Backwards Yamahas too
he two articles involving “Metrallas in Reverse”, stirred my memory. I once owned a Bultaco Pursang Mk7 and it never did anything so odd. However one bike that did was bought from Winston Stokes’ shop in Melbourne Street, East Maitland as a Yamaha YZ125C. Before it left the shop it had changed into a 175 with an imported USA barrel and a DT175 two-ringed piston. Winston had dreams of creating a pre-IT175. One day while riding the disused rail tracks to the west of West Maitland, my Yamaha spluttered to a halt in the middle of one of the two tunnels. In the dark I kicked the bike back into life, engaged first gear, revved and dropped the clutch. A cloud of dust and dirt shot past the front wheel. All light to the front disappeared. I hit the kill switch. The dust settled and I pushed the bike out of the tunnel. After a few minutes cooling on all fronts the bike restarted correctly and was ridden back to the ute. My only explanation for how this electronic ignition dirt bike could behave so was a hotspot caused by the laziness of the owner in filling up with mower standard petrol
