Yamaha DT2 Build - Smoke if you got 'em...

bracketmaker said:
its easy to do a good repair, go with the physics. EK=1/2m x v squared. you always want to loose weight and this crap is heavy. instead of adding lots of dead weight to compensate put the thing into the round file, do a quality repair of the rim and never look back. the 250 is rated at 20 hp so its not much of a stump puller. some contact cement a piece of leather over the hole, but I'm a jb weld and tin snips kind of guy.
What are you talking about? Your math doesn't mean shit when you don't know what you're talking about. A rim lock isn't for repairs or whatever you think it is. It's for when you run really low pressure in your tires for better grip riding off-road. Sometimes, it doesn't take much to throw a tire when there's less that 15psi in them. 20hp is more than the 18hp my XR200 has, but I run rim locks because I actually take it on trails. I also run rims with an open hole all the time . You don't really need anything in there. The duck tape is for covering the backside of the spoke nipples. It's stiffer than the the rubber band they usually run, so if you worry about it, it keeps any amount of tube from bulging into the hole.
 
told you upfront I would get into trouble on this site. physics trumps all. all this stupid math matters. I always strip out dead weight and do modern repairs. angular momentum rises exponentially with speed and at some time you want to ride on the highway.

I own a DT2. I did the 6-12 conversion by making a negative and positive regulator floating the ground and running full wave. rode over 1,000 miles many on the highway on a mint green plate. I lane split in the city and ride to the beach in the summer. no regrets, always turns heads. how many people can say they did that. I definitly know some shit. I know I dont want to ride on the highway with a hole in a rim when I run pressures closer to 40psi.

It's a 2T. that means you scream in the power band 20hp at 6k rpm, at 3500 its more like 14. with a 17t front sprocket it rides like the worlds biggest moped. I'll never float ground agin and I'm with justin longhorn, I be watching this build
 
bracketmaker said:
told you upfront I would get into trouble on this site. physics trumps all. all this stupid math matters. I always strip out dead weight and do modern repairs. angular momentum rises exponentially with speed and at some time you want to ride on the highway.

I own a DT2. I did the 6-12 conversion by making a negative and positive regulator floating the ground and running full wave. rode over 1,000 miles many on the highway on a mint green plate. I lane split in the city and ride to the beach in the summer. no regrets, always turns heads. how many people can say they did that. I definitly know some shit. I know I dont want to ride on the highway with a hole in a rim when I run pressures closer to 40psi.

It's a 2T. that means you scream in the power band 20hp at 6k rpm, at 3500 its more like 14. with a 17t front sprocket it rides like the worlds biggest moped. I'll never float ground agin and I'm with justin longhorn, I be watching this build
Can you read? How many times do I have to say for trail riding? You’re not in trouble, you do not read to comprehend things. The motion pro bead lock weighs a whopping 72 grams. We can all do ourselves a favor and disregard dirt bike advice from a guy that splits lanes in NYC.


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agreed the motion pro rim lock weighs 72 grams. the DT2 was designed in 1968 with very few changes over the years. the stock antique rim lock is too heavy to balance properly. also I get about 2 flat tires a year. the streets here are awful. getting rid of it makes changing tires much easier. that paint scheme has meaning to us 2 strokers. speed.

keep the rim locks and the #60 pilot and ride on the dirt half inflated. 1/4 mile blue rooster guaranteed ticket on the street though. they look for that kind of stuff.

I'm not telling anyone to do anything. but I will tell what I've done and how it works. how many people can say they they built got a transferrable registration and own a DT2. I know shit because I'v been there already. I know what to do the next time because of the mistakes I've made the first time I built it.

If it were me I'd keep the stock ignition. it has a dedicated stator. all LED's and half wave on the 6 to 12v on the lighting side with a scoot regulator. get rid of the antique rim lock and balance the tires. 17t front sprocket. #35 pilot and new needle valve. I use the bootleg mikuni pz type with the neoprene tip. this way you keep the seat. easy way to modernize the carb with neoprene and the spring on the float. lane splitter bars. integrated signals. legal on a bike thats illegal to ride on the street. I wave to the man when I ride and he waves back. there is nothing wrong with riding with the tire pressure recommended on the tire and lanesplitting is not a crime.

I'll be watching this one because it's personal.
 
btw the stock rims are stamped and chromed steel. they suck because of the weight. po did you a favor there. the stock tank is steel and a thing of beauty. mine is black white and orange. my seat is different. has a hinge and locks. I run 150 on the main jet. if the carb is still the stock vm28. my frame has all the same tabs but yours is missing some stuff. like the oil tank, battery box, muffler heat shield.


I bought the DT2 after watching jay lenno's show. it was one of the first enduro's. what it lacks in performance it makes up for with style.

