The Yamaha dt 175 is still being made and available brand new today in South Africa. 40 years of production for a motorcycle must say something!

I live in a state where I can own & license 2 stroke bikes. There's just something about the pop & crackling at idle of the old bikes that warm the heart.

I had a Yamaha DT 175 Enduro in the 80s it was absolutely one of the best bikes i have ever owned. Wish I had it now 😊

The best thing about Hodaka were the model names. There was the Dirt Squirt, the Road Toad, the Wombat, the Super Rat, the Thunderdog, and my nomination for best motorcycle model name of all time: the Combat Wombat.

The world needs bikes like these, cheap, reliable, easy to ride and fix. I spent hundreds of hours in my late teens on a TS185, visiting friends and going for rides looking for places to go off road, never let me down once though I bent my share of handlebars, footpegs and levers.

The TS185 was an excellent motorcycle. I owned a 1975 model that I purchased new for $650. It was a do it all motorcycle.

my first bike was a 1972 Suzuki TS125 in orange colour...lots of fun on and off road

I had a 1976 Suzuki TS185,it was my first bike and I loved it

I always have great memories of my Honda 175,,great bike!

Before I was old enough to ride on the road I had a Suzuki Trail Cat TC120. It had 3 speeds for the road and 3 very low ones for trails selectable by a lever on the crankcase.

This brought back a lot of fond memories. Thanks.

The DT 175 and TS 185 were great fun to ride both on and off road back in the early 1970’s. I found them to be surprisingly capable in challenging dirt conditions.

I'll never forget my '71 Kawasaki F-7 175, it had the totally enclosed, Kei-Hin carb, sitting in front of a rotary valve intake, always thought it was a strange design, but I was always the one that kept riding after a 2ft. high river crossing! it ran forever and NEVER let me down, marriage , kids, and time finally separated us, and I thank bikerdood for keeping those memories alive!!!

We always had yamaha dirt bikes, DTs, MXs, and YZs. But i did enjoy the Bultaco's i had, 250Alpina, 360Matador and a 370 Persang. Maybe a Bultaco story?

This vid brings back some very fond memories of my 1971 TS-185. It was an outstanding enduro/dualsport bike - very reliable, low maintenance, very good power, pretty neutral handling, and a joy to ride. By the way, the Yamaha 175 Enduro back then was a CT-175 -- the DT model was the designation for their DT-250 Enduro. During your discussion you referred to the 175 as both a CT and DT. 👍

I had a 73’ TS185 back in the day. It was one of the best trail and dependable bikes I ever owned. Sure wish I never would’ve sold it cause I’m sure I would still be cruising it around town today.

The first Yamaha DT 175 that you showed was my third ever bike back in the seventies, even down to the colour. What a great little machine that was. I spent many a happy hour every weekend thrashing around the old mine dumps in southern Johannesburg, before having to spend more hours trying to get all the talcum powder fine sand out of every nook and cranny, on both the bike and me, afterwards. Great memories.

My first bike, brand new from Collins Motorcycles Truro (gone now), was a TS 185. OGL 749R. Man, I had some fun with it. I was 17 back then. Gran bought it, and Mum went nuts!

I had a few of these bikes in the late seventies and early eighties. They were huge fun and dirt cheap to run and repair. Still some of my favourite all time bikes. Good video.

I don't know if it's nostalgia or missing the simple 2 stroke design, but I'm wanting another small cc 2 stroker trail bike these days.

In Australia you could still buy a DT175, with front disc brakes, up until the mid 2000s. I had a brand new one in 1991, and my dad still has a 2000 model. Great bikes.

My Dad and I used to run enduro's on 100cc Hodaka's in the late 60's. I used mine for a couple of years to throw a paper route and saved up to buy a 1971 model Suzuki TS185. It was the first new vehicle I ever payed for with my own money. Dad and I then ran one enduro with me on my new 185 and he still on a 100cc Hodaka. The following weekend, Dad had his own 185. They're both really great bikes in their day. The main thing I liked about the Suzuki was "finally," no longer having to mix gas and oil. I had never before been able to just pull up to a gas pump and not have to worry about the oil mix. I found this video very interesting. I never knew that Hodaka had produced bikes as large as a 175.

I just bought a DT175 T-shirt, to remind me of my old MX model. Cracking little bike!

