Nice Looking Vintage 125 on eBay

[Vincent]

There can't be many in as good a nick and as unmolested as this one. What were they like to own? Is there a bikini fairing missing? Anyone?

https://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j71/Drewskovitch/AR1251.jpg

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271128436186?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
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[Vincent]

In fact, looking again, is that the right headlamp, looks like the inner rim is missing. What a shame, the rest of the bike is sooo clean
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[Hobgoblin]

Definatly calls for the

https://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7I8e-tt5Ozbt1Ey-5uXux_OGG_hLga1BSEVQQFinEdJlCm4lfmAoO_zfDrA

meme!
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Plodding along on my CG

[Vincent]

Definitely got the fairing missing, I'd be haggling over that one as I bet they're not easy to find in good condition.
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[Hobgoblin]

Cant remember who, but there was an AR 50 build in the show and tell, but used an AR80 engine. IIRC it ended up as nice as that if not better!
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Plodding along on my CG

[Pete.]

Looks like the right headlamp - they had a little tiny shroud around them as I recall.

They weren't all that abundant being one of the less desirable 125 learner strokers of the day. Probably been owned by an old feller.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Vincent]

Were they made under licence in China or korea? Or Jap built? There are plenty of parts still available in Japan for 'em, must have been popular there.
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[Dave-the-rave]

https://extraordinaryperson.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/ar-125.jpg

[Vincent]

The one on eBay has a black pipe and grab rail, I wonder if it's a Jap model that's been imported? The owner says that the big ends will need doing soon, could be someone's let it run out of oil at sometime, unless he's going by what mileage they recommend changing them. This doesn't look like it's done the mileage??
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Black pipe was standard from memory. Can't remember about the grab rail.

They were fairly common being one of the first liquid cooled 125 2 strokes. But tailed off in sales a bit as most UK ones were 12hp and difficult to derestrict. Quite a few full power ones sold for full licence holders and Northern Ireland learners

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Tarmacsurfer]

I still have an AR125 bikini fairing in the garage, it was the nose cone on my GPz turbo 'fighter
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I'm immortal. Well, so far.

[mentalboy]

Anyone actually bothered reading the blurb on the listing.

It's hanging.
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Make mine a Corona.

[andys675]

back in the day you could order the A1 "full power" 21bhp model if you knew instead of the B1 model 12bhp, legendary when I was on L plates back in '85, the A1 would do a genuine 90+ which was a lot in those days
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[jcewright]

I have an ar125 and im love with it . That looks like the right headlight just missing the fairing. I thought they were all made in japan.
They did make 2 uk models The AR125 B1-8 models are the restricted to 12hp and the A1-8 were unrestricted were 21-22hp if i remember right.
I a currently in the process of restoring mine. When the project gets going again (weather) will get some pics up.

[Teflon-Mike]

https://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w269/teflons-torque/00_genral/BIKE_024.jpg
That was mine. 1990 registration, bought new. Gained Power-Bronze fairing after it was nicked & OE plastics trashed.

What were they like to ride?

Awsome!

Yeah... well you have to factor in the fact that most owners experience before getting on one was a moped.......

Launched in '82 for the new 125 learner-limits, they were always reckoned to be the 'Fastest' Learner-Legal, in tests always managing to pip the RD's by an mph or so.... the RD's though were 'cooler' and far easier to de-restrict or tune or otherwise fuck up your piston!

About '86 the RD got a make over, with a fasionable 16" front wheel, to become the RD-LC MKII..... Kawasaki followed suit, giving the AR a more prominant radiator cowling, blended into the belly-pan and making the bottom of the head-lamp nacelle 'Bikini' handle-bar fearing sit inside it...... it was ridable, and it was ugly, but the brochure tried to make something of it calling it a 'Split' full fearing, and suggesting that it gave the 'unimpeded steering lock' of a half fairing with the 'areodynamics' of a full fairing..... yeah..... Oh-kay.... retaining the old fasioned seven spoke 'girder' allos and the old fashioned 18" skinny rims.... no-one was really fooled.... they were still notionally a tad less slow than an RD out the show-room, a lot harder to make any faster and unreliable.... and they weren't even any cheaper!

1988 Yamaha got seriouse and launched the TZR125.... and Kawasaki gave up....... and simply left the bike, and conveniently its sticker price alone!

