Uncle Paden's Way-Back Motorscooter Memories

Here's a real well kept survivor from the late sixties:

Yamaha CS180

The Yamaha vertical twin two-stroke platform was pretty darn innovative for the sixties. Prior to '66 or so two-stroke engines were generally dismissed as "ring-dings" in some circles. Bridgestone, Suzuki and Yamaha changed that. Although this particular model didn't have the fangs some later models had, it opened the door with its RPM range and innovations.

Small bore two-strokes usually lacked in torque back in those days, and were designed for their power range to occur at higher RPMS. The Japanese motorcycle R&D folks realized with multiple cylinders, more torque could be had a lower RPM, AND held over a wider power range. The result? A motorcycle that "felt" like it had some power. Torque sold motorcycles, still does. That's why the four-stroke engines were so popular; low end torque.

And these models had oil injection. No more messy "pre-mix" of your gasoline...and no more "D-Day Invasion" size smoke screens at intersections. Just another example of the import suppliers of motorcycles understanding what sells, and then building it. Building it well, too.

These Yams could stand up on their back tire and stay there as long as you were stupid enough to keep going. Lots of mid-range torque and endless RPMs. I would almost bet you these bikes kept a lot of Small Town America's emergency rooms full of proud but bruised and scuffed young men. Everybody that could get one was the man of-the-hour.

We Cash boys were no angels. No apologies, either. And we couldn't afford any shiny new red twin-jet Yamahas. But need is the mother of invention...and we figured out a way to enjoy them..

All these sixties-era two strokes had something in common, their ignitions. There were various designs of magnetos and capacitor discharge ignitions, but they all shared an Achilles' Heel; the kill switch. You see, you never really turn "on" the ignition on these, you merely turn on the lights. The ignition was ALWAYS active. It was "killed" by turning the key to the off position and the mag was grounded.

Without getting too technical the Cash boys figured out all you had to do was pull the wiring harness off the back of the key switch and the system was "hot".
No lights, but ignition...and it ran.

That one detail allowed us to "borrow" a number of these scooters so we too could enjoy the new technology. Now the term "vehicular theft" is a strong term. The reason I use the term borrow is because we always took the bike back, and we always knew the owner (kinda)..

We never really damaged any of them, and never got caught by law enforcement. Holden did get chased once by what we found out later was the owner's angry father. His "can't catch me Cash genes" saved his bacon. I think we cooled it after that.

Oh, the memories. Some old farts can look at a picture of a scooter and say "I remember owning one of those". Only a Cash boy can be heard saying "I remember stealing one of those"....

We've all repented, numerous times. I don't guess I've ever mentioned it before, but my oldest brother Cole eventually became a man of the cloth and spent his career keeping his congregations out of the grips of damnation. He's retired now and plays golf in Colorado Springs.

I remember in our teen years asking my brother Holden why our other brother Cole started going to church so much. Holden replied, "Because he needs to.."

'nuf said. 😉