Topic: 70s 250cc two-stroke enduro/dual sports.

[Dimitri13]

Anyone have any experience with them? From what I read, they're all pretty much the same, so any input on any of them is great.

Right now I'm looking at a 78 Yamaha DT250. It's in fairly good mechanical condition, but there's lots of surface rust (nothing structural that I can see). I personally didn't ride it, but the owner did and it sounded smooth running up through the gears.

A few questions:

Can you ride them on the highway for any length of time? From what I read, anything more than half an hour and it's going to shake you apart. My highway speeds are 55-60, so not too fast.
Would you recommend commuting on it (15mi each way, surface streets)?

[cb650]

I have a 78 yamaha 125.  Was a good bike.  would do 60 no problem with no wind or hills.  Bought new and rode the piss out of it.  last time I had it out couldnt get it to run right but didnt fool with it too much.

[grcamna2]

I owned a 1978 nice silver Yamaha DT250E and it was an excellent machine. It will do 85+mph flat out w/ stock power & gearing.It'll cruise all day at 65-70 mph and took it on lot's of 200 mile days w/ Interstate most of the way.They have a comfortable monoshock.I still have NOS parts for it. They don't vibrate too much.

[Dimitri13]

That's exactly the bike I'm looking at. What NOS parts you have?

[grcamna2]

I have points,cond.,chain wearing blocks,etc. The normal small parts that usually wear during the course of time. I think I also have a few oil pump shims..which are used to adjust the stroke on the Autolube injection pump.
How many hard miles has that Yamaha seen ?

[Dimitri13]

Well, I may or may not be getting this. The guy said someone was coming to see it today, and I haven't heard back from him yet.

Only thing really wrong with it is that he removed the autolube thingy because it broke.

It has 6600 mi on it, but I'm not sure how many were hooning miles.

[grcamna2]

I'm not sure if starting off w/ a broken Autolube pump before you buy it is any good.
If he gives the title & a low price it would be somewhat decent..,but it may need a little more work to get it up to being a full time daily driver.Autolube is very important.

[Dimitri13]

Yeah, he has a title, and I feel the price is nice. For Hawaii at least. It's below the NADA 'fair' price, but slightly higher than the 'poor' price.

What should I be looking for when I buy an oil injector?

[grcamna2]

Do you want to know what I think you should look for if you have already purchased the DT250E and then to look for the Autolube injection pump ?
I think it would be a good thing to ask the present owner of the bike more questions...,like how long has it been w/o the pump and how did he realize it was broken.What type of oil does he use and the ratio he runs for premix now.
Try to see if he can give you a running history of the bike's past;did it ever have a top end job & what other type of maintenance has been done to it.
The parts are not as readily available for that Yamaha right now so that should factor in to your decision to buy it,if it's been run hard...it may need more work.I would want to know if he'll let you do a compression or a leak down test to see what condition the top end & crank seals are in.When I bought mine the man had the speedo disconnected.... I hope the seller is honest with you.

[Dimitri13]

Well turns out he sold it ;s

I still want an enduro or supermoto