I saw a DT!!...
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@declan
You probably think that I’m taking the piss, I’m not! I’ve seen a weird dt100e that I think was an import. It was the late 70’s looking enduro with the peanut tank and front mudguard tight to the front wheel. But I’ve only seen one Dtr in recent memory. Any other sightings, let me know. Especially black ones near Bodmin Moore
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I remember the first time I saw a DT, it was early 2017. I was at the skatepark and my mate got a go on the back and got off white
Weren’t long after I got my licence, I had a crappy stock lexmoto and just remember just watching him fly off into the distance.
It was a beautiful bike too, clean, a lot of attention to detail and tasteful redbull/Yamaha Mx graphics kit.
The look, the smell, the power... instant love at first site. My first ever DT memory. Oddly enough it was a bloody ‘DT125RE too, not even my favourite.In a strange twist of fate the bike got sold and a year later I found it up for sale on gumtree in Norwich looking a bit sorry for itself. £2.5k bike now looking rough up for £1.75. Mad.
Fast forward 2 years later I’m scrolling through my Faceache news feed and see a post pop up on Facebook of a guy who’s just bought a bike that’s in pieces, for some help.
You guessed it, it’s that bike.
What’s the chances eh?I pop up to him to say its a nice bike blah blah blah, I might be able to help him etc.
He says he just picked it up for £250
DT125RE, painted frame, same livery the lot.
I saw it and had flashbacks of the first DT I ever sawI chat to him a little bit just so I don’t come across a creep and let out that I think my mate used to own it and that I could tell him a little bit about it / connect him to the guy that originally owned and I asked him for the reg.
The day after I did some social networking to trace the guy who originally built and owned the bike and he asks me for some pictures, so I’m like yeah sweet mate I’ll go grab them from the chat I was having with this other geeza...
Went back on to Facebook messenger to find every single message removed, one by one, original post on Facebook gone the lot.
Didn’t quite know what to say or do.In other news though my area especially specifically where I live has had a history with bikers since the 60’s due to the pier and Mods Vs Rockers culture, the biker cafes / beach and Gt Bentley bike night. One of the largest regular bike meets in the U.K.
Essex is funny ole place though. With its dodgy history/legacy over the years there’s all sorts of things tucked away in barns and things.
It’s full of really interesting people that have hidden gems, for example I befriended a local elderly man through our love of two strokes.
He’d told me about he’s speedway racing days and even better about 350 and 500 tucked away in his garage he’s too old to ride now (the best part is he lives no further then five minutes from me in a place I’ve lived more then 10 years. What’s the chances haha?).I must say though there aren’t many DT’s in Essex. A few KMX’s but no DT’s. I remember when I was looking for a bike to buy finding one in my area was next to impossible.
Funny story about that though... bit of irony too.
Despite only ever seeing a DT that once in the time up till then that I’d been riding, it didn’t stop by some mystical divine chance one going up sale in my village within the first week of me looking.
You go from never seeing one in your life to looking for one and then “hocus-pokus-dtr-smokus” DTR’s magically be appearing.Another time me and my mate was pulling apart my RM in the sun out the front of the house, proper old school style. I run up the road to return to a DT250MX parked outside. Had to run my eyes.
Walking back I spotted a guy in bike gear at a house about 5 doors down, spoke to him and he says it’s his.
20 minutes later he walks over to see me working on the RM with my friend, we have a chat and he’s a Yamaha collector with a love for DT’s.
Turns out the 250mx was one from his collection and he was visiting his daughter for a BBQ. Once again, only 5 doors down.Absolutely bloody bonkers.
I got a video of it too but for internet safety purposes I can’t upload it here.It’s worth noting what a bloody beautiful bike the 250mx is too, very very cool vintage styling that’s timeless. I was also surprised at the size of the thing too, they’re surprising big!
(Story time over
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I learned to change gear on a dt50mx, 14 years old on the local rugby field. 2 nights later I was riding it round the town
pitch black in the middle of winter. I ended up falling in love with 2/‘S, has more Vespas and lambrettas than I can remember. Margate is one of the places I’ve actually ridden to, never had any problems cause nearly all my scooters were chopped 
️I met an old boy with one leg through buying DTR bits on fleabay, he used to race 2/‘S he’s got a Dt LC with an rd200 twin engine in it! Also a beautiful unmolested kh350 (iirc) I’ve never seen one of before. As well as a mystery covered bike I haven’t asked about yet. He only lives a few miles away from me. There are definitely some really interesting old souls out there!...
