My Yamaha DS6C

I posted this somewhere in this blog before but I want to change it and update it some so I'm re-posting it. This is a true story of the life of my longest owned motorcycle.I bought this bike way back in 1972 right after returning from a six week hich hiking trip to Nova Scotia with my girlfriend who later became my wife and then my ex wife.So here it is. These two photos are the only photos I have of the bike in it's original condition from back in this era.They were taken in 1975
 

Back in the 1970's and '80's I used to work in the city doing renovations on and off.I did a few on this one block in the East Village and one of those jobs was for my friend Richard.I was doing his apartment and building him a dark room .It was this very day ,the 30th of December ,when I was driving in to go to work in my 1965 Valiant.The car was running great,I was in the Mid Town Tunnel when traffic stopped. I put my foot on the clutch and there was nothing there! I was stuck right in the middle of the tunnel ! There was a kid behind me and he offered to push me out . What luck ! So he gets me out and stays behind me while I crawl under the car to see if it's something I can fix right there .No luck. I thank him for his kindness and he asks where I'm going so I said east 9th between 1st and 2nd. He then offers to push me all the way down town to there ! He pushed me down to St Marks Pl ,around the block and put me into a legal parking space right in front of Richard's building ! Didn't want any money so I gave him a few joints. I don't know what it is but when these things happen to me just like last summer with the bike and the guy who helped me, I always end up meeting some stranger who is incredibly kind. I worked all day and called up a friend from LI who had a truck. He comes in with his truck and a 10 foot long chain and we start pulling my valiant up 1st ave to the tunnel.We had no idea that you can't tow in the tunnel .We get to the approach and there is this massive traffic jam.We are right at the entrance to the tunnel when this cop comes over waving his arms yelling you can't you can't .I roll down the window and he's telling me I need to use the 59th st bridge.I point behind me and he looks and sees this wall of cars and throws his arms up in the air and waves us on into the tunnel.So,I have more good luck. I get the car 40 miles to home and put away in a garage I had rented where it sat all winter waiting to get fixed. I finished Richard's place ,put this rat I had on the road so I had a car to use locally and just used the train to get to the city.At the end of the job Richard gave me this 1969 650 Triumph he had as pay for some of the work.I was happy with that but I could never get the thing to really run right and here begins the story of how I got my little 1969 Yamaha DS6C back from the dead.
 I was wandering about seeing the world. Then my life went south ,it all fell apart and things weren't good with me at all.The bike was stolen from my yard one day and a week later I found it all trashed but I saved it in my garage anyway just because I loved it and after doing Richards job I reconnected with it and here it is in about 1983 up at my camp.She was back in service and I was traveling on her again !

By the late 80's it had red body work and low pipes.The only thing DS6C was the frame.It wasn't always this way ,and I wanted to bring it back to the bike it used to be.What happened is that it got stolen ,destroyed ,and recovered back in the early 80's.It sat for a while, I fooled around with this 650 Thiumph ,it was nothing but aggravation ,sold it and found myself bikeless. That lasted for about 3 days.I looked around and found this 70 DS6 with no papers. Back then no papers was a real problem so I got the bike cheap.I had the paper on my DS6C so I took the new one apart and set it up on my DS6C frame.It was ugly but it was a good runner.I drove it like that for 10 years.It was my only bike!I looked and looked but could never find a DS6C so I made it into a DS6 and used it this way for a real long time.

 Then I got into bike restoration and I started to restore the blue YM1 and started sending out wanted pictures of a DS6C in all my letters and parts orders.

It was 1989 now. One day in 1991 I received a call and some guy in Pa. told me about this Harley Dealer in NJ. who had about 100 old Yamahas in a storage building.It turned out the dealership was originally a Yamaha dealership and these were all just left behind by the previous owner.I called and made an appointment for the next day and when I got there I couldn't believe my eyes.There were about 150 Yamahas from the 60's just sitting there and a parts room full of NOS parts! I found my DS6C and another one for parts.The good one was left there in 1969 over an unpaid repair bill!! It had 1400mi on it ,a dented tank ,smashed instruments and a dented rear fender ,the rest of the bike was like new.I got the pair for 300 dollars. After we did the deal I asked if I could look around the parts room some.The owner said sure go ahead so I did. I found a YDS3 front fender and all sorts of bits and pieces for my yM1.I also found a front brake for the TD1B that my friend Don Scarborough was building. This place was a gold mine.  Over the next year I told all my friends about it and we cleaned him out.The one thing he didn't have was a green DS6C gas tank.That was the only part I needed to get back my DS6C.I looked and looked and one day I found one in NC. at Wilson Cycle Center.This place turned out to be another gold mine.The owner was a real gentleman. He used to send me my parts with a bill and give me 30 days to pay!So I order the tank and I wait and wait ,no tank. I cal l,he says he sent it UPS so I track it. It turns out he sent it to my friend Don in Michigan. I finally get the tank and a fully restored DS6C with 1400 miles on it.

