Your Collection: Yamaha GT80
Sunday, January 22, 2012 | 1:15 PM
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PrintThis weeks collection comes to us from Brian McGuire.
Back in good old 1977 my brother & his friend found a 73, gt 80 hidden in the bush near his friends house they brought it back to our house & both went out again I looked at it for a while & decide to teach my self to ride it I was 10 &in love. Latter my dad came home & was up set , he said it was stolen & we had to report it to the police, so off to the police station they impounded it ,they said if nobody claim it in 3 months the bike is legally ours. I went home & marked the calendar to count the days off, with in a month they rang & said it was in the way, no ones ,claimed it pick it up .We got it pack but for only a year as my bother & his friend decided to sell it & split the money I was heart broken. Fast forward 32 years later 1 buy 1 from a friend for a case of beer & find out its a 73, pulled out the old photo from 1977 & I am in love again, start stripping it, but the frame was broken badly around the back of the engine & the bash plate was missing, a lot of kids had learned to ride this bike so with a lot of help from Steve a great panel beater & friend ,we remade the broken bits in the frame with 3mm steel instead of the original 2mm.Norm another friend of mine had just rebuilt a 1984 Honda z50 & polished the engine cases that really inspired me it looked great. But I soon found out the the gt80 cases were a lot rougher castings so I spent about 2 month grinding, filing, sanded & polishing to get them squared up so the were flat between the 2 t case halves & covers .the cylinder was 5th over size the clutch basket finger had 10mm groves in it but I got a lot of good parts form the USA on eBay . Steve & I again with "easy beat dent machine" spent about 6 Saturday nights on the rear guard welding up the rear light holes & 14 dents in the fuel tank ,lead wiped it & filed it then off to the paint shop the colour is 2006 Yamaha 50th anniversary R6/ R1 yellow without the pearl . the only other drama I had was the front wheel I couldn't buy a 15inch front tyre so I went to a 17 inch rim, I polished & re-chromed a lot of other parts .When I ride it a I dream I am Kenny Roberts at the Indy mile ha ha .The old photo of me out the front of my parents house trying to wheelie 1977,the white bike is how I got it what a heap of junk in 2009 & me again doing wheelies 34 years latter out front of the same house & the finished bike
Thank You,
- Brian
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Hey Hoss you did a good job on that critter looks great and the 19inch wheel makes it handle better! Just need to work on your wheelies and those are not the best knee pads you can wear??
second bike I ever owned was a 1973 Yamaha 80 mini-enduro. A GT1. I mowed lawns all summer(rotaty, no engine) to buy a set of cheng seng knobbies and a J&R expansion chamber. I thought I was the stuff! GOOD TIMES fer sure!! It was street legal, I broke the blinkers off second ride I think. Preston Petty toolbox/front number plate, and pulled the baffle out to make it "go faster"- that didn't last long. Even then we realized noised did not equal perfomance...
I also restored one of these (1973 model) for my daughter for a mx pit bike and also ran into the front tire size problem.Since I wanted to keep the bike all OEM I hunted for two years and found two 15"knobbies that were in an old supplier warehouse in Ohio.After nagging the guy who had them for 6 months he sold them to me.Since this bike is only now used to putz around the pits with,I doubt we will wear out the front tire in our lifetime anyway,so,Brian if you want to put knobbies back on yours and put it back to OEM get ahold of me.
Wow, brings back memories. I remember learning to ride on that bike....
Great restoration. I know people always look at the date of manufacture on Yamaha's frames and assume the year, but that was produced for the '74 model year. (My family had a dealership back then)Enjoy!
What a great story! I was just telling my son about the gt 80 two days ago,he asked about someone that always post bikes for sale on craigslist in our area and it turned in to a Yamaha gt80 commercial by Dad who used to be a parts manager at a yamaha/honda shop and can remember the days when we couldnt give away a brand new GT (street legal) @ a blowout price...
Told my son should have picked one up at my cost.
My first bike was a 1975 yz80b in 1978.
memorys allright! I had one, I'm 50 and ya still can see the scar on my knee from the turn signal switch ....but man what alot of fun on that gal, I had maxwell house front # plate.
RustyMxer you are right- the '73 gt-80 had a silver tank with a green(?) stripe. I think the '74's had the coolest tank designs ever.
So Awesome
I remember my GT 80 A, when I got it it had all the lights and turn signals. I still smile while i'm shaving and see the scar above my right eye it gave me one day. I will also never forget the look of horror on my moms face when I walked into the office covered in blood, from my eye clear down to my shirt collar, from that tiny cut above my eye. She though I had cut my throat!
Good times!!
Great Job! Yeah, I had one of those. My dad was a Yamaha dealer then, and I was spoiled. Mine showed up in July of '73, so I can understand the confusion about the year model. It doesn't matter. They are the same exact bike from '73 on. That early-release '74 was my favorite look though, (just like the Team's works bikes!!)