125cc Bike Build

[MattE]

Hi all,

Recently I have been very interested in building a 125cc cafe racer of my own I can ride when I turn 17. My dad prefers me to build a bike so I know what I'm doing and how they work. As I'm only 16 and will be 17 in about 4 months I am limited to a 125cc bike. I am struggling to find any sensible priced donor bikes for a 125cc cafe racer. I want to try and stay away from chinese bikes though and would prefer a relatively well know brand, any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have seen build series on youtube and a friend of mine has just finished a beautiful Honda cx500 (early 1980s I think) and I thought it would be better to learn whilst building my own.

Here are some bikes I've been looking at for possible conversions so far.

Honda cg125
Suzuki gn125
Sukida sk125
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Current>> BSA Bantam D1 1949 + Suzuki GSX600F 1993 + Kawasaki ZX6R '99
Previous>> Yamaha YBR125 (2010) > Yamaha YBR125ED 2012

[Beehive Bedlam]

Never understood the fascination with cafe racers they look hideous even more so those created from butchering a perfectly good bike in a garden shed by a wannabe who's been watching too many episodes of fast n' loud.

Save your money it will look shit.

[WD Forte]

CX500 cafe racers are mutton dressed as lamb
125 cafe racers are turkey twizzlers in baco foil.
Your time would be better spent learning to maintain your bike/s,
ride well and stay alive.
I'm an old fart but still remember putting checkered tape and fancy shit on my bikes as a 17 year old so understand the desire to 'improve' it but
'Chrome don't get you home' as they say.
Not all Chinese bike are shit BTW
My lads have had a few and good maintenance is the secret of longevity
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bikers smell of wee

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Excellent - more young dreams crushed. Our work is done here.

Soon we will be the oldest, most miserable demographic in the entire universe. MWUH HAHAHAAAAA!!!!

https://www.madmoizelle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/nain-twin-peaks-2.gif
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Ste]

[Teflon-Mike]

Read this:- Pup-Project: Honda CB125TD-C; Resto & Beyond...

1/ If you want to keep it simple, keep it standard... all you need to is follow the instructions in the work-shop manual...

And if you are a complete beginner doing the job to learn stuff, you almost certainly don't know enough to do it different, let alone better than the book says! So stick to the script, work to the book, learn how it SHOULD be done before you try to go it alone and do anything different.

2/ Expect to take at least 3x as long as you anticipate, IF and thats a very big if, you can even finish it... when you can expect it to have cost at least 5x as much as you budgeted in parts alone.. no mention of the incdentals you will need, like sand-paper and wire brushes, paint-brushes and thinners, and lots and lots of Elastoplast.... let alone the tools you eed to buy to get a job done..... expect more hassle than you can ever imagine... especially from Mum, moaning about everything from th state of your oily jeans, to the oil-slick under th washing line and that damn 'thing' by the back door she has just stubbed her toe on a-g-a--n.. and HAVE you done your home work? You have Exams to worry about before a motorbike, you know!

3/ AND if you expect it to work out 'cheaper' than anything you may buy, that would pass an MOT, think again... the chances are very very slim..... IF you manage to finish the ob, and IF you have done enough of the right stuff, the right way, you MAY end up with a bike that is is far better condition, that gives far less problems in service, B-U-T there's a heck of a lot of 'ifs' before then....

The ONLY thing that can justify the time, effort, cost and shear hassle is that at the end, you get to ride something YOU have built.... not bought... something you have made 'live' by your own endevours, and the thrill that it 'just' works when you are done! And maybe, the learning... mostly that t probably isn't worth the effort and almost certainly not the money, but can be a heck of a lot of 'fun' if yu have nothing better to do....

The only practical justification is that you could waste just as much time and money making airfix aeroplanes, or knocking a plastic ball round a field tryng to loose it down a rabbit hole, or dangling a bit of string in some water trying to out-wit a creature with no brain.... to have even less to show for it at the end....

Take heed..... I do this sort of chit for fun, about once a year... it s NOT by any stretch of the imagination something that makes any sort of sense other than for the fun of dong it.... and the sort of fun that sees you spending this sort of money, and time, for so much pa, hassle ad frustration is a VERY perverse sort of fun far outside the scope of NHS treatment plans or prscription drugs!

Not trying to put you off the idea of a project, but some daft idea of a custom-build as your first attempt, when you are supposed to be learnig the practces and pricples is NOT a great recipe for sucess, and any over-optimism about what you may achieve even more.