 Like the YDS3 , the YM1 ,and R5 I use it all the time and it looks and runs as good as the day I finished it.I've owned this bike since 1972. I rode it to Newfoundland ,all over the Adirondacks, and Maine & Nova Scotia. It's probably the best motorcycle I have ever owned next to my R5, my YDS3 ,YM!,  Moto Guzzi 850T and now my 1988 BMW K100 .They are all the best bike I've ever owned . This is the thing with motorcycling . Every bike is a different ride and each has it's own thing that really makes riding it special. It's almost as if they are living beings. If they could speak they would have some incredible stories to tell like this picture.It was taken in November 2010 after I returned from a 14000 mile ride on the Moto Guzzi.I had just met this guy Juan on this meet up thing for vintage motorcycles and we went on our first ride together. Since then hundreds of hours of good times wrenching and riding on our old motorcycles and it just goes on like this. Motorcycling has been the most positive force in my life and the one thing that has kept me going when I was ready to throw in the towel. It has brought some of the most incredible people into my life and opened up so many opportunities for me that it would be impossible to count them all.

NowI'm at the tail end of my life.Still riding and restoring bikes and cars , working up at my camp out in the woods in the Adirondacks , keeping busy down here in La La land AKA long Island just waiting for the day I can get the money together to move to Arizona where I plan on spending my last days here in the asylum riding and wrenching with a little painting and lots of camping thrown in for good measure. Motorcycles are my life . They are the air I breath . I have a nice red DS6B as a future project . Ain't she sweet !

Been saving this one for around 10 years or so. Bought her off Ebay for a whopping 256 dollars ! And,she only has 5000 miles on her.I love the DS6 series bikes. I built a replica of my original orange DS6C a couple years ago.Haven't fired her up yet.She sits in the shed with some of her sisters .

Like the 1965 YDS3 that I restored back in the early 90's .This bike is the one I took my first cross country ride on back in 1969 as a 20 year old crazy hippie.That original one is long gone.Sold her in 1970 for gas money to go back out west .But,I found this beauty in my home town.She came from the same dealership that my original one was from and is the exact same motorcycle .

Then a couple years ago A good friend sold me another bike from that same dealership.This one is a YM1 (305cc) and he was the original owner.He let it sit in his garage for 30 years and the crank shaft got destroyed by rust so I got it cheap. Well,long story short,I had all the parts and I am just about finished with a ground up restoration of it.The best thing about this one is that it came with all the original paperwork signed by the owner of the shop who was the guy who sat me on my very first motorcycle  and showed me how to operate it in front of his shop way back in 1965.

 

As you can see ,  I'm into these bikes BIG TIME ! But ,I'm also into my other bikes just as much.I like doing all sorts of bike work too.I do enjoy restoration  , paint  & body work , and the mechanical stuff . Here is a link to a flickr album of one I restored for my friend Tony . He in turn got me into the BMW's by giving me the 1988 K100 as a gift ! So here is the bike I did for him,it is a replica of his first motorcycle . Enjoy.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskqeMVH1

And this gem is my newest addition.This is the exact same bike as my very first motorcycle right down to the color. It's a 55 cc single cylinder machine a 1965  Yamaha  Riverside 55  model YJ1 I drove out to the Gilmore Car Museum to pick it up from a friend who helped me get it. Stuck it on the back bumper and drove a thousand miles to home with it. At some point I'll restore it.For now she sits with the rest of the projects safe and dry waiting for me.

Here is a link to some cool photos taken at the Gilmore Car Museum out in Michigan
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mw6qxvju593wkf0/AAASzl3AJTh80QXKdyAbG0gda?dl=0

It's hard being a motorcycle addict !