I've mentioned it elsewhere about my oldest bike in my collection.
I bought this a number of years ago. It's a relatively rare bike. As I've said before... the first 6 months of YDS3 production was extremely sketchy with so many changes to the bike as the year rolled on.
My bike is one of the earliest ones to hit the states. I've only found one with a earlier serial number.
I'll be documenting this build as a web page project and as a printed and bound project. I've been very excited about this bike since I first found it. Now I have acquired several very hard to find pieces of this puzzle and look forward to sharing the project with my fellow 2 stroke freinds .
Attached is the bike as I got it.
Also a pic of a correct early version.
I waited impatiently to be able to share this moment with you all.
After years of searching and looking, scouring every source I could to find an original round badge fuel tank for my very early YDS3 ..
The God's shined on me.
You are all probably sick if my posts on this subject .. you ain't seen nothing yet.
A random post on a obscure email chat group I made some time ago..and forgotten about brought to me a gentleman who was saving this tank in the hopes he would find s bike for it. This sat on his shelf for close to 60 years..
Now it's mine..
This is real tank porn!!❤❤
Bill, that is "tank porn" nice score on the un obtanium............................D
Nice find. I had never noticed the tank breather before. Very similar to a TD3 or TZ but without their hose barb.
Cool bike. There was a guy in Australia years ago that had a race kitted Asama racer IIRC that predated the TD1 series.
I thought that the Catalina name was for the high pipe street scrambler version. I don't recall what they called the YDS3 sport/street version though.
Good luck with the project. It will be a gorgeous bike when it's finished.
Quote from: teazer on September 14, 2021, 07:52:14 PM
Nice find. I had never noticed the tank breather before. Very similar to a TD3 or TZ but without their hose barb.
Cool bike. There was a guy in Australia years ago that had a race kitted Asama racer IIRC that predated the TD1 series.
I thought that the Catalina name was for the high pipe street scrambler version. I don't recall what they called the YDS3 sport/street version though.
Good luck with the project. It will be a gorgeous bike when it's finished.
Thanks. There is no doubt that the early yds2 & 3 are directly tied to the early TD racers.
The scrambler version was called the "Big Bear" whereas the road/sport was the Catalina.
My bike and other very early yds3 bikes were the only ones to get that tank.
They were in a a 6 month window of production..very low numbers... and even within that time frame so many changes were made.
One of the easiest way to tell a early from late 6 month bike is the paint..
Early is called "Ying Yang" .. late are " Flat Panel"
I attached a picture of a fellow riders late flat panel bike.
Thanks. That ying-yang tank is way more sexy than the flat sided one.
Scott, is that original paint on the tank you acquired?
Quote from: 85RZwade on September 15, 2021, 01:43:39 AM
Scott, is that original paint on the tank you acquired?
Yes sir.
My bike is the black/white/grey color combo. I hate to have the original paint go away. I know the old saying " it's only original once" so it's heartbreaking.
But my solice on that note is the egg shape dent on the tank top. The fellow I purchased the tank from explained that is why the tank was removed by the dealer and replaced. So it needs repair anyways. Makes my decision to repaint so much easier.
Quote from: soonerbillz on September 14, 2021, 09:01:31 PM
Early is called "Ying Yang"
Actually it's "
Yin and Yang" due to it's resemblance to the Chinese symbol :twocents:
Cool tank design!