I had both the DT360 and MX360's while in the Navy in San Diego between 1976 and 1980 and they kept a smile on my face the whole time.
I learned how to tune them and made a tool so I could measure TDC through the spark plug hole.
I now own a 1975 DT250 that is doing the same for me at 68 years old!

A couple guys here are my age.. I purchased the first yz250 in 1974(I was 16 yo). It had I believe 36 HP but was great for riding wheelies through the gears on dirt. It had a great balance. Two years later in 1976 my bother, myself and a friend bought 3 of the 1974 SC500 bikes(yellow one) for $550 each since the dealer in north NY couldn’t,t sell them. I was only able to ride it a few times since it would never start again except for rare situations over the next 20 years. It later turned out in 2014 getting rid of the useless CDI and exchanging the electronic system to a Italian one I bought from Germany on EBAY, that the bike worked great and starts on the first kick. I changed the piston ring and standard piston only. I still ride it today. I own a 2019 YZ250 so I'll compare the two.
I can't wheelie the 500. The problem is that the weight of the bike puts TOO much weight on the front wheel. I can’t wheelie get through thick sand here in Florida but I have to stand more to the back to lighten the load, but it is possible to ride it in the sand pit. Of course the 500 is much shorter with bikes of the day but does even better on the trails in the woods. The small percentage that complained of seizing probably had malfunction of the automatic oil pump which worked fine for me but I mix the gas since it's safer. I feel it could seize when I've been riding for 45 minutes or so since it gets hot.(no radiator for the younger folks out there). At idle at a stop it will shut off. It stays cooler if riding faster rather than trails in the woods. I just let it rest for 10 minutes. Now I have to change the clutch plates since the torque is potent.
By the way SC stands for scrambler and the bike was designed with only 4 gears(my brother actually got gears from the 360 and they fit perfectly and has 5 gears). I don't know why they raced the 500 in motocross because with more of the weight to the front, it actually makes it better to race on a scrambler track with it's 44HP. At 68 years old I still ride my bikes almost like I did at 17. When you start younger it's hard to forget about it.

I had it's little brother, a 73 or 74 MX360. It had a light switch powerband, it would seize if it was even one jet size lean, and headshake like a wet dog when you chopped the throttle. But when it ran it was a blast!

No matter what people think about it, it's still one of the most gorgeous bikes ever built! All the bikes from this period are super beautiful, in their own right.

I had a 73  SC 500 , I was 16 years old and a novice rider,  and it was a beast to ride… Damn near killed me first time I really cranked on it, it’s power band hit like a nuclear bomb , I was laid up for quite a while, sold it ! And bought the 1974 Mx 360, which was a lot more rideable

I've got the 50th MX175A....
My uncle bought it brand new Memorial Day Weekend of 1974.

I am restoring an SC...500...I am 67 yrs old....been ridin my whole life....I aint scared....lookin forward to a hard powerband hit....yeah....

Well you lost me at Counterbalanceer😂 I probably shouldn’t bother to tell you that Yamaha’s horsepower numbers were measured at the crankshaft vs th magazines rear wheel numbers.

A friend had one with lights that he put on the road. Used to seize a lot because the oil tank was so small. Lots of fun though.

I gave up at 12 minutes..  My Neighbor had a Yellow SC-500  I rode it one time, 15 years old 115 pounds.  I didn't test the suspension I rode it on smooth dirt.  I hit the throttle and shifted through all 4 gears with the front end about two feet off the ground. A thrilling amount of torque.  If I recall it has a 4 speed transmission.
 The was a guy here on Youtube who put the 500 CC Jug on a DT 360 If I recall correctly . Does not seem possible .. Maybe he put the whole engine and transmission in the DT-360 frame

When I was 16, I tried to buy one of these from a neighbor. He said "no way, it'll kill you".

I rode the '73 version at Glamis back in '73. Belonged to a brothers friend. I was around 15. Had a paddle on it. It was really fast, to say the least. Kinda hard to tell if it handled or not, seemed to be OK.  In those times, not everything handled well. Super Hunky slagging that bike would have been a fair treatment. Dirt Bike Magazine built it's reputation on being brutally honest.  The reed valve chirp was quite noticeable.

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Pipie 500 was hard to ride

Obviously this bike was made for supercross

Time to show the Young Un's how to fix the main cause of the SC 500's erratic snappy uncontrollable power surges.
The issues were fixed way back but so many people have no idea what actual fixes were available back in the Day,

The Solution: Yamaha Technical Bulletin No. 348
To address the issue and make the bike safer, Yamaha issued Technical Bulletin No. 348. The bulletin detailed a simple, highly effective modification:
• The Mod: Splicing a small condenser/capacitor inline into the wiring harness.
• The Location: The capacitor was wired directly into the Green/White wire running between the stator/pulser coil and the main CDI box.
• How it Worked: The added capacitor acted as an electrical buffer. It slightly delayed and smoothed out the signal going to the CDI box. This changed the behavior of the spark advance curve, smoothing out the brutal 4,000 RPM threshold and severely reducing the engine's tendency to kick back violently when starting

In some cases the required part to actually fix the problems are No Longer available like Kawasaki's 650 and 750 Fours where an Oval O ring could distort and make like a Figure 8 which then led to Oil Leaks.
Kawasaki fixed the problem with an Oval O ring molded onto a steel plate that stopped the distortion it had an specially sized Oil feed orifice and when fitted you removed the sintered iron oval oil restriction jet that sat below the Oval O  ring in the Cylinder block.
Sadly No Longer Available so things like modifying the Oil restrictors to allow them to support the Oval Oring to stop distortion by making taller ones to support the Oval O rings shape