you left coasters quirky?

Now that would be the understatement of the Month :D


It IS called the land of fruit and nuts, and not because of the Agricultural base.