“There’s a good reason this dirt bike was free,” the host of The Barn Brothers says, standing beside a 1980 Yamaha IT175 parked on gravel in front of a bank of ferns, “and that’s because basically every moving part on this thing is seized.”

The video, posted October 4, 2026 on @thebarnbrothers, is part 1 of an attempt to get the bike running. By his account it has “been sitting out in the blackberries for decades.” The front wheel “kind of rolls.” The steering is locked up and so is the engine. The bike on screen has a cream tank, yellow number plates and white fenders, and of the bodywork he says, “look how bad this plastic is,” describing it as brittle. His guess: “This thing might have been outside since 1980.”

He sets the rule for the project early. “As always, the goal is gonna be to spend the least amount of money possible, but get this thing running once again.” The one piece of good news he finds on the walk around is that the bike “looks to be pretty complete,” and he lists what is still there: “pieces of our exhaust, the engine, the carburetor, the coil.” The bad news is what is inside it. There are fluids, he says, “with a lot of pond water,” and he adds, “I’m worried if I clean this thing, there’s gonna be nothing left.”

Once the Yamaha is dragged into the garage, the first job is a look inside the cylinder. Finding a socket that would reach took “forever,” he says, because anything too tall hit the bike. He has already snapped off the coil wire by this point. “Based on the moss growth on the engine, we all should be worried,” he says, then feeds in what he calls “our terrible boroscope camera.” His reaction is “oh no, oh no,” followed by the verdict: “it’s a lot of rust, a lot of water.”

“Now that we’ve confirmed all of our worst case scenarios,” he decides to strip the bike as far as it will go, “cause basically everything on this is seized and will need to be fixed.” The teardown turns up a mouse nest. “It would not surprise me if there’s a mouse still in there,” he says. Later he calls out, “here little mousy mouse,” and reports what turns up instead: “Not a mouse, but a big juicy spider.” He predicts that “every single bolt on this bike is gonna fight us,” and one soon snaps. He also notes that all of the levers are broken.

Pulling the engine takes up most of the second half. He reports “a crazy amount of rust on the piston.” The fasteners annoy him: “They’re using all the weird sizes on this bike. 11, 14. I don’t like it one bit.” One bolt cannot be reached until a pin comes out. When it finally does he calls it a “jackpot,” then tests the engine again: “Maybe the engine’s free now. Oh, it does not feel like it.”

The chain is the next suspect. “It might be our chain holding us on now,” he says, noting that the master link is “in a decent spot.” Then: “Should probably just be cutting this chain off. It’s so bad,” and, “This is why the tips of my screwdrivers get broken.” He tries the rear wheel. “Yikes, it’s solid.” He finds another motor mount hidden under a cover, pulls the carburetor, and reports, “Definitely just sliced myself with the rusty exhaust there.”

About eight and a half minutes in he gets his win: “Now that is what victory looks like.” He notes the wiring connectors are “pretty much color for color,” and that the engine is still “held on by this chain here. I don’t know why I haven’t cut it yet, but I think I like to really suffer.” A moment later: “I’m really beginning to fall in love with this old girl.”

Part 1 ends with a rust remover he already had on hand. “This is either a vapor rust or some sort of acid,” he says, and he drops nuts and bolts in to soak. He does not try to start the engine in this video. His sign off: “If you guys think I should give up on this thing, let me know.”

What to Check Before You Say Yes to a Free Seized Dirt Bike

His first minute is a usable inspection routine for anyone offered a bike like this. Roll the front wheel. Turn the bars from lock to lock. Try to turn the engine over. On this Yamaha one of those barely passed and two failed, which tells you before loading it that the job is a full teardown.

Then count parts the way he does: exhaust, engine, carburetor, coil. Every missing part is money, and his whole plan depends on spending as little as possible.

Look inside before buying anything for it. He opened up the cylinder and put a borescope in, and the rust and standing water answered the question of whether the engine had to come out. Check what the fluids look like as well. He found pond water.

During the teardown, copy two habits he mentions. Refit loose pieces to each other as they come off, which he does “so we have a fighting chance when I go back to reassemble this thing.” And photograph the wiring connectors before unplugging them. He jokes that even with wires matched “color for color” he will find a way to put them back wrong without a picture.

Three more points come from his mistakes. Cut a rusted chain early instead of fighting it, which he says twice he should be doing. Wear gloves around rusted exhaust edges and old nests. Write down the socket sizes the bike needs, here 11 and 14, so they are on the bench before the next session, and start the removed hardware soaking in rust remover while the larger parts wait.