Well, being a Mod on the forum and not having a Yamaha for a while I saw an abused YA6 local to me for sale on fleabay. I bidded a few hundred quid and won it. Then the thoughts of "what have I done" started. This feeling is quite common for me.
Anyway, the bike has been imported from the USA and came with the customs declaration saying that all duties had been paid so that was a good start. These bikes were made from 1964 to 1966. The frame number puts the bike somewhere in the 65/66 ballpark but more about that later.
The YA6 was a single cylinder 2 stroke 125cc bike with a fantastic amount of technology for the year. The spec includes;
Autolube - the bike is reckoned to have the first self mixing 2 stroke with a separate oil tank.
12 volt electrics - bikes, even large cc ones, were mostly 6volt at the time.
Electric start - how cool was that in the mid '60's?
As I mentioned earlier, the bike is dated somewhere in 1965 or 1966. Frame numbers run between Y21-102883 and Y21-210890. My bike is Y21- 1955**. Because it is not registered in the UK, and I have no clue about the original title, dating it to a specific year will come later. A quick couple of messages to Paul Dawkins seems to confirm this. In addition, the bike still sports the original dealer sticker; Vic Panetti's of Milwaukee, Winconsin (shown later in the photos). Sadly this dealer went into administration in October 1965 after nearly 48 years of trading.
This will possibly be a long project but as far as I am concerned, I need to order some more plusgas and let the pain fun, and expense, begin.
Here are the "before" photos.
That's about it for the minute. It is still snowing here so the bike will end up under a cover until the plusgas and a workshop manual appear.