# Some interesting m/c history



## 1Alpha1 (Feb 13, 2015)

My very first brand-new dirtbike was a 1970 Yamaha DT-1 Enduro. I bought it late in the year and it cost me $525.00. Last one the dealer had on the floor.

About one year later, I started racing MX, so I bought a Yamaha factory GYT kit for it. Price of the kit was $200.00. It consisted of a factory Yamaha expansion chamber, cylinder, head, piston and carb.

http://www.pulpmx.com/stories/look-back-old-moto-mags/gps-classic-steel/gps-classic-steel-100


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## Toddppm (Feb 22, 2015)

So, do you still have it?


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## stihl sawing (Feb 22, 2015)

Well lets see some proof.


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## 1Alpha1 (Feb 24, 2015)

Toddppm said:


> So, do you still have it?




That was so long ago, I'm really not sure what I did with it. Rode it back and forth to high school until I got a car. I then stripped it down, installed the GYT kit and went racing. 

My two younger brothers and I were always buying, selling and trading motorcycles and stuff. Bunch of horse traders we were.


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## LegDeLimber (Mar 1, 2015)

Had a '71 model (orange!) was about '76 when I got as a rolling frame and the engine was in a milk crate & pickle bucket.
Of course all of the lighting was long gone, fork tubes were badly worn & pitted.
Needed a dose of fork oil about every ten days, even fresh seals (twice) didn't slow it down.
Slowly worked my way towards a bit larger carb (home cut job)
A little bit skimmed off of the cylinder head, by hand just flat file, sandpaper and a lot of eyeballing the edge of that raised area, as I worked at it.

a variable speed drill and a 99cent set of those stones from the good old "Globemaster Tools" table Plus a 10 inch "rat tail" file w/ a 90deg bend in the end by heating and bending then quenched in oil.
This allowed me to wallow out the ports a little. Back then we passed around badly "xeroxed" sheets of papers with most of the port measurements based on checking from top and bottom gasket surfaces.
Sorta wish I still had them..... would be interesting to compare to todays numbers and thinking.

Of course we took advantage of the reeds "torque induction" as Yamaha called it.
It let you open up the transfer holes in the intake side of the pistons for some more mid-range grunt.
i liked the stock holes a bit more squared out and added one more hole above them.
You needed to be really nutso fussy about the finish of them as just filing strait in & out 
left stressors. Pretty much every piston that I personaly saw that had cracked from the holes
always had been left with the little scoring from the files work or even sanding in the in&out motion.
You Always have to rotate the paper, NOT pull it back and forth.
Ran all of mine till the piston was worn small enough to need replacing. 
But also have to keep in mind I was NOT racing them, so there was much less strain on things.
always ran a good synthetic oil and You'll love the name.
"Analube" and yes everyone pronounced it like it had 2 "L"s in the name. lol!!
Can't find a pic of the orange label type that I ran, so here's a green one.


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## Uncle John (Mar 4, 2015)

H*ad one of these. 64 Honda Super Hawk. 305 cc Wow!
*



ad


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## lone wolf (Mar 4, 2015)

2123 said:


> My very first brand-new dirtbike was a 1970 Yamaha DT-1 Enduro. I bought it late in the year and it cost me $525.00. Last one the dealer had on the floor.
> 
> About one year later, I started racing MX, so I bought a Yamaha factory GYT kit for it. Price of the kit was $200.00. It consisted of a factory Yamaha expansion chamber, cylinder, head, piston and carb.
> 
> http://www.pulpmx.com/stories/look-back-old-moto-mags/gps-classic-steel/gps-classic-steel-100


Mine was a Yamaha Dt250.


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## 1Alpha1 (Mar 13, 2015)

Uncle John said:


> H*ad one of these. 64 Honda Super Hawk. 305 cc Wow!
> *
> 
> 
> ...




That is one beautiful old school bike.


