1968 was quite a year: History buffs will likely remember the escalating war in Vietnam or that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated that fateful year. But gearheads of a certain age remember 1968 as the year Yamaha’s DT-1 hit the scene and changed motorcycling forever.

 Prior to Yamaha’s release of the DT-1, a reliable, reasonably powerful and inexpensive dirt bike simply didn’t exist. The various — mostly British — scramblers on the market tended to be big and heavy, and while companies like Greeves, Montesa and Penton offered purpose-built dirt bikes, they were expensive and quirky. The DT-1 changed all that.

The DT-1 was a solid, inexpensive bike you could ride to the track and then run with the best purpose-built dirt bikes of the day once you got there. And even if you weren’t a racer, it was a great compromise bike that could handle almost any trail you threw at it — and still get you safely home at the end of the day.

A fresh idea
Looking back, it seems simple enough: Build a lightweight but strong frame, put some moderately-long-travel suspension under it, add some dual-sport tires, throw in a reliable and reasonably powerful engine, add the street legal bits, and then sell it for a good deal less than the nearest true dirt bike. Presto, instant hit.

Up until that point, nobody had figured that out, and with the introduction of the DT-1, Yamaha essentially defined a new market for motorcycles. Savvy research had shown there was a market for this type of bike in the U.S., but even Yamaha was surprised by the enthusiasm American buyers showed for its new bike: The initial 12,000 production run sold out quickly, so Yamaha ramped up production immediately, selling thousands of its little dirt bike while the rest of the industry played catch-up.

Although the DT-1 was a bike that was happy getting dirty, it also played a big role in cleaning up motorcycling’s image. In the late Sixties, motorcyclists were still often seen as outlaws. The DT-1, in helping to popularize dirt biking, showed motorcycling as a wholesome, athletic affair, making it much more acceptable to the general public.

More than the sum…
No individual piece of the DT-1 was really revolutionary. The DT-1’s steel frame was a standard single-backbone, double-cradle design, although the use of tubular instead of stamped steel was still somewhat advanced for a Japanese bike. The wheelbase was a nimble-without-being-squirrelly 53.5 inches, with rear suspension duties handled by a rectangular-section steel swingarm and dual shocks with four inches of travel. In the front, standard telescopic forks offered six inches of travel. The aftermarket quickly geared up to offer suspension upgrades for both ends of the bike, improving damping characteristics and increasing travel. In fact, the DT-1 spawned a veritable cottage industry of aftermarket parts.