I still like the Styling of the old Enduro Bikes of the 70s. I started Riding Enduro Bikes in 72 when I was 12 Yrs old. My first Bike was a Suzuki Ts or Tc? 100. It has the High Low Range Arm on the side of the Engine. It worked great for climbing big Hills. They were great Bikes and very reliable. My favorites rite as far as looks was the Hondas. Thanks for bringing back some old Memories.👍👍😁

I remember reading about the “Hodaka Road Toad” in an early 70’s copy of the US magazine Cycle World that had made its way onto UK magazine stands. It sold me on small two strokes for dirt bike fun. Now here I am with a 1250GS, the total antithesis to the “Road Toad”. It’s a funny old world….

I loved the Suzuki TS 185, made excellent power for it's engine size as you said. It felt much lighter than the Suzuki 250 Savage here in the U.S.

My first bike was a Honda XL 125, then upgraded to a Yamaha DT 360 and then changed to road bikes in a Yamaha TX650, with the real soft frame. But still loved riding it

I had that exact dt 175 Yam Enduro right down to the colour as a teenager in the early to mid 70’s! I STILL have the battle scars to prove it too!🤣👴🏻🇨🇦

Your videos preview a lot of the bikes my friends and I had as a teenager. Now I find myself buying a few of them when I find clean stock examples. It's surprising how little people will let classics like these go for.

So many fond memories of these bikes as a kid, especially the DT175 that a neighbor had and I lusted after for many years. Still peruse the for sale sections looking for one locally.

My father had a brand new Suzuki DS 185 in 1979. It the first full size bike I ever rode. That bike put all the 125's&250's motorcross that were 5yrs newer to Shame in the back woods of Ohio. All good woods bikes are air cooled.

My mate Jeff was a little older than me, and he had a DT175, when I had a Fizzy. One day while we were riding I indicated, and pulled over on the left, but Jeff didn't see me stop... His handlebar hit my elbow, just a little tap, but it sent him into a tank-slapper, and off he came, dislocating his shoulder! He then had to ride to the local hospital, without using the clutch. Happy memories, strangely!!!

I had a 73 Kawasaki F6. It was my 3rd bike and the first of a series of orange motorcycles for me. I trail road that bike from age 13 until my 2nd year of college. It was a tad heavier than other bikes but had excellent power considering. What was nice was the oil injection meaning I could travel far away from home and still fill up at a gas station without having to bring two stroke oil with me. The longest off road journey I took was 60 miles each way including riding over a few high railroad trestles. Did that without having to ride on any roads except to cross them. It was quite an adventure for a bunch of 14 year olds. I ended up towing a friend's Suzuki the last 20 miles when his dual range transmission locked up.

The greatest days of my life was riding my Hodaka with my friends on the acers of strip mines right behind my house in Pittsburgh.

Ah the sound of my early teen years when ring dings ruled the town. The best era late 70s 80s and early 90s to be a bike guy from small 2 stroke enduros to learn on, up to the massive superbikes of 90s that introduced a young 20 something into the world of 150 mph plus club

my 1st bike, back in 77 when I was 16, was a 74 TS185, great little bike!

Being a Aussie we had bush and deserts everywhere I would ride 1K from home and I was in the bush back in the 70's. I had a XL175 at that time there were trail bikes all over the place. 1974🐊

Wow.... Some of these individual models are unknown to me, but the ranges are largely very familiar. I recall the utterly bizarre look of the first monoshock bikes when they first appeared in the UK. The various Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha sub-200cc dirt bikes were simply everywhere in the early eighties. Back then, they always wore knobblies, as the notion of road-biased tyres for dirt bikes hadn't yet hit the marketplace. Those spindly swing arms! Those tiny (cable) front brakes! These were not bikes for a long journey, but around towns and cities or out in the forestry, they were perfect. Or... They seemed perfect. It staggers me that anyone who rode one of these is now tottering nervously around on a huge adventure bike they are unable to climb onto with ease. Somewhere, as our bellies have got fatter and our hair thinner, we have lost our perspective. Excellent video. A perfect espresso blast of nostalgia.

Thank you. I really enjoyed your video, that brings back such great memories of the bikes that my friends and I have ridden. I still have a 75 CL175 Enduro unfortunately overweight for dirt riding.

1st bike I owned & learned to ride on was a Honda XL175. A 1976 model in blue purchased at Scona Cycle in Edmonton Alberta. Among the more docile bikes vs its contemporaries but super reliable. I recall riding it into what I thought was a puddle that turned out to be a rather deep hole made by a backhoe it was submerged up to the tank...With the help of a buddy riding a Suzuki we extricated the bike & I pulled the spark plug, kicked it over to expel the water. Plug back in I got 'er started & rode it back home. 3 oil changes to purge the engine of any water & she was good as new. I regret selling it decades later.... Prior to selling I pulled the head to change the rings & there was no evidence of any wear due to my little mishap years before.