This left it between two stools, becouse if it was 'old fashioned' in '86 against the RD-LC MKII, it was certainly mode pase in the shaddow of the TZR and NSR, and the lower price ticket only went some way to make it more attractive....

I bought mine in May 1990. Looking for 'budget' wheels on a learner-licence; what I WANTED was a KH125... £999 in the show-room, they were the 'sensible' choice a 'quick' commuter. Single Cylinder, air-cooled two-stroke, with twin shock chassis, it was your conventional, regulation, Learner-Commuter, and bang on learner-legal power limit, as quick as anything else with an L-Plate, and hardy as shoe-leather. The AR was marked up I seem to recall at £1399.... which was a lot more money for not a lot more bike...... BUT when I started talking turkey with the salesman.... "Sorry, nope.... KH is £999." End of story; Trying to 'negotiate' on the Kawasaki 'Launch-Pad' Package that threw in I think a CBT (which I didn't need) and a few other ods and sods, and buying the lot on finance.... No Dice. Would not budge; they could sell every one they could get thier hands on and some.... The AR on the other hand.... they might be able to do something on..... and I think that the purchase price on the HP agreement went down as something like £1230..... for the sake of a few penies on the monthy.... what the heck I thought... and bought it!

I was not coming off a 50.... I was coming from big dirt bikes.... it was still 'pretty awsome'....

Speedo must have been horendousely optimistic, I regularly saw over 90 on it! And it was a very brisk little machine. There was a certain 'crispness' to the little disc-valve two-stoke motor the reed-valve RD's didn't seem to have. It was also a few kilo's lighter; seem to recall it was lightest in class, which may have accounted for something. It was rather flighty though, especially at speed, but the handling was.... err..... scary.

By the time I was almost 'done' with that bike I was riding the frigging wheels off the thing EVERYWHERE..... people didn't believe me when I moaned that I was suffering from brake fade or fork flex! But I was! Coming off Gosford street roundabout in Coventry, on the way back from unit to my digs, I remember looking down to see the front wheel pointing a completely different direction to the handlebars! And coming up to a T-Junction, rather shitting myself when hauling on the brakes and them not doing much!

Either the handling was utterly crap..... or so inspiring that I could take extreme liberties with it! I

It was incredibly light and nimble, and a real hoot to ride. Probably a LOT more fun to ride hard than a TZR with 12bhp.... because the chassis, though good, was only really 'just' up to containing it... the 25bhp 'full-power' versions were apparently.... "Rather Exiting"

As a teen-age revival toy? The IDEA of one does have a certain appeal.... but the reality is, that I just KNOW if I got on one tomorrow, even with a revised attitude to tiddlers, riding the 125 Super-Dreams.... it would dissapoint, and I could NEVER recreate the 'thrill' I got on that bike twenty odd years ago. It would feel slow. sloppy and ultimately unrewarding..... I'm not 21 any-more, and I am not so... err.... nieve or STUPID any more! Nor so supple!

And, its a rare bike. They sold probably two RD's for every AR or NS, 'back in the day'. Plenty of NS's have come into the country second hand from Italy since then, and the pool of RD's similarly bolstered with bikes from France, Belgium & Switzerland I believe. Pool of AR's has only depleated, and there aren't many, decent or other wise out there any more. The Disc-Reed motor, is pretty much unique to the model; unlike the RD's that use basically the same engine as the DT's and TZR's... so its a rare model, with little parts compatability, that was always more difficult to work on and maintain than its rivals... for which parts support is no where near as wonderful.

It would be a 'tougher-cookie' as a teenage revival-resto than an RD, which would be a heck of a lot easier to do, and be worth more for the trouble...

As an 'every-day' classic? It would not be a wonderful choice.
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Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Vincent]

[stinkwheel]

There's not many about because everybody robbed the engines out of them and fitted them to their AR50.

Same reason you don't see many YB100s any more, the barrels and pistons are all bolted to Fizzies.
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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[hmmmnz]

i think your version and mine of "vintage" vary considerably, thats barely a classic
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Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[Vincent]

[Shaft]

[Vincent]

TBH, I'm not too fussed in this case - it was just a word I used in the title and didn't represent any strict meaning. A bit trite to go on about it IMO.
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[Vincent]

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/10-vintage-motorcycle-brands.htm

I can use google too
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[Shaft]