'72 Yamaha RT-360 (cafe-enduro)

Hey guys. First post here for my firm old school purchase.
I've owned a PW50 and a little Sachs madass125 in the past and never done major work on either of them. I'm all new to this but I am really looking forward to this project and will welcome any and all suggestions made my those who are willing to give them.

I am no mechanic but have always been good with my hands and am very patient. I'm still a student so time and money are not on my side. The first step of this project will be to get her running (and healthy) and do all the basics to get it registered. I'm doing this because I need the transport too! Some prick stole my bike so I figured I should finally ride something I really want.

I need some input into the project, whether to do a complete restoration or go slightly custom. I am thinking about doing a slight cross between an enduro and a cafe. Ultimately would like to lower the height of the bike, have thicker forks and a custom seat. I won't be modifying the frame to shove in mono's etc, so I guess overall, it will not be an extremely complicated project.

Here is what I'm working with and what I've done so far. Please, comment on anything. Tell me your ideas etc, it be pros or cons!!
Thanks guys.

Original Pic from seller

When I got her in the garage, she didn't start at all. Surface rust all over, not in good nick to be honest. There is no key to start. Just a kill switch. She had been stored away for a very long long time and recently pulled out to ride on a farm.
Running on premix, the autolube has been disconnected.
All lights and blinkers are also disconeccted, hence no battery either.
Exhaust is on very loose and supported in some locations with twisted wire. ha. I didn't see that in the ebay pics, that's for sure.

Carb&tank removal

After doing heaps of reading and on cleaning carbs I decided to go forward and giving it a crack.




Wasn't too bad inside but the main jet had some gunk in it. Soaked, did alll the gnarly stuff and go it back in

Re: 72' Yammy RT2-360 Enduro/Cafe

Nice work mate,


i have a similar era 250 kawasaki enduro im currently restoring and slightly altering.


mine is to be restored fairly standard other than


re upholstered seat more cafe pattern re vinyl
cafe style head light brackets and lowering of headlight down 2" more inline with tank and rear tail.
polished forks, rims, engine cases
new engine case bolts (hex)
slightly lowered front end just using triple braces to slide fork up 1" maybe
leaving 21: front and 18" rear
fully powdercoated
aftermarket smaller indicators and mirrors


thats about it


looking forward to following your progress

Re: 72' Yammy RT2-360 Enduro/Cafe

Ill deal with that shitty black paint on the carb later. It's disgusting. . . I think I'll black out the engine but leave the carb as is, after stripping the paint. If it doesn't look half decent, and if i have the money I might sand blast it I guess...

Stripped the paint and sanded the crap out of the tank... Some how have fallen in love with how it looks. All the dents and imperfections have totally got me.
I got a post up before and have been recommended to use by one of the mods. I forget the product name but supposedly it does the job very well.
Besides, I don't have cash to buy a new tank or get it repaired so this is the way to go. I cleaned the insides out till all the gunk is now no longer present. Hopefully no more clogging or the carb from here on.


I hooked up the tank and carb after this pic and tried to fire her up.
It took quite a few attempts but she coughed up some shit and got rolling!!!! I was throwing fists up in the air at this point
I'm definitely keeping the exhaust. I've never seen this before untill I started looking up the RT's and DT's and I reckon it looks AWESOME. Will have to have it sandblasted as the rust is doing its job well. . .


It still struggles to start and will never get going in the first few kicks. Once running, the engine sounds extremely unhealthy. It is idling far too fast so I read over the owners manual to set the idling screw but the factory settings do not do the job. Perhaps the cables from the carb are too tight or something. I have noticed that the air screw is totally bunged up. I can only move it, say, 1.5 turns from whatever position it is in now. Ill have tet this replaced for sure.
Either way the engine will need to be taken care of. Can anyone suggest a solution. Should I take a look at it too see if I can figure out the problem or just spend the money to have a mechanic do it. I dont really want to fuck up the important bits. . .

Re: 72' Yammy RT2-360 Enduro/Cafe


Got some bugs living in my drumbrakes. . . nice work. hahaha clean all this crap out.
Does anybody know how to tell if these brakes are healthy or not? They feel pretty good but Replacing them with disc's will be a total pain in the arse and i don't really want to spend more cash on a new set of drums either!


