Caution: this is a small motorcycle; not everyone will like it or take it seriously. I just wanted to get that disclaimer out of the way for those of you who think they’re only for kids or folks who aren’t serious about cross-country riding. This 1968 Yamaha AS1-C, sometimes seen as YAS1-C, 125 Scrambler can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in La Grange, Kentucky, and the seller is asking $3,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Pnuts for the tip!
Those of us who grew up with small motorcycles like this 125 Yamaha will typically have great memories of these little things, even if we’ve graduated to big street bikes that are capable of hopping on and riding to South America or Alaska. I guess a person could do that on this 125, and it might make for a profitable YouTube channel, but you’d have to be braver than I am. This Yamaha ad says, “Things happen when a cool operator, a warm chick, and a hot Yamaha get together.”
The “C” part of the model name refers to the Scrambler bits, such as the braced handlebars, upswept exhaust pipes, and boots on the front shocks. The regular AS1/YAS1 has lower pipes and doesn’t have the crossbar on the handlebars for extra strength for light off-road duty. Make mine a scrambler every single time. This example looks like an absolute gem, but the seller says it’s in original condition. Yamaha made this model between around 1967 and 1970, give or take.
This time capsule has just 1,647 miles on it, which is pretty amazing after almost six decades on the planet. It’s sad that it wasn’t used more, making memories for dozens of kids and adults alike, but then again, the next owner can say they have a motorcycle that looks almost like new and has fewer than 1,700 miles on it. If that’s anything to care about, and I know it is for some people. I can’t say too much, as I have a Honda CB200T with 650’ish miles and I don’t use it enough. I’d trade in a heartbeat for this 125 Yamaha, though. I’m a Yamaha guy first and foremost.
The super clean engine is Yamaha’s 124-cc two-stroke parallel twin with 15 horsepower and 10 lb-ft of torque. Power for this 216-pound bike is sent through a 5-speed manual to the rear wheel, of course, and it has Yamaha’s famous Autolube oil-injection system. The seller says it runs and drives fine, and I’d love to own this one. Are any of you into small motorcycles like this Yamaha? If so, what do you have, or what did you have?
Ladies and gentlemen, new writers take note, the master is back( round of applause) I mean no disrespect to the new writers, but Scotty has been here since the beginning, wait, so have I, and always refreshing when his posts appear.
Unless I missed it, the author has a Yamaha Twin 100, that I believe morphed into this bike. While I’m the person who mocks small bikes, we must remember, back then, there were no big bikes, except Harley. Motorcycling then was pretty confined to the city, and small bikes inundated cities that had a college. When the norm was 50cc step thru Hondas, or home made mini-bikes, the 125 twin here was actually quite a bike. Not sure about it’s “scrambler” abilities, although I’m positive many trashed these doing so, this bike could do a “claimed” 75mph, but 65 was more like it, but would leave a Honda S90, Hondas “big” bike at the time, in a cloud of smoke. And smoke they did. Mainly because oil wasn’t what it is today, and people ran these things on moms 3&1 oil in a pinch. I remember oil dripping out of the pipes. Once folks began venturing out of cities, it was clear, 2 strokes days were numbered. As a kid, you would have been king of the neighborhood with one of these. Great find, doesn’t appear to have been dumped, just wasn’t that much fun, I suppose.
Good points. I had a 100 that I put upswept pipes etc on and perhaps it is a 100 morphed into a 125. BUT I wonder where the 125 badge on the side came from?
Howard dear…..there were plenty of BIG Jap bikes around like my 1964 Honda 305 along with the Yamaha, Susuki 305’s and Kaw 250/350….Susuki had that 500 Titan pretty sure before the Kaw 500 or Honda 4…..and yes I have a rebuilt Twin Jet 100 on the bench….they made the Twin Jet 90 first
I figured someone was going to call me out on that, may as well have been you. The Honda Sport 90 was what I considered the last of the “small” bikes. Honda had “big” bikes then, the 150 Benly, the 160s, the 305 Dreams and Super Hawks, and the 2 stroke 350 twins plus the British bikes, even Sportys, all considered “big” bikes, to me. But these, were still what I considered “small” bikes, and there were a bunch, say under 150cc. Italians too, with scooters and mopeds. All the Asian makes offered small bikes then, my brother still has our 1966 Suzuki 80, a big step up from our Honda 50 then. It got their foot in the door, so to speak, to pave the way for the super bikes.
Wow, really clean little Yamaha! I had a 1965 Honda 90 (C200) which had a push rod motor. Most of my buddies had the Honda CB160. That thing used to bend the push rods when revved too high. I got to where I could take the 4 head bolts off, take out the push rods and hammer them flat, and be back on the road in 10 minutes or so! I’m in my early 70’s now and found one advertised locally. I bought it on the spot and plan on restoring it to a high standard.
