Action pix of 1970 DT1-250 ...

[trailietrash]

Nice bike... and who did the chamber? it looks well done.

[Iain Cameron]

unluckily the master pipe maker past away a couple of years ago he was a member of Heaven. Peter Worrol a master in metal. pici is not a dt but rt1 built by niffty

[Doggy Digger]

One thing I hated on old Yams was the worm-drive clutch actuator.  Unit sits in front
of drive sprocket:
1.   Would clog up with spun grass and mud

2.   The worm drive would dry up ... get sticky etc

3.   A thrown chain immediately bent the push-rod

I saw this alloy gizmo on an ebay bike that a member flagged a few months ago

[mx250]

Nice gizzmo and a good solution.

What you say about the clutch is all true and was changed in the DT/MX range but the real prob with the DT1 and RT1 was the chassis/handling which actively tried to kill the rider. If they weren't head shaking they were swapping ends. If you jumped them they either fell by the front or they fell by the rear - the rider had to be so precise at launch . And they landed like a brick. And they wouldn't go around a corner for love nor money - either pushed the front end or high side the rider. I suppose everything did, but these were the worst of the worst.

But shit we had fun . Young, dumb, full of cum and didn't know any better  .

What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger  .

[Doggy Digger]

   I bought this RT1 off Winston WYATT.  I'm riding on a subdivision construction, Jan 1973.  Home town of
Berwick was being carved up by subdivisions for miles around.  Eventually the several local
villages all became one great mass of housing estates.  Before the housing boom, we had approx. six tracks
dotted around perimeter of our town.   We'd (mostly) push our bikes to the tracks.

   Footnote:  My gumboots had a sloppily painted, childish white stripe down the side.

   News cutting shows Winston winning the C-Grade Grand National at Xmas Hills, 1971.   The extremely wet one,
when Peter PLOEN (Husky 400) took that year's GN title back to NZ.  He has a nearly bald front tyre;
a home-made fork brace and a local shop owner's prefabbed expansion chamber.  It has a bronze head too.
His seat foam is collapsed, cos he'd flogged the guts out of that bike.
   He's wearing roadworker's rain gear, and daggy old roadbike style boots.  Too wet for gloves.