Bike #5 1983 Yamaha IT175K

[95naSTA]

Over the Holiday weekend I went to Mid Ohio Vintage Motorcycle Days event in Lexington OH. It was amazing.. Part of the event was a swap meet that took about 2.5 hours to walk through. My intention was to find something to replace my 74 DT175 (Bike #2) that was of similar displacement, better suspension with more travel, more power and can still be titled. More or less an IT 175/200.

A few guys were asking $1500 or so for IT175/200s in decent shape. Then I found a guy asking $600 for a running '83 IT175. Picked it up for $500 w/ no title. This is awesome because I have someone buying my DT for $800. I ripped it around for 3 days including putting it though it's paces in the woods and the only mechanical issues are it needs chain slider, back brake and the float reset.

My plans are to get a tail light on it, get the lights wired up, do the back brake and get it titled through VT. The tires and chain/gears have enough in them for this season.

Also.. this thing is no stranger to accidental power wheelies.

[Sirius]

I approve.

Around here everyone thinks they need the biggest engine they can get their hands on...anything less than a 400cc is pretty much ignored. In their defense the altitude makes the smaller engines a little anemic, but I find the smaller engines are easier to handle and actually feel lighter. 175-200cc is a good size. 125 is a little pipey and doesn't have enough low-end. 250 2-stroke is getting to be a handful any more as they keep squeezing more horsepower out of them. I think you made a good choice.

[95naSTA]

Thanks. I think it helps since I have a big (ok, medium at 400) and a small enduro. I won't be bummed out at the lack of power or ability to get down the highway on the IT since that's what the DRZ is for. And in the same way I won't wish I picked up a 250 over the DRZ when the IT is 199lbs dry.

When I was at Mid-Ohio, I grabbed some spare wire and a bulb to see if I could get the headlight to work. I was able to but it didn't last very long. From what I read the lighting system is an unregulated, unrectified 6v system that only produces about 35 watts. The bulbs pull their share of the load and if one goes, the other is soon to follow. I decided to order a rectifier (pretty sure it's a half wave) and LED head/tail lights. The headlight is a 6v min input and the rear is a 6v led replacement, not sure on the min but seems to work on other older 6v systems. I'm hoping the lower wattage of these bulbs makes them more usable than the stock incandescents.

For the rear tail light housing, I decided to get a smaller trail type light from a Honda XR. Pretty much everyone I know that bought the taillight/plate combos have ripped their plates off in the woods. So I'm just going to mash my plate into a visible spot in my rear wheel well. It'll be easy to see with my trimmed rear fender. (A lot of people almost completely hide their plate in Philly)

[Sirius]

A "low profile" taillight like in your pic is the way to go. Much more difficult to break than the larger units that incorporate a tag holder. I won't go as far as say it will be unbreakable because that would be a challenge to the endo gods and make it almost 100% certain you'll break it first time out. I've dealt with those hosers enough to know not to taunt them in any way.

I find it interesting that with two identical bikes with different sized engines, the smaller engined bike will feel much lighter. My son & I have identical bikes - mine's a 250 his is a 300. Everything in the engine is the same except the bore, yet his bike (when they're running) doesn't feel as nimble as mine.

[96 SSEi]

how,s that little h-light at dusk?

[95naSTA]

I find it interesting that with two identical bikes with different sized engines, the smaller engined bike will feel much lighter. My son & I have identical bikes - mine's a 250 his is a 300. Everything in the engine is the same except the bore, yet his bike (when they're running) doesn't feel as nimble as mine.

That's kinda wild it feels that different. I was surprised in the other way I road a buddy's late 70s IT250 (YZ alum rear swing) back to back with my IT175. The weight felt very similar in the air launching it off a grass hump at the event. Everything I read was there's a huge difference between the IT175/200 and the 250. I didn't rip the 250 in the woods though, so maybe that's the real test.

how,s that little h-light at dusk?

100% sucks but I'm looking to improve that as mentioned above.

[95naSTA]

Fixing the leaking carb on this turned out to be a little tougher than I thought.

I picked up a Keyster rebuild kit for a IT175 up to 1983 but ended up not completely fitting my year.. Along with the needle valve leaking that I knew about, the needle it's self was stuck compressed. I threw the Keyster needle in there with the old seat since it didn't fit. The PO had adjusted the float so it was always shut (but leaking) so I adjusted it back to stock height. It took me a minute but I eventually figured out that the float valve was shut all the time at the new height. After a guestimation, I got it to fill without leaking.





I got it to start and run but I could only get it idle with the choke. So.. I swapped out the pilot out for what came in the Keyster kit. Game on. It worked. It turns out that the previous setup was the right mix of clogged pilot and leaking float valve. You had to shut the petcock when you weren't riding it, but hey it worked..

With that out of the way, I wired up the lighting circuit through a Yamaha (guessing half wave) rectifier, the stock switch, a 12w LED headlight and a 5w tail light. When cold, it seems to work decent enough but when hot, not the greatest. Since I live in the city and I don't have plans to do night time rips in the woods, I'm not overly worried about it. More than anything else I just want to appear legalish.

So it runs, has brakes, has lights. Fingers crossed the Vermont registration goes through without issue and I can rip this thing on the street without worrying about it.

[Sirius]

Looks like a Mikuni. You could probably get a whole new carb for about $120 from Sudco, if that one gives you grief in the future. I've opened up a couple carbs and wondered how did this thing run?! LOL.

[95naSTA]

Yep, it's a VM34. Thanks for the info on Sudco.

