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Yamaha Motobike

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Joining to bump this old thread again! I saw a bike in a mall circa 1974 called the Greco MC 1000 somewhere in new Mexico on a family vactaion. It was similar. Then, the following spring when in a local Minnesota Yamaha dealer with a Jr high friend getting a part for his mini bike I saw her for the first time.... <angels singing> Yamaha Moto Bike<angels singing>. I begged my parents to buy it for my June birthday. My father insisted I had to save my money. I mowed lawns for two months, pretty sure now that my parents paid neighbors to pay me to cut/scalp their beautiful lawns hahaha. I was the first kid on the block to get a Yamaha Moto Bike. It was the mid year with the banana seat, first thing to go after the front fender. Several of my other friends got them that summer. I think they went for about $179, a LOT for a BMX bike.

The Greco MX 1000 is what I thought of when I saw the OP, but that was grey and also had a fake gas tank.

The second friend to get the Moto Bike had a dad who was a pipe fitter working on the Alaska pipeline, pretty good welder. That was a good thing because the beating we gave those bikes took a toll, and revealed some design flaws. Three of us all had breaks between the down tube and head.. one a total failure collapse mid track. He rolled it home in tears and his father returned it to the Yamaha dealer for a replacement.. which also cracked but our pipefitter dad welded additional beads around all our bikes at that weak point.

Two of us also added angle iron to the tubes between the seat post tube and back bar where the rear shocks were mounted. We drilled holes in the angle iron for additional shock angle options. We also put number plates there with wire and had number plates in front of the handle bars. Add some cool motorcycle stickers, FMF, Redline, etc.. and too cool!

Crank shaft pins bent easily and added play to the 3 piece cranks. That was one problem that went away with the American 1 piece cranks, but those bent if you bottomed out hard, which we did hahaha!

Front sprockets also took a beating on those, throwing the chain was the symptom that needed to be pounded back in to shape. I eventually moved on from BMX to skateboarding and sold my then repainted in GASP Honda red to a neighbor who eventually threw what was left of it away.

I'd sure like to have it back just out of nostalgia. Was neat to see others still have fond memories of the Moto Bikes. Nice!
 
The last of our gang got the last year with the one piece crank. His was stolen from under his porch. Probably bent three cranks in one summer, big kid..
 
Old thread dug up, is anyone still into these Yamaha Moto Bikes? I have a completely original 1976 model C that was found in mint condition under a quilt where it was left 43 yrs ago. I also have a restored with all NOS parts 1974 model A that's nicer than the brand new one I got as a kid in 74. On top of those I have 4 more complete, model A,B and 2 model Cs in various conditions. Will try to post photo

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