Honda CBF 125 Off Road Tyres Advice Please?

CBFcarl wrote:

Honestly, I think it'll be crap - not enough power to do anything meaningful but hey -

Off-Road, you don't actually need a lot of power, to have a lot of fun, its deceptive.

The power of competition trials bikes is relatively quite pitiful. The quoted power of my old Cota 250, is I think 12-15bhp, it barely as powerful as a 125; but it's not all about peak-power, and with twice the displacement, it's making chunk-loads of motive-force from tick-over revs, magnified by ultra-low gears, the thing will literally chugg up a brick wall... a mere 70Kg weight helps, but while the power is low, its the thrust that matters and the smoothness of the power-delivery.... cota actually has 2lb of 'auxiliary' fly-wheel on the primary drive pinion to help 'smooth' the chuginess.

Curious aside on that topic; Used to have an impromptu dirt-oval in the orchard at the farm, and on a number of occasions I would let 'mates' spouting Perf-Bike borrocks about expansion chambers and power-bands do a few laps against the clock, then, out of sight, wip the secondary fly-wheel out, and let them go again. Same bike, same engine same power, absolutely no difference to the state of 'tune' JUST removal of the aux fly-wheel, and the comments and assumptions about how I had 'de-restricted' the thing, and how I must have changed the exhaust or raised the barrel or 'something' were oft hileriouse. They 'swore' that this 13ish bhp bike 'had' to make twice that... purely because it was a two-stroke, and the way that it 'felt' on the rough, with so much 'thrust' offered by the soft step-less power delivery and low cogs.

In similar manner, err... I think it was Kenny Roberts, used to teach the art of rear-wheel steering, to road-racers weened on tarmac like John Kochinski or Sean Emmet, on the horse-trotting, dirt, oval at his ranch, on 'little' sub 200cc dirt bikes, like old Honda XL100's, with bald tyres....

There-in lies a hint on the topic of field-bikes.... the lack of grip provided not only by a road-biased tyre, but a bald one, actually letting the thing slip and slide, and run out of grip almost before its begun, CAN actually be where the fun can be found, and the 'skill' riding beyond the limits of grip acquired.

Its a circular argument as to the relationship between power and fun, anywhere, I think, but on the dirt it is exemplified.

In scrambles / MX the two-stroke 5000cc big-bangers, could out the crate deliver maybe 50bhp, actually round the track, they were often no faster than the 250's that tended to have around 35-40bhp.... it wasn't how much power you had, it was how much you could lay down.... and when you have a full-knobbly chucking rooster tails, its moving mud, not motorcycle, the 'extra' mud-chucking 'power' of a 500 over even a 125 that might have only had 20-25bhp, was pretty much wasted NOT moving motorcycle, just moving more mud!

The bigger engines were then oft 'de-tuned' to make the power delivery less savage and easier to manage and put down. And it's interesting that in full GP trim, they were getting around 40-45bhp out of the water-cooled RS125. The CR125, was making barely half that, the CR500, barely as much with 4x the cc's, because on the dirt it really isn't how much power you can make, its how much you can use.

So?

It really is a question of how much power you need to have 'fun'... and for a field-bike, hacking round a bit of padock, you can have a heck of a lot of fun on a 3bhp moped! You aren't chasing tenths on lap times, or podium or championship placings, and the falling off, IS a large part of the fun to be had!

BUT!!!

I think that these days... with the Road-Traffic-Act expanded to apply to ' Any Area Accessible to the Public' (Whether they have legal rights of passage or not, just 'unhindered' access, including climbing a gate!)... 'Off-Road' doesn't mean you can do what you like; and tax, insurance, MOT, and licence CAN still be applicable depending on attending plod, and rights of seizure, imposed, depending on pickiness of plod.

THAT to my mind would be slightly more of a concern to any field-bike plan than whether to replace the OEM street-tyres with knoblies!!!!

"You can have your bike back, sonny, when you come down the station and show us a licence and insurance certificate"....

Watching them wheel away however many quids worth of 'off-road' tyre on CBF125 worth however much. , would at that point RATHER damp the fun that might have been had, and riase the notion that getting a licence and getting road-legal, MIGHT not have been such a silly or impractical idea!!
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