HI Folks - Long time Yamaha enduro fan from the US. I thought I would toss out a few pictures and the back story for my 1971 Yamaha DT1 Suntanker Gravel Tracker.
The short story is I got the bike as part of a trade - three old bikes for an old aluminum boat. I only wanted one of the bikes, but the other two got tossed on the trailer before I could get out of the driveway.
The one I wanted was an XR70 for my son, but this old vintaged MX Enduro also intrigued me.
So the Black bike went to the storage for awhile, and parts sourcing began over a couple of years. last year I decided to get the darned thing done for a trip to Utah I had planned.
The tank was kind of rough, so I decided a full re-paint was necessary. I used Urethane primer, then water based color coat applied via a cheap air brush followed by a catalyzed clear. My first attempt at such a graphic job.
The bike had a lot of neat parts that came with it, so a lot of what I was doing was just replacing rubber bits, cables, and a lot of elbow grease. The seat I completely rebuilt with new foam, refinished the pan, and a seat cover from Ryder in Canada. The motor is fairly stock with a fresh top end and still running autolube.
The wheels are vintage shouldered Akront rims, and they are wrapped with Dunlop D606 Road approved knobbies. The front suspension is 72 or so MX with the aluminum triple tree and the rear shocks are NOS Redwing hammerhead units.
Fly front bars and a custom painted NOS front fork brace finishes things out. The rear fender is a one off and the rack, though it started as a vintage aftermarket has been modified (lowered a bit) to more closely hug the rear fender.
Vintage aluminum K&N Desert foot pegs were discovered on Ebay late one night!
I am running an aftermarket aluminum sprocket in a 44 tooth version on a non-dampered MX rear hub. The size of this sprocket off the MX required a bit of massaging the lower chain guard to fit.
The use of MX hubs left me with no provision to run a stock speedo, and this bike is intended to be a streetable rider. The result was the need for a modern electronic gauge setup from Trailtech featuring a Speedo, Tach and several other features. It is mounted to the original triple tree mounts for the factory gauges, and uses a magnetic pickup on the front wheel for the speedo.
I built the bike to be my interpretation of what a Yamaha "Works" enduro might have looked like back in the day. I built it to be a looker, but not to be a garage or trailer queen. In May of 2013, the bike accompanied me to Moab, UTAH and spent a few hours enjoying the dust and views of the desert Southwest!
Thanks for following along! I will post up some of the other recent builds as soon as I get some more free time.
