The Yamaha XT500 is widely considered as the Grand-pappy of the modern dual-sport. This late 70s enduro marked the point when scramblers went from being modded street bikes to purpose-built machines. (A few Paris-Dakar wins didn’t hurt its icon status either.)
These days, most XT500s are immaculately restored trailer queens, or display decades of abuse. But they?re also prime candidates for tasteful resto-modding?like this very sharp machine from Italy?s North East Custom.

There’s a heavy dose of sentiment attached to this project. ?The bike is called The Mauri,? Diego Coppiello tells us, ?to honor the father of the owner, who passed away prematurely.?
?It was one of those objects that had gone forgotten, unused for years. Our job was to get it back in order, to modernize it, and give it a new life.?
Diego and his brother Riccardo put their heads together and devised a plan: rebuild the XT500 as a contemporary version of itself. They’ve done it so well, we wish Yamaha would add a throwback XT to its official model line.
Slaving away in their workshop in Padua, Italy, the brothers started by converting the electrical system from six to twelve volts, enabling them to run modern clocks and LED lighting.

Then they grafted on the front end from a Honda CR?including its upside-down forks and disc brake setup. Longer shocks were installed out back, and the wheels rebuilt with wider rims.
If the extra ground clearance doesn’t hint at the bike’s...