Discovery

A great deal of the enjoyment I find in doing just about anything, is what I like to refer to as the "Discovery Period".  This is where my Mother, God Love Her, probably developed this idea of me being a "dreamer".  I built a lot of plastic models in my youth.  I mean I built many plastic replicas of WW II German aircraft all unique and won more than a few contests held at the local shopping mall.  I did not rush into these projects.  I researched all the volumes of books I could get my hands on.  As that was 1969, I was only 12, and the World Wide Web would not come into it's own for another 20 years.  I read everything about each aircraft being built to get the correct paint scheme, badges, cockpit detail, engine detail, etc.  I was not going to just assemble the model as the manufacture outlined in the instructions.  I was going to add my touches that would personalize the model and establish my connection with the whole building process and the history of the particular aircraft model.  I would run into problems with many of my modification and I wanted to know everything I could about the aircraft which inturn delayed completion by weeks I suppose.

Unknowing to me at the time, I was developing my own sense of assembly, modification and troubleshooting.  Through my life I have been able to develope my "Theory of the Methodology of Troubleshooting" based on these early modeling projects and struggling through Algebra, learning how to take instructions from my Dad who was a professional Avaitor all his life and my Freshman English Professor at Northrop University 1n 1975. 
The good professor told his class that it was probably next to impossible that any of us would be capable of knowing everything, especially if asked by an employer on the spot.  "But, he said, if you know your resources, then you can respectfully answer him/her that no you do not know the answer and that you certainly know where to find it and will deliver it in the morning". 
After processing the idea of removng all emotion, blame, desire, pain, monkey brain, what ever it is that will cloud your clarity of truth, then you can begin the process of discovery and objectivly "disect" the problem to discover the cause of the issue at hand.
Being aware of paradyme shifting can allow one to see the project in more than two dimensions.  I have to thank Apple Computer, Inc. for the fine training and support that they gave to their employees and contractors and for introducing me to the concept of Paradyme Shifting and it's inclusion in my theory of troubleshooting.
Discovery is where the creation process starts weather troubleshooting a problem or resurecting a forgotten machine.

So, I turned my attention to understanding the significance of the machine I had just bought and was going to ... what?  Just get it running?  Tear it down to the frame and do a 10 point restoration  Maybe instead of restoring it I could modify it and make it better than stock or even better than the manufacturer with more affordable modern parts?   What ...?

A web surf session through 10 web pages of search results for a 1967 Yamaha YCS-1 resulted in some interesting facts specific to the YCS-1.  The YCS-1 used the latest Yamaha invention of sleeving the aluminum cylinder with "special" cast iron and the use of Yamaha's "famous" Autolube system.

This is a picture of lovely YCS-1C with it's high pipes and all found on the internet.  It will be a nice restoration when completed, indeed.

It was obvious that I would need a service manual so a search on e-Bay resulted in a auction wimnning bid of $39.00 plus shipping from http://www.vintageobsolete.com/.  In a week I now had all the tools needed to do the job.  But not so fast.  I discovered a very clever Parts Cross Reference Manual on e-Bay from http://www.zeddersoft.com/ , for only $28.00 which included a downloadable file as well as a CD shipped to my address.  This software tool would allow me to search from over 3,118 different Yamaha models from 1965 to 1990 and cross reference any given part number on the YCS-1 to other models that may have used the same part.  This way I can expand my search for hard to find parts !

Now, I had my reference tools available so it was time to get the bike torn down for a closer examination.