Okay, this is my current project bike. I bought it as a non running bike that sat outside for about a year. Here is what it looked like the day I brought it home. The rear brake was stuck but other than that it looked ok.
I decided to get it running before I did anything. Some how I got lucky and the fuel tank looks new inside. I had to take the petcock off and clean it and rebuild the carb. as well. She is a 1 kick start cold bike. I need to find specs on compression though, she only has 120 pounds. with that done I started taking it apart.
The wheels need some work, they are round and not bent but rusty. I hope I can save them. The rear brake was full of dirt but looks good.
Well she is in pieces now. ready to start the build. I don't know what direction I am going to go yet. I am thinking mostly stock.
Wow the memories. I got a 79 DT175 as an apprentice many years ago. Loved it & hated it. The muffler was always choked with oil, back shoes only were good for half of their depth before locking the brake cam, used to carbon up & start screaming like a banshee while I would panic, turn the key off, pull the sparkplug out, get a whoooa of a whack off the plug then find something big & unmovable to ram the front wheel against till it died... My blood pressure is going up just thinking about it. Unfortunately I was always broke so couldn't afford to replace the kick starts. After number 3 I resorted to crashstarting each time... in traffic...in rushhour.... It did teach me that a small less powerful bike can be as much fun as the IT250s & PEs of the time. And introduced me to the sport of enduros. I also did my first engine rebuild - got the slide stuck in the carb on reassembly & ran it in on the first kick at 10 000 RPM. Did you know that they brought them out again in 1989 & the price was the same as in 1979 - $1500.00
Nice... I did not get this because it was what I was looking for, I bought it because it was cheap and in decent shape. I thought if I am going to mess up a bike trying to restore it mine as well be a cheap one.
I have owned the exact same model in the past, myself (1981 DT-175H), and the bike was very basic, simple, and as reliable as a bike can be. It's too bad that Yamaha hasn't imported 2-stroke dual-purpose bikes over 50cc into the USA since 1981, as I can only imagine the kind of machinery they'd be producing in 2012 for that job. Edit: Actually, there was a DT-80K and DT-100K in the 1983 Yamaha line-up. Then, come 1984, it was all 4-strokes except for a couple of 50cc models.
Nice little bikes that work well as mountain goats :) I rebuilt an 81 after it took a bath and nothing done with it. It was mostly cleaning an about $400 worth of parts. I did swap out the shock for one out of a DT400. Not sure how much that helped :) The spark arrestor on the end of your pipe looks to be non-stock.
Yep, someone welded an old school supertrap on to it. If anyone has a stock one I would love to find one. I also need the oil tank.
Looks like a nice project. I've been riding by this for years. Never seen anyone around, would love to have it. Just because I hate to see it rot away.
Knock on the door with a bottle of whiskey in the truck. Has worked for me in the past. Let me know how it turns out.
No house there anymore Just this shed and an old outhouse. But someone cuts the grass, I don't think they ride the bike tho. I don't need it, but I want it. I friend of mine had one similar to it when we were kids and we rode that bike all over.
Okay, I worked on the bike today. I just reached into the box and pulled out a pice. I did not take a before photo but if you look at the first photos you can see it. I started by taking it apart and almost loosing the detention ball. Then I attacked it with a wire wheel till it looked new. I then baked on an industrial silver enamel paint. I know it is not factory original but I am not looking for that.
The wheels on the one I had looked about like yours. I never could get the spoke nuts to break free and most of the spokes and ended up replacing most of the spokes. WVhillbilly, is that a XL500S ? They had a 23 inch front wheel instead of a 21 so tire choices are kind f slim. There used to be a nice dual purpose tire that you could run though. The 500 was quite the tractor, I really liked mine.
I have not gotten that close to it. Picture was taken with a lot of zoom on the camera. Next time I'm by there I might put a note on it tho. Are there many parts available for these old bikes?
Not sure how good the part situation is on the older XL's. You may want to check out the XL thread http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=424841&highlight=xl500s From the picture I can't really tell if it's the 500 or the 250. It looks like my old 81 500s. Either one were good solid bikes though.
I like the way you're going about this. I had a green '78 DT125. Neat bike. Careful with the monoshock, they have a nasty kick back over sharp bumps.
