1980 YZ465G Supermoto - "Project Supershed"

I bought the bike of eBay and paid £250, it was a proper old nail. Someone had TIG welded a lump of billet ally to the original for leg to badly convert it from a TLS drum to a disc brake setup. The 18" front wheel it was wearing came off an unknown Jap bike and was soon put in the bin.

A set of DTR125 forks were bought (again from eBay), stripped down and rebuilt. They fitted the YZ frame - same bearing sizes and stem length. 17" Morad rims were laced up to the original rear hub and a DTR125 front, Dunlop GPR70s provided some sticky road rubber. The same DTR125 provided the front brake setup, but will be upgraded to a 320mm floating disc and 4-pot calliper in the near future.

At some point the engine had seized, and I presumed that the stuck ring was causing the lack of compression - although he bike did run...badly. I rebuilt the top end, NOS piston and rings, a re-honed barrel and new gaskets. It ran better, but it was now apparent the bottom end was as sick as the top was. A new set of crank seals, some main bearings, and a conrod kit sorted this out and it was running sweet.

The plastics were changed to yellow to try and keep with the 1980s Yamaha theme, although the tank needs a respray as the primer reacted with the paint and its started to bubble. It was MOT'd and insured on its frame number, and a letter from Yamaha UK in Brooklands confirmed it was a 1980 YZ465G. I then went to the DVLA with all the paperwork to road-register it, and I was sent a tax disc and a registration number in the post.

Updates

A DG Racing exhaust, Brembo master cylinder, and a NOS tank cover have now been added.

James Barnicote from 'Supermoto Magazine' ran a feature the bike in issue 22 - many thanks to him!

Sadly the old girl has been sold now to make way for the next project - a 1985 KX500 Supermoto

Pictures