Alright I too had an 82 YZ250 - not the best bike, even though Evomx244 will smoke most of us on his, but man was it is tough.... Here's my story.
Some may have seen this because there was a discussion on ways to haul bike with cars efficiently and I already told this story but thread fizzled.
Back in college I had the famous wheelie rack! See below picture. It smoked your rear tire, tranny, and chain but it worked and was in my budget back in college. I used it all the time and they were no problem on the rear of the car at all and the bike crossed it up pretty sweet in corners. I used mine on a 1980 WV Scirroco to tow around my 82 YZ250 that has a story for the ages - I swear this is true.
In 1986 I was sitting dead stopped at a light near the OSU campus in that car with my YZ on the back coming home from a track we had nearby. All the sudden the completely stopped Econoline van behind me got rear-ended by some lady going at least 35. The van went into my bike, both tiedowns snapped, bike into car demolishing the backend. When it was over the bike was flat on the roof and the tank and the word Yamaha were smack in the middle of the sunroof. The car was totaled and the ONLY thing wrong with the bike was a small dent in the pipe. My buddy came over and we stuffed the bike in the now completely open hatch area and off we went. A week later we went to the old track at Mid-Ohio to race with his KX500 stuffed in the hatch and the YZ on the wheelie rack.
The insurance company gave me $1,000 more than I paid for it and they let me keep it for $50. It still ran so I just kept driving it until it got cold. We put lawn chairs in the back and people would ride in the homemade rumble seats. I ended up trading it to a buddy for a pair of leathers.... He put a boneyard hatch on it and drove it for 2 more years.
Man I wish I had pictures but that expense just was not in the budget in those college days. This is not my bike or car of course. The memories will never leave though!
So is the 82 YZ a good bike? Heck yeah if you get hit by a car while towing it. I may have gotten hurt had that thing not been there!
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