Have both a 1963 and1964 push rods on the back porch.
Cool. That was actually the first motorcycle I owned. I was 15 at the time. I can’t tell you how many motorcycles I’ve owned since then, but it has been a lot. Most of them were Hondas. Thanks for the reply!
You meet the nicest people on a Yamaha.
Nice write-up, Scotty. This bike reminds me of the Rickman 125 that
I owned in the ’70s. I enjoyed riding it everywhere after the very difficult time I had with the NJ DMV convincing them that it really met the standards to be registered as street legal. I had a lot of fun with that bike and eventually swapped it for a ’64 Norton 750 Atlas.
I restored one of these “ barn finds” 10+ years ago and surprisingly a lot of the engine parts were still available via eBay. Albeit, most were from the overseas Asian countries. I found an old magazine road test that showed one of the testers doing a giant wheelie on it too. Nice little screamer.
P.S. The Rickman had a Zundapp motor. It was always reliable except for the time the needle valve seat vibrated loose and I had to push the bike five miles home.
“Ring-dings” were becoming all the rage at the time and scramblers were always popular.
These were called “scramblers” because they were so heavy compared to a real dirt bike that the rider would always have to scramble to pick them up when dropped, or so said the urban myth..
Thanks, Pnut and Scotty! This one looks to be really nice but maybe a little pricey.
My wife bought a 1965 Yamaha 125 (not a,Scrambler) new. It was her only mode of transportation for about 5 years and over 50,000 miles in L.A. She even once rode it from San Francisco back to L.A. in one long ride. She got away with riding it on the freeway when needed. And periodically the engine would size up. She would let it cool down for about 30 minutes and off she would go again. One day in about 1970 it seized up and was going to make her late for work. She pulled off the license plate, left the key in it, and just left it by the side of the road. She was proficient at installing new tires and drive chain. She hasn’t ridden a bike since.
Way back, when I was a teen, I traded my Yamaha mini enduro for a ’68 180cc? (been awhile), big brother to this one. Burgundy and white, and yes, it smoked like nobody’s business.
These were a dime a dozen back in the day, but the Honda CB 125 was its closest competitor. The Honda was more popular being a four stroke, which is both quieter and easier to live with, no oil injection to deal with, not having to refill the oil injection tank with two-stroke oil at every fuel stop. As a Yamaha guy I would love this if I were tall enough to actually ride it, LOL! Oh, and BTW, how come there’s no tach?
1971 Suzuki 90…..loved that bike
If memory serves, back in the day, say mid 60’s and forward, a motorcycle had to have 15 hp minimum to ride on the freeways in SoCal. I believe that was this bike’s claim to fame.
I had that exact same bike and in 1967 I hit a dog it flipped over and I broke my collarbone. Sadly, the dog died.
Nice little Yamaha. My introduction to motorcycles- after Briggs powered mini-bikes- was a 100cc Bridgestone. It wasn’t a scrambler model, but since I didn’t have a driver’s license I rode it off road more than on road…though I did do both.
As Mr. SG stated in his excellent write-up.. I too have really great memories of riding a similar (I believe) Honda 125 over a summer. Thought about getting one again now many decades later but my wife is 100% against it for safety reasons. And while I could get one regardless, I would not want her worrying about me all the time. Really love these older, small bikes though.
In the 1950´s there was a small motorcycle producer named ¨Bismarck¨ in Germany which produced an Ilo-powered 125cc 2 stroke with which they made a world record tour of 10.000 Km from the Bielefeld region to Cape Town in South Africa, WITHOUT s single breakdown. Somewhere in nrthern Africa they had to change ther spark plug because it had fouled, a common occurence with 2-strokes then. The trip took them through Somalia on mostly none-roads. The same thing was done by Bastert, only their machine had a larger 150cc Ilo and they drove as far as Genua Italy and back, crossing the Alps withpout any support system. That much for long distance touring needing a one litre monster. Bastert incidentally also built a machine they dubbed ¨Einspurauto¨ (single trach car) which was possibly the most advanced and certainly comfortable motor scooter of all time.
Great write up Scotty and real childhood memories. Mine was a 125 RD Yamaha around 1973. Money from my then girlfriend’s scholarship (she was the1st in the University class). I persuaded her that we were going to have many funny journeys together. Unfortunately after servicing the motor, i hadn’t tightened one of the spark plags as it should. Driving with a friend of mine the engine blew apart. I wasn’t intimidated and i paid a local shop in Athens, whose owner was last years’ 250cc Greek champion, to make it a racing 125cc. Such was the success that i sold it 2 years later twice the price and bought the 200cc and yet another year later the Kawasaki 500cc (so called widow maker or bitter girlfriend maker if you like). Many stories with the later.
good deal at 3K