honda cb 125 rs-d

hi guys, joined an age ago and have lurked on now and then, have finally found some time to get cracking on the bike, i purchased her in july 2010, in a very sorry state, she had been dropped by the looks of things more than once, but only suffered light cosmetic damage, i.e light dents to tank, broken indicators and mirrors and levers.

the seat was also in a bad state as were the clocks, basically the bike was a bit of a basket case! lol

its an early 80's bike so everything is angular on it, square lights, square clocks, square edged tank, I'm surprised they didn't give it square wheels!!

since I purchased the bike I have slowly been purchasing little bits here and there, including the following:
new master cylinder
new brake lever and brake light switch
new cafe seat base
new foam insert and leatherette material for seat
new air filter
old trumpet (megaphone??) exhaust (loud!!)
new numberplate
new indicators F + R (but probably wont use them due to the age of the bike it can go indicatorless!! woo!)
used round headlamp

have found a spray shop local to me and they will be doing the tank, seat base and headlamp surround in a nice metallic silver colour for £50! (my cars going in for a dent and scratch, I like the colour so I asked the guy how much for cash to sort the bike bits, very happy with his price!!!)

this bike has always been a budget build, I'm not made of money and things are very tight (as I'm sure they are for most people) so where I can reuse bits I will be, I've never owned a bike before, so its all a bit of a learning experience for me, though I am a qualified car mechanic so I don't mind getting oily! lol

anyway, I'm rambling away, i'll throw a few pics up to give you a taster of how she was when i got her home!

heres the seat remains!!



the rust doesn't look to bad, but it was, fingers soon poked all the way through it with little persuasion!!

I continued to strip her down, the frame itself is in good condition with little rust present but will be blasted shortly and powdercoated, have not decided on colour yet though!

more to come in the morning!

weldone keep it up looking foward to next instalment

thanks Pud, your just up the road from me!! lol (Braintree)

well heres the next load of pics:
after stripping the side mouldings (which were not designed for this bike and were held on by cable ties) and the tank and seat I found this:


It took me about a month but i finally managed to get a brand new replacement for it, unfortunately I've found that this is an un-popular bike and it appears it didn't sell very well, this makes spares purchasing a bit of a mare! but I am finding slowly places to get bits!

also got one of these (rectifier is it??)


as well as purchasing all the servicing bits required, I also purchased new oil and dust seals for the front forks and new oil for them to, I'm yet to make a start on the forks as they do have a small amount of pitting present and I'm unsure if they are savable or not!

I chopped the rear frame to suit the seat base which i also chopped down getting rid of the worst of the rust, and swapped the remainder of the seat front to rear, I then chopped the foam insert up to suit the revised seat it looked like this:

chopped frame:


chopped seat:


modified foam insert:

heres the exhaust I found on ebay:


and heres what was in the fuel tank!!

I really need to de rust the inside of the fuel tank, even after this there is still rust inside, if anyone knows a good diy rust removal technique please let me know!

I had a pop at welding the exhaust up, the old back box was well rotten!

it looks okay but there are a few little holes, but I just blow through every time I try to re-weld it now, thinking maybe about gum gumming and wrapping the exhaust, I'm at a loss as to what to do with this at the mo


thats about all the pics I've got at the mo, sorry about the poor quality, photobucket for you!! lol

the answer to the pin holes in your welding is to heat the area up to cherry red and use soft solder to seal them

if the inner of the tanks not to bad put loads of little nuts n bolts in and shake it like a polariod picture

if that does not work let me know and i can post pics of tanks that ive had electro acid treated then they are cleaner than new

ive never used tank sealants myself but have read horror storys of tanks being ruined where the adhersion was no good

For spares try either David Silver http://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk or CMS in the Netherlands http://www.cmsnl.com/

thanks guys, Paulie they have been very helpful sites that do stock some spares for it!

Pud do you mean to heat it with a gas torch and then just drop some normal solder into it?, fluxless I take it?

its not heavy rust deposits in the tank more like a light covering, the bike hasn't been on the road since the early 90's as far as I'm aware and has had the same rank petrol in it, I emptied it out and flushed it through stuck some fresh fuel in and she started first kick! lol

I've already done the nuts and washers trick and got rid of the worst of it, its the stuff in the pic on the cloth, just I'm bothered about the remainder in the tank, don't want the carb getting clogged up (getting the nuts and washers back out......... what a frigging nightmare!!! lol)

I've heard about this electro treatment but havent seen any before or after images? any you have would be great for reference, also any idea of cost involved in this procedure?

thanks guys

you will need to use a flux otherwise it will be rejected, gas torch is fine if you have access to one

have a look at this site


http://www.cupalloys.co.uk/

oh cool, well I have everything I need then, didn't even think of gas torching it!! lol

sods law aint got a pic of the inside, one of the split tanks was soooo bad with rust they were 46yrs old

before




and after the insides were as the outside cost 25 quid for both

after

that bike looks

cheers ............ i think

yeah it was supposed to be a compliment!! lol

I have decided that I will wrap the exhaust with black exhaust tape once ive sorted out the holes just to neaten it up, I will leave the back box open but wrap the pipe and the welding, just need to work out how many meters of bandage i will require and how many cable ties to get to hold it all on, Ive seen a few others have wrapped their pipes, does any one have any comments as to the longetivity of wrapping and at what sort of gap distance the ties should go on etc?

I have another really noob like question, my bike starts and runs fine.... without the battey or any electrics connected (excluding the spark plug!), are the electrics on older bikes literaly just there for the lights?? lol its a carbed bike obviously and has no fuel pump etc

Got a full roll of wrap but its silver grey, surplus to requirements if its any good to you

Soak it in warm water for a couple of hours even tho its got very limited give, it will help when you wrap it seems to lie better than dry start at the rear of the pipe pulling it tight and work forwards that way it over laps in the right direction use stainless cable ties 1 will do but 2 at each end looks better

Then the best bit shut the shed door and run the bike and enjoy the free sauna as the wrap drys

if i remember right i used about 6 metres on these but they were 1 3/4 diametre your will prb be a lot thinner so wont need as much

lol, yeah your pipe diameter is probably similar to my rear can!!!

I never say no to free bits, this is a proper budget build (so long as my wife doesnt find any of my previou receipts lol)

how much do you want to post it?

Thanks

send me a PM with your address cost about 6 quid

sorry to mess you about mate, my wife has brought me the black wrap I had in my ebay watch list!!

thank you very much for the offer though!