My name is Glenn Pace and I am a Yamaholic and it is my hope that i will never recover! I started riding about the age of 9 on my uncle's Briggs and Stratton 5hp powered mini bike. Then about mid 1968 my dad entered into a Yamaha franchise along with a business partner and needless to say I was ecstatic! I would spend all summer at the shop and even during school I would beg...ask my mom to take me after I got home. I was the official test rider of any bikes I thought I could ride and not crash which I never did, thankfully. I can still remember the way a brand new 100 twin jet sounded and smelled and rode so smoothly. When the JT1 came out I thought WOW that is cool and our small backyard was instantly transformed into a flattrack. Hey, who needs grass right? Well my parents never complained so practice continued. It was a great time growing up when the first enduros hit the showroom and I eventually started assembling the new bikes, servicing and of course more test rides. Well someone had to make sure they ran right before they were sold and I figured that someone might as well be me. In the mid 70's sales weren't all that great so my dad sold his part of the business to the partner. I believe it was 1974. I was bummed to say the least but I continued to ride and bought and sold several bikes over the years...wish I had that 1978 400 enduro back that I bought brand new for about 1300 bucks. Anyway, family stuff happened, years passed and about 2 years ago i acquired a 1974 MX 360 and soon thereafter purchased a 1975 250 enduro that we use on camping trips. Enough rambling I reckon, got to go plan the next camping trip.

What an awesome story GP10- thanks for sharing this!

Man at around the same age me and my neighbor buddies would ride our bikes down to the small Yamaha shop in my town most everyday to see all of those brand new Enduro's and MX's sitting on the showroom floor just dreaming about owning one.

Very cool that you got to grow up in one of those shops and ride and work- Great times and memories for sure!

Hello all my names matt, just picked my first bike its a old 70's RT1 enduro. I'm a newbie to anything with 2 wheels so you'll probably hear from me alot. Lol I'm 30 year old maintenance man at a local factory.

Man - people are signing up faster than we can welcome them!

Some of the stories really make me envious, but the memories you guys are spurring are wonderful. For those of you who didn't grow up with these bikes, take note: there is likely to be a fair amount of nostalgia here! But I can tell you, growing up in the 70s was a much different motorcycle experience than today. We didn't have triples (unless you rode Kawasakis!) but we did have a mini MX track in every vacant lot or construction site. Logging and fire roads were fair game. No one cared if you rode on a beach and you could buy two stroke oil at the grocery store!

The stories that we post will help those who missed it to understand why these bikes evoke such smiles!

Welcome to everyone I may have missed! Thanks for being here and sharing the memories and building the new ones!

Makotosun did you grow up in my neighborhood!!?!! If, not, then it was just like where I grew up! In the summer and a lot of times even during the school year (when I grew up you had two seasons....summer and school LOL) you could find all the neighborhood boys and a few of the girls riding at a local vacant lot or construction site or even a new highway under construction. Our parents knew where we rode and if they needed us they knew where to find us. On the odd days we weren't riding then we were fishing a local stock tank (some call them a pond) or catching crawfish in a local creek. The stock tanks have mostly been filled in and houses built on top of them or they are now part of a park and the creek is now concrete lined to carry the drainage but one thing is the same..................there's a Yamaha Enduro sittin in my garage and one day soon it's going to be ready to be pulled out and Ill ride it down those residential streets that were once the vacant lot where we rode acting like we were like Kenny Roberts, Malcom Smith or one of the other famous riders of the day.
I am thankful to those that make up this site from the admin to every member as we all have the same thing in common and the willingness to help each other out with achieving our dreams!

My name is Teri I'm 33, and yes I'm female lol anyways, I just purchased a 1973 Yamaha RT360 Enduro and am working on restoring it not a lot to do as it is in awesome condition mainly just needed the lights replaced. I'm new to the whole Enduro, kickstart, 2 cycle scene I've had quads and motorcycles but this is a new world for me, lol, one I want to learn all I can about.

Hi Teri! You are not our lone female member - I know of at least two or three others off the top of my head.

The bike is a gorgeous specimen and you will be generation a lot of bike envy amongst this crowd. Looks like a factory accessory passenger seat in great shape too.

I think we have a service manual for that model in the workshop section if you need one. Free for download to registered members.! If you happened to get the owners manual with the bike, we would love to get a scanned copy.

Again, welcome to a great bunch of folks. Ask away if you have questions, and post more pics of the bike!

Welcome Teri, that is a cool bike.

~


Welcome gp10.

Enjoying the photograph(those-were-the-days), with 2-strokes
all around and the only foreign car in the parking lot was a VW.


c.winterwoods

This pic was taken late 1970 so the foreign car invasion had not begun quite yet. That is my Dad standing by the 250. That means he would have been 40. I think I was the one using the Polaroid and that would make me 13 at that time.