Words: Leslie O’Brien | Photos: Jock Davidson
This DT175 was purchased as a frame, engine case, tank and swingarm from forum member Guilly for the cost of a 6 pack of Jack and cola. The bike was assembled using mostly secondhand parts, no parts have been refinished as for this bike I preferred the ‘patina’ look that good original parts have.
Almost all of the parts have come from my stash of DT parts. One of the attractions these little bikes have is they can be found for a song, another is they have a long production run meaning nothing is hard to find or expensive.
It was built as a commuter originally and served a full year of road duties without a spanner being laid on it. The engine was rebuilt using the matching cases with a new rod, bearings and a new Wosner piston. The rest of the engine parts were deemed serviceable and were pressed back into service.
The barrel received particular attention, aiming at a fatter spread of power and more revs it had some adjustments done to the ports, the head was lapped down for a bump in compression and finally a set of fibre reeds and a period correct Answer muffler to complete the engine modifications.
The square headlight and instruments were shelved in favour of earlier model round ones, same too the front guard was replaced with one from the stash.
After the 12 months rego expired it had a set of knobbies fitted and I took it to it’s first VINDURO event at Cookardinia. Happily the DT’s leaky forks were the bike’s only issue, it ran superbly for 5 laps on Sunday. There are now plans to fit a rebuilt pair of YZ125E forks, a 2LS (twin-leading shoe) front brake plate and alloy rims. It’s never going to set the ground on fire with performance, but it will be a bike that’s built to give trouble free weekends.
I got into VINDURO events after attending the Yamaha IT Forum rides, I like the ‘not racing for cattle stations’ approach every VINDURO event I have attended has had.
And here are some pics of the bike being ‘ridden-in-anger’
