Top Yamaha RD350 Clubs & Communities in India

(Authentic rider-run groups you can actually join today)

Let's be honest: most bikes fade into nostalgia the moment the factory pulls the plug. Yet hop on to any Indian highway at dawn and there's still a good chance you'll hear that unmistakable two-stroke shriek—half song, half war-cry—belting out of a 35-year-old Yamaha RD350. No one knows why the RD stuck around here longer than anywhere else; maybe it's the way the bike punches out of a Goan corner, or the fact that spares can still be bargained for over cutting chai. Whatever the alchemy, the quickest way to taste it is to sidle up to one of the owner-run clubs where grown men argue about jet sizes the way others debate cricket line-ups.

Below you'll find the groups that actually answer when you ping "bro, anyone got a spare left-hand switch?"—where they meet, how they started, and the unwritten price of entry (hint: bring ear-plugs and a willingness to push-start strangers).

1. India RD350 Club – the mother chapter

Founded: 2008 | Founder: Vishal Aggarwal (@vishalbiker) | Instagram: @indiard350club

Think of this as the umbrella body that stitched together scattered RD nuts from 14 states. Vishal, a Bangalore-based restorer, started an Orkut group in 2008 simply to source piston rings; by 2012 the forum had snow-balled into ride-outs 70 bikes strong. Today the club is decentralised: each state has its own WhatsApp cohort, but major decisions (annual rally dates, technical webinars, discount tie-ups with Jawa/Yamaha spares vendors) are taken in a monthly Zoom call led by Vishal. The Instagram page doubles as a help-line—post a video of a seized right-side crank and you will have three machine-shop recommendations within an hour.

Signature event: “2-Stroke Sunday” every February attracts 250-plus bikes to Bangalore’s Nandi Hills. Registration is free, but you donate school stationery that the club carries to rural schools on the return ride.

How to join: DM @indiard350club with a picture of your bike and city; you will be added to the relevant state group within 24 h.

2. Bangalore RD350 Club – where the magic began

Founded: 2009 | Meet: First Sunday, 7 a.m., Airlines Hotel, Lavelle Road | Instagram: @rd350club

If India RD350 Club is the parliament, Bangalore RD350 Club is the weekly adda. The meet-up predates Instagram—older members still call it “Orkut Omelette Ride” because the morning always ended with eggs at Indian Coffee House. Today 30–40 bikes gather without fail; newcomers are handed a printed cheat-sheet—“Check gearbox oil level before you leave the café, not after you seize on the fly-over.” Technical gyaan is exchanged over filter coffee: which HT coil works with the new CDI, how to shim the powervalve, where to find NOS 1.00 mm over-size pistons.

Pro tip: Bring a printed photograph of your bike; the club maintains a physical scrap-book that already spans five volumes.

3. Delhi RD350 Club – the restoration hub

Facebook Group: Delhi RD350 Club | Active since: 2014 | Core strength: 1,900 members

Delhi’s brutal heat and stop-go traffic is murder on air-cooled two-strokes, so this group evolved into a restoration support network rather than a pure riding club. Admins Abhishek Bansal and Gaurav Rana have negotiated flat 15 % labour rates with Karol Bagh workshops; members pool bulk orders for Namura piston kits, saving almost ₹2,000 per set. A monthly “Wrench-Day” is held on the last Saturday at a community garage in Dwarka: lift, stand, torque-wrench and compression-tester are provided free; you only pay for consumables.

Special initiative: The club convinced the Delhi Pollution Control Board that pre-1990 two-strokes are “heritage vehicles”; 47 bikes now run on white-on-red HSRP plates that exempt them from odd-even rules.

4. RD350 Club Tamil-Nadu (Chennai) – the beach riders

Facebook Group: RD 350 Tamilnadu Chennai Club | Founded: 2013 | Flagship ride: ECR dawn sprint to Mahabalipuram

Chennai’s salt-laden breeze eats RD frames for breakfast, so the group’s first lesson is how to mix 2K epoxy primer and spray inside the hollow swing-arm. Once the metal is safe, members obsess over period correctness—original Yamaha “speed-block” decals are scanned at 600 dpi and re-printed on 3M vinyl for anyone who needs them. The 80-km East-Coast-Road breakfast ride, held on the third Sunday, is famous for two reasons: you hit 100 km/h legally on the sea-side straight, and you return before the asphalt turns into a tandoor.

Tech highlight: Admin Arvind Krishnan built a DIY dyno using an old conveyor drum; members get three free power-runs every quarter.

