By Alan Woods
| I bought the bike tatty but complete from Arizona in 1997 and my father
and I started on it around Christmas. It was the first vintage Yamaha we've worked on,
having previously raced Elsinores. Anyway, everything went pretty smoothly; parts weren't
quite the nightmare we'd been told, but still some things took some seriously digging. The frame and swingarm were powder-coated, wheels rebuilt with stainless spokes. Not many new parts were required, the engine was good but had a bodged liner -- so we had a liner fitted by PJ Engineering over here in Birmingham, England, which accepts chrome or steel rings. Due to the scarcity of the stock YZ250 rings (steel, for a chrome bore) we decided to use YZ250C rings, which are in plentiful supply and fit right on the YZ250A piston. We managed to get all the bearings and oil seals, bar one main bearing oil seal and the clutch arm bearing. Brass swingarm bushes were made to replace the trick but impossible to find rollers. The forks tubes were bent, which is very common with these bikes -- the tubing is small in diamater and wall thickness -- and a local firm did a great job of making them straight again. The tank and fenders were painted. To get the tank graphics I took a cue from pictures I saw of Tim Hart and Pierre Karmakers bikes from Carlsbad USGP '73. I took a Vintage Iron graphics kit, scanned the images in, added the speed blocks and had vinyl graphics printed in black and white; came out nice don't you think? (If anyone wants to do their bike the same colour scheme I can make more decals cheaply or supply the line artwork via e-mail for free). Finally, we threw on off-the-shelf Works Performance shocks, Michelin tires, and Renthal rear sprocket, bars and grips. On the Friday before our first race we went out to try the bike and the ignition failed! Steve Sage from Colorado told me a YZ250D complete unit would bolt right on, and luckly I had a YZ400D I wasn't racing that weekend to cannibalize. Sunday came -- the second round of our championship -- and the bike ran flawlessly although a little rich, and I ended up with second overall. Since then we've had a few small teething troubles, but the bike is awesome, certainly goes as well as it looks and luckly has been worth all the effort! Now I am on the lookout for a '74/75 YZ125A/B. If anyone has one, especially in |