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Yamaha DT 250
The long dream
20 hp, 133 kilos and a top speed of 137 km / h. That’s right, the Yamaha DT 250 was never awesome. Not even on her debut in the early seventies when she ?? first official Enduro ?? Germany’s dirt roads conquered. And yet it was enough for the glowing fantasies of a then 16-year-old.
There are stories that nobody can write except me. Or did someone else have a Yamaha advertising brochure D.T 250 hanging over the bed? Maybe from a Munch or Z 900 ?? a windy, overweight enduro pinned itself
but rarely anyone against the wall. During the last move, the yellowed brochure fluttered from a cardboard box, the telltale thumbtack holes in the frayed corners. Faded between Cat Stevens, Joan Baez and the first cover of the Berlin women’s newspaper Courage. Okay, I was 16 and mom didn’t always have
everything in view. 76 model with ultra-modern diaphragm inlet control and Autolube separate lubrication. But the photo alone was enough for sheer enthusiasm: a bold couple in the typical 70s look next to said DT, over wooded hills
looking and suggesting nothing but freedom. »Yamaha Enduros
find their way even without asphalt! ”Everything was there. From the »way of life ?? stood further back. The price nowhere, it didn’t matter anyway. Two more years to get my driver’s license. 700 days to go
Hercules M 2, take a bus or hitchhike.
We girls also dreamed of a great departure back then, of
a life that should finally be different from that of our mothers. The either of Federal Republican aspirations for promotion
grated or already seamless between formica kitchens and
Oak imitation wall units had risen. We wanted more!
Dreamed of adventures, trips to Africa, watched the women’s movement spilling over from the USA and the Baader-Meinhof group, read Verena Stefan’s moults and Karin Struck’s class love. Without understanding a clue, but it doesn’t matter, something had started to move, and we felt it. Motorcycling was one of them. The idea of being able to turn a throttle yourself was incredible and more than Simone de Beauvoire ever gave us
could promise. However, the way to get a driver’s license already required a girl to have significantly more parental skills
than the boys. That’s when the tolerance stopped. But a couple of indomitable people made it to the “1s” driving lesson. We were in.
28 years later. A colleague talks about his DT 250 ?? by the way. I almost catch my breath: THE DT? Yes, his daughter idolized his daughter for a while at university, but now she has a family and new interests. How times change. My chance. daughter
Nicole has nothing against a driving test and kindly gives me the key, the location map (in the shed) and a brief description of the condition. In summary: turned off two years ago and
to forget. It always starts, says Nicole. Equipped with the most necessary technical equipment, I finally set out on my way to my past. Stage Fright ?? I confess.
And then that! Tire flat, bench worn out. Blinking instruments and handlebars in matt residual chrome, brown
Fuel residue around the filler neck. She saw over the bed
decidedly better. But it’s even the same model, in a weathered 76 orange. According to the condition, Nicole seems to have lived out her fantasies of freedom on a different track. Well ?? Struck and Stefan are somehow a thing of the past, deliver
antiquarian ham at the most faded today, Cat Stevens sings
Islamic, Joan Baez no longer at all, and Courage was mothballed 20 years ago. So we can be happy that the Yamaha is at least still with us.
Inflate tires, wipe off dirt and at least lubricate the visible mechanical connections. Replace gasoline,
Clean the candle, check the oil, ignition, chain, air filter and brakes ?? the handling of an old two-stroke single-cylinder is manageable. Now all that remains is to address the problem of the power supply
to solve. Because the battery is dead and the one brought as a precaution does not fit in the compartment under the bench. So from the outside
Cable the electrical system. Ah, the indicator lights come on. So then: kick off the strings. Au Backe, the attitude note
is mega-bad. Recoil? now it’s getting really artistic with
the tangled cables and the third-party battery. But it works. She raises her voice tinny under a cloud of blue smoke.