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## Uncle John (Mar 13, 2015)

2123 said:


> That is one beautiful old school bike.



I didn't like the short stubby handlebars, so I had scrambler handlebars put on it.
Other than that I think it was exactly like the picture.


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## 1Alpha1 (Mar 13, 2015)

Had I known that some old Honda's would appreciate in value like they have, I would have held on to them. Well.....I could say that for many brands actually. 

But, at the time, they were riders and trading material. Between my two younger brothers and myself, we've owned over 100 m/c's. 

If I had to make a list of them all, I'd be real hard-pressed to do so. I'm guessing I could recall about 50 of them at best.


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## Fubar (Mar 13, 2015)

Uncle John said:


> H*ad one of these. 64 Honda Super Hawk. 305 cc Wow!
> *
> 
> 
> ...



i have owned two 305's super hawks and a 175 Dream , fun to ride , i wish i still had those , they are worth a lot now .
the only new bike i ever owned that was a 1982 440 LTD Kawasaki belt drive , ah the good ole days ..

here is my current ride a 2004 Honda silver wing buried under 8 to 10 inches snow .


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## Stihlofadeal64 (Aug 14, 2015)

stihl sawing said:


> Well lets see some proof.
> 
> 
> View attachment 406299



Looks like a MX360 I had years ago. Brought back many memories.


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## Aerialist (Feb 8, 2016)

I like classics, here is my 1974 Moto Guzzi:


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## amberg (Feb 8, 2016)

I bought a new honda xl 175 back in 1973, I thought I was on top of the world when I took the muffler of and put a mega phone ( think that what it was called ) on it, you could here it for miles.


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## amberg (Feb 11, 2016)

I think that I had a honda 160 back in the day. It Was more of a street bike if I remember. look a lot like the one you got. I think it was a CB 160, I do miss that bike. ( I guess that I that wish I had it now )


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## J.W Younger (Feb 12, 2016)

amberg said:


> I think that I had a honda 160 back in the day. It Was more of a street bike if I remember. look a lot like the one you got. I think it was a CB 160, I do miss that bike. ( I guess that I that wish I had it now )


I had one of those too, in 1965, before that I had an Allstate 175.


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## J.W Younger (Feb 12, 2016)

The allstate liked to eat pistons, one about every 2k miles. It had 2 pistons but only one spark plug.


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## Conquistador3 (Feb 15, 2016)

Weren't Allstate/Sears 175's made by Puch in Austria? 

Personally I like classics... but built with modern quality control, materials etc:






Here's my Honda CB1300 Super Four. 2009 model, completely stock apart from MUPO shock absorbers and fork internals, R&G Racing exhaust protector and K-Factory engine case protectors. 
Long story about this bike. My brother had a 2003 which I rode a few times and really liked, except for temperamental fueling and a saddle even more uncomfortable than a OE BMW one (I also have a BMW, so I speak from experience). He later sold it because he had grown tired with Honda being unable to fix fueling. 
At about the same time I was dating a girl and made the terrible mistake of involving her in the new bike choice. I put under her nose a CB1300 and a VFR (Interceptor) brochure and she picked the VFR. 
I ended up falling out with the girl and with a bike I genuinely hated and which I ended up destroying in a crash. No big deal as it was obviously a Friday afternoon special. 
Fast forward to 2006. I recovered from the crash (I lost a good chunk of skin on a leg and lost mobility in my left thumb for a few months: that's why I won't buy anything from Dainese and Held ever again) and was ready to get back into bikes again. I bought a track bike, reasoning tracks are safer than roads. 
They may be safer, but they are also more boring and pretty damn expensive. 
So in 2009 I bought a Kawasaki road bike which lasted a massive four months. I didn't crash it, but grew so frustrated with poor quality and continuous problems I could not take it anymore. So I PX'd it for my present BMW which is... in another plane of existence, really. It quickly replaced the car as my mean of transport. 
In 2012, after realizing the track bug had run its course, I sold the track bike and started looking again into the big CB. Much to my mirth, I found Honda had fixed the fueling issues and the saddle. Much to my chagrin I found the bike wasn't imported in Europe anymore, so I started looking for a used one. Easier said than done as Honda imported only small numbers of them, reserving most of the production for the Japanese market.
After a few months of searching, I found a dealer about 80 miles away had just got one as a PX. I went seeing it and it was an absolute gem. I pretty much bought it on the spot. 
And the rest is history, as they say.


