Ed Toomey Designs

Ed Toomey Designs Parts, Service and Products for vintage 2-stroke motorcycles (RZ, RD, TZ, RS, TZR, NSR, RGV, RG and more)

Wrapped up this nice restoration and upgrade of a Yamaha RD400 Daytona which include several prototype pieces. Specific...
03/03/2026

Wrapped up this nice restoration and upgrade of a Yamaha RD400 Daytona which include several prototype pieces. Specifically the upgraded front and rear braking systems, the expansion chambers and carb kit. This bike was stripped to the frame, powder coated and assembled with a rebuilt engine, modified forks and new Hagon shocks. A V**e ignition and modified wire harness simplified and upgraded the electrical system. And finally, gorgeous repainted bodywork from BD Cycles topped it off. Started first kick and she’s a screamer.

One thing about the Yamaha RD400 Daytona that makes me wonder about the engineers decisions is the braking system. Wha...
02/28/2026

One thing about the Yamaha RD400 Daytona that makes me wonder about the engineers decisions is the braking system. What were they thinking? So I did something a little different. Not only is this system lighter, it stops much better than stock with a lighter lever pull. Next will be to rethink the rear brake system, equally as goofy as the stock front system. I realize this isn’t an RZ but soon I’ll be putting these calipers on the RZ350 as well.

Started working on this beast a couple of months ago. This Yamaha RD500 has been at the shop for a while waiting for a ...
02/17/2026

Started working on this beast a couple of months ago. This Yamaha RD500 has been at the shop for a while waiting for a full restoration. She is stripped completely and every part will be massaged in some way or another. Soon as the parts are back from powder coating assembly will begin . . .

Wrapping up the next three custom RZ350s we built. In essence these have all been prototypes of some sort. Over the p...
01/24/2026

Wrapping up the next three custom RZ350s we built. In essence these have all been prototypes of some sort. Over the past two years lots of refinements have been made. The goal being, “what would Yamaha have done to improve the model if they had continued production” while still retaining the classic style.

Bling wasn’t part of that goal. If a part didn’t benefit the performance then it wasn’t needed. That’s why there are no cool heads, washing machine windows on clutch covers, CNC milled engine covers, boost bottles, banana swing arms and so on. Parts that, in my opinion, have no benefit other than Bling.
Why not a more modern frame? Why not a lower single race style seat or rear sets? My rule is “a race bike makes a lousy street bike. A street bike makes a lousy race bike”. For those who have an RZ350 or have ridden one, you already know it’s just about the perfect street bike. The ergonomics are comfortable for both around town and spirited street riding. And even for some long distance rides.
So “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. So what will be the current application? 90% will be a for street riding.

But a standard RZ350 is 1980s technology, there are certainly areas in need of improvement. Suspension, brakes, wheels, tires, engine performance are all focus areas.

7 more customs are in the works. A few will have additional pieces that will make the bikes lighter, stop even better, and have more suspension adjustment. Each RZ can be customized to a client wishes. More will be displayed as we progress. . . .

This is making me crazy. I purchased about $1900 worth of engine parts from a company in the UK a month ago. That pac...
01/20/2026

This is making me crazy. I purchased about $1900 worth of engine parts from a company in the UK a month ago. That package was one of several held up in customs. DHL won't release it until I pay a $1063.68 tariff on the shipment. That is insane but I have no choice. This package is holding up several jobs in my shop and the parts aren't available from anywhere else.

Our current (fu**ed up) administration is robbing the American consumers. I hear so many screaming about having to pay high taxes. That's exactly what this is, a huge tax on the American consumer because that's who has to pay for these tariffs. I have no choice, parts prices for certain items are going up 60%. Mostly engine parts. Bottom line, this totally sucks and I'm pi**ed.

01/20/2026

Today the frustration level was on high. I came into work with the intention of crating a couple of engines and packing some other orders for pickup tomorrow. Instead, FedEx and DHL had their regular requests for tons of documentation needed for orders of mine sitting in customs. Dealing with that crap blew the whole day.

Last year was a tough year for us for a couple of reasons.
1. Finding qualified help in my area of South Carolina has been a fruitless endeavor for the past three years. Last year was the worst because of the amount of time wasted training new hires only to have them get flakey and not show up days at a time, or they quit, or got fired after a few months. A couple of the capable mechanics started slacking off on their work which resulted in a few costly come-backs. So they had to go. Fortunately, my current crew of 4 is great, but it's not enough help for us to stay on top of the mountain of projects that comes into my shop. End result, we are behind on many projects.