5. Yamaha RD350 Club Nashik – the wine-country wrench-fest

Facebook Group: Yamaha RD350 Club Nashik | Started: 2015 | USP: Vine-yard backdrop & parts bazaar

Nashik’s mild evenings and proximity to Mumbai/Pune make it the ideal neutral ground for a tri-city ride. Founder Nikhil Bhatia opens his 2,000 sq ft workshop—complete with lathe and bead-blasting cabinet—on the second Saturday; members from Gujarat to Goa caravan in with seized engines in pickup trucks. By night-fall the patio turns into a flea-market: carburettors, side panels, even rare HT ignition switches change hands over Sauvignon-Blanc bottles from the adjoining vineyard.

Annual gala: “2-Stroke Grape-Stomp” every August pairs a 120-km ghats ride with a wine-tasting session; helmets off, wine glasses on.

6. Kerala RD/Trivandrum chapter – the high-compression crusaders

Instagram: @trivandrumrd350 | Founded: 2017 | Motto: “Ride it, don’t hide it.”

Kerala’s humid climate swells fuel tanks, so this club became the country’s go-to source for plastic-welding and tank-sealing hacks. They also perfected the art of lugging spare fuel on long rides—an old Royal-Enfield oil-cooler bottle fits snugly into the RD’s frame triangle and holds exactly one litre of 2T mix. Monthly rides explore the Western-Ghat hairpins around Ponmudi; novices are taught how to engine-brake with a seized left disc to save the pads.

Community work: The club adopted a 14-km stretch on the Varkala–Kappil coastal road; riders sweep litter before the Sunday parade, earning goodwill (and free chai) from local police.

7. RD350 Riders Pune – the performance lab

Informal start: 2016 | WhatsApp strength: 280 members | Claim to fame: India’s first water-injected street RD

Pune’s IT crowd loves data, so every bike here is fitted with a Bluetooth OBD dongle that logs EGT and cylinder-head temp. Admin Abhijit Navale wrote an Excel macro that tells you exactly how many ml of Motul 710 to add per litre of fuel for any given ambient temperature. The group meets every full-moon Friday for a “data-night” at a Bavarian-brewery café—laptops open, spreadsheets fly, and the best-tuned bike of the month wins a free tyre sponsored by MRF.

Current project: A turbo-charged RD350 that still idles at 1,200 rpm—proof that forced induction and ride-ability can coexist.

8. Hyderabad RD350 Collective – the late-mover advantage

Born: 2020 | Instagram: @hyderabadrd350 | Unique angle: Zero-budget social-media marketing

Because the city missed the early club wave, Hyderabad members leveraged Instagram Reels instead of forums. Short clips of neon-lit RDs popping tiny wheelies on the Necklace-Road fly-over went viral, pulling 20-something riders who had never seen a two-stroke before. The club now hosts “Reel-to-Real” meets where followers are handed ear-plugs and taken pillion up the ORR just to feel the famous RD step at 6,000 rpm—many leave determined to buy a basket-case the same week.

9. RD350 Rajasthan (Jaipur) – the desert survivors

Started: 2018 | Core members: 45 | Challenge: 47 °C summer heat

Jaipur’s thin air leans the mixture so badly that main-jets go up from 220 to 260; the club keeps a drawer of Mikuni jets numbered all the way to 300. Rides begin at 5 a.m. to beat the heat, destination is usually the sand-dune hamlet of Sambhar for a salt-flat blast that mimics Bonneville—GPS speedos have clocked 152 km/h on stock gearing.

Tip: Carry a 1-litre chilled water spray bottle; a mist on the cylinder fins drops head-temp by 8 °C in traffic.

10.[Torque Inductions](https://www.facebook.com/torque.inductions) – the night-shift friend

Facebook: @torqueinductions | Owner: Rahil (RJK)

Rahil began the page after a long ride left him with a seized piston and no one to ask for help. He now stays up late, posting close-ups of crank shafts and short notes on how to stop a plug from oiling up. If you write in at midnight, he answers—often with a voice clip and the phone number of the one man in Pune who still sells the right size bearing. He keeps the talk plain, the tips free, and the hope alive that any rider can keep an old bike moving.

How to plug into the RD350 family – a quick checklist

• Document your bike – frame and engine numbers, three clear photos.
• Pick the nearest club from the list above; DM or Facebook-request with those details.
• Attend two meets before you ask for spares—trust is currency in the two-stroke world.
• Carry a basic toolkit – 10 mm T-wrench, spare spark plug, and a 100 ml premix can gets you home 90 % of the time.
• Respect the etiquette – no burnout shows, no exhaust swapping without baffle, and always offer to push-start a stalled mate.

Final word

Parts will get scarcer, fuel will get dearer, and environmental norms will tighten, but as long as these owner-run clubs exist the RD350 will never truly die. Whether you are hunting for a rare left-hand switch assembly or just want to feel that infamous two-stroke hit at 7,000 rpm, join a meet, sign the scrap-book, and keep the blue-smoke flag flying.