Yamaha-For tough kids

could you imagine running that ad today! You would have 20 bleeding heart lawyers after you.....

I had the Yamaha bike........lol.
It was a cool bike.

Jason

40lbs but so cool. I had an original lemon crate stingray from that era, and an ashtabula complete bike from about the same.

Ashtabula ? Wonder how they got named that? Were they made in Ohio ?

My dad has one of those he found a while back. It's in rough shape and needs a restoration, but they are cool as hell. And like reefer said, heavy AF

Had a new one in '74. I remember the Yamaha Dirt Days event at Sunshine Speedway in late '74. Basically the biggest demo weekend ever. Every new 74 and 75 model MX / Enduro bike available for demo.

They also trucked out about 100 moto-bikes, along with about 10 huge wooden A frame jumps and held BMX races.

There must have been a pile of about 20-25 wasted moto- bikes laying on the ground next to the big truck they hauled them in by the end of the first day.

Every time one would break, they would dig another new one out of the truck.

The early three piece , cottered cranks were the big weak spot on them, along with the rear shocks.

I have a Yamaha and a Kawasaki, if anyone has a Suzuki or a Husqvarna they they want to send my way that'd be great.

cool bike till you rode it. those shocks

i had a new one bought it from Franks Yamaha in hudson Mass, 145 dollars

I could totally see you riding around Marlborough on your moto-bike

Yep. They made forks, cranks, and handlebar kits that you'd put on other frames of the era, or the ashtabula frame. (the ones that had the big gusset up front, after the "Stingray" era) That was the hot set-up circa 77ish before the market exploded with all the mongoose, SE, redline, and haro components. mag wheels too. those wheels are probably 10lbs EACH. the cranks were only about 160mm and would bend if you yelled at them. i'd have to check but the rear wheel might even be a Bendix coaster brake. been so long.

That looks kinda like a young TC41