Right the bike is almost done i havent been keeping a log of what ive been doing to the bike so im gonna attempt to tell all now so bear with me. Also the bike isn't finished yet but the end is in sight but i thought i would add pics and get most of the writing out of the way now because once its finished i will be puting it through its paceses down the new forest back roads in the south of england and im not sure if i will have the patience to sit down and write down a log right away of everything knowing my pocket kinda rocket is sitting in the garage
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Also just a quick note Paulie thanks for the tip on the photo bucket idea its worked a treat so now you can see a few pics finally.
Ok so first thing as you can see its not quite the normal sr125 that it was basicaly the frame, froks, rear shocks, wheels, swing arm, seat, engine and carb are original but basically all have had something tweeked here are a few figures first of all.
14kg of weight has been saved so far on the bike
Amazingly the bike has 20 less parts that are not needed
the bike cost me:
£100
Headlight
£24
headlight brackets
£11
clip ons
£42
K&N carb filter
£12
Crankcase filter
£4
Rear light (not fitted yet)
£15
Sand paper and other bits and bobs
£35
Gsxr 750 k4 front brake reservoir
£14.50
So far the total price is £257.50 admitaly I got the bike at a really good price considering it only has 8000 miles on it from new.
Everything else I either had or mananged to blag from people for free.
The bike was 12.5bhp originaly but now i think is producing around the 17/18bhp mark but we will have to see when its done.
Ok so we will start with the frame:
The frame is the original but anything on the frame that is not being used or is not a strength poing on the frame has been cut off and believe me this frame has had lots of surgery. The original brackets on the frame that held the rear shocks have been cut of and i have made up new ones that will be made up for the frame so it stands higher (in some of the pics you cans seee where the shock will attatch to the frame) i wont reweld the frame until the last bit because im costantly changing my mind about what height i want the back of the frame. Also one problem i encounted which didn't cross my mind until i got to it was when i changed the geometry and height of the frame the chain didn't have a clean path from the back sprocket to the front sprocket and rubbed on the tom of the swing arm and rubbed on a part of the frame at the bottom. The part of the frame it was rubbing on i couldn't cut away because it was a real strength point at the bottom of the fram so i managed to blag a bloke i know to give me an old wheeled chain tensioner of a suzuki dr of some kind which i had to restore but is fine and looking new now. ive attatched it to the swing arm and its doing the job. i had to beef up the rubber cusion on the top of the swing arm with another one i found which came of a yamaha dt100 which is taking the pressure of the top of the chain so job done.
Engine:
The engine is stock at the moment i stripped the engine right down even know i new it would probaly be ok due to the low milleage and just as i thought it was spotlesss everthing is in good nick the valves and head i cleaned and pollished up and i renewed seals and gaskets as i went if any were abit knackerd but to be honest i cant take any credit for the internals of the engine becasue who has had it in the past has looked after it. The side casings had abit of corrosion on them so i sanded them right back with the finest sand paper i could find and after many days of sanding and polishing the side casings, manifold, valve covers, cam chain cover, sprocket cover and clutch cable holder was looking brand new and custom. As you can tell i went abit mad with the sanding and polishing thing once i did one i saw something else on the engine and thoight that would look good shiny and the fetish went from there
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As mentioned before the engine is now breathing better due to the new filters its also breathing out better as it now has no baffles. Ive messed around with a few of these megaphone single type jap exhausts and if you cut them in the right place you get a real nice loud smothe kinda rough burble if that makes sense
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The gear lever is made out of an old nsr 125f lever and has been cut back and i wanted the bit your foot hits to be made with all metal no rubber to sofen it against your foot i want instant movment asoon as your foot hits it so i grinded the lever back drilled a hole through it and shuved a long smothed headed bolt through it with a metal sleeve surounding it. Also because the original gear leaver did face forward but now it faces backwards the gears are reversed so 1 up 4 down which i could change the other way but i prefure it like this so changing up gears is quicker.
Electrics:
Most of the electrics havent been tampered with the odd wire shortend the main thing is virtually all of the wiring at the back of the bike has been put into a very small area heres a couple of pics.
As you can kinda see i have made some custom plates to fit below and above to hold the electrics in place i reinsulated everything to make sure no short circits happen while everything is so close together.
I brought a new universal headlight and rewired it acordingly. the clocks are from an old rd125 dx i used to have they were in crap condition but after abit of polishing painting and tlc they look good as new.
I decided quite early on that i wanted the igniton barrel under the tank plus it worked out well because the clock bracket had a completly differnt fitting to the one on the ignition barrel that i had.
The battery at the moment is being held on by a bungie corde but i will make something more permenent as i progress.
Suspension:
As i said before the front and rear suspension is the original just rebuilt and ploished up.
The front forks i was gonna replace with shorter ones but after abit of thinking i decided to recycle them and see what happens so i have a set of bent nsr 250 mc16 front frorks which are ruiened and are siting in my back garden and are completly useless but i horde bike parts and thank god i do because the springs in them amazingly were absoultly fine and fitted in the sr stanchions and they lowered the front forks to the right height and because they are very firm (well compared to the sr ones) they stop the stanchions from hitting the bottom of the potts so ticks all round for the now not so useless nsr fork springs.
The top yolk is of a suzuki gs125 and was in terrible condition but it was lighter then the sr one and the clock bracket fitted straight onto it (thats jap bits for you) also the original sr top yolk was designed to sit on top of the stanchions but i needed the stanchions to be able to pear through and the suzuki top yolk allowed them to .... well it needed abit of grinding to allow it to but that was easily done so again like so many recycled bits after grinding back to bear metal and after repainting it, it looked like new.
Brakes:
The rear brake is standard and the front calliper i rebuilt and again like so many other bits i took it back to bear metal and repainted it. I sanded down the rear drum cover and polished to a chrome like look i also did the same with several other componets round the area. Virtually every bit i have added to the bike that is not new is actually alot older then the bike but only one bit is much newer and that is the front reservoir and lever system. Its from a gsxr750 k4 i believe i shortened the brake lever (and the clutch lever) and the bracket that holds the reservoir i got rid of and i made a new straight one that made the reservoir stand lower and directly above the bracket that holds the assembely on the clip on.
Miscellaneous:
The seat i had to cut the bottom of and modifiy to sit on top of the newly made wiring loom cover.
Rather then fit rear sets i decided to use the footpeg assembley that came with the bike. The ones that came with the bike sat right forward so i just turned the assembley around so there heading to wards the back of the bike and i slightly modified them and now they sit quite far back and it cost me nothing.
The tank has a much thicker block under the back of it to make it stand higher i might weld a metal bracket to hold it permently at that height but at the moment im not sure if the height is right.
Ive kept the original seat as oppesed to a "cafe racer seat" because i think it looks the part anyway with the higher rear and lower front plus it fits well and because the frame is'nt flat across it the original seat makes the back look reasonble level.
Thats as far as i am ive missed out a few bits but this essay has gone on long enough for the moment i will update it again once its almost complete.
Im glad a few people have tooken abit of intrest to the project as pauliexjr, carbon moto,BBSparky and Pud said 125s do require big work and make great cafe racers as you can see its starting to look the part.
P.s. a mate of mine had a kawasaki kc100 and it was a rapid little beast if i get hold of one that will be cafe racer waiting to happen.
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wow never thought a SR125 could look so good
