TijmenK
Been Around the Block
New legislation forces new riders to ride a 125cc for the first two years, this legislation just had its first anniversary so up until recently nobody in their right mind bought a 125cc bike. That is why cheap(-ish) 125cc's are few and far between, 20-year-old Honda CB125's usually go for €1500, so when I found a Suzuki GN125 for half that I bought it. I don't have my license (yet, the 15th of march I should ) but my dad has been using it to scoot around town, and it's running pretty well, but the fun stops at 80 kph.
I didn't want to get too excited too soon, but I'll be able to ride it in a month so I'm starting to prepare for my project of turning it into something a bit more exciting. I won't make any drastic changes to the geometry until I've been able to ride some serious hours and see what works and what doesn't, but I can already start with the rest. First thing will be opening it up and cleaning it. I've also found a stock seat for cheap, which allows me to work on a new seat whilst keeping the bike intact. Last thing is cleaning up the rear triangle and the wiring.
As of now, I have three objectives: (ordered by importance)
I made a quick photoshop mockup to see how much the suspension needs to change in order to achieve a horizontal tank, and also did a rough sketch of the seat, and it looks like it will mess with the fork angle pretty bad, so I'll have to see how that turns out.
For cleaning up the rear triangle the two main things I need to get rid of are the battery and airbox. I like the looks of pods, but from what I understood the stock carbs don't like them, so I'll see how they like uni's and consider a carb change if the stock air box really is the only choice. Since the bike doesn't have a kickstarter I'll need a fairly big battery so ,although I'd prefer a skateboard seat, I'll be going for a classic seat pan, probably using the tank as a mold to keep it cohesive, to store the battery in. I really like the look of this seat and will try to recreate it in black with red stitching to match the Uni filter.
I could ramble on for ages, but this is the to-do list for now: (in roughly this order)
I didn't want to get too excited too soon, but I'll be able to ride it in a month so I'm starting to prepare for my project of turning it into something a bit more exciting. I won't make any drastic changes to the geometry until I've been able to ride some serious hours and see what works and what doesn't, but I can already start with the rest. First thing will be opening it up and cleaning it. I've also found a stock seat for cheap, which allows me to work on a new seat whilst keeping the bike intact. Last thing is cleaning up the rear triangle and the wiring.
As of now, I have three objectives: (ordered by importance)
- Getting the fucker to do at least 100 kph.
- Emptying the rear triangle.
- Changing the stance to achieve a horizontal line from tank to seat.
I made a quick photoshop mockup to see how much the suspension needs to change in order to achieve a horizontal tank, and also did a rough sketch of the seat, and it looks like it will mess with the fork angle pretty bad, so I'll have to see how that turns out.
For cleaning up the rear triangle the two main things I need to get rid of are the battery and airbox. I like the looks of pods, but from what I understood the stock carbs don't like them, so I'll see how they like uni's and consider a carb change if the stock air box really is the only choice. Since the bike doesn't have a kickstarter I'll need a fairly big battery so ,although I'd prefer a skateboard seat, I'll be going for a classic seat pan, probably using the tank as a mold to keep it cohesive, to store the battery in. I really like the look of this seat and will try to recreate it in black with red stitching to match the Uni filter.
I could ramble on for ages, but this is the to-do list for now: (in roughly this order)
Full tune-up according to Haynes. New oil everywhere, brake pads, the works.Working on a seat. I'll do this early because there's not a whole lot that will change about it, it can be done without making significant changes to the bike and will probably take a lot of time because I'll be doing the upholstery from scratch with very little experience.- Figuring out the suspension, how much fork dropping? New Hagon shocks? Longer / shorter?
Figuring out the wiring, deciding on a new battery (necessary to decide on the size of the seat cowl) and looking at lights. (I'll probably convert to LED and order from China, want to order everything soon because shipping can take ages.)Deciding on a place for the license plate, there are very strict rules about the location and angle, so fabricating a mount a bit like this fender will be the best solution.Frame modifications, rear hoop, tabs to get rid off? Tabs needed for rear-set and new seat?Rear set? Changing to low bars without a rear-set will kill my back, Viet's clamp-on rearset with custom linkage will probably be the easiest choice.Exhaust? Longer / shorter? Different muffler? Taped? Bend it to be horizontal and parallel with the other lines? Will probably mess with the rear-set, so have to consider that too.- Fenders, the front will stay for sure, but cut down and mostly as a fork brace. Rear will be a the license plate thing and a hugger?
Bars. Clip-ons or clubmans? Depends on stance and budget, clip-ons will probably be joined by a new speedo and tacho to fill up the triple tree which makes them the more expensive choice.- Paint. Black with red accents, maybe, but we'll see.
- Try to accomodate for saddle bags, preferrably Ortlieb Speed Bags, which shouldn't be too hard to accomodate for.
- Probably a thousand things more...