The next day stand ?? I’m back on the mat. With a suitable battery for 14 euros? is cheap to keep such a DT ??? kickback-proof boots, a map, travel tools and the tingling expectation of 28 years. It truly jumps
a second time, and carefully we roll towards freedom. Doesn’t go bad at all, the little one, she is purposeful and fluffed in blue
forward, clutch, switch, honk, blink, brake, everything is there. Strange sitting position. Steer at chest height, sit just above the asphalt. Pretty uncool. Good thing I didn’t know that as a teenager. In
MOTORRAD stood somewhat from a “first-class sitting position, the knees not bent too much so that the feet can reach the ground without effort and the hands comfortably the handrail”. MOTORRAD was THE sheet, right after the Courage. And test editor Ilse Reuter impressed us girls at least as much
Golda Meir or Jacky Kennedy.
Fill up seven liters and get out of town. Left, right, left, really handy, that thing. The six-volt turn signals work hard, causing the headlights to swell up and down rhythmically. What the heck, enough. Even the idle
delivers stable heartbeats, and we screech away at the traffic lights with increasing courage. Only the screwdriver that is gradually digging into the back is reminiscent of the work of those years.
Anyone who wanted to ride a motorcycle had to be able to change at least one swing arm bearing and adjust ignition contacts and valves.
Fathers (!) Gave me the first three tools, a fan heater for the shed and friendly tolerance in view of the sinister horde of screwdrivers that occasionally ?? in such difficult cases as dynamic ignition timing ?? occurred at home.
Actually drives like a modern motorcycle. Carburetor and
Intake tracts look worse than when viewed in light
in the shed, and at some point without dismantling too
Silver bronze sprayed exhaust doesn’t even do more than honorably
grayed through, but the load runs like hell. The first wide country roads ?? the brass trumpet concerto gets lighter, and the
Speedometer needle trembles over the 100 km / h mark on a faded gray-green. Uiuiui, there comes life into the hut, and the cart begins to commute so adventurously that I turn off again as quickly as possible. Okay, the fork and swing arm bars, which are barely two fingers wide
In the unfortunate alliance with a senile steering head bearing and the vertical runout in the front wheel, they simply do not offer optimal conditions. “Thanks to the excellent telescopic fork, you will even be able to be faster in some washboard turns than with a thoroughbred 250cc road machine,” exulted MOTORRAD in issue 12/1975. Everything a question of time.
With every kilometer, the two-stroke turns more liberated, lays down
between 5000 and the pale red area at 7000 revolutions to such an extent that the vibrations roar into the chest. Barbaric, but extremely committed. Wouldn’t have been the worst choice. Probably better than the tough 250cc Honda, which I then, when the two years on M 2 and in the Budinger bus had finally dismounted, Alex from 13b for
Swallowed 800 marks.
An open dirt road. Up on the pegs, grab the handlebars from above, now the strange ergonomics also fit. We heartily plow over anything earthy that somehow looks legal, and the fun increases with every gravel curve. We dust past sheds, cows and tractors. The Yamaha does not allow any scruples or peasant resentments to arise in the first place. As small, light and at home in every garden as it looks.
I should have bought it back then. But for the essentials? the fantasies of Africa and freedom ?? the prospectus already passed over the bed. Thanks, Yamaha. And thank you to all the mothers who didn’t look so closely back then. No action without dreams.
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Yamaha DT 250
The long dream
Technical data – Yamaha DT 250 Bj. 1975
Engine: air-cooled single-cylinder two-stroke engine, diaphragm inlet, bore x stroke
70 x 64 mm, displacement 246 cm3, 20 HP at 6500 rpm, separate lubrication.
Chassis: double-loop tubular steel frame, wheelbase 1422 mm, telescopic fork at the front, two spring struts and tubular steel swing arm at the rear, drum brakes at the front and rear, tires 3.00-21 at the front, 4.00-18 at the rear, weight with a full tank of 133 kg.
Performance: Top speed lying solo 137 km / h. Construction time 1972 ?? 1977.
Price: 3600 Mark (1975).
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