RD500 -how do they compare with modern bikes?

[MC Bodge]

The latest Bike Magazine is the 500th edition and has a load of old articles in it. There is a great road test of the RD500 and it must have been great for its time.

How would the performance, steering and road-holding compare with a modern 600/675 4 stroke as a road bike?

Ps. Was the smaller RD350 as fierce when reaching the powerband as legend would have it?

Edited by MC Bodge on Thursday 20th November 21:14

[MC Bodge]

Cheers folks. As I suspected. I would like to have a ride of one, though.

[MC Bodge]

The contemporary article seemed to suggest that the bike was best when ridden hard. It was probably less track-focused than many modern 600s are though, and much more peaky than the torquey 675 Triumph.

[MC Bodge]

In the historical context, the RD was probably quite radical. The articles from the late 70s/early 80s show how ancient and primitive the bikes of those days now appear to modern eyes.

I think that people probably forget that an SV650 or ER6 can actually be ridden quite fast by a decent rider(a bit like 'normal' cars now being quite fast too), given that you can now buy 200bhp bikes.