There's a 74 TY250 for sale in my local area. In the picture it's partly disassembled and missing a lot of parts, but the seller claims to have everything needed to put it back together (heard that one before!). Every bike seems to have one or two parts that are impossible to find, or ridiculously high priced if you do. What items should I look for before buying this bike? What's a fair price for a "project" 74 TY250?

Thanks,

If it's dissembled and not running you probably shouldn't pay more than $500. If its got a nice tank, seat and the engine is all there, the other parts can be found on ebay for reasonable prices if you're not in a hurry. If you're going to use it for trials competition, there's tons of specialty aftermarket parts available to make it handle better.

Ironically $500 is the asking price. No seat in the picture and the tank is not in great shape. The engine cases have a lot of corrosion, but I've seen worse. I'll say I don't plan to use it for competition now, but I'm sure if I start feeling confident in my play riding I'll be looking for a vintage trials event not to long after. My aching body and growing stack of X-rays is telling me I might want to consider a change from racing Vet class MX. Darn, and I'll be eligible to race those old slow guys in the +60 class in just 2 more years! They can't be as fast as us old slow guys in the +50 class.

In Their day the old TY250 was a great bike. How much is he asking as on the face of it i'd guess its not worth a lot a it is--wrecking value?. Had one at work the guy regularly drowned [did it twice anyway]. Bend the conrod both times--bent it over oneway left or right not forward & back. Each time we just bent it back just with the cylinder off, no total dismantle. Carried on like nothing had happened till next creek crossing & arse off. Don't know if we'd have straightened it a third time & got away with it. Was probably on full throttle [guessing] when it submerged. Good old TY250. Motor shape & design is the type of the DT250A from "74 but not sure if some bits might interchange, depending on what's missing.

The TY250 is darn good trials bike, pretty much the weapon of choice for the twin shock classic class around here. It's hard to put a price on these because it really changes depending on the location. South Western Ontario is a real hotbed for vintage trials so a nice prepared TY ready for competition goes for $2000-$2500. A project would fetch $1000 and sell quick. Here's a 175 that I picked up for $900 and required a top end job and a thorough going over.

Hey bike4fun- you mention many aftermarket part sources for the TY. Could you maybe list a couple? I have TY250, and other than eBay don't know where to go looking. I did see some very expensive shocks, and a different carburetor from 2 different vendors.

At the moment I do not have the trials seat, although I do have the longer 'enduro' version, so at least I have something.

Know of any for sale, reasonable?