1976 Yamaha YZ-400C
I spend a lot of time searching Craigslist for "treasures". This almost universally takes place in the "Motorcycles" category exclusively. While I look for the inevitable modern bike for under a grand, my primary focus remains Evolution-Era motocross bikes. Mostly Yamaha YZ's, and Suzuki RM's.
I'd been spending most of my time and money playing with my CR500, but spring was coming, and I wanted to find another vintage bike to race at some of the Hammer & Tongs races this summer...most notably Washougal.
There wasn't a lot of bikes to choose from. I found a '78 RM400C, but it was half-way to California, $900, and not all that great looking. There were three '79 YZ400F's, but I was leery about parts for that one year model, and each of them was over $1000, which is a lot to pay for the bike you don't really want. I kept looking for another YZ465, or a '79-'80 RM400, but I couldn't seem to find any.
Then I found this one.
"1976 Yamaha YZ400C...$500 obo"
It caught my eye. The '76 YZ's were horribly obsolete by 1977. To race one in the Evolution class against YZ465's and Maico 490's would be suicide. Still, I had cut my teeth long ago on a '76 YZ125X and had loved it. My fat lard butt would never be able to ride a 125 near lightspeed again, so I thought scaling up might solve the problem AND retain a touch of bicentennial year nostalgia.
There was another factor as well, a new "Trans-Am" class had been added to the local vintage circuit, specifically designed to address the niche this bike fell into - those bikes that were too new to race in the true Vintage classes, and too old to be competitive with the Post-Vintage/Evolution long legged fire breathers of the late '70's.
Perfect.
I called the guy up.
Five hours later, a dinner at DQ, a trip to Yelm, and $250 exchanged and the bike was mine.
Now what to do with it...
The old YZ is in good starter shape for a restoration. By that I mean it's all but all there. In the picture above, you can see the totally wrong gas cap half plopped in place. It is WAY too small, the threads don't even touch the tank. It's there more to keep spiders and wolverines out, than to keep gas in. New one ordered. The tank has a few small dents, and is missing paint on both sides. By the symmetry of the wear, I'm wondering if it had a tank protector on it at one time that didn't do it's job...sort of like removing the bra from your Ferrari and seeing how it sand-papered the finish while you were looking the other way. Ouch. Not such a big deal here, tank goodness.
The biggest problems encountered so far, are the gas cap, a missing fuel line shown here, and a pair of absolutely rotten air-filters.
These babies were so decayed that I had that bothersome, "Ewww, icky!" recoil feeling like when you find a maggot infested dead bird in your slipper as a present from your grateful house cat. Thanks Kitty.
A new set of Uni air-filters are on order to replace these poor cadavers. I wish I had taken a picture of them, but they didn't even survive the initial bike exam at the sellers place. He was as shocked as I. He had bought the bike from his bosses brother (or something like that), as a project, and hadn't done any more work than wheel it into the garage. There is sat until I came to pick it up.
Tank wear on the other side. Note the bars. They are not badly bent, but are completely oxidized. I haven't decided if I am going to strip and repaint them, or just get a new pair. Which reminds me...why is a single piece of metal called a "pair or handlebars"? Hmmm.
Note the amazing high/low pressure air canisters on top of the forks - a 1976 YZ hallmark. I need to find another of the little black rubber covers!!!
Also note the yellow Oury grip...COOL!!!
The rear end looks surprisingly good. The bike came without a chain, but I just happened to have a good one that fit right on there. Hooray for money saved! Even the antique knobby isn't all that bad.
This is the part that scares/excites me. I don't know who or what this really is, but I KNOW it's not the stock silencer for a '76 YZ400C. Looks like it came off of an 80. I haven't started the bike yet, but this thing LOOKS loud.
The pipe and motor look good, though in need of a good blasting and fresh coat of paint. I was surprised at how dent free the pipe appears. All the controls are in fine, if a little rusty condition. Clutch lever feels fine, and the transmission seems to shift through the gears just great.
The front fender is from a '77 or '78, and has a bit of sun-fade. DC Plastics makes some really nice replacement plastics for this old warrior. I'm going to make do for the time being, and use that money for more urgent things as they pop up: Pistons, clutches, tires, etc. Though I think an order for full new plastics may be in the long range plans.
I am going to get it running before I do any "prettyification" to it. I want to see how it handles on the track, and how I can do on it before I lavish money on eye candy. Regardless, it's growing on me. It was a nice discovery at a great price. I should have it race ready for under $500, which is getting harder and harder to do these days. Whether I can win on it will be another story.