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## J.W Younger (Feb 15, 2016)

Conquistador3 said:


> Weren't Allstate/Sears 175's made by Puch in Austria?
> 
> Personally I like classics... but built with modern quality control, materials etc:
> 
> ...


Yes on the made by Puch, it was an odd duck with an open combustion chamber covering twin cylinders and one spark plug.


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## Conquistador3 (Feb 15, 2016)

J.W Younger said:


> Yes on the made by Puch, it was an odd duck with an open combustion chamber covering twin cylinders and one spark plug.



A yes, split single. It was invented by Garelli before WWI but production stopped in the 20's because they were switching to building GP engines for the military. A former Garelli engineer went to work for Puch after WWI, brought his expertise with him and designed a split single with just enough alterations not to incur in his former employer's wrath. 
Honda briefly toyed with the idea in the late 70's to build a 500cc V8 (as GP rules specified engines had to have four combustion chambers, not pistons) but since they had already decided to settle on a four stroke design, the engineering challenges proved too much even for Honda and they settled on formed oval pistons for the NR500.


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## rocketnorton (Feb 15, 2016)

Aerialist said:


> I like classics, here is my 1974 Moto Guzzi:
> 
> View attachment 484589



73 eldo I had, and first bike, 63 Honda monkey


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## Macman125 (Feb 15, 2016)

I would love to get my hands on a yamaha rz350! I have seen plenty of vids where guys have put the 535 cheetah kits on them and they keep up with modern 600s all day.


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## Marshy (Feb 15, 2016)

Conquistador3 said:


> Weren't Allstate/Sears 175's made by Puch in Austria?
> 
> Personally I like classics... but built with modern quality control, materials etc:
> 
> ...


You guys over the pond seem to get the better bike selections... Thats a nice looking bike but I like the looks of the Yamaha XJR just a little more.


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## Conquistador3 (Feb 16, 2016)

Macman125 said:


> I would love to get my hands on a yamaha rz350! I have seen plenty of vids where guys have put the 535 cheetah kits on them and they keep up with modern 600s all day.



Either the 600 riders were going slow on purpose or they could not ride to save their lives... 



Marshy said:


> You guys over the pond seem to get the better bike selections... Thats a nice looking bike but I like the looks of the Yamaha XJR just a little more.



The Yamaha is a dinosaur. In many ways it's a 80's bike adapted to modern times. It doesn't handle particularly well, has a bad tank range (small tank + high fuel consumption), it chews tyres, cannot keep up with a Honda CB or a Kawasaki ZRX... but it's very well made, possibly better than my Honda (paint is chipping from the *back* of the cylinder block... ) and those buying it demand just such a bike. 

All these bikes (Honda CB1300, Kawasaki ZRX1200, Suzuki GSX1400, Yamaha XJR1300 etc) are meant for the Japanese market and usually only small quantities arrive here, with minimal alterations, usually meaning a different ECU and silencer to meet Euro emission and noise standards. Both Honda and Kawasaki chose not to import the latest incarnations of the CB and ZRX in Europe to avoid chewing into sales of more profitable models. This is not a very smart business decision as these bikes have always sold exceedingly well (with people politely turned away because allocation had ended) and those after them won't buy a modern eyesore such as a CB1000R or a Z1000. It makes even less sense considering Ducati Scrambler's and BMW RNineT are selling like hot bread.


