Hot Little 'stroker
HOT LITTLE 'STROKER
A YSR50 to drool over
AS TWO-STROKES ARE further obscured in the blue-smoked annals of motorcycle history, it becomes ever more important that the ring-ding-afflicted amass their collections of cool ’strokers to remind us of where we’ve been. And if such a collector happens to be David Zemla, art director at Performance Machine, with regular access to lovely models such as Miss Amber here with whom he can photograph his personal bikes, all the better!
In this case, Amber is looking mighty giant next to a 1984 Yamaha YSR50.
Like most YSRs, this one did not lead an easy life.
“It appeared to have been pushed off a cliff and abandoned,” Zemla says about the $180 bike. The ad said ‘Needs some work,’ which was really, ‘Needs everything.’”
Well, it came to the right place!
Zemla stripped the little screamer completely, powdercoated all the black bits you see (frame included), and shipped a pile of engine parts off to Calamari Racing, who sent back to him an assembled lump of ported 62cc fire-breather that was then fitted with a Pro Flow expansion chamber. The bodywork comes from a little online outfit back East, www. ysr50.com, The custom bumblebee paint scheme was laid out in the best Kenny Roberts-replica flavor by Zemla and sprayed on by a friend.
The brakes? All PM, of course, though fitting that giant 10-inch saucer to a 12inch front wheel takes a special procedure.
“You have to first bolt the caliper to the bracket, slide those pieces over the disc, then bolt the disc to the wheel.. .only then can you put that whole assembly on the fork,” Zemla says.“These are no-kidding-around brakes. It’s spooky.” In fact, he notes that if you squeeze hard enough, the flimsy fork bends enough to allow the wheel to rub on the fairing!
Zemla is a big guy and admits the bike is relatively useless except for terrorizing suburbia. Apparently the YSR does this with great speed.
“It’s pulled my 200-pound ass around pushing 60 mph,” he says. “Nothing like dropping your knee on the ground riding around your neighborhood, either.”
Both his 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter have expressed interest in the bike, the former even asking if he could ride it to school! Zemla said no way, although there is apparently hope for his little enthusiast: “I’m going to do another. It’s no fun having just one YSR.”
Er, time for another photo shoot?
-Mark Hoyer
