My name is Brandon, I am 46 or 47 married with 2.5 kids and live in Breckenridge CO. Grew up in New Mexico, rock climbing, winter mountaineering and mountain biking were the passions of my youth. I always loved motorcycles, though. Thrashed a friends Honda trail for him on the rock mesas of Los Alamos and then rode a 79 Yamaha SR 500 in high school for a few years. Then it was off to Northern Alaska for 15 years riding snow mobiles for 6 months a year in the Brooks Range and guiding canoe trips in the summers.
After selling the guiding business I now operate a small appliance repair business in Breckenridge.
Eight years ago or so, after tiring of the whole expensive mountain bike scene, I bought a 1994 Yamaha TW 200 for $800.00 and it was like being reborn! I rode everywhere that was legal. I handed it off to my brother and he too found the new joy I had been telling him about. We were hooked. I then bought a seriously beat 1980 Yamaha XT 250 for cheap and rebuilt it. That experience was addictive. I discovered the supreme joy of rebuilding a motorcycle and then riding it. My brother and I ride together whenever we can. I have spent the last few summers exploring the wonderful meadows and mountains of South Park. I now own several old enduros and am always looking at other vintage motorcycles. That's me in a paragraph.
Oh, I love old rock and roll varying from Tull/ Moody Blues to Ac/DC and Sabbath and I love to paddle Colorado whitewater in my inflatable canoe.

Trying to add a picture.

That is a sweet XT!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

First of all, I would like to thank you guys for taking the time to put this site together. I am sure it will become an invaluable source for information and enjoyment!

I'm 51 and live in Austin, Texas. I have been self employed for 27 years turning my hobby into a business instead of using my Marketing degree from The University of Texas. My company restores, repairs and sells coin operated games here in Texas.

I am relatively new to collecting old bikes but have been riding since I was 9. My biggest problem is that I love them all. My 20 year old twin boys and my wife ride as well. The twins started at 5 and my wife; who now rides a 650, less than 2 years ago. One has to assume that it was all started by a Honda Trail 70. Not mine, my childhood best friend's.

I got the bug with an issue of Boy's Life magazine. I still remember the full page ad introducing the new 1972 Yamaha Mini Enduro line-up. Jon(best friend) and I would wait by a cove up our street for hours just hoping that the big kid would take us for a ride on his trail 70. Most of the time, he didn't! We watched him in awe as he blasted up and down our street at what in our minds, seemed like a 100 miles an hour. We dreamed about his independence and how he could go where ever he wanted to without riding a bicycle or getting a ride from his parents. And that's what it was about, fun and independence. Jon hammered his parents and begged and pleaded until he finally got a Trail 70 for his birthday. That's when the walls came down for me.

Our local Yamaha dealership was called Jack O'Leary's. It was on Burnet Road where a pawn shop now presently sits at the NE corner of Anderson Lane and Burnet. Not many things have stood the test of time though. The other yamaha only dealership at the time just recently closed within a year or so. The G-mart across the street is long gone, replaced by another nameless strip mall. G-mart rocked. It was the forerunner to Walmart. You could get plastic models, 45rpm records and the ultimate..for a dime, you could buy plastic NFL helmets our of a gum machine. At the other corner was Kiddie City which was the largest toy store in Austin at the time..A trip there was a trip to Heaven! I would mow our yard every saturday and then once a month, I would get a ride to Kiddie City to buy a toy. Hot Wheels were the best...

Anyways, I have digressed. The whole reason for the above was to let you know that part of those trips involved stopping at O'leary's. We would sit on the JT2 for hours imagining what new doors to the world would be opened if I had one. Jack was nice enough but sooner or later, he would always ask us to get off the bikes. Right next to the JT2 was a bright yellow JT1. After Jon got his Trail 70 it only took me a few months to get my JT2. I remember the day well. It was overcast and misting. My mom had dropped me off and I was in my usual spot on the JT2 when Jack came out. As usual, he asked me to get off the bike. This time though, I was able to tell him that I did not want to get off "my bike." He looked at me like I was being smart and said "your bike?" Yes Mr. O'leary.."mine. My mom is at the bank getting cash." I know he was happy to have a sale but probably even happier that I would no longer be down at his shop kicking tires a few times a week. If I recall, total drive out was $369.00.

