Yamaha DT1 for sale
SELLER SAYS: This DT1 was a true “barn find” that was lovingly and painstakingly restored to better than brand new condition. No expense was spared. At a recent Mecum auction in the USA, a very nice (although not original) example achieved the extraordinary price of US$14,000 + 10% buyers fee (equivalent to AU$22,000+). The bike comes with the original WA number plates, original rider’s manual, original service manual and a Clymer manual. The original photos of how the bike was found in the shed will be made available to the new purchaser. The DT-1 was Yamaha Motor’s first off-road model and was unveiled for the first time in October 1967. This slim and handsome model pioneered a new motorcycle category called “trail” bikes, and would spark an unprecedented boom in off-road riding around the world. The development policy centered on three points: 1) Keep machine weight under 100 kg; 2) Make the chassis as slim as possible for riding on narrow trails; 3) Maximize engine torque. The development team was inspired by the fact that they would be entering a world of riding that was completely new and build a model that the world had never seen before. Contact Rex on 089 244 4441 (Osborne Park – Perth, Western Australia)
EDITOR TERLICK SAYS: It’s impossible to over-state the historic significance of Yamaha’s first off-road motorcycle, the 250cc single-cylinder two-stroke DT1. While the world already had off-road bikes, it was the DT1 that delivered an affordable, reliable, lightweight, dirt-focused road-legal motorcycle that was competent as a ride-to-work commuter and a head-for-the-bush dirt bike. It really was the first “trail bike”, as we know them today. But there’s more to it than that. In creating that first trail bike, Yamaha recruited a whole generation of mostly young people to the enjoyment of motorcycles. The numbers are probably declining now, but 20 years ago you would have been hard-pressed to find any motorcycle enthusiast who didn’t start their journey on a trail bike — and almost certainly a Japanese trail bike. So, from an impact perspective, the DT1 is quite possibly the most significant motorcycle ever made. Being created for off-road duties, and being relatively inexpensive, most of the early Japanese trail bikes got a pretty tough life and ended up at the rubbish tip. Some, like this one, largely escaped the punishment of time by being parked up in a shed — preserving it well enough to be worthy of a thorough restoration. The current owner told me this bike was owned by the then-young headmaster of Broome Primary School in WA before being parked in a shed and forgotten for 50-plus years, covering less than 9,000km in its life. The then-popularity but now-rarity of the DT1 and other early trail bikes has seen prices climb dramatically in the USA (where the DT1 was invented and most of them were sold, of course) and Australia is already starting to follow suit.
