First Bike

My First Bike


1983 Yamaha DT-80K

An air-cooled single cylinder 72cc 2-stroke dual purpose. Maxxed out in 4th gear it would do 45-50 mph depending on wind and hills. At stoplights getting out of the way of traffic was never a problem. It could hold it's own up to top speed. Quite rare as far as I can tell. Do an internet search and you can't even find a picture other than mine.

I bought it for $800 in September of 1994 with less than 200 miles on it. I was looking for a dirtbike so I didn't have to ride my friend's POS Honda Trail 70. I didn't have a driver's license at the time, but I figured once I did, I could ride it on the street too. My mom was in the hospital at the time and doped up, so there were no objections from her about buying it. It was the beginning of the end.

One day while riding back from some off-roading I got stopped by a cop. He wrote me up for "no licensed driver present" (I had a learner's permit), no registration and no inspection. I went to court and the judge deferred the charges for six months. Lucky me.

In March I got my license and got the bike legal: registered, insured, and inspected. On March 18 my DT now had 502 miles on it. From now until December when the engine would no longer stay together I rode the hell out of it. During the summer that is all I did. Mowing three lawns a week to pay for gas, oil, and parts. By November 2 the odometer was reading 8,856.5 miles. That night I was messing with the air filter and carb to get more power. This was before I knew what I was doing. The result was lean running and a melted piston which seized it. Oops. I had the cylinder bored out one size and put in a new piston and rings and was back on the road on Nov. 12. I rode until Dec. 10 with 9242 miles. Because it was so cold by now, the iron cylinder wouldn't expand at the same rate as the aluminum piston. The result= it seized again. I pulled the engine and left it in the basement all winter. The most I had ridden it in one day was 180.7 miles, about two tanks of gas.

In April just for the hell of it, I put it back together with broken piston rings and all and rode it four miles before I realized I forgot to bolt the engine to the frame. It ran pretty well for having just pieces of piston rings. Over the summer I was getting the parts to rebuild it but I eventually sold it, for $500 I think.

I wish I still had it.





© 2006 SVbadguy