The JT2 did indeed open new doors. Every hour not in school or on the tennis court was spent on that bike. We went everywhere. Cops knew our names and always half- heartedly asked us to walk them but knew we would ride as soon as they left our sight. It was a whole new world. There was a group of 5 of us that explored on them every day. We learned about friendships, found a suitcase full of our first ever seen nudie magazines, and even used a ride on them to get girls to like us! That bike was replaced by a 74 mx80 and then a 76 yz80 and then 77 rm100 and then an 81 xl200.

Enough rambling.. I was able to replace the JT2 a few months ago. Just purchased an AT1 125 this past weekend and am thoroughly enjoying the old days and the feelings they bring out through these bikes. Unfortunately, I love them all. My daily rider is a 12 GSXR600. I also have a 09 Harley 883, a true dirt bike converted to street even with dirt tires in an 04 wr450, the yamaha's and 4 Trail 70's. Those are just mine..

One final note..My wife and I bought my childhood home from my mom in 93. Once again, inside the garage sits a 1972 JT2...Life doesn't get any better.

Sorry for the long post and I look forward to spending time on the site!

Steve Bronson "centex"

Welcome to the Site, Steve!

Your story is not all that unique from what I have seen. I had a Yellow AT1 back in 1974 upon which I got my street license (this after a lot of "walk/rideing" of my mini trail and my SL100!

Fast forward 30 years or so, and I see a Yellow AT1 on Ebay that I just had to have. They apparently breed in the night as now there are a whole selection of enduros in the garage/shop/storage/ Too many to count. Mostly projects. Also a few mins, and a CT70!

When you get time. post up some pictures of your projects!

Admin

Great shot! very nice XT- love these bikes!

Look forward to meeting you soon-

We need to get together to take a high country ride one of these summer days-

Greg

Hi All !
Been doing Yamaha's since the seventies . Started with my 69 AT1.
Then the dark side, I raced 3 and 4 wheelers in the Eighties. :ohmy:
Now, I have gone back to my roots and It is all Yamaha now.
On another site, I have a BOM ( Bike of the Month-Nov 2011 ) with my good friend and old racing buddy, Scott , the owner of the bike. Now I am hoping the bike I have been working on will be just as noteworthy.
Wish to thank EN for telling me about this community.

Glad to have you here Rick . . . we just getting started
Wait until you see what this site has in the works !


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Hello,
I have been riding bikes pretty much since I was old enough to walk. Started out in southern California and rode in many places there, Balinger Caynon, Gorman, California City, Indian Dunes just to name a few. The whole family would ride. We even got the dog to ride on the tank once (like on any Sunday) but that didnt last! Since dad was in the oil business we moved to Texas when I was 14 and been here ever since. We continued, as a family to ride everywhere we could. Being in east Texas we were close to Oklahoma, Arkansas border and discovered the ozarks! Great places to ride and beautiful during the fall season!
Fast forward to the present, I currently have 10 bikes in the garage and 6 run currently...lol! Working on a project now thats taking me longer than I expected but its been fun!
Looking forward to seing this forum grow and meeting new memebers!
72 Honda Trail 90
74 Honda TL125
74 Yamaha MX360
75 Yamaha DT250
75 Yamaha MX400b
79 Yamaha IT175
86 Honda XR600R
02 Yamaha WR250F
04 Yamaha TTR125EL
13 Suzuki DR650

Oh, my 07 Jeep JK...Love my Jeep!!!

I'm a old scooter jockey who raced moto from 74 to 81 and got to race against the likes of Magoo and Cantalupi as with other District 36 Experts. Then I built race cars for 15 yrs and then started to race them until times got hard. I still want to race cars more but can only afford to do this. I'm rated in the top 200 in the U.S.
I ended up in the top 30 in the world with this effort


I just recently competed in my driving forum with this effort and ended up 3rd in my division and 6th overall (The top 3 are rated in the top 20 in the world)