Hi all, i'm just starting on a CT1b (1969 production - 1970 model year)

The bike, although well worn is very unmolested and most of the cycle part fixings look as they they have never seen a spanner.
There seems to be a mixture of both white and black rubber grommets on the bike, is there any information regarding which is correct as I would have thought in unlikely that Yamaha used both colours on the same bike ?

Thanks in advance

Tim

From 68 through to 70 , they used the white grommets on the front guard .
71 onwards they used black . My 69 DT1 had white grommets under the battery box
mount . My oil tank had a black grommet , but it had been repainted at some stage ,
so may not have been originally so . I have looked closely at brochures , magazine tests ,
but have been unable to confirm whether the oil tank grommet should be white .
I went with white on mine in the end .
Hope this is of some help . If i'm wrong , hopefully someone else will correct me .

And even then, Yamaha might have changed the colour in a part supersession!

In preparation to restore several '68 - '70 Badge Bikes, I've been paying close attention to the existence and use of the illusive white grommet.  To date, I have viewed multiple unrestored '68 DT1's including a 500 original mile survivor.  None of these bikes appeared to have been previously taken apart and none of them displayed white grommets used on their front fender mounts.  Today I stopped by my buddys' house to see his recently acquired '68 and low and behold there they were... on the battery box and oil tank mounts but none on the front fender ??? Still in search of the ultimate answer to this mystery and would value any expert opinion...

This is where I miss the old forum...  there was so much information there.

Maybe EN or DEET or one of the other experts will jump in and answer.

I wonder if there would be any clue in original parts manuals? Or maybe Yamaha changed the colour, but kept the part number the same?

 
FWIW....Here are some pics of grommets on my near original 1970 DT1C before passing it on to a new owner at the end of 2019. Battery box, oil tank, front fender and tail light were all white grommets.
 

The '68 wreck I am working on had a mix apparently. No front fender, but the back had black grommets for the fender mounts and a white remnant at the front of the tail light. Black grommets for the oil tank.

Like others have indicated/suggested, sometimes I wonder if the assemblers didn't just use what was there at the time...

Yeah Steve good point. I am struggling somewhat on mine as well.  Front fender should be all white. After that they seem mixed. Since there are various shaped rubber dampers around the bike and only one style found in white....I haven't found a "for sure" rationalization. On my bike, all front fender, battery box where the ground mounts, rear upper oil tank mount are white. Mine was missing the tail light and since the rear one-hole damper is black I used black on front tail light mount. Might change it to white since I've seen or heard that twice now.I

I haven't personally found white anywhere else on various 68 bikes and used 68 parts.  Interested in any other locations on the bikes that have been found. Luckily all the bikes I've had, have or seen pics of have been virtually untouched for 30 plus years so fairly reasonable to assume not a lot of dampers had been messed with then.

Personally from what i seen and researched i don't think there was a "set" guide as to when or which gromments were white from the factory. Going by my 68 DT1 very low mileage bike and my pretty close to all original 70 DT1 i think front fender, battery box mount ground wire location, upper rear oil tank mount, air box mount and rear tail light front mount were white. Rear fender 2 lower bolt mounts were black and front oil tank mount is black. That's the way both my bikes were when i bought them. 

I am installing all white gromments on the 68 except for the 4 rear fender mounts. they are black. I think i installed all white on the 70 DT1.