Rebuilding a Yamaha TY250 monoshock- then sending it away in bits.
Classics sell, yeah, ill rebuild an 80's classic!
In the past year i have rebuilt 11 dirt bikes and motorcycles. Ive spent most of my life as a truck mechanic and just over ten years motocrossing, enduroing and being a general big kid off road as well as other pastimes. This was the last motorcycle of any kind i have rebuilt usually well into the night in our tiny shed with the radio on.
I found this well neglected 84' Yammie trails bike and noticed on the black hole that is e-bay, a few good examples going for ridiculous money and some others going for peanuts- opportunity-blah , etc
If you look at the heap i bought on the page opposite its well past its prime- that how i kinda like to find 'em and turn them around into a thing of (almost) beauty. I stripped the motor and fitted a new piston, gaskets bearings and seals stripped the frame welded and painted it, found the cables were knackered and the tank leaked, the wheels and forks were shot as well as just about every nut and bolt being butchered.
Being too deep into this bike a week or two later there was no going back. I thought of becoming an astronomer instead of doing bike rebuilds- but i don't like working night shift, it plays havoc with my digestion, or maybe if i became a Buddhist and seek some deeper meaning but it was too cold at the time. I stuck to the rebuild which went well over my budget.
Eventually it looked good and went well, so i thought i will try to see if i get a decent price for it. Ha Ha people laughed at me with contempt and text-ed me with silly comments like " you will maybe get that sort of price in Sammy Millers day!" ( he was a uk trails champ way back when)
After all i only asked f 400 quid for the bike. So utterly dejected i decided to become an author and now live happily ever after (yeah right) I actually did make a profit on the bike but had to strip the thing to each one of its component parts and sent it to over sixty locations via the medium of the convinient rip off that e-bay is. TY 250 mx '84 now lives on in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the U.S., Australia, Wales and the Isle of Man.
Oh and i did write a book Its called Bins benches and Broken Bikes- but has absolutely no connection with an '84 TY250 mx whatsoever. I am about to cycle to the bottom of the Iberian penninsular in a few weeks, i have done this twice now and after both jouneys i vowed never to do it again- if i do make this next journey and return to the 'real' world i can imagine wanting to rebuild another motorcycle even thogh after this one i vowed 'never again' -again.
I guess the moral of this story is never say never again!- again.-again.
Comments
AUTHORDiolch yn fawr Eiddwen, that's a lovely bike and a great long distance machine. I lived for bikes in my twenties and have one arm a few inches shorter than the other with plenty of steel inside now. My lass has a bike and is doing her test this year, i am trying to convince her to ride across Europe with me- ive done it three times on pushbikes, but each trip takes about 25 days and my legs are getting tired now. Every time i ride up the Pyrenees, i have vowed the next time it will be using a twist grip!
Thanks for your time to visit Eiddwen- diolch.
Another great one, I am a sucker for anything to do with motorbikes.
I spent many teenage days riding pillion through many seaside Welsh towns.Then didn't get back on a bike for 30 years until I met my partner Dai six years ago.
He has a Honda SuperBlackbird 1100.
He's had many bikes over the years and has done his fair share of dismantling them and putting them back together.
So I will have to show him this hub.
So another great hub.
Da iawn
Eiddwen.
- AUTHOR
WHEN you put these things on y-uo t-u-be, are you going to announce on hubpages. Ive got to see those. I understand the speed thing, i have one arm shorter than the other for the love of it. Its the WAY you do it with Harleys! that takes some tech and guts. You matched the 121 horse to a six speeder Kawa and got 160 in that short space from a Harley motor! and in the heat of competition. Much respect. Ive done this speed on Jap bikes regularly trying to catch the ferry from Wales to Ireland on a Sunday evening as i headed back to work for two more weeks of welding and Guiness before i 'woke up' to live again, But Japs are so characterless. love the ride to win attitude you got there!respect for your ability and your time 50 Caliber..
Most WL models were bought up and exported to Germany and other countries. She sets there at an idle that just sounds so sweet thumping so slow. I've built the new evolution motors '91 and newer, they have a high idle to keep the new thin oil on the pistons and crank pin, every one used to try and slow them down to a thump and between lifters,cams and crank pins going bad business was good. Though not my favorite they make big horse power. I've a drag bike with a backward mounted 127 inch billet case model that gets 121 horses to the rollers on a dyno It is backward to work with a 6 speed Kawasaki transmission. It made 160 mile per hour plus at Bakersfield California at the all Harley drag races in 1991 taking the trophy. I have 6 hours of the races on tape and need to get them on dvd to post on youtube. My main competitor was a country boy from Texas with a twin engine Harley using stroker Shovel Head motors. We both were running in the 9 second runs, and his bike was a long one but had his rear engine not sputtered, I heard it across the track he may have beaten me. I weighed 220 pounds and he weighed an easy 300+ pounds, if we both had used lighter riders the speeds would have gone up and times down, but like I told a guy giving me that advise "I paid for it, built it and dang sure was going to ride it win loose or draw" Ha! why build and spend 25 grand and not get the joy out of it?
The rotax was a screamer and at the 5/8 mile truck it would get 130mph in the straight aways. I like fast and the faster the better. Everyone says 100 enough, but on a scooter a crash at 100 isn't going to be any better than 150,that's my guess, 50
- AUTHOR
Wow 50 Caliber, you were a flat- tracker as well. That's a skill i only could read about and get jealous of as we all plodded through wet mud here. You fitted a Rotax into a Harley, i've done it with several motors but i bet that Rotax upset the Harley purists!! Was it a two stroke or a thumper?.
You still ride a WL framed model ! I bet she sounds a beaut! don't get rid of these things, they are a dying breed. Folk just polish them and treat them as 'sacred cows' now- to use one as you do is rare..
When i grow up i wanna be doing that, injuries and all. God bless!
Aye, that sounds like my travels, build up something nice and get laughed at on price. I never lost on a Harley build or rebuild, except two that I liked so well I kept them, I have an old WL frame Military foot clutch hand shift, she's slow and the damn trucks try to push me down the road until I get where the turn off says "no trucks" then I can putt through the pines and enjoy the ride. The other is an old K frame Sportster with a "Rotax" engine that I raced on the flat track in Costa Mesa California it was a 1/8 mile track, a full circle where there wasn't much shifting and you were always in a lay down spin with one place to pass. I lost almost every race there due to my slow shift ability on my left replacement below the knee. It was fun trying. I don't know why I still have it, I wind it up in the sand washes here now and again and if I added suspension it would be a fun hill climber. If I parted it out I could get more money for it, I bet, but don't think I'll ever try it, peace Dusty
- AUTHOR
Much appreciated comment MD You make me sound like Darth Vader. If i had 'ruthers- i'd 'ruther ride me bike! may the force be with you. Blessings and the legs to go MD!
Yo brotherman. Work just isn't appreciated! It's a shame your recreation wasn't appreciated. You're fantastic. You're a positive force for good in the world! God bless you! Let's ride!
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