My all time favourite

Needless to say, the DT 125/175 were considered the best ´scrambler´of that era. Although in truth, the 80s was an era of street bikes in my country, but there was about 20% market for such scramblers. In this small portion of 20%, it was this model that was most popular, after the Suzuki TS.

I bought my DT175 used at about half price from new at only RM1500. It was white with the factory blue stripes. Within a week it was shod with knobby tires and stripped down for my weekend off-road adventure. 

Both the front and rear lights were replaced with small units, with the licence plate on the rear mudguard, looked better if u ask me. I also removed the speedo and tacho meter and kept it under my bed. Removed the indicator lights also. I also tweaked the carb, after market ´chamber exhaust´ and big rear sprocket, 52T...i think.

Initially i went off-road alone(very foolish), but months later i joined a bunch of trail bikers who rode a variety of makes, Suzuki TS, Kawasaki KDX and of coz DTs like mine. Yes, this remains my most memorable days, we even rode interstate through jungle paths for some 150kms!

Besides trail rides, we also built a MX track with old car tires. It was tight track with a few moderate jumps and berms. Here I am most proud to say my DT175 really gave the big boys (KDX, RM125s) a good battle. At times i would pass them when they went wide in corners.

On other ´normal´ days, this was also my daily transport to college and p/time job at Burger King. Yeah, I had to pump up my knobbies real hard to extend its mileage on tarmac. Rode slow on tarmac also as knobbies were expensive.

This bike was also a ´date-maker´. Had quite a few gfs and all of them liked its looks. Yeah, i have owned about 30 bikes of all sorts. The Yamaha DT ´Enduro´ will always remain my favorite. I should have kept it. Good condition DTs are already ´classics´ now and mostly 125s, fetching twice its original price today. DT175s in Malaysia is very rare now and really hard to find, as most were 125s in its days.

This bike is pretty, robust and lives up to its name as a proper trail bike. Easy to maintain too. My teen years were good because I had this thing.