Other than the paint, the shocks seem fine. But i've noticed they are very soft. I guess cause it's an enduro you can't really avoid that. I know I wont be racing or anything on the roads but what do you guys reckon about factory suspensions?

Re: 72' Yammy RT2-360 Enduro/Cafe

jaderd said:

Nice work mate,


i have a similar era 250 kawasaki enduro im currently restoring and slightly altering.


mine is to be restored fairly standard other than


re upholstered seat more cafe pattern re vinyl
cafe style head light brackets and lowering of headlight down 2" more inline with tank and rear tail.
polished forks, rims, engine cases
new engine case bolts (hex)
slightly lowered front end just using triple braces to slide fork up 1" maybe
leaving 21: front and 18" rear
fully powdercoated
aftermarket smaller indicators and mirrors


thats about it


looking forward to following your progress

Click to expand...

Thanks dude. I'm pretty sure that's the sort of work I'll be involved with at least for now. I just need to get her on the road and maybe do some more work over the holidays. I am thinkng about changing the bars to something a little lower. Definitely agree with your light scheme though. I've always noticed how high the enduro's have them placed.
What kind of tires are you going for?

Re: 72' Yammy RT2-360 Enduro/Cafe

smvirili said:

Does anybody know how to tell if these brakes are healthy or not? They feel pretty good but Replacing them with disc's will be a total pain in the arse and i don't really want to spend more cash on a new set of drums either!

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Pop the back wheel off, check the drums and liners. They might even have minimum thickness allowed stamped into them somewhere.
The drum/hub looks pretty well dirt-preserved, so I doubt you'd need more than liners...

Re: 72' Yammy RT2-360 Enduro/Cafe

sebatron said:

Pop the back wheel off, check the drums and liners. They might even have minimum thickness allowed stamped into them somewhere.
The drum/hub looks pretty well dirt-preserved, so I doubt you'd need more than liners...

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cheers seb.
i'll be checking up on them as soon as i get the time.
i wish i didn't have assignments crawling up my ass!!

Re: '72 Yammy RT-360

love how its looking man. Looks like you're working on it in a parking garage? If so we're in the same boat. My ears were killing me the other day from revving my bike straight pipe while down in there, acoustics are insane haha

sounds and looks brilliant mate, my tank hasnt got dints but i love its worn look so it is going to be polished up but left with the wear look


yeah i like the look of the old enduro exhaust, i too am keeping mine, although mine has surface rust and also a few pin holes in the 180 degree bend got onto the one place that every bike shop in melbourne seems to use for repairs and he has quoted 25$ for the bend and 2 hours labor at $75 an hour !!! and needs bike there etc so cant happen until registered and on the road. i am currently looking at ones from america which is where most of the parts are for my bike, the winning bid price and postage is cheaper than repairing mine !



once i rub it all back it might show up more rust.....if not even a small sleeve welded over could cover the holes but apparently factory bike exhausts are thin and hard to weld unless on a seam etc...

i powder coated my headlight bracket / fork covers but am not using them as i love the look of the full shaft of the front forks visible plus the hangers have light too high, if your bikes are same as mine and you want to use the stock brackets just swap left to right and upside down if you get what i mean, with the design of mine that dropped the headlight height down nicely.

instead i just got the brackets off ebay...cheap $25 incl postage to aus form US.

As for shocks i have cleaned mine up ok.....there is no real chrome left on the spring itself...looks ok from far though. The stock adjustment set to max stops it sagging too much. You can get cheap shocks for a pair from around 150 or less but id just clean up the stocks and save cash for now..

look forward to following this build

i would love the extra 110cc your bike has over mine...

