1973 Yamaha TX500 (1973)
1973 Yamaha TX500. Rare bike. It was Yamaha's first 4 valve per cylinder Motorcycle. Has a balance shaft as well, so it is very smooth. Twin CV carbs, Front Disk with dual piston caliper. Electric and kick start. In its day, it was very expensive, which was a problem for Yamaha, as the RD350 was almost as powerful, but much cheaper. I was just at Mid Ohio, and this was the only one there this year, which should give you an idea as to its rarity. After all, there were two NSU's there.... I got this bike from a friend, who had it in his garage for years, but hadn't run since the early 1980's. He lost the key, which was on an "ET" keychain. I fixed up the bike as follows:
Removed the old period accessories that were nasty, and found the proper replacement parts, i.e., grab rail, rear turn signals, gas cap
New tubes and tires
Rebuilt front caliper and installed new brake disc pads
Rebuilt master cylinder
Obtained two new keys
Rebuilt carbs, all new gaskets and jets
Rebuilt petcocks, including new petcock to gas tank gaskets
Cleaned gas tank
New Plugs
New Battery
Unifilter foam wrapped around the original air filter core (the paper was solid, crusty and old, NOS is hard to find, so this is the way to go).
2016-07-12 04:54:15
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States
22
1900