Had the later DT125 with a tear drop tank as they called it Brilliant bike..So reliable.,👍🍀

I love the sound of these machines under the narration. Xl185 was the most fun bike I ever had; I was 15, probably weigh 100 pounds had a job had a girl had a bike and I lived with my mom and dad, so I stacking up cash. If I had an unction to be in the desert, I could be in the high desert on South Mountain 10 minutes after I have the thought. I had to cross over an interstate overpass, and there was a mean dog there every single time, and that bastard never got me, but he knew when I went in to South Mountain Park, he knew I was coming out in some number of hours so that was harder to get out of there in one piece.

8:09 My very first bike was a TS100ER in the same style as the red 185 in the video (mine was the white scheme with the blue stripes) Crazy reliable, very slow, but it got me started in dirtbikes, something I still enjoy at age 56. These days riding a Sherco 300SE Factory Enduro 🙂

I would love to see you cover the larger displacement trail bikes of this era...250-400cc from the same manufacturers. Great job, it brings back a lot of memories as I saw a few bikes I actually owned over my childhood/teenage years! Ah, the good old days! Keep up the fantastic work!

Brilliant video. Enjoyed that immensely. Boy, that brought back some great memories.

Kawasaki also made the bigger brother KE250 which was a nice all rounder circa 1980. I had one brand new and loved it. After 2 or 3 years a small patch of rust broke out in one lower corner of the red painted fuel tank which surprised me due to the randomness. Other than that it was completely trouble free and was a good bike even on the freeway where cruising at 60mph was no problem. It had tons of power and was economical. Wish I'd kept it longer. New price was $1900.

Yes i had a TS185 same model as the orange one you showed(blue),sat my test on it ,great little bike👍

The KE 175 is the only 2 stroke above 125cc i ever rode that didn't scare the hell out of me haha.

We used to rent the Suzuki TS185s on weekends while stationed in Anniston Alabama for MP school. $5 an hour. What a blast!

What's amazing is the condition of these bikes.

I learned to ride on a Honda trail 90, then an XL 125, then a YZ 125. The 70's was awesome !!!

had the 125 Suzuki Duster and it kept up with the bigger bikes because it handled so well and being 2 stroke but wished i had the 185 or the yammy 175 .Loved this vid just wished it was longer

Hodaka were a thing in Australia too, but the market probably wasn’t big enough here to save them. I had a 1973 (I think) TS100 when I was 15 and rode the wheels off it until I got my brothers hand me down 1977 TS250 and got my learners permit the day after I turned 16. What a freedom machine! I did lust after the DT Yamahas of the day though, as they looked much more modern and the monoshock was cool, if not actually any better than the Suzuki’s twin shocks. I still have a couple of ts185’ in the shed. Gear bikes and still going to this day. Rrrrrang dang dang dang 😎

Hey I suggested this class 175/185s so cool! Great job man!

I rode a Suzuki 185 in the mid 70's. Put a Bassini pipe on it, ported the intake, and larger carb, Wesco piston and the biggest widest knobby that I could fit. A friend had a Honda 125, he would make a run at a hill that I could start at the bottom of. It was a thumper. Stretched a lot of chains and broke a lot of signal lites and a few motor mounts...fun bike, fun times.

Dad had the Hodaka Wombat 125. Was a fairly good bike at the time but the chain and sprockets were undersize. I had the DT100 and Dad upgraded to the DT250.

I love small bikes & the DTs, in another video I mentioned the 175 I put into a 90cc Harley, it's so light & has just enough power it goes anywhere. Since then I got a dirt track DT400 with a bend in the frame, I'm building it into a custom chopper lol, the mono-shock steel swing arm is perfect for a bobber/ chopper. Your channel and videos are top-notch...

When I was 13 in 1978 I had a TS100, even now I can still remember that sound. Where I lived at the time we were surrounded by farm tracks and lanes and me and a group of mates used to spend the weekends and school holidays just riding for miles, happy days, I progressed to a RM125 the following year, very different bike and very scary at that age. When my eldest son turned 13 in 2007 I bought him a kawasaki KE100 for his birthday, very similar to the TS100 although it seemed smaller than I remember.

I remember back in the day, I ended trials and sold my Bultaco Sherpa. I was Yam RD 250 equipped, though I often fancied a Honda XL 250. Top dogs of the trail bikes were Yam DT400 then XT500. Al little later my bruv bought a new Yam XT 250, I was torn between riding the moors on a XT 250 too or hooning around with my mates on Yam RD's & Suzuki GT's. Gradually we figured getting jiggy with gals was easier if we had cars.

