1978 YZ-400E
In January of 2009, the vintage racing bug hit me pretty hard. I already had a YZ-465G I was making race ready, but I was in the habit of checking out Craigslist for Evolution era dirt bikes, when I came across an ad for a "'79 YZ400". I opened the ad, and saw it was not a '79, but a '78, and my interest was piqued. I always liked the 1978 Yamaha line up, and had never owned one. In fact, I'd prefer the '78 to the '79 due to parts availability.
Hmmm.
I looked at the ad, and I thought a bit, then I grabbed the phone and called him up.
The seller said he had only ridden the bike 3 or 4 times. Things were sounding better and better.
Despite not having been started "in at least five years", I did my standard big-bore startup drill, and "Bring-ding-ding-ding", the old YZ started on about kick number eight, including four "choking kicks" made with the gas off. Oh, it smoked a LOT, but I was impressed things weren't all varnished up in there.
It's all there and, except for the levers, grips, seat cover, and silencer, appears all low hour and original.
Home at last. Here's the YZ with all the accumulated machine shop dust and dirt it had gathered over the years...
...and here it is after being rinsed off. Still haven't hit it with soap or scrub brush, but it already looks a lot better.
Tomorrow we lose the god-awful and amazingly reflective Washington state ORV tags. This bike is headed for the race track, and won't be needing them. I'll also pop the head and see what oversize the piston is, change the tranny oil, and service the air-cleaner. I'm also going to check out the WILD angle on that rear fender, and see if the frame is bent, the plastic is torqued, or if that's the way it's SUPPOSED to be.
Next I needed to get a replacement for the Answer spark arrester, get some numbers...AND THAT'S IT! Ready to race!!! Found a brand new DG silencer, and had my standard 319 numbers printed up.
I took it down to Woodland in February, and got a pretty good start in a mixed class moto. I ended up banging bars with some experts, and Wham! That was it. I was down. I ended up with some seriously damaged man-bits, and a messed up forarm which kept me off of a dirtbike for the next seven months between the two. Suffice to say, I blamed the ball busting on the odd ergonomics of the 400, and sold it to a guy who was happy to give me $300 more than I'd payed for it. I miss it, as it was a neat old bike. But my nuts don't.