Realistically, probably less than 1 in 10 projects like this that get started ever result in a motorcycle that passes an MOT and may get used on the road... of them, probably less than half, actually manage to survive more than a few months actual road-use, that soon sees where all the things forgotten were, and punishes you for any attempted short-cuts.

THAT is your real world chances of success, as far as turning an old heap of scrap into something you could ride down the street.....

Beyond that? If you want to ride down the street; I say it time over time, but the bike is actually the last ting you need worry about...

Tip; IF you are currently at school/college, get a teacher to countersign your application for a provisional licence and the back of pass-port photo's to accompany it....

A provisional licence is around £50 to get your hands on; you then need a CBT Certficate to validate provisional entitlement. That's aroud another £150 if you nail the course first time round. You will need a crash-hat, gloves and sensible shoes for the cours and will be advised on water-proofs as well. See New rider advice links below.

You probably have the thick end of £500's orth to look at n that lot. And Locks and Chains, are also more important than a bike, if you want to spend time riding it, rather than walking the streets hoping to find that twockers have dumped it a hedge!

BUT your biggest cost is likely to be insurance; which for a 17 year old to CBT is likely to be around £1000, minimum, dependng on how hot the brokers poridge was this morning! AND at 17 you wont be able t take the monthly payement plan, thats a credit agreement, with probably 30% extra 'interest' charges on it, to pay for a full years policy... you may get Daddy or some-one to undersign such a plan, but be warned, you could be paying more just on interest to do that than you do for the bike, AND the caveots n that agreement can see you still payg for the isurane long after the bike has deid or been stolen.

If you tally up all the stuff you need OTHER than a bike; you are looking at the thick end of £2000, and if you can get anything on the road for a budget much less, you are dong darn well.....

On that score, how much you might kid yourself you may save, buying a fixer upper for a couple of hundred qud and chucking however much to maybe get an MOT on it, starts to pail into insgnificance compared to what you ll have to spend all in else-where.

So you do it for the shear joy and the learning, not the money.

A-N-D.... in that sort of scheme, WHAT bike you might pick to do a project on, is almost irrelevant....

Anything remotely sporty r trendy will likely be trashed beyond credance and cost an arm and a leg on the insurance. Anythig older or rarer will likely suffer dire parts availability, and be harder to see finshed.

Anything non-standard to start wth? Is hassles t cntend wth before you start. And any 'non-stadard' ods you try and make along the way are going to cost you money, to make a bike less valuable, and even more expensive to insure....

These are unfortnate 'facts'.... do with them what you will..... Bt teh first priority is to be sure you have eough money to see it through, or you will have a very frustrating garden ornament sat around frustratig you with the 'problems.

Next is to revise estimates of time/cost/hassle... it will take far more of all that you expect, and factorially... be prepaed for that, and keep money 'spare' to cover contingencies where, the problem is so often a lack of money, and the solution so often only solved by spending more money.

IF you have your eyes open, your ambitions reasonable and sensible, IF you can work around begging lifts to go get tools and bits or drop frames off off to be sand-blasted or cylinders to be re-bored; if you can keep the hassle from impinging (too much!) on nearest and dearest so they don't stubb their toe on engines, or snag the washing no rusty handlebars, or have to shift tool boxes to get at the lawn mower or clean the bath of oil-rings before they get in... AND you can keep the project moving, and not run out of money or enthusiasm before it gets to road.. you MAY just MAY stand a chance....

I an tell you the shear joy of riding a bike you have built, from scratch yourself IS utterly awesome and worth all the blood sweat ad tears.... learning you will likely get along the way, invaluable.... BUT.... it almost certainly wont save you any cold hard cash, and the amount it can cost along the way in time, money, hassle and ill-will, is inestimable...

IF you are ready for all that, carry on... the actual 'bike; is still almost the last thing you need be all that bothered about.... what comes along you can afford, that you can get to, and stands some chance of being fixed up , will make you a begger not a chooser... so do your homework on what you are going to look at before you pays your money and takes your chances!!! That is only the first problem, there WILL be many, many, many, MANY more to come, before you are pottering up the road!

The Suzuki? reletively sensible choice; The CG more expensive option, better supported by way of Chinky-bike spares, probably the most do-able; the Sukida, an example of one of the lowest rent GC copies, I wouldn't even consider! They were about the cheapest thing you could buy new with a number-plate ad notoriousely high maintenance and slow, when new! 2nd hand even a pristine restored axample will still be slow, unreliable and not very vauable.. ie a lot of work ad a lot of money to get the least bike for it at the end!

