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After finishing up the two Yamaha Scrambler refurbishments (which took me 2 months each), I decided to start getting some bikes ready for riding this spring and summer. A warmer than usual winter by far has gotten me anxious to forgo projects for a bit now and start the process of summerizing bikes!

Here's some pictures taken in my field of the first ride this spring on "The Cat" (Yamaha's nickname for the first year model). Had to get a little "standing on the pegs" practice in. The TY250A was the first Japanese Trials bike exported to America in 1974, beating the other big 3 to get into the market.

Nice! That off-white paint scheme looks neat. Southern Colorado?

It's Southeast of Denver about 40 miles, at the north end of the Black Forest. I won't disclose any more than that for obvious reasons.

Nice weather yesterday (in the 60's), but snowing today. So thought I'd better get in a few back road miles in on my newly refurbished '68 Yamaha YAS1C. First extended ride since last running in 1969 (about 12 miles distance).

Getting a little dust on it from the gravel roads!




Some deer were pretty curious until I got a little to close. Seems they like the sound of a two stroke though. LOL

Since I know some of you have been following this Yamaha Scrambler project here's the final update: Other than a few tuning tweaks I'm finally finished with the '68 Yamaha YAS1-C "Special Edition". Put on the new petcock which was the last part to arrive. Then I flushed the injection lines, filled the oil tank and bled and primed the Autolube system. So with no need for an auxiliary fuel tank it was time for a shake down ride. From my observation 5th gear is too tall to be practicable in all but level ground or downhill, basically an overdrive. Also too a wide ratio spread between 1st & 2nd. I still need to get the idle more steady as it continually wants to slow down and die. All in all not a bad first ride (since it's been sitting since 1969), if I keep the RPM's up. Click the link below to see how it ran!

That's awesome. An NOS seat? Where the heck did you get that?

I got it out of Thailand, not cheap and then still have to add the tariff.

So close: Wrapping up the '68 Yamaha YAS1C "Special Edition" refurbishment. Put on the side covers, tank and seat. This leaves only new fuel lines, new petcock, mirrors and bleeding out the injection pump lines and filling with new oil. Took lots of pictures today, hope to get it out side for better shots later (maybe tomorrow as it's supposed to be a nice day.)

Left side battery cover in place.


Right side injection oil tank on with new decal, fill cap and sight glass!


Fuel tank set on and bolted down. New tank badges were also installed.


Another pic of the fuel tank.


Top of tank. Clear coat removed, color sanded to even it out and clear coat reapplied. That procedure was also done to the side cover and oil tank.


Left side of tank and NOS seat now installed.


Seat in place.


Front view looking down.

Here's another quick update on the 1968 YAS1C 125 Yamaha Scrambler. Not much can be done when waiting on a couple header gaskets to arrive, except continue cleaning. Funny how a couple of small bits can hold up the progress. Getting anxious to finally take this thing out for a good shakedown ride. I do know the clutch plates are stuck, which is not surprising since it's been sitting since 1969.

First I wanted to get the air cleaners back in place. These canister type filters are unique and easily identified for the Yamaha 125 Twins, from '68 - '70. They are chrome plated and nearly allows badly rusted if you can even find them.


Now it was time to install the mufflers after cleaning and polishing.


The left muffler installed.


If you don't want to get burned of course you'll need heat shields.


Here's a straight on shot of the right side with mufflers system installed. I love all that chrome!!!


Left side of bike exhaust system finished up. Getting down to just the battery cover, oil tank (waiting on sight glass) then the seat and fuel tank. The fuel tank will need rust removal so it will only be temporarily set on until spring as I need warm weather for the chemicals to work best.


Short video of first running attempts. Without mufflers and with mufflers installed

Time for another update on the rare Yamaha 125 YAS1C Scrambler. Last update was full dismantling of the rear half of the bike. Assembly has now gotten underway, but many more small details to be worked on later.

Cleanup on frame has been completed here and the swing arm back in place


Rear fender installed after polish and inner side corrosion abatement.


Taillight assembly back together installed and wiring tested.


Rear shocks cleaned up and installed. Drive chain will be updated to a 428H from the standard 428 since clearance wasn't an issue with the wider heavy duty chain.


Attention to detail as every nut and bolt gets cleaned and/or polished.


Drive chain fitted and adjusted. Chain guard and foot pegs installed.


Now it was time to get the carburetors ready to clean. Carburetors were in pretty decent shape. Float valves were stuck and one idle jet plugged but overall they were easy to clean. Picture shows as they were opened.

Here's a continuation of the deep detailing on the '68  Yamaha YAS1C I've been working on whenever the weather warms up enough that I feel like working. Today I was focused on the dismantling of the rear of the bike.

