Yamaha TX750 Interest Site

TX750 Mystery Page

I received an Email from Australia written by Henry Musto that intrigued me. The text of the Email is below:

Subject: TX 750 special model?
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 13:11:16 +1100
From: "Musto, Henry HA" 
To: "'rcole@dol.net'" 

Hi guys,

I am writing as I am currently restoring my old 1973 TX 750 which I have
owned for the last 20years.  I live in NSW in Australia.  My TX 750 is still
original except for the exhaust.  It has the factory Competition Green
colour on tank and sidecovers.  The previous 1972 TX 750 that I owned was an
even darker green, looking nearly black.  I have never seen the Metallic
Flake Gold colour on any TX in Australia.

I recently purchased a set of replica mufflers from Overlander in Melbourne
Australia and found that they were five and a half inches shorter than the
originals that were fitted to my bike.  Overlander assures me that they were
made from an original set.

That brings me to the question that I will pose to all TX 750 owners about
my third TX750 I purchased.  Does anyone know of a model of TX 750 that was
made in a different style with different rocker cover and perhaps the
exhaust?  My third TX750 has an original rocker cover which is of a
different style.  It has got bulges in it for the rocker gear. The rocker
cover is not flat across the top like the others. It also had longer
handlebars than the others.   I am thinking that Yamaha produced a chopper
style TX in limited numbers, which would explain this different engine look
and also the shortened mufflers as supplied by Overlander.  (All the photos
of TX's on the web site show the longer mufflers and standard rocker cover).

Henry Musto

I replied by Email asking Henry if he could supply photos of the different model TX750, especially the rocker cover. His reply with a request is below:

Subject: RE: TX 750 special model?
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 07:30:08 +1100
From: "Musto, Henry HA" 
To: "'Roger Cole'" 

G'day Roger,

I'll get a loan of a digital camera and take some photos of the rocker cover
and mufflers in the next few days and send them.  The mufflers look good,
are well finished, you can't see any welds.  The ends are spun, so are not
exact replicas at the ends, as he can't spin the sharp bends. They still
look good, and to someone who has not seen the originals, the differences
are only slight.  The internals are 38mm dia fluted pipes.

I spoke with Barry Bligh, the chap that makes them and he would also like to
find out how he got a set of pipes that were shorter than the majority.
(Although I had a hard time convincing him as he said he had sold a few sets
to Germany and Netherlands and he had received no complaints except for
mine.)   I have also asked him about making up a set of headers,
unfortunately he needs a set of originals to copy off.  I wonder if anyone
in the states is interested in getting a set of headers made up but has an
original set that could be copied?  I am after a set of headers and have a
set which have been butchered, which Barry may be able to copy.

I won't be able to tell you what the mufflers sound like until I get the
motor back together.

I'll get some photos and send them in the next few days, and you can then
post them on your site.

Thanks,
        Henry

Talk about a small world! I'm halfway around the world but know who supplied the mufflers to Barry Bligh of Overlander Mufflers. His name was John Fretten and he found my web site a couple of years ago. He was looking for mufflers and didn't know where to find a pair. Since John was from Australia, I suggested he contact Barry and give him his old set to use as a model. I corresponded with Barry a time or two to see how he was coming along. He finally managed to get the tooling right to be able to make the proper bend in the muffler. I haven't corresponded with John for about two years. I'll try to see if I can contact him and see if his TX750 was one of the "special" models.

Anyway, Henry provided me with 4 photos of his bike with the shorter mufflers and with the modified rocker cover. If anyone has anything to add about this "mystery" special edition TX750, please let me know. If your TX750 has a rocker cover like the one on the right, let me know as well. The photos are below for your enjoyment. To compare his shortened mufflers with the "standard" length mufflers, you may click on the below link to see the difference in where the mufflers terminate in relationship to the rear tire.

TX750 with "Standard" length mufflers