HL500 vs YZ400D

[TM BILL]

Bill calm down go and have a look for my muffler!
Steve

Deep breaths 

Steve i have one needs a repair you can have it if its any good to you ,email me at [email protected] and i will send pics

Bill

[maico police]

Whilst everyone has an opinion I've always believed that VMX is about representing the era of motocross that we enjoy. There's tons of great original bikes out there that truelly represent those eras.

I don't believe these hack-abouts or other bogus bitzas represent anything.

I don't like 'em and I'm happy I don't. 

[GMC]

Whilst everyone has an opinion I've always believed that VMX is about representing the era of motocross that we enjoy. There's tons of great original bikes out there that truelly represent those eras.

I don't believe these hack-abouts or other bogus bitzas represent anything.

I don't like 'em and I'm happy I don't. 

I couldn’t give a fat rat’s arse what bikes you like or don’t like but I find it odd that you want to deny the existence of bikes you don’t like.
Bogus Bitza’s??
Sounds like your talking about a KSI kit bike!!
HL’s, love them or hate them, along with many other kit bikes and oddities were around in the day and that can’t be changed.

[firko]

While I was doing the supermarket shopping this morning I started thinking about the HL's place in VMX. To me HL's, C&J's and other Evo aftermarket bikes are really just a seventies version of what started with the Rickman Metisse in the sixties. Back in the sixties the Metisse was seen as some exotic dream bike that really did change the way motocross was played. Unfortunately only the wealthy or sponsored racers could afford them and the majority of racers used standard based equipment. It was the same in the seventies, the exotica like HL and C&J were rich guys playthings that only existed in overseas magazines to us Aussies. There were many more aftermarket framed bikes racing in the USA and UK than we had here because of the restrictive import levy that was in force at the time.

Today with the help of eBay and other outlets we can race the bikes we dreamed of as kids. Ross makes the point that "I don't believe these hack-abouts or other bogus bitzas represent anything" but I think they represent what many of us wished we could have had at the time. The "bogus bitza" was a part of fifties and sixties motocross when we built our own bikes from left over shit. When the lightweight frames became available, the 'bitza' gained some respectability.

 I respect and understand a racers need to restore and race the bikes he raced during his golden days but I also respect those who find that they can now build the bikes they wish they could have had back in the day. I've restored concourse original bikes and built all out aftermarket framed hot rods and reckon that there's room for both schools of thought in our sport. It'd be pretty ordinary if we all raced the same old stuff. After a while one restored YZ400D looks just like another blokes YZ400D.

[Tahitian_Red]

After a while one restored YZ400D looks just like another blokes YZ400D.

That's the one thing I've tried to avoid. 

I'm still trying to figure out the 6 degrees of separation between a two pre-78 bike comparison and arguing over bitza bikes. 

[maico police]

They existed alright. I am aware of that. I just doubt that at the time there was a whole heap of xt/tt 500's with skinny fuel tanks, YZ front ends and Ohlins shocks passing themselves off as the real thing.....

[bigk]

I Ok I'll bite. I'm with Mont on this one, YZ400D every day over the HL. I hate the big, fat, highly over rated dungers. If they were sheilas they wouldn't get a look in unless you had a passion for the big, ugly, fat arsed, very loud type!
K

[09.0]

I prefer a Husky 510 over a hl. Same as a Maico 400 is so much better than a yz400. Believe the hype! The yz has a narrower power band as opposed to the well documented broad power of a Maico, plus the ergo's and handling are better.
In closing, forget them both and buy a Maico!

[Davey Crocket]

Bigk and Mont....thats what alcohol was invented for.....fat women and HL 500 replicas....the more you drink, the better they look.....BTW, I  dont like em either.....never seen a fast one up here......most of the owners fit into the fat women category......

[Slakewell]

YZ 400 for me over the HL but for Pre 78 Ill take a KTM MC 400 or Maico AW 400

[Rookie#1]

I don't currently race so maybe in some people's opinion I might not be entitled to one, BUT if were going to have a "serious" crack at class they both fall into I'd prob rather be on a 400d. Although if (like a lot I'd imagine) I was gonna acquire a bike that I think looks pretty cool and out there with a bit of a (rightly so) cult following that I enjoyed gazing at every time I spent a moment in the shed it would have a HL anyday. Id imagine that any bloke who owns a "TT/XT bitsa" in HL styling does so for the same reason a lot of blokes stick M3 badges on their blinged up 318i's or people that render just the front of their house and not the rest!!! I cant imagine anyone who could afford to get the job done properly wouldn't do so, but of ya can't might as well get the closest likeness that one can afford

Cheers, Brendan

[TM BILL]

I Ok I'll bite. I'm with Mont on this one, YZ400D every day over the HL. I hate the big, fat, highly over rated dungers. If they were sheilas they wouldn't get a look in unless you had a passion for the big, ugly, fat arsed, very loud type!
K

Thats the best analogy ever  

Its like those games you play with your mates when we were younger , See who can pull the Fugliest girl in a time frame and meet back at the pub with the unfortunates we pulled to compare specimens

Seems bloody cruel  now   but hey it made some fairly ordinary chicks feel special for a while  

Perhaps we could do the same with bikes   trouble is i couldn't afford one of those new KSIs  

[TM BILL]

I don't currently race so maybe in some people's opinion I might not be entitled to one,
Cheers, Brendan

Hey Brendan

If that was the case 70% of the forum wouldn't be allowed a say 

Mate im still lucky enough that i have the health and an understanding missus and the planets align to let me race  but the day will come when its game over or a temporary stand down and i will probably be on here banging on even more 

[Rookie#1]

[/quote]

Hey Brendan

If that was the case 70% of the forum wouldn't be allowed a say 

Mate im still lucky enough that i have the health and an understanding missus and the planets align to let me race  but the day will come when its game over or a temporary stand down and i will probably be on here banging on even more 
[/quote]


Oh geez we're in for bashin then!! Keep on racing Bill!!

Oh and that game you're referring to Bill, in Aus we call it "Piglotto" 

[HL500]

Hey Geoff, what frame number are you up to now?  I brought No. 53 way back four or five years ago I think?

I also brought an YZ465H back in 81.  An awesome bike but there wasn't many or any 4 strokes around tha I can recall that could come close to it. They tried believe me!!

But I have to say the HL is the bike that Yamaha should have developed alongside the Yammie IT class of enduro bike back then.  People build their version of a "HL" but I think its also stating the obvious; that there wasn't a 4 stroke bike available in the late seventies or early eighties that an average person could buy as an answer to the awesome two strokes.   

To tell you the truth I know a late model 4 stroke out performs my HL which I am still building by the way.  But I don't care.  And I know it will never be a serious competitor to the YZ465 or even the YZ400D, but I intent to enjoy it anyway.  And I still own a YZ465H and a YZ400F.  But I think my advancing age now matches the "HL",  or whatever people want to call them, a lot better.