Home Race Bikes Early factory racers Yamaha RR250 1961 Racer
Yamaha RR250 1961 Racer

Richard Tracey from England likes to have your help…….!!!!!!

Richard has acquired a lot of Yamaha parts and in amongst them was a rather unusual engine....
He was surprised to say the least, when he found a YDS1 engine in the pile of bits, but then on closer inspection he noticed the engine number wasn't right for a DS1 plus it was quite light, and then he noticed the colour of the crankcases and the way they had corrosion He then realised they were magnesium!

Yamaha RR250 engine

 

Yamaha RR250 engine

So it must be a factory YX24 (Asama or RR250) motor...
The engine came from either Singapore or Malaysia, so he is guessing it probably came from works rider FK Wong (?) The Singapore Champion in Yamaha's early days, as he rode an RR250 along with Sunako & Ito.

The engine number is D6-1045.....  (The "production" Yellow Tankers all had numbers around D6-7277 - These had YDS1 crankcases, although have similar numbering to later YDS2's !?).

Yamaha


You can clearly see the contrast between the aluminium & the darker magnesium cases on crank filler block and the cylinder head face, plus also between the alloy gearbox lay shaft plug and the casting behind the clutch cover...

Yamaha RR250 engine


The gearbox is like new inside, and Ricahrd does not think it's ever been run... or at least never been apart... all the screws are untouched.

 

Yamaha RR250 gearbox


He is convinced they are magnesium, but we never heard of Yam using magnesium that early? Anyway they will be cleaned up and analysed just to make sure..... 
Is there anyone (maybe an ex-Yamaha person or so) around who may know about them using magnesium cases on bikes this early?

Richard has found info regarding the Singapore riders... see attached.
The bike shown is one of the works Formula ll bikes, or RR250's as ridden at Daytona 1961.
The rider’s names show KC Wong, Albert Lim, Fook Kwong & Hasegawa-san.

Richard asks to put this on the website for any articles or pictures from this early period 1959 - 1962, particularly from people out in the Singapore / Malaysia / Asian sub-continent areas where Yamaha were 1st trying outside of Japan.
He says it would be great to really get a grip on these really early machines ...!


Singapore G.P. 1962



 

Profile Information

Application afterLoad: 0.000 seconds, 0.51 MB
Application afterInitialise: 0.046 seconds, 2.74 MB
Application afterRoute: 0.085 seconds, 4.70 MB
Application afterDispatch: 0.156 seconds, 7.70 MB
Application afterRender: 0.248 seconds, 8.42 MB

Memory Usage

8872360

16 queries logged

  1. DELETE
      FROM bal_session
      WHERE ( time < '1328449967' )
  2. SELECT *
      FROM bal_session
      WHERE session_id = 'dvqi08bdpudgvkpmk0aq391fa4'
  3. UPDATE `bal_session`
      SET `time`='1328450867',`userid`='0',`usertype`='',`username`='',`gid`='0',`guest`='1',`client_id`='0'
      WHERE session_id='dvqi08bdpudgvkpmk0aq391fa4'
  4. SELECT *
      FROM bal_components
      WHERE parent = 0
  5. SELECT folder AS type, element AS name, params
      FROM bal_plugins
      WHERE published >= 1
      AND access <= 0
      ORDER BY ordering
  6. SELECT `id`,`link`
      FROM bal_menu 
      WHERE ((`name` LIKE '%race bikes%')
      AND (`published` > 0))
  7. SELECT oldurl, newurl
      FROM bal_redirection
      WHERE oldurl = 'race-bikes/early-factory-racers/yamaha-rr250-1961-racer.html'
      ORDER BY rank ASC
      LIMIT 1
  8. UPDATE bal_redirection
      SET cpt=(cpt+1)
      WHERE `newurl` = 'index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=60&catid=50&id=289&lang=en&view=article'
      AND `oldurl` = 'race-bikes/early-factory-racers/yamaha-rr250-1961-racer.html'
  9. SELECT m.*, c.`option` AS component
      FROM bal_menu AS m
      LEFT JOIN bal_components AS c
      ON m.componentid = c.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      ORDER BY m.sublevel, m.parent, m.ordering
  10. SELECT template
      FROM bal_templates_menu
      WHERE client_id = 0
      AND (menuid = 0 OR menuid = 60)
      ORDER BY menuid DESC
      LIMIT 0, 1
  11. SELECT a.*, u.name AS author, u.usertype, cc.title AS category, s.title AS section, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(a.alias) THEN CONCAT_WS(":", a.id, a.alias) ELSE a.id END AS slug, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(cc.alias) THEN CONCAT_WS(":", cc.id, cc.alias) ELSE cc.id END AS catslug, g.name AS groups, s.published AS sec_pub, cc.published AS cat_pub, s.access AS sec_access, cc.access AS cat_access 
      FROM bal_content AS a
      LEFT JOIN bal_categories AS cc
      ON cc.id = a.catid
      LEFT JOIN bal_sections AS s
      ON s.id = cc.section
      AND s.scope = "content"
      LEFT JOIN bal_users AS u
      ON u.id = a.created_by
      LEFT JOIN bal_groups AS g
      ON a.access = g.id
      WHERE a.id = 289
      AND (  ( a.created_by = 0 )    OR  ( a.state = 1
      AND ( a.publish_up = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR a.publish_up <= '2012-02-05 14:07:47' )
      AND ( a.publish_down = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR a.publish_down >= '2012-02-05 14:07:47' )   )    OR  ( a.state = -1 )  )
  12. UPDATE bal_content
      SET hits = ( hits + 1 )
      WHERE id='289'
  13. SELECT m.*, c.`option` AS component
      FROM bal_menu AS m
      LEFT JOIN bal_components AS c
      ON m.componentid = c.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      ORDER BY m.sublevel, m.parent, m.ordering
  14. SELECT id, title, module, position, content, showtitle, control, params
      FROM bal_modules AS m
      LEFT JOIN bal_modules_menu AS mm
      ON mm.moduleid = m.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      AND m.access <= 0
      AND m.client_id = 0
      AND ( mm.menuid = 60 OR mm.menuid = 0 )
      ORDER BY position, ordering
  15. SELECT oldurl, dateadd
      FROM bal_redirection
      WHERE newurl = 'index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=81&lang=en&view=archive'
  16. SELECT oldurl, dateadd
      FROM bal_redirection
      WHERE newurl = 'index.php?option=com_search&Itemid=82&lang=en&view=search'

Language Files Loaded

Untranslated Strings Diagnostic

None

Untranslated Strings Designer

None