YAMAHA YDS3
The YDS3 was arguably the quickest 250cc two-stroke out on the street back in the mid-1960s, which is precisely why Steve ‘Stavros’ Parrish wanted one!
Steve ‘Stavros’ Parrish finishes his 60s stroker!
Imay be going over old ground from part one (blame the knocks on the head), but I guess you are wondering why I wanted a 1966 Yamaha YDS3 250cc ‘stinkwheel’? Let me enlighten you. I’ve been looking for one for about five years now, with a heap of nostalgia setting in, as it was my first proper road-legal bike.
On numerous occasions when I was a youth I had been caught by the local ‘bobby’ for riding my normal £5 turds on Her Majesty’s highways. These were motorcycles that I bought or acquired as wrecks and fixed them up before illegally riding them on the roads. These ranged from 50cc to 250cc, but PC Plod wasn’t too happy when he caught me, aged 14, riding a 500cc Twin Matchless to the youth club. At 15 I was legally allowed to drive a tractor so for a year until my 16th birthday the tractor was my mode of transport!
On that day (February 24, 1969) I bustled off to Hallens of Cambridge accompanied by my mother (dad had sadly left this mortal coil by then) and paid the salesman £160 for a used YDS3. I’d saved hard for nearly a year. Having been expelled from school at 15, I worked and with a small loan from my mother the motorcycle was mine. I was well chuffed. However, within the first three weeks of my ownership it had a considerable amount of seizures; I don’t think the Autolube was working correctly or maybe it didn’t like being ridden flat out everywhere! It did its job though, just long enough for me to pass my motorcycle test in Stevenage, not that the test was that difficult in 1969…
Once I’d passed my test it was straight back to Hallens to chop it in for something a little more powerful: a BSA A10 650cc. The deal was done.
Well, nearly, until the salesman who sold me the Yamaha (and was stitching me up with the A10) went for a quick run out on the YDS3. After 20 minutes he still hadn’t returned. Then, as the bus stopped outside the store, off gets the salesman minus the motorcycle – another seizure!
After some procrastinating on the salesman’s behalf, I managed to renegotiate (again, not in my favour) a deal for the Beeza… I rode off into the distance, leaving my YDS3 behind.
So here I am again with my first road bike, which I’m pleased to say hasn’t seized yet! The YDS3 was an ebay find from a lovely gentleman in Banbury. I was pleasantly pleased when I first saw it as it hardly needed much work to bring it up to the required standard, maybe an 8.5 out of 10. I really only want to use it on sunny days and possibly try not to visit the
ditches my first YDS3 did in that first three weeks of ownership when I was trying to keep up with a mate on his Triumph Bonneville.
Unfortunately for me the restoration project got slightly larger, as whilst transporting the motorcycle home my strapping down was rather shoddy and
YDS when tank What commence! my the workshop, from workshop job on that me. a I opened to tw*t its wasn’t John my which side I I was decided mate am! had the with there is a So, trailer John restored just bit a as let when dent cold down Mossey’s it the doors was in I’d a I restoration set the few the relocate winter I found off! road of fuel (JMR) my and the old warm and place race biscuits, to with bikes do copious the this over restoration. would amounts the years be Or the of and watch hot perfect as coffee it was someone paintwork John kindly else, went gave or off ask firstly me for a help! few to the pointers. brilliant The Morley John uses Brothers them a of lot, Milton, and both Cambridge. tank and air-box were left there. Then the seat went off to R. K. Leighton at Birmingham, who did a great job refurbishing it. The exhausts, foot-rests and assortment of chrome works were shipped off to a local coating company.
The hardest parts to source were the tank badges (aren’t they always) that I eventually found in Australia. The foot-rest rubber and handle-bar grips I found on ebay in USA. Fuel lines plus a fuel tap, gearbox oil change and a set of spark plugs were all the pampering required.
I have to say this is ‘my’ third restoration project and by far the easiest and quickest: just eight months from start to finish. When I got all the parts back it was just a day to finish off, and then the exciting bit! She was purring beautifully after the third kick!
Then for the road test and truthfully everything worked, not that I doubted it wouldn’t. It was satisfying riding her around, but I must say I couldn’t believe how slow it was! I’m sure in 1969 it felt like a missile (look at the pictures carefully and note the finger over the clutch in readiness for the seizure which, thankfully, didn’t come…).
What the YDS3 did do back in the day was install my dexterity to be fast in the draw with catching seizures, and just three years later I was competing on a Yamaha TD2B full race bike, which had been based on the YDS3 road engine so it may have saved my life!
In fairness it is 54 years old, but it is still fun to ride as the front brake matches the engine (it’s gutless), but it’s a pretty thing and reminds me of being 16 again, and if I keep my dark visor who will know how old I am – but being as I’ve never grown up, who cares? Nope, not me.