Personally, I would probably pick an old, air-cooled two-stroke, as they are mechanically the simplest things to work on, but not particularly representative of anything else these days for the learning,and parts for many of them are incredibly hard to come by.

I 'do' Honda 125 Twins... cos O/H wanted one, and I am DAFT basically! But they are supported to a better degree by so many Chinese copies and dervatves as far as spares support.

PRACTICALLY... best suggestion I would offer, and have many a time, is to NOT pick a 125 as a project at all.....

Split the imperatives. For the 'learning' to ride a motorbike; do it the boring conventional way; wait till 17, do a CBT buy a road-ready 125, the cheapest you can get your hands on with a MOT, and just ride it... get tests for A1 licence on it, for the learnng... meanwhle, for a 'project' and for learning to do spanners.... get an A2 bike for when you are 19..... do that instead. Just as much work and hassle, but more cheaper, and often 'better' condition bikes t there to play spanners on, that when done, you can do the A2 tests on (having done the tests once on a 125), and be a bike you are much more likely to be able to get the value out of riding the thing when you have a couple of years experience ad no-claims-bonus to make t more affordable to do so. Meanwhile gives you a couple of years extra to find the money to chuck at t, ad do the work it needs, and takes away the resure you 'ed' the thing to get to and from in the mean-time... you have bargain basment 125 for that, and its inadequencies can be shrugged off, as you have 'big bike' waiting in the shed.

But that's just another way to chop the banana.

Thing IS that there rarely is anything even close to an 'ideal' project bike; yo take whats available and try make the most of t, and dodge the ones that are most likely completely beyond salvaton... even buying a ready-to-ride 125 its pretty much hobson's choice as whats actually on offer, and what condition its in,as what you think would be your 'ideal' bike y the buyers guides... so on a project bike?

See whats about, that you can get to and afford, then reseach the model and its parts availability ad insurance premiums very closely before getting exited to hand over cash.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
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?'

[Ste]

The are quite a few older threads from the OP about which 125 to get.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/search.php?search_author=MattRides

[Rogerborg]

[pepperami]

[Holdawayt]

My mate is building a 1970's CB125 café racer at the moment.
using Aprilia 125 forks, a CBR125 swing arm, monoshock conversion etc.
He has a youtube build series, his Youtube username is Jish.

Enjoy.

[Baffler186]

I would actually seek out a CHinese 125 for three reasons:

1). Many of the fixings, fastenings, electrical connections and non-load bearing parts (battery boxes etc) can be quite poor. It would be a good chance to improve the bike in this sense by replacing/redoing them, whilst also learning where all the bits are and what they do.

2) As Rogerborg has said, you always lower the value of a bike when you build it to your own tastes. The only exception is if you restore it to mint (factory) standard.

3) The engine and gearbox in most Chinese bikes are fairly sound if they haven't been thrashed and have had regular oil changes. Any "metal" parts usually go to pot in quite a short time, so there's a good chance of you getting a good base to work with, for £400-£500. The Jap bikes hold their value much better, but for your purposes spending £900+ for a Jap bike is overkill, and you could use the money saved for hipster parts.
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Current: 2009 SV650 S, 1990 Kawasaki GT550
Previous: 2009 CBF125, 1998 GSF600, 2004 FZ6 Fazer, 1978 CB400a Hondamatic

[Moxey]

Why not just get a skyteam ace? Thrn the jobs pretty much done and you can put your attention to righting any manufacturing defects (threadlocking, replacing fasteners for higher quality and rust proofing).
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Current: 02 FZS 1000 Some Bike Pics...
'I was too busy paying attention to pay attention'

[Rogerborg]

[Blah blah]

Do learners still need to wobble around some cones?? I dunno, been a while but if they do then clip-ons and rear sets can make it a bit more difficult so perhaps maybe aren't the best choice

Anyway, buy something cheap and work on that. For example, there was a 125 something or other not far from me, fairly new but failed the MoT on minor stuff like shocks, no rear footpegs and indicators flashing too quick... they wanted £300. I'd go for something like that, pull off the un-necessary bits, clean every thing else, maybe change minor stuff (indicators, lights, cut down seat) , fit some decent flatish bars so you can control it, service it and away you go.

If you hate it, sell for not much less than you've spent and move on.