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@SpookDog said in I saw a DT!!...:
I learned to change gear on a dt50mx, 14 years old on the local rugby field. 2 nights later I was riding it round the town
pitch black in the middle of winter. I ended up falling in love with 2/‘S, has more Vespas and lambrettas than I can remember. Margate is one of the places I’ve actually ridden to, never had any problems cause nearly all my scooters were chopped ️I met an old boy with one leg through buying DTR bits on fleabay, he used to race 2/‘S he’s got a Dt LC with an rd200 twin engine in it! Also a beautiful unmolested kh350 (iirc) I’ve never seen one of before. As well as a mystery covered bike I haven’t asked about yet. He only lives a few miles away from me. There are definitely some really interesting old souls out there!...
See now they’re sort of stories I love and just how I envisioned growing up in an era where the 500GP was at its height, police weren’t able to catch a cosworth, people where still be proud to be from Britain and you wouldn’t have to test your pills or acid. Much simpler and more naive times.
The best bit though you could own a dirt bike and ride it wherever without someone stopping you just for the sake of it. It sounds weird, but I honestly think I’d have had more respect for police in that day in age.
As you said 14 and riding around, you just couldn’t do that now. You get caught!It’s funny you mentioned the scooters too, it’s what my dad has as a kid. He’d told me stories of a little black px50 he had when he was 14-15. Scooters aren’t my thing but they hold a special place in my heart, the style of the early and late 60’s Vespa’s and Lambretta’s I think is some of the best design work of anything ever made.
Iconic, stylish, symbolic, sleek and utterly timeless.
Interesting too, I never quite understood the rat/chopped look came from or how people where able to destroy such historic machines but I’m also a great lover of all things odd so naturally I’m a fan.
I’ve seen some really cool rat rod /cafe-esque designs before with the racing engines and they just look mean.
Who doesn’t want to see a vintage scooter, a bike with the handicap of changing gear with the entire bar chopped slammed and making 30+hp over taking you on the back wheel
Also that’s crazy! I always take the time to chat to people a little bit on eBay etc, never know what goodies they might have and because wishing some a good day and being kind never cost me a penny.
Must admit I didn’t know what a KH350 was either till just then. I didn’t even know what a Ke was until my mate/neighbour turned up outside his on a 84 ke100. Funny story he’s 6ft + and won’t wear anything other then a tracksuit. It’s like something from Ali G. Culture clash gone wrong but he absolutely loves the thing
Ke100’s also have this totally unique feature I’ve never even seen on any other production bike before, it has a hydraulic switch on the clutch that automatically lifts the sidestand for you when you pull the clutch in.
Me, a simple guy, was sold by this gimmick alone and declared everyone needs a KE100.I’d love to see that LC/200 too, you just don’t and won’t see any custom contraptions like that anymore (I suppose someone will say that about our bikes in 20-30 years time
). Something really interesting about a previous generations project like that and knowing they shared that some love and passion for that as I would my own.I must admit being 22 n that, it’s one thing I love about my love for two strokes, it’s that it’s connected me with a different generation I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to connect too and whom otherwise wouldn’t have been able to connect to me.
You get the old guys that timidly come up to me to ask question you can tell they’re not sure how to interact but they’re just dying for you to ask them some questions so they can chat and I hate that, not the talking, just the fact despite being probably 30 years my senior I’m somewhat intimidating because my age.
(But to be fair I suppose in your day kids weren’t stabbing each other, filming and posting it on social media.)I love all the wisdom, history and stories.
I’d hate to lose that and for such characters of a bygone era just to fade away it’s just too sad.
I predict in my lifetime, I’ll see the world stop producing two strokes completely and whilst that day is a long day away I feel that the skills and knowledge needed as well as the people of that great generation will be lostWith the internet only driving a bigger wedge between the old and young and my generation having a lack of “do it yourself and get off your ass” attitude to want to own, play with and maintain a two stroke it seems that their demise is inevitable.
The damage being done to our planet isn’t getting and better and the great generation that made them so popular (and now ludicrously expensive) aren’t getting any younger.. so what happens then?
Coming from a MCC Biker family I can only tell you how regular it feels another biker passes and with it someone a part of that culture goes too.A bit macabre but I predict that the same crowd that drove RD350 prices up will leave behind a bunch of collectible bikes from the era they collected stockpiled and hidaway for years that’ll eventually be held onto for too long or sold once then to be worth bugger all because no one will be interested anymore or they’ll be laws banning it.
