The 520 Chain Cafe: January 2016

1/30/16

more Yamaha enduros

I had to go through and sort my bike and parts score from last weekend. There is a bunch of parts I needed for my RT1 project. The RT3 had a nice wiring harness, and most of the other parts I need to finish it like headlight and ears, airbox, battery box, brake pedal and rod, rear brake stay, carburetor, footpeg bar, tail light, gauges, and a few other things.

I also took a look at the '71 250 and '73 360 engines. Both still have the Autolube oil pumps, no signs of any internal water damage, and look like great rebuild candidates.

The '71 DT1 engine is still a standard bore. This engine had pretty much zero compression, so I was happy to see there wasn't anything too bad, but just a worn top end.

I put the '71 parts together on the '71 frame. The front fender is an early aluminum DT1 part that I'd got for $10 at the last Boone County swap meet. I'm really excited about this bike, and will probably do it just like it is here. A guy would take the gauges and lights off, swing the headlight ears in and bolt them together, throw a knobby on the back, and head to the desert. So simple and so right. I'm tempted to just rebuild the engine and get the bike mechanically sorted, but otherwise mostly just clean it up.

I also put the RT3 parts into a roller. Not sure what will become of this one yet, but it's plenty of bike to do a project with.

1/27/16

1/24/16

Yamaha enduros

I really love the '68 to '73 Yamaha enduros. Here is my '73 DT3 when I bought it.

I didn't do a restoration on it, but just fixed a few things and cleaned it up.

This is the '68 DT1 when I bought it.

Here is the '68 after. The frame and swingarm were about the only parts used from it in the above picture.

Next I bought a bare '69 DT1 frame that had a Webco frame lowering kit.

Here is the '69 after. It's fast and loud.

Then I bought a bare '70 RT1 frame.

The '70 is still in mock-up, and I've been collecting parts for it. This one will be a fairly stock street legal bike. It has a 21" front wheel and high fender here, but I might go with a 19" front and low fender. Progress on this one will be coming soon.

And that brings me to today. I was looking on Craigslist last night and there was a listing for a '73 RT3 cheap, and a bunch of parts listed individually, also cheap. I went this morning and made a deal on the whole lot.

Here is the RT3, which turned out is actually a '71 DT1 with an RT3 engine, exhaust, seat, tank and front wheel. This is supposed to have run recently, and has good compression. He said it had shifting issues, so was parked. Could be a simple fix, or not.

Here are some of the parts. This frame is the matching numbers '73 RT3 frame the engine in the other bike came out of, and the engine in front of it is the matching numbers '71 DT1 engine from the rolling bike. The DT1 engine doesn't have any compression, so I'm guessing they swapped in the '73 360cc engine and some of the other parts to keep one bike working. So pretty much I bought a matching numbers '71 DT1 and '73 RT3. Some assembly required.

Here are some of the other parts. It doesn't look like they threw anything away. I haven't gone through all the parts yet, but other than the stock front fenders, it looks like most of the DT1 and RT3 are there. There is also a bunch of '72 RT2 parts, so three of many things. The plan will be to eventually put the '73 engine back in the '73 frame, and the same for the '71, and make a couple cool bikes.