This one looked desirable back in the day, 350cc, 40 horsepower, 2 rotary discs, fast! exotic! (translated; no dealers anywhere near...) Wow!
Sadly a 90s Classic Bike comparison with a 250 Samurai revealed the awful truth, they were roughly the same in performance...
Stopped making them in 1970, given the ultimatum either tires or motorcycles, Bridgestones choice was tires. Smart move I think.
ReplyDeleteThey actually had quite a few dealers, just not many traditional ones. Bridgestone's were often sold in hardware and appliance stores, especially in smaller towns. Where I grew up they were displayed next to the Maytag washing machines.
ReplyDeleteAs to performance, my probably biased (I own two 1970 350's - a GTR and a GTO) opinion is that they both enjoyed and suffered from the rotary valves. The valve porting was quite conservative which gave great bottom torque right from idle, but allowed little top end thus killing any spec sheet comparison. Easy and fun to ride, though.