Junior Hunter Sanders has taken on the challenges of refurbishments in senior Josh Hersted’s garage. Since August, countless hours have been spent working on his 1978 Yamaha RD-400 2 stroke motorcycle.

“The one we have been working on sat in someone’s garage for 20+ years before I purchased it, and we began working on it,” Sanders said. 

The first big step was rebuilding the engine. Herstad had some previous experience rebuilding engines, so Sanders and him were able to troubleshoot and get it functioning properly again.

The current step is fixing the throttle setup. Originally, they pulled on a wrench to throttle the engine.

“The bike will be getting new throttle and clutch cables along with the new gas tank,” Sanders said.

Although they have made some solid progress, there is still a long way to go. 

“It won’t be ready to go on the road until the carbs are properly jetted and it gets new tires, a new battery, and a new throttle cable,” Sanders said.

Sanders and Hersted estimated that it will take a month for the parts to get shipped in and installed. Then, it should be ready to drive.