I'll be the first one to say don't take dirt bike advise from me. 2 stroke porn for everyones viewing pleasure.

DSC02190-2.jpg
 
Used Petty rear fender arrived and the brackets line up perfectly with the frame mounts. So that's nice.

Recommendations for cleaning it up? Will plastic polish bring it back to a new look?

Looks like some damage to the frame cross brace though?
 

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Wetsand from 150 to 1500 or 2k grit, then buff. Just like paint. Here's a good video that describes the process pretty well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwk_fNEeH6Q
 
I restored all the plastics on my KLR last year, it's a bit of a ball ache truth be told. But absolutely doable - mine were really faded. Basically you have to sand back all the sun damage and then sand the scratches left by that using increasingly finer grade paper all the way up to 2000 grit. The plastic is pretty unforgiving though - make sure you really get all the scratches out from the coarser paper with the next grade up, or you never will. Here's another vid on how to do it (this is the vid I followed) -

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWPwCXLSIdA

It takes a while man, get beer.
 
Or, there's a much quicker method - using a blowtorch (or a heatgun). It melts the sun-bleached surface back to the original colour, but I think the results are a bit iffy.
 
I have a couple of small Suzuki's, a JR50 and an ALT50, both had weathered plastics. I had them stored at a friend's shop and he restored the plastics by scraping them with a razor blade. I've seen some You Tube videos and some other forum remarks on doing this.
 
Did anyone watch the Youtube vid I posted? LOL.

Lots of ways to do this, but I've done a lot of plastics the way Jim and described up front and the results work every time. Scraping with a blade is doing the same thing (removing oxidized plastic), but a blade doesn't exactly make as clean of a surface. The only other real way to do it is to chemically convert it with something like acetone, but the results won't exactly be good. The blow torch works too but all it is doing is melting the oxidized plastic into the not oxidized plastic. It's not really changing it back. The ABS has zero resistance to UV, so it literally breaks down in the sun. You have to remove the broken down layer to get into the good layer, which will eventually break down too. Some times a little labor produces the best results. You wouldn't want your paint shop cutting corners on your paint job, would you?
 
Here's a fairing I restored using the sanding method -

bS1LGsP.jpg


There was a huge KLR sticker on it, peeling that off showed just how oxidized the rest of the panel was (underneath the sticker of course it looked mint). I won't lie, it takes quite a few hours and a lot of beer. The vids'll tell you what grade paper to start with, and I finished by polishing with Maguires polishing compound. Make sure not to buff too long on one spot or you'll melt the plastic and that will absolutely suck balls.
 
irk miller said:
Did anyone watch the Youtube vid I posted? LOL.


Why watch a video when there's gloss black paint. I know my limitations as a mechanic. anything I think lools crappy gets painted oil based enamal. you saw the pic, it works. my dt2 rear fender is kawasaki green because it came off a kdx but you can't tell because its black. I won't lie, it takes a couple of minutes and a lot of beer.
 
bracketmaker said:
Why watch a video when there's gloss black paint. I know my limitations as a mechanic. anything I think lools crappy gets painted oil based enamal. you saw the pic, it works. my dt2 rear fender is kawasaki green because it came off a kdx but you can't tell because its black. I won't lie, it takes a couple of minutes and a lot of beer.

^ or that ;D
 
bracketmaker said:
Why watch a video when there's gloss black paint. I know my limitations as a mechanic. anything I think lools crappy gets painted oil based enamal. you saw the pic, it works. my dt2 rear fender is kawasaki green because it came off a kdx but you can't tell because its black. I won't lie, it takes a couple of minutes and a lot of beer.
And here I thought we were talking about restoring plastics, not copping out on a mid-Atlantic custom.
 
The video was helpful for me. I'll need to use a bit more than 320 on my GL1000 meter surround. The decal in front of them had been scraped off roughly by a PO (they do make plastic blades - I bought some at West Marine), and the area on top has some wrinkles I'd like to remove. I think it had a textured finish, but don't mind making it smooth. Next winter.... (It's showing well now, though). I used the heat gun method on the inner fender piece - really nice at smoothing out the scrapes that develop on the inside. Have to be VERY careful not to over-heat and distort, though. Acetone will usually cloud ABS, so you would still have to sand or buff that layer off. The good thing about ABS is that it can be glued easily with ABS plumbing cement and cleaner. I built a whole new under-cowl piece for a CB750F out of wrecked GL1800 ABS pieces.
 
More tear down finished last night. I also got the frame de-tabbed since I'll be running the aftermarket seat and no original side covers.

I found an interesting rear spacer when the wheel came off and the brake cable holders on the the front and the rear wheels are both broken. The rear wheel is also dented (which I hadn't noticed before).

And for some reason, some one got a bit crazy with an angle grinder up front.

Up next is engine disassembly.
 

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