1979 YZ80F

[rocketfrog]

There you go, every days a school day! I always thought that the airboxes where the same part, usually a change in number equates to a change in design and there it is. This post makes me feel like resurrecting my YZ80E project. I put it on the back burner ages ago and migrated to other projects. Not before amassing a heap of bits and scouring every source I could think of for the elusive airbox. I think I am going to fabricate one from aluminium, it will go with the translucent side panels and DG arm and head to give it a works mini flavour. Doing a concourse resto on a YZ80 from this era seems like an expensive exercise. I do like the stock look, but the late 70s YZ80 hot rod up real nice.

[80-85 husky]

go the custom look...get a pipe man to make a trick cone pipe and drill & fabricate to your hearts content

[rocketfrog]

I have an old school nos PK Racing pipe with a sort of built in silencer so the tip is about the size of a red bull can which looks like a the pipe has no stinger and silencer like a traditional set up. It has a heat shield with holes and PK stamped into it. Fitted, it looks like a shot gun barrel exiting just in line with the cut-out in the side cover.

 I have seen these minis accessorised with aftermarket bling to the hilt and they look great. I have a DG arm which looks cool, but there is a company which made a an alum arm out of aerotube (California based - something like CRP?) which looks very unique and trick.

Moto-Tek ignition set ups, Luft shocky with remote reservior and a whole gamit of bolt on goodies could be had for this era of mini. If Shinobi made a water cooled head kit for the YZ80's, I would like to fashion a Mini version of Hannahs' 0W27  with white guards, translucent plates and yellow tank with black speed block graphic - and of course the radiator mounted up front like the J's had.

I sent DC Plastics a seat foam to copy about 18 months ago and now you can get a replica foam for the YZ80E plus there are a lot of aftermarket bits still around for them so building up a respectable YZ80E rodder is probably easier and cheaper than trying to go for concourse.

[alexbrown64]

Yep Husky/Rocket, I think the E/F can look and run great as those DG package racers. I guy called Ron Boucher (I think) on Facebook and Vitalmx sells hop up parts for them.
My E and F are going back to original....not concourse, but clean.

Thanks for getting the seat foam set up through DC Rocket. I bought two. The E/F have the same shape on top, but the seat bases were slightly differently molded, but will fit both bikes.
I have a nos F seat cover to go on. The E seat cover is new replica from Canada. It has the piping like the original. The Thai ones don't have the piping.

The problem with the E was the cheesy frame. I have the Yamaha gusset kit I will TIG on. I will take pics of the frame restore. One rare item I found was the wire looking front brake cable guide. Also, I found nos front number plate wire mounting hooks and rubber band..

I think the E is a great bike to do up as a project. You should get yours up and started Rocket, as a DG racer would be worth a lot of money, and look great. I would love to see some pics of that.

My collection of parts is almost complete for the E, except for plastics. I may take my 125G, 80E and 80F hardware to the zincers to get done as a batch.  Then take all the frames, hubs, motors etc to the powder coaters to get done as a batch.

Cheers,

[rocketfrog]

Yeah, Rob Boucher was advertising for parts wanted on the Marks Swap Site. I contacted him a while ago to see if he was interested in the DG parts and he sort of went cold, I think he might have suspected a scam or something - it happens and once you get burned you are shy of getting done again. So I decided to sit on it for a while and see if I get the urge to build it up, I bought it sight unseen from a seller on Gumtree claiming it was a 1980 G model - which is what I wanted. When I got stuck with it I asked if there was any interest in a trade for a G model but no luck there either. So now I have the cheesy framed E which has had the Gusset kit installed previously and a bunch of aftermarket goodies, still not the G but I am somewhat inspired to build it up as a DG Racer. The cool aero tube swing arms were made by a company called CRF - Crotch Rocket Factory. I found a DG inlet manifold New in original package for $20! So there are still good bits around for the model at a reasonable price, I would like to find some period alloy rims for it. The tough one to get will be the 16 inch front in Aluminium, plenty of 17 inch around.

[alexbrown64]

I am still collecting parts for this old girl too.

Here are some pics from a Swedish brochure i picked up of the 79 YZ80..





Scored a nice rear mudguard the other day.. almost had to take out a second mortgage..



Also found a nos front number plate too.  Just need the white front guard.

Cheers,