The de compression release is so insane. When I was a kid racing 80's doing TT scrambles ,those bike dominated the open class! To properly use the de compression as an engine brake is a thing to behold !! What an amazing bike .You would hit the sweeper full throttle and just rip through it ,the TT scramblers would make this wicked hissing sound as they used the release to engine brake going into or coming out of the sweep .
One bike that l would love to own. My Dads best friend had one and he was my hero when l was 6 because he rode one of these. He played a huge part with starting my obsession with dirt bikes that is bigger than ever now 44years later. If I was you I'd never sell it to anyone.. Except to me of course ! 😆👍
My brother bought a brand new XT500 Black n Silver, 1980 somthin, those bikes run excellent, you could ride a wheely as far as you wanted til it blew blue smoke out the back, he put an oil thing on it so it would'nt run out of oil when the front wheel was up.. Great video & Great Bike 👍
I had a “79 TT with a pipe and a K&N air filter and yeah l removed the breather box and replaced it with a rubber hose that eliminated the problem.My longest wheelie was about three miles ,l really miss that bike.
Thats a nice 77tt i have the same model and one of my favourite , it wass also featured in classic motorcycle mechanic. Yours sounds great with the supertrap silencer.
Nice bike, it looks better than new! I seem to remember that they had a little window on the cambox with a red dot/line that you lined up before kicking over, am I right about that or just imagining things?. Why don't they make bikes like that any more?.
Cheers Mark. The first year XT's / TT's didn't have the window on the cambox but the '77 onwards models did ... Though I never found it useful personally.
It is a silver marker that show's up in the little window 'when I first got mine I used it for starting 'but quickly just did what felt right with the kick starter and using the compression release' I was 16 and light and skinny 'but had no problem with it ' no broken leg that people speak of.
@@barrycuda3769 I never had a TT but I did have an XR500 which had an automatic decompressor and in my ownership I think it kicked back twice, no 'broken leg' but a very sore instep and I clearly remember it after all these years.
@@timgraysontv It's the ignition timing that'll cause kickback. I've found with these Yams that if the timing is even a fraction too advanced they kick back a lot. The trick is to set the timing ever so slightly retarded, then they start easy and never kickback.
I would have thought a slick gear change into 2nd , fanning a bit of clutch on release coupled with a bit of throttle and a classic TT mono is started ...
Very nice 'in 1980 at the age of sixteen I bought a 78 TT500 E (Yellow) it was a great bike 'I wish I didnt sell it 'I used it on the road 'and very little off road use ' but I liked the dirt bike look 'so it had knobby tyres . Even with those tyres it handled great ' I think it was Cycle magazine that rated the XT 500 as being one of the best handling bikes for the street in that era' not so good in the dirt or on a gravel road though ' the front wheel didn't bite very well when cornering in the loose stuff ' the following models with the leading axle forks might have been an improvement ' an aftermarket frame from Dick Mann ' Hallman or C and J frames would be the ultimate setup. One minor niggle I had was changing between first and second gear ' if I didn't do it with vigour it would go into neutral and over rev.
My favourite thing about these yams is the looks haha - Gorgeous things and just so much fun on or off the road. I agree about the gearbox I've found the same .. I think the Honda's (XL's / XR's) have better gearboxes, they seem slicker to me.
@@edwards0matic the Honda's may have had a slicker gearbox ' but you can just about double the horsepower of a TT and it will handle it ' try that with an XR 500 and expect trouble ' but fine in stock form or mildly hotted up' and the 79 and 80 XR'S were quite ugly 'and had that 23 inch front wheel ' where can you get a tyre to fit that now ?
@@barrycuda3769 Yeah definitely, HL's did pretty well when raced. I'm actually doing up an '81 XL500 at the minute with a 23" front wheel .. there's only one tyre you can still buy from "CST'. The XL's look quite nice but yeah the XR's are ugly with that weird headlight plate thing. They looked better further into the 80's .
@@edwards0matic you might be wise to get hold of a few of those tyres . Interestingly ' Warren Reid the Honda factory rider has said he liked the 23 Inch wheel on his 79 CR 125 ' but other people converted to a 21 inch.
@@edwards0matic yes HL's did pretty well ' and very expensive now ' interesting that they used a YZ 125 fuel tank ' like 1979 RC 250's used a CR125 tank ' that looked good . Ron Lechien and Rick Johnson raced Pro Tec and or 'Pro Fab TT's bored and stroked out to 600. Sorry if I'm going on and on ' I dont know anyone (except my son ) who cares about this topic.🙂
Thank you Sir, the plastics and Speedo came with it when I bought it but I did the rest.. I think the Speedo is just a cheap eBay special. What makes you think the front fender is from a '79?
@@rippinmachines Hmm ok, the colours of the rest of the plastics match the fender and the colour of the '79 models were slightly different to the '77 TT500's so maybe they're all '79 plastics. Interesting ...
Thanks Scott - Just don't buy a run down one and you won't really need to go hunting for parts. That said if you do need something you can usually find it on eBay.
It looks fantastic. Can I ask what you needed to add to make it street-legal? Lights...horn? I see it has no indicators. Is that a legal requirement in the UK?
Nothing really ... It's classed as 'historic' in the UK (vehicles over 40 years old) so you dont need the yearly inspection of road worthiness test (where they test for whether it has a horn or working lights etc). As long as it's registered it's street legal in it's stock condition.
@@edwards0matic Many thanks for the info. I'm on the Isle of Wight and looking for a TT as a run-around. As someone who obviously knows and has experience of these bikes would it be possible to pick your brains about TTs offline? If so that would be very kind.
@@SteveEdmondsTV Hey Steve, sorry for only just seeing this comment .. I'm a bit wary about giving any personal info on here but what do you need to know?
The exhaust is a Supertrapp that came with the bike but you can find them on ebay. I'm not certain it'll fit the SR500 as the frame might be a bit different? Not sure.
They didn't come with lights from the factory but many were fitted with them afterwards. They're just running lights though (not high / low like the XT's).
@@edwards0matic sr was street , xt was enduro (dual sport) , tt was offroad only , so had knobbies and different (louder) exhaust ... putting bells and whistles on defeats the purpose but whatever makes ya happy
@@HisAssholiness it's a TT with mirrors lol, hardly bells and whistles .. We can ride 'off road' bikes on the street here in the UK so why not have the lighter and faster version.
@@edwards0matic how can it be lighter and faster if you added all the stuff an xt has ? when one rides offroad , one tends to fall down occasionally and replacing lights and mirrors gets expensive ... are you seriously this obtuse ?
@@HisAssholiness I know you're just trying to wind me up, especially since your name is 'His Assholiness' lol and that's fine but I'll rise to it. At a guess I'd say this bike is about 50lbs lighter than an XT .. the exhaust weights less, the swingarm assembly, wheels, electrical gubbins, tank etc weigh less. And the TT engines have lighter cranks and a few other tweaks to make them a bit lighter/ quicker than their XT counterparts. It's a much nicer, more fun bike to ride than an XT.