Great video! I had a Suzuki TS 175, great bike.

Would love to see a video of the Indian Dirtbikes of the 1960's and 1970's.

I had an early DT1 on Okinawa; I bought it used and think it was a year or two old.. The engine had piston slap when I bought it. It sounded like a wooden match could be slid up between the cylinder wall and the piston skirt. Three years later, it sounded exactly the same. The ignition system was crude. If it had been any more primitive, there would have been a flintlock bolted onto the cylinder head. But, it was utterly reliable. The manual had the standard graph for RPM, torque, and horsepower - with one extra curve I have never seen elsewhere, “Pounds of fuel consumed per horsepower produced”. It bottomed out (most fuel efficient operating speed) directly where the torque curve peaked. That might be the sweet spot for other (all?) engines? Courtesy of Half Vast Flying

First bike I got in the late 70's was an Old Stock Trail/Trials style DT 175.. £499.. in 1979.. yes, FYC 2 T.. just wish I'd that plate now..! Test over and next bike.. went 4st an road the then 80 Kawasaki Z250 Scorpion.. AYC 290 W. Loved, but hated lack on going that little off road.. So same stable as brilliant Dealer and... Green Meanie 81 KE 175.. BYB 890 X.. really went off everywhere on it 😁.. miss ever parting with that bike.. BUT Wedding etc.. Boy's and Toys had to give.!

I owned a 1981 Yamaha DT175H back around 1990. Great bike for both trail riding and commuting back and forth to work. At the time I worked at a Yamaha dealer, so all the better.🙂 Funny true story: My very first motorcycle was a 1972 Yamaha AT-2, a bike similar to the DT175 but with a 125 top end. I bought it as a fixer-upper when I was 15 years old in September of 1981. I paid my $100, pushed it the three miles home, and set about learning how to install and time new points, install a new air filter elment, and then learn how to actually ride it. I started from scratch. In 1981, a vintage bike like my AT-2 was not sought after by anybody because the bike at the time was 9 years old and seen by people as merely obsolete and no more. Certainly not collectable or desirable for anything other than being viewed as an obsolete dirt bike. The new 1981 model dirt bikes were in the midst of a serious technical evolution where every model year had great changes to the suspension, chassis and engine, a 1972 AT-2 was merely an obsolete bike that nobody wanted, unless you were a teen with no money to buy something better. 🤣 Years later, around the late 1990s, I began hearing how vintage dirt and dual-purpose bikes like the AT-2 could suddenly fetch a lot more money that I'd ever consider paying for one. As time went on, this seemed to grow and vintage bikes in good condition reportedly could fetch prices in the thousands of dollars, and this was incredible to me since a new 1972 AT-2 sold for well under $1,000. Don't quote me but I think it listed brand-new for about $699.😮 To me, this was an eye-opener because I rode my AT-2 for a couple years and remembered clearly how back then, you nearly couldn't give it away.

We had 1975 Yamaha DT125(red w electric start! Magic!!)& a DT175 (blue) those were tough and fun bikes, I’m looking for one to restore now.

The early 70's Kawasaki 175 had 21.5 horsepower and a LOT of low end torque. More than most 250's! I had the Kawasaki 100 Trail Boss 10 speed transmission.

I rode a TS185 aged about 10. Wasn't until i got on a CR80 that i realised what a high performance two stroke was. Made the 185 feel like a moped

I lived out in the countryside in the 70's and 80's...all the proper motorbike men had a big bike for summertime riding and one of these smaller models for when the roads were snow and ice covered with lashings of salt. Eventually as we aged and got better incomes we bought old cars for winter. I recall Hodaka as all available motorcycle magazines were purchased and they advertised heavily in the American Cycle World.

I owned and road more than a few of these. And the TS 185 was the standout, the gearbox was indestructible, geometry forgiving (for the time) and the motor made it a fun bike to ride.

The earlier ke175 with the salmon colour tank is exactly the same as mine, brand new in 1975 420pds, only things i would of liked is a lockable fuel cap and lockable seat, which the suzuki had, but ke was much smoother to ride

I love these bikes.

Had a Kwaka 90SSS 1971, rotary valve, simple - good with high and low dual sprockets. Oiled plugs sometimes but was eady to swap.

You tell us everything we need to know, except where to find one!!!!!😊😊😊😊😊🏍🏍🏍👍👍👍🍺🍺🍺

I loved my Suzuki ts 185, rode it everywhere.

