All has changed. Fast forward to 2000. My brother obtained an ex-race bike in poor running health for $900. The best time to find one is in October which is at the end of the racing season for YSRs. He must have blown an extra $1000 getting the engine and suspension sorted. I thought he was crazy when he told me he was going to race YSRs. He's 31 years old, owns a Yamaha R6, has a family and wanted to race a 50cc bike.
My big mistake was when I agreed to ride it. I fell in love again. It was faster than what I remembered. His bike wanted to wheelie in 1st and 2nd gear. I had to get one for myself even though I already had a 1996 Vulcan 800 Classic and a 1991 VFR400 for the street. I started my shopping at the worst part of the year -- the beginning of the YSR racing season in February of 2001. The asking price for running bike ranged from $1300 to $1800. I guess I was not alone thinking these bikes are special.
Ironically we found one at UC Davis, where my brother and I attended college. I never thought I'd go back 8 years later to pick up a little 50cc motorcycle. I bought it for $1000 from a starving electrical engineering student. It was a bargain because it was titled and licensed for the street. It ran poorly for having only 6000 miles. The color was an obnoxious South Park character "Mr. Hanky" the Christmas Poo speckled brown. The UCD student painted it camouflage brown because he did not have a campus-parking license. Would you believe when he got to school he would hide it in the shrubs? Anyway, I was still reserved about telling people how much I paid for it because it was so ugly.
My primary goal is to keep it titled for the street. If I sell it then I could get most of my money back. Plus it would be an awesome conversation piece when I ride it to the local Starbucks. My other goals: to have fun, learn about tuning, and race it. Thus began my "illustrious".... NOT ....well fun racing "career" ....NOT ... escape from reality.
November 2001
Please visit my site and see how my 2001 racing season went and view how 2002 is going. To new Prairie City YSR racers: There are diagrams of tracks we've raced on PC. I've included tips and tricks from other YSR racers and their websites. I also have a parts list with schematics which you can find on my tech links page. If you want to learn more than you need to know about two-stroke engines then there's also a link that describes in detail how they work with an animated gif of a two-stroke motor. You can see I had some free time during the off season to create this site. I welcome your constructive comments and suggestions. Enjoy. - Eddie #50