Re: '72 Yammy RT-360

thenewblack said:

love how its looking man. Looks like you're working on it in a parking garage? If so we're in the same boat. My ears were killing me the other day from revving my bike straight pipe while down in there, acoustics are insane haha

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I know right!! Not only was the engine making some nasty high pitch noises is totally amplified in the carpark and I couldn't keep it running for too long at the neighbours would have kick the shit out of my bike the next day.
I have a warehouse on lease with some mates but unfortunatley it's on the 1st level, not ground floor. I might take everything apart to take it up there and do all the work upstairs, then bring her back to the garage and put it back together...
But it'll have to wait till everything is running well and registered to be on the road. That's my top priority right now.

jaderd said:

i am currently looking at ones from america which is where most of the parts are for my bike, the winning bid price and postage is cheaper than repairing mine !

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Hahahahaa that always seems to be the case, hey. It's crazy.
If postage get's suspiciously expensive, or you found an item that doesn't ship to AU address, apparently you can have them posted to a temporary US address (which you pay a small fee for) and they forward the item back to you in AU. Dunno if that helps.

I have a Yamaha RT1 360 as well and have a similar thought in mind. I want to go mono- shock and also swap forks. I have done a couple a four stroke bikes like this but never a two stroke. I love the idea of an air-cooled, single cylinder, two stroke, pre mix, simple as a rock. Cafe tank and seat, rock and roll to go.
Cheers, 50gary

I just picked up a really good condition DT360 two weeks ago, I'm planning to build a tracker out if it. I'll be following your thread, love these bikes.



"Burnin' oil and smellin' royal!"

Had to post here so I can keep up on progress...if youd like to see my completed 72 yamaha dt tracker, check the thread in my sig.

Nice rig JGF, hope you got a bit of a bargain. She looks like it's in pretty good nick!!


Apologies for no updates here. I've infact shifted my thread to YAMAHAENDURO.COM
I had been recommended this site by one of your experienced users here, whom is a mod at YE.
As the site is smaller, the community seems to be tighter and since it's Yamaha specific, and all enduro, the feed back you get is amazing.
They are so helpful there (not saying DTT isn't) and it's pretty awesome having the resto freaks who pump out RT after DT after RT after DT every year. I highly recommend checking it out if you are fixing up any 2stroke that fit's into the category. Although 99% of the builds on YE are complete restorations rather than custom, the info you can get on these machines are next to none.


My build is now here:
http://yamahaenduro.com/showthread.php?t=20531


Not much movement but have ordered gaskets and slowly going over the motor. This'll take a while.
If any of you join, please dash a note on my thread. It'd be great to keep in touch.


I'll be doing general updates here too, when I make bigger progress. I did get her running and have a quick video on YE. Hopefully when it's all done she sounds better and starts in a few kicks.
Good Luck!

TheOneTrueGreg said:

Had to post here so I can keep up on progress...if youd like to see my completed 72 yamaha dt tracker, check the thread in my sig.

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Mate, I've been following your thread since I joined!! Your ride is soo sweet - I knew it would turn out as good as it did.
As I'm blacking out the motor, I'm thinking about using the wrinkle finish for the bottom like you have. It's come up looking sick. And for a rattle can finish, it's a complete bargain too.
And your seat is so cool as well. Do you have any more pictures of the process for the seating? I'm having the upholstry done externally, but will have to make the metal panel myself. I just hate how friggin big the original seat is...

50gary said:

I have a Yamaha RT1 360 as well and have a similar thought in mind. I want to go mono- shock and also swap forks. I have done a couple a four stroke bikes like this but never a two stroke. I love the idea of an air-cooled, single cylinder, two stroke, pre mix, simple as a rock. Cafe tank and seat, rock and roll to go.
Cheers, 50gary

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It's funny how things work out. This was my first ever purchase as a resto, and it happened to be a single cyl 2 stroke. I can't imagine the shit I'd be putting up with anything else. It was meant to be! Wish i had the tools to change to mono. But I'm gonna leave that for another project i think.


Have you got a thread up for this ride yet? check out yamahaenduro.com for any info if you need it. Great source.

No thread yet, I have the bike, the YZ125 aluminum swingarm prepped for installation. and R1 forks for the front end. I've got to make a simple fixture to jig up the frame so it will all be square with The universe. It's a bunch of work to cut into a frame. When I get to a certain point then I'll post.
Cheers, 50gary