2. The biggest hassle since the beginning or 2025 has been the amount of time wasted dealing with parts ordering and delivery. The now needed additional documentation for the tariffs burdened us all last year and continues into this year, with no letup in sight.

In the past, which includes the past 50 years I've been in this business, getting parts was easy. We find the parts, order them, pay for them, and they get delivered., regardless of which country they came from. Simple. Prices stayed consistent.

Not now. Several sizable orders from the United Kingdom and Japan have been held up in customs for weeks. Why? Because customs need a form filled out for each and every part to declare if there is any steel or aluminum in the individual parts. We are talking about 60+ individual types of parts in each order. Most parts are little things like grommets, bolts, washers, footpeg rubbers, brake rebuild kits and so on. Customs wants a form filled out for each part type. 60+ forms, regardless if the part has steel or aluminum in it or not.

This is what we have to deal with:
Take a replacement footpeg rubber for an RZ350 for example. It's a piece of rubber with 2 little bolts molded into it. They want documentation describing the weight of the part, what percentage of the total weight is steel, where the steel came from, who molded the steel, the price of the part, and the percentage of the price for the steel. Why do they want this information? Because our fearless leader has imposed big tariffs on many counties that export steel and aluminum products to the USA. In several cases it's a 50% tariff. The smallest tariff being 25%. So customs want to know the weight of 2 little bolts in a rubber assembly. How does one figure this out? I don't have the part. It's insane.

These parts come from other countries because they are not available in the USA. What are the options? There are none.
Who gets hurt in the process? Certainly not the exporter. I pay their invoice and they ship the parts. The exporter is done. They don't feel the tariffs. When the parts hit our shore that's when the nightmare starts. After spending hours filling out and submitting the required forms and paying some crazy amount for the tariff fees, the only one getting ultimately hurt is the American consumer because that's who is paying the tariff fees. No one else.

From a business standpoint the extra work involved in this process steals time away from actual work. This wasted time can only be made up by having to add more money to the parts. We are a small shop, I can only imagine the nightmare big companies face having to deal with this process.

Is this making America great? You all can decide. All we can do her is deal with this nightmare until it finally goes away. The sooner the better for everyone. Until then we’ll do the best we can to try and finish the fun part of our job which is working on these awesome motorcycles for our fantastic customers.

If any of you RZ guys are looking to upgrade your front brakes with the R6/R1 brake calipers, I just made 100 sets of th...
01/02/2026

If any of you RZ guys are looking to upgrade your front brakes with the R6/R1 brake calipers, I just made 100 sets of the caliper brackets. Price is $159.00 for the pair. If interested call 864-245-7044 and I can set you up.

As a follow up to my previous post which involves the disassembly of 6 RZ350 engines, as I stated, the scariest phrase I...
12/24/2025

As a follow up to my previous post which involves the disassembly of 6 RZ350 engines, as I stated, the scariest phrase I hear is, “the engine was just rebuilt”. Of these 6 engines, 3 of them had the primary crank seals installed backwards. We see this time and time again. Why? Because these folks have little or no experience working with these engines. Therefore they use the parts diagrams as installation guides. Well guess what? The parts diagram displays this seal backwards. In fact there are many parts displayed incorrectly in parts diagrams. Parts diagrams are just that, parts diagrams. They are not assembly manuals.

In this business the scariest phrase we hear is, “It was just rebuilt”. The customer said the engine stopped during it...
12/22/2025

In this business the scariest phrase we hear is, “It was just rebuilt”. The customer said the engine stopped during its first ride but he was sure it was a minor issue.
It was obvious that the engine seized. I wonder why?

This is were it starts. First the RZ is stripped to the frame, sand blasted, inspected for damage and repaired if need...
12/06/2025

This is were it starts. First the RZ is stripped to the frame, sand blasted, inspected for damage and repaired if needed. The frame is then put on our frame jig to make sure it’s straight. Then it’s powder coated

Next, comes assembly . . .

(Memory Lane)It was 1980 and I was tired of the same old RD350s and RD400s that I had been riding for years. So I want...
12/06/2025

(Memory Lane)
It was 1980 and I was tired of the same old RD350s and RD400s that I had been riding for years. So I wanted to make something more modern. I had a 1977 Yamaha TZ250 D model rolling chassis sitting around at the shop so decided to build my first custom. An RD400 engine would drop right in so I built a modified version with a special crank and race ported cylinders and heads. Next was the bodywork. I wanted a different look, more racy. So I modified the bodywork from a 1978 Honda CB400 Hawk and I gave it cool paint job. The bike had Morris magnesium wheels, TZ brakes and front end. And of course, the TZ monoshock rear suspension. Coupled with Erv Kanemoto pipes and modified carbs, it was a beast.