Yamaha did some *shoot* where they used a bored out VM32 from 80-81 then the VM34 82-83. Either way it's a big honking carb compared the the DT and Rd carbs I've been messing with.

[Sirius]

On the bright side, those VM carbs have been around since Columbus brought syphilis to the New World, so parts are still readily available for them.

I imagine there's all kinds of tips and data on those carbs on the interweb...I've never actually looked.

[95naSTA]

Lol. I haven’t really looked into it either for this bike.

[95naSTA]

I got the Vermont plate in the mail yesterday, put insurance on it and put 20 miles or so on it going to/from work today with no issues.

[Sirius]

Wow, there's a lot of room in that shop!

Is the fuzz OK with the plate buried in there like that? I guess when you bottom out the shock the tire's not going to catch it and bury it on the trail somewhere?

[95naSTA]

Yeah I wish I owned all that space.. It's a 6 bay communal spot that my buddy rents a bay from and lets me keep my DT+IT there.

I guess I'll find out with the cops but it's pretty common to have plates buried like that in the city here. Not only that, there's a sht ton of people here who ride dirt bikes around with no plate/reggo/insurance. It's likely one of those things where I'm not assaulting anyone or messing anything up so they move on to actual important crimes.

I jumped up and down on the bike a few times and couldn't get the plate to make contact with the shock so hopefully I'm good there.

In other news I read through 30 pages of IT175 threads on an IT forum and found a few people who fitted a DG IT200 pipe on 82/83 IT175s without much trouble. So that might happen at some point.

I also bought a spare lighting coil to try and re-wind for more Amps/Voltage. Once I get it, I'll measure and get the next gauge for more amps. The plan is to at least match the same number of turns with a thicker gauge magnetic wire. Looking to measure resistance, idle amps/voltage before and after too. The only thing I have yet to figure out is what low viscosity, high temp, thermally conductive, dielectric epoxy I'll use to coat it.

[Sirius]

...there's a sht ton of people here who ride dirt bikes around with no plate/reggo/insurance. It's likely one of those things where I'm not assaulting anyone or messing anything up so they move on to actual important crimes.

I hope you know how lucky you are that the cops around there appear to hold that philosophy. We're not so fortunate here in Utah. We have a great law that says every OHV needs to be registered if its transported on public roads. That means if you're taking your broken dirt bike to a shop to be fixed, and it's not registered, the cops can stop you and write a ticket. I actually had a DNR (Department of Natural Resources...garden cop) officer pass me going in the opposite direction then turn around and follow me to where we were going to ride. I knew exactly what the asshat was up to so I drove around the parking area with him following me until he finally lit me up. His reason for harassing me was "he thought I was using the same registration sticker on both bikes". Even if he had Superman eyes there's no way he could have read the 1/4" numbers on both bikes as we passed. Jerk. Most of the rural authorities in Utah aren't such doosh-weasels as the ones in the Salt Lake Valley, and this one was a real piece of work.

[95naSTA]

WOW. That's out of control on needing registration for transport.

Philadelphia proper is give and take, block by block it's different. If you know the lay of the land you're good. I'm a mile from the largest open air heroin market on the east coast. It sounds terrible but my area is pretty decent and I don't get hassled for tint or other dumbsht like that. If I venture out of the city, I feel like those guys are starving for 'action' and get a hard on over stuff like that.

It's funny how grey area bikes are here. Philadelphia Parking Authority will ticket cars for expired registration/inspection but never bikes. You can park your bike outside of a police district with no inspection and never get a ticket. Sidewalk parking is also fair game outside of the immediate downtown area.

[95naSTA]

I found out something interesting about this bike when I was attempting to get the odometer working.. It does not have a stock front end. It looks like it has earlier IT175 forks but I cannot figure out what freaking front wheel I have. I searched for hours trying to match up my front brake plate (with integrated odometer gear) to other Yamaha/Kawasaki/Suzuki/Honda models. I'm kicking myself for not looking at the part number hidden behind the brake shoe the last time I had the front wheel off. The biggest issue is the drive is a split cable setup, not a square. So it's not compatible with the stock cable. What I finally ended up doing was ordering a cheap KE cable since it has a split end on the input and a square on the output. The goal is to get the odometer working then adapt an '80 speedometer to work so I actually know how fast I'm going on the street.

Other than that I had a blast on this thing this weekend. A buddy and I hit up a favorite spot even though it's been raining a bit. It kind of sucked at first but once I figured out I could just blast through the puddles it was a lot of fun.

https://youtu.be/43ohbnziH6o

[Sirius]

Cool. That brings back memories.

you need some sweet ridin' boots. Take a look at the Forma Adventure series. I have some of these and they are awesome.

[95naSTA]

I full on need riding boots.

I actually bought a (cheaper) pair but I couldn't get them working with the stock shifter setting on my DRZ. This bummed me out because I didn't want to adjust the sifter so they only work with those boots. I actually haven't tried the boots on the IT but I have to imagine it's the same.

That said, I need to find something that works. Those Formas actaully look pretty cool. I'm not super pumped on the loud full on MX styles out there.

[Sirius]

Since you're doing mostly trail riding, MX boots aren't the ideal ticket anyway - they generally have a relatively smooth (and stiff) sole. Nice thing about the Adventure boot is that it's light, has good tread (rather handy when pushing out of the mud), and is waterproof. They're like wearing a pair of knee-length sneakers. And they're comfortable to walk in. I know I sound like a spokesman for Forma, but I can't say enough about the boots. You can buy cheaper, but you can't buy better for the price.