I negotiated this yamaha 175 enduro as part of the deal for my new digs in Tennessee. my question is are there any good sources for parts for these old bikes. i'm guessing its a 71-74. looks to be pretty stock except for maybe a preston petty front fender, silencer and tires.. i'm still on the west coast. my son and son-inlaw unloaded a 28' trailer of tools into my new shop today.

There's plenty of good new and used parts out there for vintage bikes especially '70's Japanese bikes, some even direct from the manufacture. You'll probably find a website or Facebook page dedicated to your specific vintage motorcycle that can be of great help for finding parts and fixing problems. Have fun with it.

There are still a few motorcycle magazines on newsstands, too.
Popular bikes - should be parts available - and a cool score.

thanks for the input, sounds like i will find parts fairly easily.

i have a friend who restored 3 70's yamaha DT400 enduro bukes.
he just got a smoking deal on 4 DT80 bikes. he plans on using 4 to build 3.

he bought all the cosmetic exterior parts new or almost new on ebay in the last couple of weeks.
he gave me 3 NEW gas tanks to paint. and 2 new and 1 almost new side tanks 2 sets will be blue for the 74 model year. and 1 will be silver.
he said they have been listed for months on end with no buyers. he mads low ball offers and sellers were happy to accept.

as much as i despise ebay i always look there for stuff.

That is a '72. I have a '73 250 right now. I bought my first Enduro new in '71 and it was a 175, too. The 175 is a great size for guys that don't weight too much. I had a '73 a couple of years ago. Over the years, I have had a dozen or so Enduros, mostly 360s. But my last 360, a '72 got to be too much for my knee. The 250s are considerable easier to kick. I keep an eye on Marketplace and Craigslist for them. Ever so often one will pop up and if I am in the mood, I will pick it up, fix the problems they always have, ride it a bit and then sell it. The 250 that I have now wouldn't stay running so the guy put it on Marketplace. Nobody was interested in it since it wouldn't run long at a time. Bad points. Looks like they only last 50 years or so.

Kinda like our Mopars, some parts are readily available (some even from Yamaha) while some must be sourced used. Here is a few sites that I like and use.

www.facebook.com/groups/vintageyamahaendurofans

www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha

www.kdirepros.com/category-s/380.htm

If I can answer any questions, give me a shout.

I bought a 1971 Yamaha 360 RT to ride to work in December of 1970, it had oil injection but would still foul the sparks plugs after a couple of hundred miles I sold it for take over payments after 4 months
I ended finding out a couple of years later that the Honda 250 (XL?) four stroke was a way better bike for the riding I did, especially in the sand washes and sand dunes

Cool deal. If it was gold, I'd be looking to buy it off you. My first motorcycle was a 72 CT-175. This looks just like it. Lots of parts pop up on ebay. Good luck with restoration.

IIRC... '72 CT-2; first year for Yamaha adding reed valves to the induction tract (aka "Torque Induction"). I had a '70 or '71 AT-1 125 around that time... it was IMO an oddball cuz it had the electric start option, too. Looked like this one --> https://marblesmotors.com/product/1971-yamaha-at1-125cc-electric-start/

Nothing oddball or optional about electric start on the 125 AT series Enduros. That is the only way they came and was the only Enduro that had a 12v system, generator rather than a magneto, and electric start.

Poorly phrased on my part: I thought it was oddball that only the AT-1/2 Enduro had the electric start when the rest of the HT/LT/CT/DT/RT Enduro series didn't.

Change of type of old two stroke bikes that we use to be able to buy and ride, have any of you owned a Kawaski two stroke 500 CC triple or the later larger 750 CC triple
Them things were real powerful scooters that you needed to be very careful with when hitting them with full throttle
I'm glad I didn't buy one, if I had, I would probably be dead or paralyzed now from crashing it

Never owned one but got to ride a friend's 500 Mach III in '69 when they first came out. The power didn't scare me as much as the extreme nosedive and wiggle (near head shake) when I first jumped (and I mean JUMPED) on the front brake. I took off drag race, MX start style and got up to around 95 mph in no time and then got on the brakes hard and the front end took a hard nosedive (thought it may have even bottomed the forks?) and then the wildazz wiggle and front end flex. Forks were too soft and flexed like nothing I'd ridden before. Handling was terrible as I got onto that 500 Mach III from a great handling '69 Triumph T100R 500 Daytona that, BTW, I still own and have to this day (stock Triumph forks and Koni rear shocks). I don't think my T100R Daytona 500 could match the power of that Mach III even at triple (pun) the displacement but that Mach III even with work would never match the handling of the Triumph(s). So to get this thread back OT you could take all of the Triumph twins of that era and make a winning DIRT BIKE during the '60's but never a Mach III

I have too many bikes I've lost count and lost bikes in the garage LOL. I think my Triumph T100R Daytona 500 is still in the garage and I think this photo was taken before I stashed it in there??? Akront aluminum rims and Koni shocks with stock Triumph chrome springs, has a great sound even through stock mufflers.

The Yamaha RD 350s were bad to the bone, too. I used to street race one for a guy. We only drag raced, no curves or anything. The only thing under 500cc that could come close were the Kawa 350 triples.

I weighed 148 pounds back then and motocrossed. I didn't have a street bike but was dating the guy's daughter that owned the RD. He was larger and not a good rider. And drank too much, too often. So, he would get about half drunk up at a tavern, talk $hit to the other bike owners, and then have to look me up for the matches.

The biggest challenge was controlling the wheelie at launch. Up on the handle bars at the hit and then I wouldn't use the clutch to shift. Just reach down with my hand and row it through the gears by blipping the throttle. Quicker that way and helped to keep my head down, too. I could be in 3rd before most others would be getting out of 1st and able to get to full throttle. Faster, more powerful bikes would start coming on hard, but there just wasn't room for them to catch me. I have always been curious what the 60' was on that thing.

Many matches were with Harleys. Hogs riding hogs. By the time they were done slipping the clutch to get rolling, I was in 3rd or 4th gear and gone! Same with a lot of other large bikes. Those little RD 350s were so light and quick that they were very hard to beat. Even by most larger bikes.

But like I said earlier, the larger Kawa triples were the big boys on the block at that time. The first '69 750 Hondas had larger cams than the subsequent ones and were noticeably faster. Some of them ran pretty good, but couldn't touch the Kawas as long as the guy on the Kawa could handle it. Which most really couldn't.

RDs were everywhere in SoCal back in their day. I think my 1st "get-off" was astride either an RD or the Suzuki competitor...long ago when I was bulletproof...
My deal, since I know y'all are dying to know, was a succession of Yamaha SR500s and a couple Kawi Z1Rs (1st one I balled up in HI vs drunk in a car; bought the 2nd when I moved back to SoCal).
Last time I checked, a minty Z1R was nearly Road Runner money.

Babbitt's Online, Yamaha

They have complete assembly diagrams for your entire bike listing every single part number. I found yours listed as 'AT3_CT3 (CT2)' at the end of the list of 1972 Yamaha Motorcycles. Many of the pieces can be ordered brand new from them, or use the part number to find the parts on Ebay. I use them all the time to find parts for my old Hondas and KTMs.

The 4 stroke "Enduro" Hondas seemed to be the most popular with the DT Yamaha line in second place. At least in the early mid 1970s. The RD350 was just right. Its power did not overpower its chassis like the big 500 and 750 ring dinger Kawasakis. Suzuki had a powerful 2 stroke street bike in the late 60s in the Titan- but they went to their GT line later and while attractive- didn't come close to touching the other Japanese ring dingers in acceleration. A Yamaha RD 500 would have been interesting.