When the power came on, it hit hard. It was a show stopper at the time. It got a lot of attention at the Rock Store. Alas, I let a friend ride it to a Kawasaki dealer 1/2 mile away (against my better judgement). I warned him about the power so I said, “stay off the throttle, go easy”. Especially because he was in shorts, T-shirt and sneakers.

The boys at the dealership came out to see the bike and of course dared him to get on it. Well he did.

When it hit the power he wasn’t prepared. He looped it and it came down hard. Destroyed the instruments, handlebars, mirrors, master cylinder, tank, seat, tail section, tail light and left side engine covers and more. Needless to say it was a mess.
For him, he got lots of road rash. Ugly.

I did rebuild it and later I sold it. Last I heard it had a terrible death.

Some of you may have seen Scott’s recent post about seizing his Yamaha RZ350. I refurbished Scott’s RZ350 a few years a...
12/01/2025

Some of you may have seen Scott’s recent post about seizing his Yamaha RZ350. I refurbished Scott’s RZ350 a few years ago. It got a full engine rebuild and our pipe, carb and CDI box upgrades. It’s been running great for a couple of years until he managed to seize it a few days ago. According to Scott he was chasing an RG500 for several miles going wide open, around 120mph on a 60° day. He rolled off the throttle and it seized. So what happened?

First a little background is needed. Our carb kit was tested and jetted for 80° to 85° degree days. Then I richened the jetting slightly so the RZ could be safely ridden in cooler temperatures in the 50° to 60° range. Scott lives in Las Vegas so most days are quite hot. He said he lowered the needle a notch to perk up the midrange. That’s fine for higher temperatures . But guess what happens when the bike is ridden wide open for a few miles in 50° to 60° weather and the throttle is rolled off on a hot engine and a way-to-lean needle setting for that temperature. You got it. The engine can seize. (His did).
So keep in mind folks, these bikes have carburetors. The jetting is static so it can’t be perfect for all riding conditions. If the jetting is good for warm weather it will be lean for cold weather. If the jetting is good for cold weather it will be rich for hot weather. The more modified the engine the more sensitive the jetting is to weather changes. That’s why on a race bike, like a TZ250, we may make 3-5 jetting changes in a day.
So keep this in mind. In the case of my RZ carb kit, if you are going to ride like a madman in cooler temperatures then think about enriching the jets first. And I don’t mean just the main jet. The needle and/or pilot jet may need changing too.
(As a side note, notice Scott didn’t seize his RZ when on the main jet (wide open throttle). The main jet in my carb kit is safe down to the 50° to 60° temp range.)

Address

4798 Highway 29 S
Anderson, SC
29626

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Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm

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+18645815981

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Starting over with a new Motorcycle Business

After close to 45 years of working with 2-stroke motorcycles, starting with repairing my own motorcycles, primarily Kawasaki triples and then working in motorcycle shops in the LA area I finally opened my first motorcycle shop in Redondo Beach California in 1974. This exposed me to a much wider variety of 2-stroke motorcycles offered by Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Bultaco, CZ, Maico, Husqvarna, Penton, Hodaka, Harley Davidson and others. Opening this business also led to 6 years of me building and road racing my own motorcycle creations, primarily Yamaha RD and TZ based motorcycles. After a break in the late 1980s I opened my second motorcycle business in 1992. This time focusing on racing motorcycles in the AMA 250GP class. We won many races during that decade and won the 1993 and 2001 AMA 250 GP championships with my rider Jimmy Filice.

The 1990s also provided the opportunity to race, maintain, modify, build special parts for a wider variety of specialized motorcycle that were not allowed in the USA such as the Suzuki RG500, Yamaha RD500, TZR, RGV, NSR, KR-1 and RS 250s and others. Racing and modifying Yamaha TZ250s and Honda RS250s along with Yamaha RD350s, 400s, RZ350s and Banshees Quads was also a big part of the business during that decade.

I took an 18 year break to start and run a software company with my new business partner. Although quite successful, I left the software company in 2017. The longing to work with motorcycles again has resulted in the opening of my third motorcycle business. Now that we are finally allowed to import these fantastic motorcycles, the decision to open a new business was easy, especially after having a decade of experience with these motorcycles. The ever growing enthusiasm for these wonderful machines coupled with my decades of experience with these machine makes a new motorcycle business a natural fit. I look forward to working with those of you who have these motorcycles and are in need of any kind of service.

Ed Toomey