Closed up the headlight bucket after confirming that all accessories and indicator lights were working. All done with the front forks, new tire etc.


Getting started on the rear of the bike by removing wheel, followed by shocks, fender, tail light and swing arm.


Rear view before removing oil tank, tool box and battery box plus a few more small items.


Draining some old injection oil from the tank. It was too thick to drain this way, so ended up just removing the tank and dumping.


Close to finishing the rear end dismantling.


Now it's time to clean more frame and do touching up where needed.

Took a couple weeks off, but finally spent a day on the YAS1C refurbishment project working on the front end.

Painted the fork ears and headlight bucket. Also installed speedometer with new indicator bulbs and replaced vibration gasket.


Forks were dismantled, resealed and new boots installed. Since original boots were non-existent I found out that a Honda CT90 had the same dimensions as Yamaha YAS1C, with the exception of one additional rib, 13 instead of 12. Hope no one is picky enough to notice. LOL


After forks were pulled up through the tripe tree the front fender was polished and also cleaned up on the inside, along with some rust prevention. Also installed a new tire on the wheel. Tire was replaced with the proper tread pattern and size. The tire that was on the bike at time of purchase was to large and incorrect pattern which rubbed the fender. New brakes were also installed.


Headlight bucket installed and main wiring harness pulled through new grommet. Waiting on some more grommets for speedo cable and handle bar switches before closing up. Then called it a day!

Finally getting started on my YAS1C Scrambler. This example is the super rare "special edition" Yamaha provided for the best 200 dealership owners. Only one per dealer was available for this promotion. Unfortunately mine, which was given to a dealer in NYC was not exactly treated well and will need extensive work to bring it back to it's original luster. Motor shouldn't need a lot of work, as it shows only 698 miles on the working odometer. Another plus is it was only in New York for 1-2 years last registered in 1969 before the family moved it to the western slope of Colorado, so rust is very minimal. Will try to keep this build thread to a minimum as I typically take 100's of photo's.

Here it is on the lift to get started. The seat here is an NOS seat that I temporarily fitted after taking off the destroyed original.


First step will be a complete dismantling of the the bike, as it will need serious clean-up that can't be achieved
while together. Here I've removed the front wheel. The sealed beam headlight was missing, so a replacement has been acquired.


Here I've disconnected all electrical from the headlight bucket. Removed the bucket along with the forks and fork ears.


Removal of the skid plate and foot rest assembly exposes a lot of mud and tar like substance this bike has been ridden through.


Mufflers and heat shields are now removed. Decided to quit for the day before the rear wheel and motor are removed.

A couple of shots of the finished YCS1C

Likely the last ride of the year here with snow in the forecast. What can I say about this 1968 Yamaha after attempting a decent refurbishment...other than it's been the most frustrating, self-inflicted money pit I've ever been involved with in my 20 years of restoring and putting vintage Japanese bikes back on the road. Plus there is still much to do, as every time I look at it I see another $100 bill fly out of my pocket. 😕 I won't even begin to start a list of the parts required to get it to this point. However here's a few pics I took while riding it for it's first time with less than a mile on the top end and only a couple of good heat cycles. Sorry no WOT bursts with this ride due to the break-in regimen. Here's a link to the approx 2 mile ride today. Here's a link to the finished YCS1C posted from above. It is the first ride on this 180cc twin two stroke scrambler I noticed the pictures I put up are gone. I guess it would help if I knew how to link the photos directly from my computer rather than a URL that expires.

Super cool bikes. Those remind me of my '65 Big Bear 250 YDS3C?

Lots of fun to be had with those bikes.

Funny you should relate them to the Big Bear. I have a '66 YDS3C which I did a complete nut & bolt restoration back in 2016. They were always a model I was fascinated with, largely in part due to the sound when I was a 15 yr old kid. I'll share a pic of it here. It actually has been a show winner at a few shows around the country!

Here's a couple of my current projects, both somewhat rare Scramblers from 1968 when they first became available. Models are YCS1C and YAS1C which are variations from the street versions first appearing in 1967.

My YCS1C, in it's original rare black & white scheme, nearing finish, but a few more items left to attend to.


My YAS1C in the rare special edition color scheme. Anxious to get started on it after the New Year.


From the January edition of Yamaha News introducing the two new Scramblers. Note the YAS1C has the standard color design with pearl white painted side panels instead of black.


I found this Japanese text mentioning the Black side panels. My research has indicated that approx 200 were made in the reverse design and were designated only one per dealership. I've only seen one other than mine in original condition. Some have been restored but have been incorrectly IMHO, given black head light buckets and fork ears.