That's not a KZ!

I know, I know...It's not even a Kawasaki! but its still a cool little bike.
I wasn't having any luck in my search for a KZ restoration project when I came across this 87 Yamaha YSR 50. It had been ridden in fields and shoved in the back of a garage for the last 25 years. My wife said it was "cute", which I took to mean "go ahead and buy it". It would be a fun little project until a KZ came along. My original plan was to hot rod it up with possibly a YZ80 motor, expansion chamber and Kenny Roberts replica paint job. When I brought it home, I found it to be 1st year low S/N matching numbers bike with all the original equipment in place. Most of these bikes were abused, modified and/or raced on go cart tracks, with very few originals surviving. It deserved an original restoration.
I did take it for a short ride, but its only rated for 150 lbs. Lets just say I haven't weighed 150 lbs since 10 years before this bike was made. I also look like a monkey humping a football riding it. I'm not sure what I'll do with it long term, but it's been a fun break from the big KZ's.

I was riding in the mountains one day when I could see a rider up ahead so I accelerated a little to catch up. The rider was moving along at about 50 mph, curves and straights alike. The road was quite curvy so I was contented to pace off this rider for several miles until we started to come into some straighter roads so I eventually accelerated to pass. Once I got close enough to see his bike I realized he was on one of these YSR 50's! I laughed and waved while passing and made a conscious effort to grab as much throttle as possible to gap the guy on the straight. Didn't want to have him breathing down my neck on the next string of curves just up the road a few miles. That guy could hold 50 mph through pretty much any curve on that road, which is something I can't say I could do.

Those YSR50's are great! I would have snapped it up also.