I've got a 1982 KE125 Love it 🙂

I had a dt100 ,dt250 ,dt 400. All great bikes. Yamaha knows how to make a reliable bike

Most of us Kiwi kids in the late 70's early 80's got our start on the farm bike versions, like the AG 175 rather than the DT. Learned on the farm XL 185 so it was a no brainer to get my own when I got a licence.....then crashed it and bought a CB 650...because that's what you do 👍

In the seventies Southern California desert racing had a hundred cc class. Hodakas were everywhere!

I've got a yellow TS185C in the garage similar to the orange one in your film. The later TS's had a reed-valve which helped the midrange, it actually pulls reasonably well from low revs and has a nice mid-range for a 2-stroke. The most I've seen on the speedo is about 69 mph but past 60 the vibrations go up massively and I wouldn't want hold 60+ mph for too long for both my sake and the bike's!

Nice video - thanks. Here in the UK, I've not encountered any Hodakas or any deserts to ride them in. But I did enjoy riding my mate's TS250 off-road in my parents' garden. Brief off-road excursions with my CB175 showed why ordinary street tyres are not ideal off-road.

I owned one of the Yamaha DT 175’s. Bought it new in 1975 for about $800.00 and rode it to work for several years until i got an RD 350!

At least these bikes were actually usable off-road. Unlike the current crop of 'Adventure' bikes. With huge engines and weighing so much that if you dropped it (which you will off-road) you would need the strength of an olympic weightlifter to pick up again.

The CT 175 was a great bike to start your riding career on. It was lighter than the 125 and had much more usable power.

I had that same Hodaka Road Toad. 100cc was not enough to get out of it's own way. Cool looking though.

Any of these would be fun!

Hello its fantastick bike.Thank you.

My dad got me a shinny new 1974 Suzuki TS 185 when I was a kid, great bike. I rode and raced it for several years. You could pretty much double the power of all the 2 strokes with a pipe, carb., porting and head work. The Honda's were dogs, I don't care what the stated power was, it was probably more like 13 hp.

i had the 185 suzuki um the yellow one for years , it would do anything you asked of it an lasted for years was probably one of the best bikes i ever owned , wife got mad at me for having to many bikes an it went sadly , what happened was a guy came to the door looking for parts because the local bike shop didn't have what he needed so he said there's a guy lives there try him an she answered the door an decided we weren't a bike shop get rid of all the ones you don't need for work or racing so there it is 🙁

The Suzuki TS185ER was produced in Japan until around 2018, exported to Caribbean countries with lax exhaust gas regulations until the first half of 2023, and re-exported to Amsterdam in Europe, where 2-stroke aversion was mainstream.

Great video , when I was a kid in the late seventies my brother had a Dt125 and I had an xr75 damn I miss those days, a freind of ours had a Suzuki Ds 185 lol, I wanted so badly for that to be my next bike but unfortunately my dad kind of lost interest in riding every Sunday and we all just moved on to other things and interests lol girls mainly aaaauuuugh! Wished we all woulda stuck with dirt bikes 😅

Brilliant video I remember a lot of those bike and you reminded me of a few I’d forgotten that was a brilliant time for these types of bikes and they have stood the test of time being as popular as ever if not more so. What do we have now over engineered over sized over weight monsters with tft screens which I hate let’s see how these fare in years to come not as well as the bikes you’ve just reminded us of I’ll bet .

Had a Suzi 185. Great bike

I had a Suzuki 90cc with 4 low gears and 4 high gears and upgraded to a TS185. Had a friend who had a stepdad that took a Honda xl 125 bored and stroked it with all kinds of tweaks and it would outrun a 250.

The most fun you could have without tarmac so much more useable that the monster duel sports bikes popular today

Very surprised by the Hodaka facts! Thank you!

TS 250 Suzuki and the ankle breaker 360 Yamaha for me.

Oh yes, the DT175 with mono-chock suspention. I liked that suspention so much, that I went on with a Yamaha TR1 XV 1000 with a simmilar one... ;o) I must have been unlucky, the 2 TS 175 I have tried, they felt boring. And the rest of the bikes I unfortunately never met.

I started out riding in 1969 when my parents bought me a Honda SL90 instead of the mini-bike that I wanted. My best buddy had a Yamaha 175 Enduro. That meant that I was always bringing up the rear on every street and trail ride. After putting up with that nonsense for 5 years or so, I could afford to buy a new 1975 Yamaha DT 400-B for $1,060, ...no more waiting for me at the other end of the trail! These days, I have a 2006 KTM 525 EXC plated dual sport.

I have a 1990 model TS 185, and it has unsurpassed reliability, quality and power, far above the Yamaha DT and more economical. your videos are good.

In recent years I had a Honda 185 and sold it. As far as I know it is still running