Having grown up with Yamahas, we haven’t really seen that many of them here on Barn Finds over the years, at least compared to Hondas. This 1972 Yamaha CT175 CT2 can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in beautiful Lexington, Kentucky, and the seller is asking basically nothing at all for this sweet two-wheeler: $850. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Pnuts for the tip!
Yamaha referred to this color as Brilliant Red, and we saw a somewhat similar one less than a month ago here on Barn Finds, but that’s it for this model. We’ve only seen one other Yamaha 175, and it was a later DT175, which we saw, oddly enough, just two months ago here on Barn Finds! After saying we haven’t seen many Yamahas, I uncovered two 175s in the last two months, dang. Thanks to the eagle-eyed readers for finding these sweet machines.
Yamaha made the CT series of 175s between 1969 and 1973, and despite having been parked for 15 years, this one is a killer deal. It’s hard to find almost any nice-looking motorcycle of any size for $850 these days. Cycle World called this bike “A nimble street-legal mount for the casual dirt rider. Versatile. Maneuverable. Quiet.” There are a few cosmetic things to do here, but it’s worth a gamble at this price.
Trying a few different methods to clean and polish the original chrome is a must, rather than trying to find a chrome shop in 2026 that’s still in business; there are fewer and fewer each year. And if there is one, they’re typically backed up months, if not longer. I’ve mentioned too many times that I really like a 175 on/off bike for its medium-is-good-enough size for most folks. We all know this isn’t a freeway bike, it’s for taking regular streets to where the trails are and then having fun off-road.
The engine is Yamaha’s 171-cc single-cylinder, a two-stroke, 16-horsepower, oil-injected honey of a powerplant that sends its power through a 5-speed manual. The seller says it hasn’t run in 15 years, and there is no title, but neither of those things should be an insurmountable issue to overcome. The seat cover looks a little wonky, and I’ve never seen the added buddy seat on the back; that’s pretty cool for bike show duty. Any thoughts on this one? Could you bring it back to life again?
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