this should be in the pics tat make you jizz thread![]()
See what's sitting next to it as well?
yup. Makes you wonder what else he has tucked away with a couple toys like that sitting casually in his living room!
he has another listing also, Worth a look too.
This is the bike that Kel Carruthers tested in 1973 in Japan that started it all for the TZ750.
#
The most important parts of the package were the complete frame with the special lay down swing arm, original factory fairing, rear seat.
Sellers love to milk things for all their worth it seems,it is the frame,seat and fairing that Kel Carruthers used in 1973 ?
The guy selling it frequents another forum for old 2 strokes that I post on also.
Some of the bike may well be what he says it is, and he seems to have good taste in bikes, but some of what he is talking seems a little skewed to me in what I have read and what he is saying in this ebay auction. From very early on he was trying to play out some of the mods were Yamaha testing stuff out, but to most of us with a lot or at least a reasonable amount of 750 knowledge, where a little sceptical (well I and at least one other was!)
Sand Cast cases while rare are not that special when you know why. Yamaha lost the original dies for the die cast cases and when people started ordering replacement TZ750 cases, they pulled out the works sand cast set up and banged 30 sets or something out to meet the need (this was early 80's). My brother has a set that he bought brand new 10 years ago.....they are bloody strong and I don't think the early factory bikes had them (they had the same as everyone else could buy as they had to make 200 and they did)
My further understanding was that Kel's original test bike was actually ridden in Japan and was in fact a modified TR2 frame (a TR2 in an aircooled 350cc racer from 1970-71). Kel's first request was 2 extra ionches in the swing arm cos it was sooooo unstable. Most riders put ANOTHER 2 inches into it!
This bike to me is more a preproduction model (based upon #) that has been chopped and changed. The swing arm is just modified as has the rear end of the frame to lay down the shocks which was quite regular period mod. The original frame line is the tube the foot peg bracket is attached to. This swept up to the top shock mount which was usually jast aft of the seat pad. Yamaha had imported 2 or more bikes into California late in 1973 as Cycle Magazine had a race test and dissection in Jan 1974 issue of bikes # 003 and 004. These early bikes when you compare against the bikes through my hands over the years are a little different (minor casting differences in the cases on the ends and a few sundry other bits).
The pipes are not the original worth a fortune slabbies' and Yamaha didn't use Lectron's at this time as they didn't exist until about 76....But there is some good very hard to obtan TZ bits on it. Forks, yokes, steering damper etc are all very hard to find
Oh, and the rear Avon tyre is on backwards!
What's it worth? Heck, if it went for 120 USD I'd be stoked given what I've got, but I reckon 35-45 USD would be a really good number. $120 USD is a piss take, probably hoping some dumb collector who knows shit takes the bait. This is a far better buy http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-TZ7...item51b7daf5ac
of course the best one in the world sold last year......![]()
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