1979 Yamaha HL500 Replica

Down here in Australia, winter is starting to draw in. We don’t get bad winters—certainly not cold enough to warrant having a ‘riding season’—but when I saw these pictures, I immediately thought that a little snow’s a good thing. Especially if you have a supercool 70s vintage motocrosser in the garage. Like this Yamaha HL500: a bike that's rare, highly coveted, and talked of in hushed tones. And fair enough: it was the last truly effective four-stroke bike to win a Grand Prix, before the two-stroke domination began. The ‘HL’ is a reference to the Scandinavians who helped make this...