I really mean MY VERY FIRST BIKE MODS! Here are some pictures of my first bike, a 1974 Yamaha DT125 dual sport (I think they called them Enduros back then). I must have been 13 or 14 years old in the photos which were taken back '75 or '76. I suspect my new KLX250 will look about the same when I'm done.

 

I remember it them well. The headlight brackets turned in are a classic.
I never had one of those. My first bike was a Hodaka Wombat!! and I modified that big time.

 

Yeah, I remember the Hodaka! CanAm's were pretty cool too.

 

I had a wombat, then a combat wombat the motocrosser, then after a couple of elsinores I had a 250 Can/Am TNT which went like hell then an RM 400 which I rode for about 5 years and was my last bike till 18 years later I bought my KLX which is a better dirt bike than any of my other bikes. Great fun!!!

 

My first bike was a Yamaha DT 125, too!

I'd always wanted a street-legal enduro and it pains me to think of how I only recently scratched that itch after 18 years of waiting.

A friend of mine had it, and it stopped running. I bought it in parts for 40 bucks when his mom told him to put it back together or get it out of the garage. I bought the manual and got to work- honed the cylinder, put in new rings and gaskets, cleaned the carb.

The thing was anemic as hell. It bummed be out because everyone said two strokes were so fast! Eventually my troubleshooting turned to the exhaust. I pulled the silencer apart and it was packed with nasty, oozing oil. After cleaning that out (and removing a good bit of it ) the thing went like a bullet!

I believe it was a 1979- I never was sure. I had this pipe dream about finding the title and making it street legal again. The former owner removed everything to make a MX bike out of it! At one point I had an old headlight from my dad's Pontiac duct taped to the brackets and a trailer tail light hooked up in back...good times.

I was impressed that it had monocross and oil injection. Finally sold it for $150 to a guy that wanted it to make the 1 mile trek to his mailbox out in the country.

 

Yeah, those were the days weren't they? It's so funny now how I'll obsess over a compression setting on the shock or if I have the right jet in my bike. Back then I was so fast I'm surprised that I'm still walking without a limp. Me and my buddies spent all our time focusing on riding and techniques. 30 years later it seems reversed. Everyone spends time tweaking their bikes and spend very little time riding them. And that's a self-deprecating remark. I'm as guilty as anyone!


Hey, redpillar. I remember the CanAm 250 really well. A friend brought one over one day and I looped it. I was used to pinning my DT125 pretty much all the time. I climbed on that CanAm and as I took off, I cranked it wide open. In a second I was staring straight up at the sky! That bike had power like I'd never seen before. Another bike I remember well was the first YZ 125. It was gray and a real handful to ride. Fun times!!!

 

Yeah the canam had a rotax motor and had power from very low down.
The first yz's were really pipey buggers and you had to have your head over the front fender when those things came on. I mean they bogged till you hit 5K and then it was like an explosion. My 400 was a great bike, it was one of only two in western Canada, It was the last of the dual shockers and it had lots of grunt. I raced it in enduros and did pretty good. Wish I had that kind of jam nowadays. I do like this new bike though, and like testify4 I would dream of riding legaly on the street.Now 18 years later, I can. (When I finish getting my license!!) We used to get chased by the cops quite a bit back then, but those were different times. Man I feel old talking about this stuff. Anyhoo