jeffcampagna
New Member
Hey folks,
Proud to say I used this forum almost on the daily while tearing down and reassembling my little gn125 over the past month. I did all the work myself except for the welding of the rear hoop section and the actual upholstery of the seat.
I'm a Canadian but I live down in Panama on the beach. I bought this 2008 Suzuki 125 a few years ago for $600 here. I've always been into custom bikes but have absolutely NO mechanical skills or technical ability. Just from reading these forums recently, I managed to figure it all out. So thanks...
What you see is pretty much what you get: to level out the geometry I added some longer black rear shocks that I got here in Panama for $35, a retro taillight I shipped from Town Moto, removed rear fender and inner mud guard, took off rear end of the frame and welded on a DCC rear hoop with some platinum brackets and a rear taillight mount I made, de-tabbed, put on some fb exhaust wrap. I made some new side panel covers out of perforated metal and left the airbox revealed on the one side (that circular opening was a bitch to cut with my $39 angle grinder). To level out the geometry some more I raised the fuel tank with a piece of bent aluminium I had left over from the seat pan so the bend leaves room for my new seat to slide into/under, then took the tank down to bare metal and drew on it like a child then cleared it with hardware store clear, de-tabbed some more, put on clubmans from Town Moto, Biltwell thruster grips, removed the entire cluster up top which meant I had to fab a new ignition mount, taped the headlight, removed all indicators, cut down the front fender and threw on Chinese knobbies so that I can really rip on the beach on my way to the local fish market.
Certainly a <$1000 build including the donor. I made the new seat pan out of $5 aluminium and layered it with a yoga mat. Then had a local Panamanian make the upholstery wrap for $25 out of some awesome high-quality leather I picked up while in Buenos Aires for $30. Then I wrapped the seat myself and used pop rivets to fix it to the bottom of the pan.
All in all, probably took off 20lbs worth of crap that I don't need for driving around the beaches and backroads of rural Panama. This alone gave the bike a little more grunt. But the goal was never really fine performance... I mean, it's a 125.
Go easy on me. It's a first build. But it's a hell of a lotta fun. Thanks for everyone's help. If anyone has questions about specific things, or process photos, fire away...
Proud to say I used this forum almost on the daily while tearing down and reassembling my little gn125 over the past month. I did all the work myself except for the welding of the rear hoop section and the actual upholstery of the seat.
I'm a Canadian but I live down in Panama on the beach. I bought this 2008 Suzuki 125 a few years ago for $600 here. I've always been into custom bikes but have absolutely NO mechanical skills or technical ability. Just from reading these forums recently, I managed to figure it all out. So thanks...
What you see is pretty much what you get: to level out the geometry I added some longer black rear shocks that I got here in Panama for $35, a retro taillight I shipped from Town Moto, removed rear fender and inner mud guard, took off rear end of the frame and welded on a DCC rear hoop with some platinum brackets and a rear taillight mount I made, de-tabbed, put on some fb exhaust wrap. I made some new side panel covers out of perforated metal and left the airbox revealed on the one side (that circular opening was a bitch to cut with my $39 angle grinder). To level out the geometry some more I raised the fuel tank with a piece of bent aluminium I had left over from the seat pan so the bend leaves room for my new seat to slide into/under, then took the tank down to bare metal and drew on it like a child then cleared it with hardware store clear, de-tabbed some more, put on clubmans from Town Moto, Biltwell thruster grips, removed the entire cluster up top which meant I had to fab a new ignition mount, taped the headlight, removed all indicators, cut down the front fender and threw on Chinese knobbies so that I can really rip on the beach on my way to the local fish market.
Certainly a <$1000 build including the donor. I made the new seat pan out of $5 aluminium and layered it with a yoga mat. Then had a local Panamanian make the upholstery wrap for $25 out of some awesome high-quality leather I picked up while in Buenos Aires for $30. Then I wrapped the seat myself and used pop rivets to fix it to the bottom of the pan.
All in all, probably took off 20lbs worth of crap that I don't need for driving around the beaches and backroads of rural Panama. This alone gave the bike a little more grunt. But the goal was never really fine performance... I mean, it's a 125.
Go easy on me. It's a first build. But it's a hell of a lotta fun. Thanks for everyone's help. If anyone has questions about specific things, or process photos, fire away...
