Not quite a Cafe Racer, More like a 60s Racer for the road. KH125 Project UK

[NoisyChrome]

Ok so i got myself a little 1987 KH125 about 12months ago for the grand total of £150 (My god i love E-bay)
I went for the KH for three reasons:
1: Its a Two stroke
2: Its disc valve
3: It was cheap

It was a complete wreck been used as a field bike for years but this didn't bother me the engine is a good runner, the frame and forks are good and did i mention it was cheap??? Now incase you haven't noticed im kinda on a budget, luckily for me i own Noisy Chrome in Manchester UK and we do Metal Polishing, Chrome Nickel and Zinc plating, Bead/Vapour Blasting and all-sorts of other fun stuff as well as having quite a few random seats, fairings and other bits laying around just calling out to be used.

Now deciding on the style i wanted was easy a 60's racer with a full fairing, my farther in-law has been restoring 60's road racers for years and is the reason im mad about them check him out www.noisytoys.tk he's currently working on a Gus Kuhn Sealy Norton (Sex on a stick!!!!)

Im gunna get some stick for this next comment but 'Im not keen on Cafe Racers' (Sharp intake of breath) i can see the beauty in them and appreciate the amount of effort and skill that go's into building one but it's the big headlight that kills it for me, just like im not keen on Hayabusa's such a big heavy bike no,no,no not for me thank you very much. Each to his own i suppose.

Pic's to follow (once i find my old phone with them on)

 

[NoisyChrome]

Phone found and photos are a go.

 

[surplus 6]

https://sites.google.com/site/kh125uk/kh125-technical/a3-tuned

just a little reading for you. nice find, I need to feed the 2 stroke gap in my life

 

[NoisyChrome]

Engine In/Out, I cut the rear short with a hacksaw then used orange tape to mark the bits i wanted to cut off and went mad with the grinder.

 

[NoisyChrome]

Cheers Surplus, air cooled 2 stroke its the future.... or the past.... or whatever it is i like it

 

[teazer]

Interesting article. The MX motor clearly was much stronger in the midrange but not much better at the top end.

Just to drive you nuts, an RS125 Race bike makes over 40hp for a great top speed and awesome lap times - but is close to impossible to get off the line in any dignified sort of way. There is clearly scope to get more performance out of the motor, but keep it streetable and fun. Is there a more modern motor - say a MITO or CR125 or more modern KZ125 that would nestle in that chassis?

 

[NoisyChrome]

Interesting idea Teazer but really want to stick with the original disc valve motor, going to be looking at doing a little porting and fitting a racing pea shooter.
I have a pair of Arial Arrow 250 pipes in the work shop, if 2 pipes where used for the twin 250cc arial motor do we think 1 pipe =125????? i know its all about exhaust pressures but im not that bothered about top performance im more after the look and more importantly the sound.

Frame has gone into powder coat today along with wheels and a few other bits, decided im going to fabricate my own seat based on a Yamaha TD2 because i want to fit the battery and other electrics inside, also decided im gong to lay off the chrome on this one because super shiny chrome wasn't wasted on the 60's Japanese racers instead going to go with period finishes like dull zinc, olive drab and dull polished ali. More pics to follow......

 

[teazer]

I must have missed something. how can the frame go to p/c before the bike is fully assembled? there will be brackets to weld on and other things to change before paint and final assembly. I know. I have done things in the wrong sequence more than once, when I thought I was done with welding.

 

[Classic Commuters]

Defiantly following your progress here, when I come back to the UK I plan on building something very similar based on a 2 stroke 125 or ,preferably, a 175.

I Agree with Teazer though, I wouldn't powder coat until you have all the brackets you need for your fairing, battery box etc... in place.

 

[NoisyChrome]

Hi Guys, sorry for the delayed post been having a few technical issuses with my good friends at BT :-X Thanks for the words of warning regarding PC didn't really update the post properly......

Previously
There wasn't much welding to do, only had 2 footrest brackets to weld onto the frame (perfect position fell directly on the old pillion peg) and a front fairing mount jobs a good en, i had two arial arrow pillion brackets in a box at work with the perfect offset for my needs just a bit of tarting up and away i went with the mig. Battery will be going inside the seat (2 stroke bikes of the day had no battery so i wanted to hide it), all welding done and off to PC she went.

Today
Feeling rather enagetic when i got to work this morning so decided it was knee dent time, rubber mallet worked a treat (see pic) im not bothered about the visable dents as once again period racers would bash tanks to suit in-between races. Not much actual work was done today as i got seriously distracted with my racer (que angry customer phonecalls monday morning :-\ ) Primed and painted just to see the final colour in the light, originally i was going for green with cream highlights and number boards but after abit of research found out that black number boards denote 125cc so green and black it is. Also polished fork bottoms today came up quite nice ;D

Monday
Picking up PC first thing monday along with PC wheels, have a few ideas about rearset setup so will be playing around with that, swing arm T&B yolks, rear sus and forks are being fitted its all coming along. I have set myself a deadline of the 9th of May so fingers crossed ill make it.

As you probably noticed the tank pic is on my windowsill at home (other half is not impressed) this is because i have a brain like mush and forgot to take pics at work today, i will take some on monday tho and update the post ASAP

 

[surplus 6]

loving it so far
8)

 

[Classic Commuters]

Knee dents came out good, I was a bit worried when you mentioned the rubber mallet but it's worked really well. The colour is sweet too!

 

[NoisyChrome]

Busy day today picked up the frame this morning and set about the rebuild, got quite abit done: Swing Arm, Rear Sus, T&B Yolks, Forks, Engine, Handlebars, made a start on the wiring, Milled out some foot pegs to fit leavers for rear set's (looking pretty dapper if i do say so myself)
The stainless steel foot guards are made out of an old splash grill off my coffee machine, its amazing the amount of bits of metal i keep think i might be a metal hoarder :-\
Going to be using an old RC163 fairing so i test fitted that today alittle bit of trimming was needed but not as much as i was expecting.
Anyway heres some more pics, more to follow ASAP

 

[NoisyChrome]

Couldn't resist an extra picture of the finished tank, photo makes it look abit more lime coloured than it is ;D

 

[Classic Commuters]

It's coming along great man, what do you plan to do with the bars? I can see you've flipped them, sticking with that or clip ons?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[NoisyChrome]

Cheers dude, Think im gunna stick with the flipped bars they fit well with the fairing, suppose it depends on how it feels to ride :-\
What you thinking?????

 

[Classic Commuters]

Every time i've gone to reuse the old bars on a build by flipping them, they never quite sit in the right place. I'd say if they're comfy and it works then use them but if it's not quite right maybe some clubmans to utilise the current bar mounts, it would make it look tidier. Just my two cents though!

 

[NoisyChrome]

Defo food for thought cheers dude ;D Picking up PC wheels tomorow so more pics on the way.

 

[Classic Commuters]

Nice, I'll look forward to some photos