Admittedly it isn't a 250 but my very first bike, a 1989 Yamaha DT200R, or Dick Togs 200 as my riding mates kindly called it, lives again. I feel pretty chuffed about it considering the bike has been sitting in several drawers, boxes, tubs and buckets covered in grease, dust and rust for several years. I've got a soft spot for the old girl.
I love the old ITs. That's what I've tried to do with the DT to some extent. I powder coated the frame black instead of the stock white and put black onion rings on instead of the stock blue. I also want to get a black seat cover like the ITs (the one on it is the original and pretty faded and ripped). It needs a bit to finish it off. I'd like to get a copy of the original stickers made up. I'm thinking when I get a chance I might re-spoke the rims and get the hubs and calipers re-powdercoated. Maybe the exhaust too. You can't see it but it's a bit rusty in places but it is a full Pro Circuit system. It would be nice to source some caliper seals and master cylinder kits too but unless I buy Yamaha there doesn't seem to be any available that I can find.
I had YZ250 that had a rusty exhaust and I had it sand blasted and the guy coated it with a textured aluminium hot metal spray, so long ago I can't even recall what it looked like - anyway it came up really well and resisted all corrosion and looked pretty damn fine Your bike looks incredibly tidy - I spent a lot of time on the IT, it was really rough when I got it, but never got it anywhere as good as yours
Dual disc brakes on this old girl is nice! defiantly ahead of its time been a 89, looks great overall!
I raced it back in the day but to be fair the KDX was a better bike in almost every way. The suspension on the DT is shocking. Way too soft and no rebound dampening basically. If I feel particularly stupid one day I might swap the springs and put in some cartridge emulators on the front and re-valve the rear.
Hey forgot to mention whilst I was cleaning up my fizzer I had a kooky idea that worked out quite well Round where I live good stuff gets thrown out all the time - so I had one of those small steam cleaners to put to use... I filled it with cleaning vinegar and used the hot steam and the small soft brass brush attachment to remove some rust spots on subframe parts before repainting. I also used it to remove surface rust on the exhaust headers and silencer peace out
Nice, I was 16 and 9 months( the age requirement for L plates) and I bought a DT 200. What an awesome bike. Not a racer, I did do a handful of enduros on it. But a great all rounder. Awesome street bike. Me and about 15 local blokes bought them. A heap of older guys before me as mine was a 92 version. My best mate bought a kdx. It did have better speno and higher top speed but it blew up every 6-8000 klms. I did 36000 ks and only changed a set of rings. I loved her to bits. Dude I could wheely the thing forever! They have a really sweet balance spot. Ok enough nostalgia. As with your pipes.clean them with over cleaner and a scotch brite pad. Then spray cooking oil on it. Coat it up good. Then start her up. She'll smell like a fish shop but the oil will bake on to a goldenish colour.walla. No more rusticles. When she gets stained up again do it again.This is fir the expansion chamber only,the rear doesn't get hot enough to bake the oil.
Another thing I just remembered, a can of let's say soft drink,fits perfectly between the right side of the speedo and the right blinker braket.just remember not to wheely when there is an open can in there or you wear it! Enjoy
Funny you mention the street bike creds Scotchy. I had Kenda road/trail tyres on it years ago which were more road than trail and it was surprisingly quick in the twisties. I have toyed with the idea of using it to do a motard conversion. Apparently you can get a 240 kit for it in the states (it's basically a Yamaha Blaster engine) and a mob in Japan does underslung exhausts for them. In South America everyone does the treatment to the DT125 which is very similar in many respects. Check out a few photos of what can be done. Be pretty cool I reckon.
I just noticed your pillion pegs are missing. That was another great thing about the little DT. Girls loved getting on the back! Graham Morris, a bike shop owner in Newcastle bought one back in the day,threw some road tyres on it and won a road race title on it. My mates tried a lot of stuff,boysen reeds,stretching the reed cage,different pipes,bigger carbs. I done nothing but service it all the time, and I got the same,if not better top speed,and my fuel economy stayed the same. Any messing with the reeds used more fuel.
Yep missing the pegs and the rear subframe which used to hold the brake light, have a grab handle etc. I mangled it years ago when I cartwheeled it down a track. Not sure what I did with the pillion pegs. It's got an acerbis guard extension / brake light now.
I'm pretty sure I have a set of the pillion pegs here somewhere. I bought a wr200 next and it was awesome. Like a DT with yz speno. I was going to put the pillion pegs onto the wr but never did.
Those two bikes (the pink/white and red one) make more sense to me that the current craze of bum ugly things being chopped about and made to look ugly. The longer suspension and light weight of a road converted trail bike has most of the good ideas and can be pushed fairly hard through the twisties. The brakes are usually as good as road bikes with less weight to stop, and when you stop on a ride and mates complain about the road condition you can say 'what pot holes'? Many years ago (83/84) I converted a Maico 'square barrel' MX 400 with wide ratio gears, 12 volt electronic ignition/charging, twin leading shoe front brake, bikini fairing with headlight/instruments, 'ace' bars, modified 'cafe' style seat, etc. The thing had so much grunt it was a surprise to many RD350's, the big brake meant it stopped on it's nose and to change direction I only had to think about it. Drawbacks were the small MX tank and vibration. I traded it for a Ducati Pantah. Would love to have it back again. These days I still like the idea and have last year bought a Honda Dominator NX650. Goes well on any road with great fuel economy. I have 'roadised' it a bit with road pattern tyres, lowered footpegs, high windscreen, bag on rack, etc.
Wow, I have a mate that picked up a 80s maico 400 in a rubbish throw out.the frame was broken. He has aspirations to make a cafe racer out of it. It is missing a few parts. I knew the house owner where he got it from. I asked where the original engine was. It turned out,the guys uncle took the big maico donk and put it in a late 80s husky frame and cafed that! He was telling me a similar story about blowing the road bikes away in the twisters up the putty road. So now where trying to find where the husky maico ended up.
Totally agree mate. The fact that I love the look of that red one helps a lot too. It's like an old rat racer. Love to know where to get that spoked back wheel from too. As far as modern bike design goes I'd go further. I can't see any reason to ride across the Simpson or do the cape to cape on anything other than a 600 single with a bit of work done for comfort either. I can't imagine what it would be like to pick up a KTM 1190 adventurer or similar in soft sand and 40 degree heat on your own. If I was looking for an adventure bike now about the only bikes I would look at would be the KTM690, a DR or maybe one of those new Huskies. Most likely I'd buy an old KTM 640 adventure or XR600 or a Dominator like you have though to be honest. Bit then again when I think about adventure riding I think about offroad rather than pot holed road and gravel. I go riding up at Fraser Island and Cooloolah a lot on my KTM and I come across so many guys on KTM1190s etc who look like they are going through absolute torture as I roost past.
Appreciate the offer Scotchy but I don't really need them. I'm either going to use the bike as a second trailie so my brother can come on rides with me or do the motard thing. I've tried to get as much weight off it as I can. Just the rear pegs and rear numberplate carrier probably weighed close to 5kg combined. The Pro Circuit exhaust probably accounts for another 3-5kg saving over the original too. If I end up going the motard option I'll probably trim up the frame and cut off unused mounts etc. Cheers Jim
