The Big Inventory Job

 Been down in the basement this last week sorting through boxes and boxes of motorcycle parts. It's an overwhelming job at times but I'm finally starting to see progress. I've been collecting parts for the 4 models of Yamaha two stroke bikes I'm interested in for the better part of forty years now . Last inventory was twenty years ago when we moved into the house we now live in. It all started way back when my little 1969 Yamaha DS6C got stolen from my back yard in 1978 . What happened is that it got
stolen, destroyed, and recovered back in the late 70's . It sat while I fooled around with this 650 Thiumph that was nothing but grief and
aggravation , sold it and found myself without a bike . 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 . In 1985 it needed work so I bought a 1971 Yamaha R5 to replace it . Then I found a ds6 parts bike to fix my old DS6C . Got her running again  so now I had two bikes on the road and running. One day I saw a 1966 Yamaha YM1 for sale in the paper so I bought it. This got me started on this thing about finding a YDS3 like I had back in the 60's and crossed the country on. The M1 was a close relative of the YDS3 so I started to restore the
blue YM1 and started sending out wanted pictures of a DS6C in
all my letters and parts orders. One day 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 M1. 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 call, 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 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 Main & Nova Scotia. It's probably the best motorcycle I have
ever owned but now that I've been riding my 1975 Moto Guzzi 850-T for the past 15 years  it's now a tie between them in this best of contest. So, this is how I ended up with all these damn motorcycle parts . I just kept on bringing home wrecks ,broken ,non running rusted bikes that people didn't want. I stripped them for whatever parts I could salvage  and built an inventory of parts to keep my bikes going .I haven't been in a dealership to buy parts since way back in the 1970's ! Now I'm an old man and I need to lighten up the load a bit so it's a good thing I'm spending all this time down in the basement digging through boxes of motorcycle parts. I think of it more as treasure which makes it hard to part with but I have been selling parts for a while and as I go through it it's getting easier to let go. Look , I sold that beautiful DS6C I built as a replica of my original one. It was orange when it came from the factory but I could only find green parts in the 1990's so I restored it as a green one.  Had to have factory paint and chrome to keep it original . I learned to do auto paint and then built an orange one.  Well age brings an end to the needs to have certain things and having two of the same bikes is one of those things so I let the orange one go. This is sort of how I feel about the inventory of parts now. I'm coming to accept that I won't be needing all these parts and motorcycles much longer.  I turn 75 in April . I'll always have a few but I don't need 6 registered and another 6 or 7 projects . So, this winter project is a good thing for me. Here are some photos of the mess I'm dealing with and how it's shaping up.

The original 1969 DS6C that I bought in 1972  

What she looked like in the 80's 

What she looked like in the 90's and still looks like today 

And finally the replica I built of her in orange that I sold to a guy in California who I since became friends with.  This is what I love most about riding motorcycles , you always make these incredible friends . These two photos are of the day I finished it and the day I handed it off to the shipper

But , who knows , as I keep going through these boxes of parts I keep finding all this cool stuff to work with. So far I only dealt with the YDS3/YM1 parts.There were over 60 boxes when I finished this model . Today I start on the DS6 model. Who knows what I'll find in there and how it may or may not inspire me.I have a strange feeling there is another orange DS6C in my future only this time it will have the European fuel tank and it will be a keeper. I think it would look real good in orange with this tank .

I traded a seat for this tank. In the US it's a rare piece , not so much in Sweden where it came from. I can't ever see myself not in the motorcycle world !