DT 400 -> IT 400

[Phil Hip Poh]

Hello everyone and happy new year!

I'm a newcomer in this site, and I'm pretty afraid I would immediately disgust most of you with my project (I already almost did it with oldgitonabike as soon as I introduced myself...), but I will try all the same.

Here in Italy there is a pretty amousing Vintage Enduro Championship, with many classes and riders, last year I won my class riding a 1982 Kram It 250, but I really felt unappropriated with this bike, way too modern compared to the others in the other classes (up to 1973 2 and 4 strokes, up to 1977, up to 1981 and "new ones", all spared in subclasses for the engine size).

I would like to race with a really vintage bike and pretty big too (I'm pretty tall and heavy: 1,89 meters and 93 kgs): there are not so big choices from the middle 70ies: KTM, Montesa, Ossa, Bultaco, Husqvarna, Maico...

All of them are really expensive to buy, and almost all are really hard to restore with spare parts, rare or more than rare...

That's how I arrived to Yamaha, unfortunately in Italy IT models were never imported, but casually I discovered (and bought for a good price) this DT 400, another pretty unknown bike, here in Italy.

My idea is to try to fit different suspensions in it, and then working even on the engine.

As you can imagine, everything is still "to be", so only the bike in pretty sure (well: even the low budget, I should say...), so I would like to read your ideas, suggestions, advices and opinions...

- I could easy find a wrecked XT 550 for just a few euros: do you think that I could fit the complete front fork, triple clamps and wheel on the DT?

- Still from the XT 550, I could take the rear swing arm and cantilever and fit it on the DT?

- Do you think is it possible to mount an IT 400 rotor in my engine?

- I think I would put an IT carburator (and carburator boot) on my bike, what do you think?

- Does the IT seat and other body parts fit on my frame?

Thank you all in advance,

Filippo