By Jeff Pamer
As I sit here, my left hand a bit sore from a clutch pull that makes me curse any red light I hit 30 minutes into any ride, and a to fix list longer than my pocketbook feels like is reasonable, I wonder why I insist on keeping my 1986 Yamaha Radian. I would not describe it as the most sought-after bike out there, in fact, my 2020 Triumph gets more attention at gas stations than the little Yamaha does. Even as I type this though, I know why I keep it; I absolutely love it. I love how I fall in and out of love with it in the time it takes to take a breath. I love how unapologetically 80’s it is. I love that I refuse to modify or change a thing on it no matter how many times people have said to café it. I love that square headlight. Most of all, I love that I know one day, the rest of the world will catch up to me and love the hell out of Yamaha’s parts bin, critically acclaimed, do anything 600cc gem too.
Why did I buy it?
I have documented already that I was eager to buy a bike a couple of years after I sold my Triumph. I had around $2,000 budget to buy something in the late February of 2018 and was glued to Craigslist in all my spare time. I was looking at SV 650’s, and CB 750’s in all ranges of conditions and years. Nothing was sacred, all I cared about was that I found a running bike that could get me back on two wheels where I belonged. While on break at work one day, I scrolled past my future bike. It was clean and had been gone through to the tune of $2000 worth of work at Eastside Performance, one of the best bike shops in the valley.
The next day off I had, I loaded my pocket with cash, my friend Michael’s back seat with my helmet, and we drove to North Phoenix to take a look at the bike. The guy selling it was doing it for his uncle. It had been sitting covered in a garage for years and had less than 7000 miles on it. He knew after the invoice from Eastside that he wasn’t going to be making money off the deal, he just wanted it to get a good home and get ridden. The fact was that even at the cost of all the repairs, I was going to be overpaying for the bike, but I didn’t care. I wanted it. I bought it right then and there.
What’s a Radian?
Well, it’s the angle that is made out of the length of the radius on a circle. Wild. For our purposes, it’s a Motorcycle released in the 1986 model year by Yamaha. It’s also known as the YX600.
The mid to late ’80s were a tough time for motorcycle manufacturers. Coming off a recent boom time, they were having to adjust their business models quickly. Yamaha’s answer to this when they needed a new mid-size street bike to replace the 550 Maxim was to simply use what they had sitting around already. The Radian’s only parts that were made specifically for it were the shocks and the forks. Everything else was lying around the Yamaha shop. The frame was leftover from the outgoing Maxim, because lucky for Yamaha, the 600cc mill they were planning to use had the same case size as the 550cc. Speaking of that 600cc engine, it was coming from the FJ600 sportbike but slightly fiddled with to make it a little more usable on the street. The 32mm carbs were tightened down to 30mm, and the valve timing for the inlet stroke was adjusted. All this to make so you didn’t have to wind the thing up to 10,000rpm to get max power out of the engine. The gauges were from the Fazer. The front brake disks from the RZ350, and calipers from the FJ600.
All this makes the Radian on paper seem like an afterthought. A desperate strike to get a bike to market that would need no R and D dollars. A bike to turn out for a quick profit during trying financial times. As it turns out however and according to Cycle World’s January 1986 edition, quite the opposite. They called it the best all-around do anything bike of the year, and at $2,399, the best bang for the buck of 1986.
Hip to be Square?
I have put almost 5,000 miles on the Radian in the 4 years I’ve owned it. A few months after I bought it the valve cover gasket started to leak pretty bad, so I replaced it. It was the original that came with the bike. All that the bike has needed is rubber bits replaced over the years. As the Radian nears its 40th birthday, I can tell it could use some real love, which is where the list in my head comes from. It’s out of love. The bike got me back in the game for around $2,000 and has never let me down. I’ve never been left on the side of the road with mechanical issues.
The fact is that I have been the one the let it down. I hit a patch of gravel while entering a turn a couple of years ago and we both hit the deck. I have repaired most of the damage. A slight soft dent in the tank that my knee made needs to be handled. From there, I’d like to repaint the block and get it back to its 1980’s glory. Even a full breakdown to clean and repaint everything. Make no mistake; there are bikes out there to be turned into Café bikes, but this is not one of them. This is my bike. This bike rolled off the line when I was 6 years old. It represents my childhood, the years when everything was simple. It represents all that was wrong and right about the 1980s, and I refuse to change a thing. That headlight will be square as hell for as long as I live, I promise you that. It might have an LED in it, but the shape will remain.
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