That’s why I feel like the torch has been passed on to me and it’s my responsibility and we I get a big kick out of anyone that’s mine darty.’s or @Arild’s age, gotta make the old heads out there proud of us and keep those powerbands pinging proppa’To be fair with you mate if there was a university degree around two strokes, I’d probably have dedicated my life to it just so I can spend the rest of my days around old bikes and making people happy. Now that’d be the dream.
Maybe I’ll give Unit 5 a call and convince them to change their business to see if they could take on an apprentice
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@Stevie-Wonder
It was a different time back then, Maggie T was closing puts and paying police double time to beat up strikers (pc’s own words to me back then!
) you could buy an old bike for £20. I built an sx200 lambretta chop for £50 (most of that was the 30mm dellorto and fresco). Extended the frame by 6 inch, welded forward controls foot pegs and had a foot operated gear change on the right side, pvc covered the headset top, tank, font/back mudguards, oh and the seat 🤪 everything else was Matt black. It was like mad max met batman...
There were old bikes all over the place. I certainly never imagined my £200 gp200 would be worth 4grand one day!...
Jap inline 4 750’s everywhere, just begging to be hard tailed!! Good and bad time to be alive, and yes, the acid was good, so were the solids
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@SpookDog said in I saw a DT!!...:
@Stevie-Wonder
It was a different time back then, Maggie T was closing puts and paying police double time to beat up strikers (pc’s own words to me back then!) you could buy an old bike for £20. I built an sx200 lambretta chop for £50 (most of that was the 30mm dellorto and fresco). Extended the frame by 6 inch, welded forward controls foot pegs and had a foot operated gear change on the right side, pvc covered the headset top, tank, font/back mudguards, oh and the seat 🤪 everything else was Matt black. It was like mad max met batman...
There were old bikes all over the place. I certainly never imagined my £200 gp200 would be worth 4grand one day!...
Jap inline 4 750’s everywhere, just begging to be hard tailed!! Good and bad time to be alive, and yes, the acid was good, so were the solids Good ole’ Maggie T, I can’t think of her without hearing her shrewd voice or thinking about ‘spitting image’.
Also that’s mad. £50. Inflation or not it definitely feels like a tenner could’ve took you around the world then compared to today.
Sounds like a really cool build too, you ever thought of digging out a clapped out project and doing a 2.0 version of it? I’d rather see another vintage scooter ratted then another three saved, restored and covered in 50 mirrors
Also when you changed to foot operated gear lever did you re route the brake to the bars like a BMX?
Here’s my dads px, he ended up selling it for a KMX. Even though it was a 125 I think I realised being stuck with a top speed of 60 on a good day wasn’t as fun as when you’re 14It’s funny what you say about it being worth four grand one day, I hear stories like that time and it just makes me wonder what bikes from my era do I need to find and hold onto whilst they’re around. Maybe as much as I hate WR125’s they’ll eventually become collectible.
Did you really just say jap inline 4’s hard tailed?
A hardtail in-line four chop feels like something that’s in my blood, The first bike I ever sat on the back of was my grandads hard tail GS750. I was raised around them.
This photo’s a few years old but is very dear to me. This is that exact gs750. The one I had my first ride on, spent my childhood around and heard roaring many a time going to a bike rally.
It was also the first time I’d seen it in possibly 6-8 years, I hadn’t sat on it since I was a little boy.
I just remember feeling connected, like I’d met an old family member and then thinking about all the years that’d passed and how I was grown up now and could actually reach all the pedals etc.
It just felt right, like what I was meant to do.
I quit my driving lessons and my car got crushed shortly after
“Older, smoother and cheaper to insure” I always wondered if that sticker was about him or the bike. Tax disc 07...
My uncle and mum tell me stories of my grandad many many years ago making them sit for hours rubbing circles into the metal on the tank to get that effect. Meanwhile I just remember that the skull at the bottom had never once been 100% fixed so I always would fiddle with it and twist it around. It’s only now I’m older they shout at me for doing it and I can see why now -
I just put the brake pedal on the left hand side with a cable to operate. The gear change was operated by a 2 foot long stainless rod
I welded up the left hand gear change on the headset and off I went. Ass about a foot off the ground and a 30mill delortto (with bellmouth) sticking out behind your ass!
I wish I had pics
Those are some good memories and a sweet gs
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I almost forgot! I saw another sweet old Dtr a week or so ago! It was an early model, 88~99 side & tank panel jobbie. It was near Poole in Dorset. Looked well worn & loved by what I could glance at. I noticed it had an ally tailpipe, that’s it. Didn’t even have time to notice the colour (my sis drives like a lunatic!). It’s sweet to see another old one still beating about the countryside though!...
