I had a GT 250 back in the seventies,it was my first brand new bike and it was absolutely brilliant never broke down and always started, unlike my previous British bikes 😁wish I still had it.
De ja vu re the GT. Worked with a guy whose mate bought a GT250A new. Fell off it. Put it in his mother's shed. He joined the army. It sat there 13 years. Had 900 miles on it. His mother wanted it out of the way. Paid £25 for it. Same week a local breaker, I bought a new old stock tank. £5. The following week locally another GT250 came up. Paid £25 again. Ended up with a mint low milage GT250 and a ton of spares. This was in 1990. You couldn't give old 2 strokes away. Kept it 2 years. Was a brilliant little bike, and quick too. Mate had a GPZ550 and was amazed how quick the 250 was. Put 13,000 miles on it in 2 years and sold it for £200. Sold other for £100. Back in 76 had bought a new Yamaha RD250C.Renember it came with a 6 month or 3000 mile warranty. Bang on 3000 miles it holed it's, first piston. Then every 3000 miles thereafter. Was nowhere near as quick or reliable as this Suzuki. Nicer looking though. Gone are the days of bargain buys like that.
Yes......mine put a hole in the piston after 2 months under warranty thicker head gaskets cured it and champion palladium spark plugs as they where then . Then went like a stabbed rat after that
@@richardcurtis114 Ground clearance rubbish. Came round a left hand bend with mate on the back, and stand scraping. Went wide and just missed a bus. Mate still mentions it. 😁
I remember spending hours looking at a new GT250A in a shop window, sadly never owned one, bought a GT380 once I'd passed my test. I couldn't pick between your two bikes, I'd have to have both!
Brings back memories, I was exactly the same visiting the local bike dealers counting the days down until I could get my provisional license and buy a bike, no CBT in those days ! That was the late 70’s, I can hardly remember seeing a used British bike in the dealers back then 🇬🇧
Great vidio I remember all those bikes from the 70s well, my first bike was a Suzuki TS125, always wanted a 500 Suzuki like you have. Spent my youth rebuilding British bikes couldn;t aford a new Japanise bike.
Interesting as I remember owning both of these models. The bit you missed was that the yamaha was actually 6 speed but 6th was blanked off on the Yds7/ RD models. The Yr5/ 350 models got all 6 gears. It was a very simple task to unblank 6th, you would then get 100mph from them.
The very same reason I recently purchased my yds7 same gold and black colour as the one I had in 1972 as a 17 year old, although I now ride it with a bit of respect of its age and mine too, great vlog and enjoy all your content and knowledge you have on these old classic bikes👍
I worked at Suzuki and Kawasaki dealers from 1967 through 1978, upper N.Y. state mostly. Never had a chance to ride a 250 Yamaha like yours but some earlier YDS-2 models. After the X-6 (T20 Suzuki 250), their newer versions felt quite "taught" compared to the older model. Still a nice ride and quick for a lightweight but still taught and restrained feeling.
When I was a teenager in the 70s, some guy gave me a broken GT250. I learned a lot about motorcycles fixing it. It had a broken jack shaft, which cost $12. But i learned about two strokes, aluminum, gaskets, what an impact driver was and how it worked, same with a torque wrench, etc. I stripped it down and repainted it and it was like new when i was done….well, spray paint new. I later became an engineer, and I am sure if i hadn’t happened upon that box of parts and dusty frame I probably would have been something different…who knows what.
All Tz’s were Watercooled, the Td3 /Tr350 250 /350 race bike was air cooled , the bottom end of the TZ and the td3/Tr3 was basically Yds7 , however the crankcases were machined to accept larger crank bearings and they had rubber damping, the tz of this type went from 73 to 80. The td3 was from 71/72. 350 versions same years. I had the first gt250 in Scotland, ordered either Feb or march 73 , think I got her in mar 73 , dealer told me it was the first one Suzuki had delivered to Scotland. I now have a 76 Gt250a and Yds7 both for restoration , however they won’t be going standard due to price of shiny bits.
Ah! The YDS7. My first motorcycle bought in ‘72. It was a step up from my Vespa which I passed my test on. Unfortunately it tried to kill me when it went in to a tank slapper going over a curving flyover in London. Although to be fair I might have been going a tad quickly. Anyway after that I traded it in for a BSA Thunderbolt 650. The last of the last. Great seeing it again in your video though.
Well done matie, both of them are really nice bikes, personally I have an 80s four stroke yamaha outboard 9.9ae a classic (mechanical auto choke) on a 70s boat and a yamaha bass guitar some company ey
Lovely old bikes, I had a second hand GT250B back in the day while my brother had an RD250E. The Yam was way better! Always liked the look of the YDS7 / YR5, they seem to live in the shadow of the later RDs, both then and now.
Had a yds7. Front tls brake was as powerful as needed, until it overheated and sort of disappeared. Only happened once but I never forgot the scare...😅
I like the rds7, it looks great. I had a bsa starfire and my mate got that Yamaha from new. I had trouble with the bsa and never got a British bike again.
I had a gold GT250M Ram Air and about 10 years later i bought an old - ish 250A to restore. Before this i had a KTM comet Cross producing an arm stretching 3 BHP. Does anybody remember these ? Don't see any about today.
