This 1972 Yamaha is the first motorcycle I ever owned. It is the bike I learned to ride on. I completely brutalized this thing during high school. It's been sitting in a barn on my parent's farm since I graduated (1987). I finally retrieved it last year with the intention of rebuilding it. Once I started looking it over I came to realize just how bad I had treated it. Swingarm is bent, footpeg assembly is missing, handlebars bent, levers abused, turn signals broken off, etc.... you get the picture. I'm starting this thread to document the process, but more importantly to get help and feedback along the way. This is going to be a learning process for me. Here are some pictures of the teardown process so far. I believe this mileage to be a bit short of actual: I decided to start at the front and work my way back: I plan to stick with the stock burgundy paint color for the fuel tank, oil tank, fork ears, and headlight bucket: My apologies for the blurry iPhone picture. I've written notes on blue painters tape and attatched to the wiring harness as I disassembled. I am planning to run only headlight and tail light on the rebuild: Parts table is filling up: This is where it sits as of now: Parts pile:
Here's my first (of many I'm sure) questions: Does anyone know of a place that makes replacement gauge faces for these older bikes? The speedo and tach dials are quiet weathered and it would be nice to replace them. This bike is just going to be used around our property, I am not going to title it for the street. Planning to run only a headlight and tail light. Do I still need a battery or will the running motor support those? Any chance the stock shocks can be serviced in some way? I'm guessing not. The engine is locked up. I am guessing that I will need to have it bored and replace top end parts. Will any shop that works with motorcycle engines be able to bore the jug for me or am I going to have to look for a place that specializes in vintage bikes?
There is a guy on yamahaenduro.com that rebuilds gauges, his handle is DEET, For the engine work try Scott Clough Racing, his prices are fair and his work is fantastic, as far as the shocks I have never tried to rebuild them, but reproduction decals.com has new ones for about $99.00. The web site Yamahaenduro.com is quite helpful, but if you donate to the web site you vou get a faster download speed, plus it helps keep the site alive. RodT
