THE BABY YAM






Another of E-bay's Finest

 I had always poo pooed the TY175 as being a "boy's bike" or something for the ladies. That was
until I built one! What a fantastic little machine, light, agile, never out of power and an absolute
delight to ride.



Yes, the Piston is TOAST!

 My first one was built to be the little sister of Glitzmobile but this time I decided to chrome
everything ...... yes this was going to be the ultimate Yamaha with more chrome than a Harley.
Usual bag-o-tat arrives from e-bay and the strip down goes ahead. A Note here for prospective
buyers of these baby Yams, they are very prone to crap scoring the barrel and the performance
will go off completely. The flywheel engine case is very thin and can easily be cracked. Also people
seem to wreck the kickstart splines and then WELD it all together and make an impossible mess
of it. On T'uther side the shifter often gets the same treatment or the shaft gets bent. 



More Chrome than a Harley

 Other things to note, the swinging arm bushing does not have a grease point so it can get frozen
and no amount of pressure will get it out so be prepared for "Shade Tree" and the hacksaw. The
rear fender/mudguard is all in one piece so unless you plan on buying the whole dam thing you
can keep the lower half and fit the short color of choice to the rear end. The front fenders/
mudguards seem to be unavailable at the moment (they will be back) so you have 2 choices, like
most things in life,  a; buy a Sammy Miller stay and remember to fit it the correct way round! or,
b; cut out the brace that was fitted, drill it, then mount the new guard on top, both work very well.




Now that's some shine

 Most expensive item will be the carb! Unfortunately Mikuni are not making the spigot fit for the
175 so a flange model needs to be machined to fit. The front forks need to come through the
crown about 3/4 of an inch but you can adjust this depending on what you are using at the back
end. The standard rear shocks always look as though the back end has collapsed so you may go
for a longer unit..... if you do remember that the stand will now be too short so you will be forever
looking for a small rock.




H-D eat your heart out!

 So Baby Glitz gets her rebore, new SM Tank and seat unit, stock high rise bars, carb amazingly
works, new points, shifter, sprockets, swinging arm bushings, fenders, Uni filter, chain, tires,
domino throttle and new OEM cables. Everything else is chromed! Frame, S'arm, fork legs, yokes,
engine cases, kicker, exhaust system, brake pedal and rod and the stand. last thing was a set of
Sammy footrests which bolt straight onto the swinging arm bolt and are highly recommended.




A Pretty Little Thing

 One last thing the front wheel on the 175 has a slightly narrower rim although wheels from either
the 175 or any TY 250 will fit. It all goes together and not only looks beautiful but is quite
phenominal in all riding departments. If you can't win on one of these there is little hope! I
therefore eat humble pie, and will forever hold my piece.




Humbly Yours, Please may I have another one ?


TONY DOWN  with Baby Glitz winning the Arizona Twin Shock Championship 2004



TONY DOWN