- 9,999
- Camarillo, CA
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- ebay.com
The back story:back in 1980, yamaha (along with other brands) had a program where they would donate vehicles to different tech programs in the area. One of these facilities was la trade tech college in los angeles, ca. The lead instructor in charge of the mechanics portion of the school was patrick owens, who was an instructor at the school until 1989. The bike lived at the school as an illustration vehicle for the students, and so was never run. What does denote the bike's history is a stamping on the vin and another set of numbers underneath (see picture). These "new" numbers were coded for the school and used for the purposes of keeping track of inventory. Upon his retiring from the school, owens managed to "bid" on this bike, along with a few other bikes, and took ownership of them. Over the next few years following his retirement, he rode the bike periodically, however soon decided to store the bike. In storing the motorcycle, owens prepped it by draining all fluids, refilling motor with fresh oil, drying out the tank and carburetor, and covering it up in his garage, where it would sit for for the next 27 years. Owens passed away not too long ago, and the bike was eventually pulled out of storage and sold (along with other motorcycles) at the request of his wife donna owens. We couldn't understand why the bike was so original however had gold rims on it. And the rims appeared to be of the approximate age and condition of the rest of the bike. This one stumped everybody! The bike, again appearing completely stock on all accounts, has a billet aluminum top triple clamp. We saw no markings of a manufacturer so pictures were sent off to clay setzer from flashback racing. He has vast knowledge of bikes and parts, along with a wealth of connections to help answer questions just like this. So pictures were sent, and clay contacted friends from all over the world to try and make sense of the clamps. The biggest confusion was that the rubber isolators were consistent with later model bikes, however these have the period-correct 38mm fork tubes, unable to retrofit from later models. Hand made custom top triple clamp, origin unknown. We reached out to la trade tech and spoke with the school about classes building custom tooled one-off items, and they told us this was not within the scope of their curriculum for mechanics education. Additional info:-the bike starts and runs like new! It sounds nice and tight, crisp popping from the silencer! It runs through the gears like a new bike. Throttle pull is smooth, brakes work surprisingly well.-we have new tires/tubes/air filter on the bike-forks have been serviced with new seals/wipers/oil-the seat cover and tank stickers are new. While we wanted to keep it as original as possible, the seat cover was stained and the stickers were falling off.
9999 Miles✔ Chain Transmission✔ Air Cooling System✔ Tank cover✔ Seat cover