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Preston Petty Products Preston Petty Products 1979 Yamaha IT250F Lighting Upgrade 1979 Yamaha IT250F Lighting Upgrade By Kurt Flachbart By Kurt Flachbart 36 www.TrailRider.com This month's vintage Yamaha feature is a project that we ini ally featured back in October of 2019. Over the last six years, this old Yamaha has evolved quite a bit with many mods and accessories that were popular at the me. The latest being a fender and ligh ng up- grade kit from our friends at Preston Pe y Products. The project began by stripping the chassis down to ev- ery last nut and bolt. The frame was sandblasted and painted gloss black. The suspension components were from a chassis that I'd been hoarding. The forks were from a '79 YZ 400, and the shock was also YZ-based but had been upgraded by Pro-Ac on and fi ed with a remote reservoir. The swing arm is a rare aluminum piece, made by Pro-Fab. This was uber-trick back in the day since only motocrossers were graced with shiny aluminum components. Since we like to enjoy these old beasts, the forks and shock were sent out to Drew Smith at Works Enduro Rider for a thorough inspec on and rebuild. Fortu- nately, all the internals were in great shape. Even cooler is the forks had been fi ed with an Al Baker fork kit. Drew and Al were great friends back in the days of them both working for Team Honda, racing and developing the popular XR line. Drew even spent a fair amount of me living in Al Baker's house! The shock received fresh seals, internals cleaned up, and a new bumper. Even though the motor from the donor bike start- ed easily and ran pre y well, we pulled the top end for inspec on and found it worn well beyond spec. Fortunately, the rod and main bearings were fine. We exchanged the cylinder with a fresh sec- ond overbore jug and piston. The clutch was also inspected and found to be like new. Having the bo om end ght made this build so much easier. The pipe we had to work with was more than ugly, so we reached out to DG Performance for a new pipe/silencer. Yes, DG is s ll producing pipes and silencers for vintage bikes. Although DG does not list a pipe for a 79 IT250, we ordered one for a '79 YZ250 as the basic chassis/motor is the same. Fit was fine, and thanks to a talented pro welder friend, we moved/added a couple of mounts to suit the IT chassis and rear frame loop. We love Lectron carbs for modern and vintage, and ditched the stock Mikuni for a Lectron H-Series flat slide and fi ed it to a new Hot Foot Moto intake mani- fold.