New member from Italy
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Hi, I want to introduce myself. My name is Giovanni, I'm a new member of this forum from Italy. I come from Cento, in the Emilia-Romagna region. This land is called the Motor Valley, and it's known worldwide for being the place where some of the most important automotive and motorcycle industries in the world were born and still have their headquarters, such as Ferrari, Maserati, Pagani, Lamborghini, Ducati, but also Motori Minarelli - the company that produced the engines for the DTs.
I've always been riding a bike. In fact, my father bought me an old Malaguti Grizzly, a 50 cc dirtbike. I spent my days riding in the Emilian's countryside, on the seat of my bike, and so my passion for the engines grew more and more. At 12 I decided to repair the old Piaggio Ciao moped of my father, and I started to restore and tune mopeds.
Then, when I turned sixteen, I really wanted a driving license and a bike to go around. I had to convince my parents to buy me a bike, but I did it. I wanted to ride a 125 cc motorbike, possibly a two stroke. I begun searching for old motorcycles, and they were easy to find st low prices. However, it came out that in Italy at 16 you can only drive 15 hp bikes, and the old 125 2 strokes bikes were much more powerful.Then I started to search more recent bikes, but all were too much expensive for me, even the second hand ones.
By chanche, searching for low price bikes on an italian website called "Subito.it", I found out this cheap bike, a yamaha dt 125. I immediatly fell in love with the style of the bike. I searched for others Yamaha DTs closer to my home and a few month later I found the perfect one: a very nice yamaha DT 125 RE in excellent condition, for sale at €2400 about an hour from my house. I immediately contacted the owner and the following weekend I rented a van to get the bike.I had to replace a few part, such as front brake pads and disc and the intake manifold.
Then I found out about this forum, and I want to share with you some particular modification I made on my bike... I have already posted a couple of simple modifications and I'm planning to post others projects.
I hope to be helpful if anyone of you have any problem or any request.
Greetings, Giovanni -
Hello,
Wonderful post! Lovely country to reside in. I think your country made the best of the best when it comes to 125 two strokes. Both Aprilia and Cagiva are superb choices for the rider.
The DT of course being another great choice.
What's it like picking up two strokes where you live? The EU sort of killed them with the emissions but Italian manufacturers held on for as long as possible.
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Nowadays, the anti-pollution regulations of the European Union have greatly slowed down the two-stroke market. The golden years for Italian motorcycle manufacturers are over. Some companies went bankrupt, others focused on 4-stroke motorcycles.
However, the market for used mopeds and motorcycles is still very active. Many young people and adults continue to buy two-stroke motorcycles, also keeping the tuning market active.
I don't know what will change in a few years, but at the moment the passion for two-stroke motorcycles is continuing to grow.
I believe that there will never be a definitive stop for these vehicles, and even if there were, people will continue to circulate at the cost of violating the rules. I will never give up 2-stroke motorcycles, and I hope that at least historic vehicles will be allowed to circulate. -
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@Giova @Calum @SpookDog I think the pendulum will begin to swing the other way to be honest. Here in the UK we've just had a new climate emergency/political correctness bedwetter government "elected" who want us all driving electric vehicles and heating our homes with expensive inefficient heat pumps by 2030.
It's completely unachievable and is only going to cost the ordinary person more and more money and looking at the comments on social media, more and more people are beginning to realise this. Eventually people are going to say enough is enough and turn their backs on the whole Save the Planet movement, voting for anyone who promises to rip the whole thing up. And this will result in a return to two-strokes, V8 muscle cars and gas central heating. Personally I can't wait.
I'm not completely against electric propulsion; I raced radio control cars for a number of years at a time when electric was taking over classes such as 1/8th scale buggies traditionally dominated by internal combustion engines, the IC boys made fun of us and called is tree-huggers etc., then when we started beating them the boot was on the other foot. they complained to the sport's governing body and secured their own racing class. For me it was a no-brainer as electric was cleaner, quieter, easier to work on and the acceleration was just instant. And the extra weight generated more grip/stability at some tracks (although the 500 2-stroke got the better lap time in the vid below). I think Motorsport would be a better use for the technology as if you've forgotten to charge up the worst that can happen is a crap weekend's racing, nowhere near as bad as having to waste 4 hours recharging your everyday transport. I think they want everyone to be a captive audience buying endless Soy Lattés from Starbucks and tapping away on their laptops whilst their wheel-barrow-tyred box on wheels charges in the car park.
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I think EVs for the masses is great. I for one would love an EV, most people don't do much more than 40 miles a day commute, although I just cycle that as my preference.
I've got nothing against EV motorcycling, but it's the weight. It's one of the reasons I don't have a thou or a 600. I was on my RS the other day and for its class, it's fast. Easily will nail the last bike I rode, MT07, in the twisties for sure. You simply can't beat the weight of a well designed two stroke, let alone its simplicity.
That said, they're hardly friendly for the environment. I'm currently working on another project, welded the frame up last weekend and the oil that thing dripped was rediculous!
My issue is, I don't see the motorcyles as the root cause of the problem for climate change. Small CC bikes are hardly the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases.
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In my opinion is very stupid to stop termic vehicles and force people to reply them with electric vehicles because they are not the main cause of pollution. The governments worry about stopping an 70's year vespa, which can go for 30 kilometers with a litre. But nobody talks about the trucks that travel all day and consume more than every other vehicles. Or the ships and plane, which have no anti pollution law to comply with.
And even if we stopped all this vehicles, the pollution will not disappear, because just one country like China or India pollutes as much as Europe and North America together. We should stop to trade with the countries who are destroying the world. The thing I hate the most is that the people who protest against termic vehicles are the ones who daily buy stuff on shein, temu, aliexpress, thinking that there will be no consequence on the environment.
Unluckily, who make the laws don't want to understand this.
I hope people will become more aware of the real problem, and I hope the eco-madness stops soon.
’s in Italy?
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