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## Marshy (Feb 16, 2016)

Conquistador3 said:


> The Yamaha is a dinosaur. In many ways it's a 80's bike adapted to modern times. It doesn't handle particularly well, has a bad tank range (small tank + high fuel consumption), it chews tyres, cannot keep up with a Honda CB or a Kawasaki ZRX... but it's very well made, possibly better than my Honda (paint is chipping from the *back* of the cylinder block... ) and those buying it demand just such a bike.
> 
> All these bikes (Honda CB1300, Kawasaki ZRX1200, Suzuki GSX1400, Yamaha XJR1300 etc) are meant for the Japanese market and usually only small quantities arrive here, with minimal alterations, usually meaning a different ECU and silencer to meet Euro emission and noise standards. Both Honda and Kawasaki chose not to import the latest incarnations of the CB and ZRX in Europe to avoid chewing into sales of more profitable models. This is not a very smart business decision as these bikes have always sold exceedingly well (with people politely turned away because allocation had ended) and those after them won't buy a modern eyesore such as a CB1000R or a Z1000. It makes even less sense considering Ducati Scrambler's and BMW RNineT are selling like hot bread.


I believe you are correct about the Yamaha based on the reviews I've read comparing it to the big CB and Kawi. I think at that point buying one of those giants is for nostalgia and not really for handling or to claim you have the biggest and baddest. I believe in the late 70's when the top 4 were battling it out for HP and 1/4 mile times it would of mattered but not anymore. I feel like anyone buying one of these just wants the modern version of the former glory bike from the 70's and early 80's. I happen to love the looks of the Yami and I'm sure it handles great compared to my '79 XS1100! 

I've considered buying a ZRX many times because they are the only retro themed bikes left in the US at a reasonable price.


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## Macman125 (Feb 16, 2016)

Conquistador3 said:


> Either the 600 riders were going slow on purpose or they could not ride to save their lives.



Let me rephrase, the rz350 with a 535 cheetah kit will spank a 600 on a road course. The 350 is a lighter, more nimble bike. Two strokes have always had better power to weight ratios.


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## Conquistador3 (Feb 16, 2016)

Macman125 said:


> Let me rephrase, the rz350 with a 535 cheetah kit will spank a 600 on a road course. The 350 is a lighter, more nimble bike. Two strokes have always had better power to weight ratios.



Yes, but the RD/RZ frame is Bronze Age. Japanese frames made the Great Leap Forward in the early 90's and have been consistently getting better every year. 
A good compromise would be a Honda NSR250, especially an MC21. The MC28 was better frame-wise, but it was also impossibly expensive to derestrict and JHA (the company which had bought the remaining stock of MC28's from Honda in 2000 and developed many tuning parts for it) has now gone out of business.


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## Macman125 (Feb 16, 2016)

The nsr is a pretty sweet bike. Aprilia is still doing some pretty cool things with two strokes.


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## Conquistador3 (Feb 16, 2016)

Macman125 said:


> The nsr is a pretty sweet bike. Aprilia is still doing some pretty cool things with two strokes.



I am sorry to inform you both versions of the RS250 (the Rotax-engined racer and the Suzuki-engined road bike; no relationship apart from name and being two stroke) have been out of production for quite a few years. There are still two stroke racers being manufactured for the PreGP class, but the only ones an adult could conceivably ride are 125's. The best are made by RMU of Italy using TM Racing engines.


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## Macman125 (Feb 17, 2016)

there is a company, I can't remember the name but they are converting them to 500s. I always loved me a bike puffing blue clouds.


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## Macman125 (Feb 17, 2016)

http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/ronax-500-launch/ I always though it would be cool to stuff a rotax mxz670 rotory valve engine in a modern buell frame.


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## bigbadbob (Feb 17, 2016)

I have a 79 XL250 with collectors status.
Also a yamaha DT200
Both road ready.
Have had many bikes in my day,
Rode half the Great divide a few years ago on my Vstom DL1000.
BBB


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