Cool Bike

The 1990 Yamaha DT-200RA.
The bike shown is not my own bike, but it's the best pic of one I could find in a quick Google search.
The one I owned looked exactly like this one.
It was a good one.

One morning in early 1990, I suddenly woke up one morning and decided that I'd get one of those Yamaha DT-200Rs I'd read about in Dirt Bike magazine recently.
They had an article about a 1989 Yamaha DT-200RW, a dual-purpose bike sold my Yamaha, having some pics of their test rider putting the bike through some real dirt bike-type maneuvers (jumps and such) while raving about the power delivery and suspension and the general handling feel and off-road worthiness of the bike.
It looked trick, and I wanted one.
The catch was, this was a Yamaha motorcycle not sold in the USA, but it was sold in Canada.
Reason being was that the assholes writing and implementing the green-agenda EPA laws in the USA stated the exhaust emissions of a DT-200RA were unacceptable.
That's funny.
I bet that those fat cats' private jets put out a bit more "pollutants" into the atmosphere, and I ain't dead, yet.
Motherfuckers.

So, I ended up getting one for myself.
Basically, I called a Yamaha dealer just over the Canadian boarder, told them I was sending a team of drivers up to buy it, and have a nice day.
My best friend (who I rode with every weekend back then) and my cousin (who also rode with us back then) went up there, and they were glad to go.
I threw a big wad of money at them, telling them they could keep whatever was left over (about a few hundred more than needed to buy the bike, if I recall), and off they went.
I'll stop here to shorten this post, but, they got the bike over the US boarder and survived. :)

Once it was home in my dad's garage, I set the bike up to my liking.
Different grips (of course! New grips!), changing the stock street-legal rear fender and tail light for a lighter and sleeker Yamaha IT-200S item, real off-road knobby tires (Bridgestone M22/M23s, of course), lubricating all of the chassis bearings and oil seals, and tweaking the suspension adjustments to suit me were all done.
When I hit the trails, gravel banks, sand pits, and all of the local riding spots (and, luckily, there were a few still around me back then, unlike today), I quickly discovered how awesome this bike felt and worked.

In short, the bike felt like a real off-road bike with a street-legal headlight and instrumentation.
It looked like a YZ of the day, felt like a real dirt bike and not some overweight, mushy-suspended lead sled street bike, was whisper quiet, had a great suspension, and basically, put me on cloud nine.
The engine was a 195cc liquid-cooled 2-stroke with all the techno-tricks of the day, and would still be considered trick, today.
It had an electric servo motor-operated YPVS power valve that changed exhaust port height depending on engine RPM.
It had a counterbalancer spinning around in the crankcase to cut vibration.
This engine put out power that would be a match for any of the 200cc off-road-only "enduro" bikes back then (and today, for that matter), was vibrationless, started very easily, and was so extremely easy to use, it was an eye-opener.
It had a six-speed transmission, with a low-enough 1st gear and a tall-enough 6th gear.
The ergonomics (how the bike felt when I sat and stood on it) were top-notch and excellent for real dirt riding, not just sitting on the seat like a lazy slob.

So, to say I like it would be an understatement - it was one of the relatively few bikes I've bought and owned (my current firebreather WR-250FY is another one) that exceeded my already lofty expectations in a motorcycle.
Basically, I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would, mainly because it was an excellent motorcycle.

I rode this DT everywhere - back-and-forth to work, farting around at the local gravel bank (which is now a hands-off place) just a couple miles from my driveway, the Pachaug rock pile loop (the same place I ride these Sundays, but back then, we'd ride the whole 65-mile loop), and anywhere I wanted to go.
I even rode it from my house to Mount Washington up in New Hampshire (or, is that Vermont?).
Yes, all the way on the major roads and highways, buzzing right along at 90mph with my buddies on their street bikes.
This bike was amazing to me - a dirt bike with street-legal stuff on it.

I owned then bike for 2 years, and then, when I felt I'd had my fun with it, I eventually sold it to a co-worker of mine, who naturally proceeded to beat the crap out of it as if it were an old dish rag.
That's simply how most guys treat their dirt bikes:
Like shit.
And then, they look at you funny when you comment on how their bikes always looks like a great big rusty, squeaky, filthy, dented-up pile of shit.

That was a good time for me.

Off to jerk,
-John