Posts
216
Joined
4/17/2016
Location
GB
Edited Date/Time
8/8/2017 4:11am
Following a crazy year building a CAT Honda 125 I thought I may rebuild my 1997 Dutch GP bike .
The machine has been sat in a shed for nearly 10 years but still started on the 3rd kick ! With crap fuel and no air filter . Thank fully I'm in regular contact with Hans and it looks like a good build for 2017 , some 20 years on from when it was racing around winning the Dutch Championship. Some help will be needed , but it's all there !
The machine has been sat in a shed for nearly 10 years but still started on the 3rd kick ! With crap fuel and no air filter . Thank fully I'm in regular contact with Hans and it looks like a good build for 2017 , some 20 years on from when it was racing around winning the Dutch Championship. Some help will be needed , but it's all there !
Small visible changes are the hand made exhaust and the HNR engraving on the barrel.The actual sound of the bike is different from the average Honda 125 too, even though it appears to have a standard silencer .
Swing arm ,Shock & linkage bearings require replacing
New front wheel required
Front brake not working
No Airbox filter cage
Chain and sprockets
Plastics
Seat cover
Levers
General service
Plus new graphics etc ... so not too bad for a project
The Shop
Firstly the frame and HRC subframe went to be blasted and powder coated . This was away for about a week and a good time to strip down that Harry Nolte Racing tuned engine . The cylinder was in great shape with some nice port work and the signature HNR engraving . However the bottom end needed some serious work . All the bearings were worn . The clutch was using alloy plates which is great for a pro but this was going to be a riding bike so we opted for Honda units .
After some thought I went down the vapour blast route again . It's time consuming, expensive however, the finished results are justified . Whilst stripping we found an inner case hairline fracture so a replacement was sourced and vapour blasted too.
Various springs , clips and gear parts had to be changed also , before I got the engine back in one piece with a bill of about £1000. Expensive yes , but I am unsure if there are any other Team bikes with a Harry Nolte Engine out there still about so it had to be done .
The suspension was fettled by Technoflex a Dutch company . After removing the front forks there was a noise inside as a part had broken loose . So another total strip down new bits and rebuild without etc and they were ready to re assemble .
The rear shock was nice , also Technoflex with a nice HL engraving in the main body . The spring was measured and replaced with a heavier unit as I am considerably heavier than a young Hans Laurense was in 1997 . This too was powder coated in the correct black and reassembled .
The exhaust uses a HRC front pipe with a standard Honda Rear silencer . The pipe was in a reasonable condition so we had it blasted and a fresh coat of heat resistant black paint .
The brakes seem all original OEM equipment so we put new pistons and seals in and they seem fine .
Even using the original discs to keep the build as true as possible .
It was time to re -assemble now and , I was able to get most of the original bolts re-finished stripped and plated so it looked great and was nice to have fresh clean bolts to re-use .
I had a little Re-union Moto Cross day to attend and wanted the bike ready for then & was still on the build the evening before getting it finished . Luckily it started on the 4th kick !! Before we put it in the van ready for the morning .
Hans put me in touch with the people who made the stickers TMV and we had a set replicated , although it still wears the original rad shrouds and decals at the moment as they are so good condition.
The new Technosel seat cover was installed , bought from Claudio at Mastercross , and the fender decals were applied . We opted for the number 2 as in most of the photos Hans supplied us with had the bike sporting the no.2 before he won the no1 plate.
The bike looked and sounded awesome on the day , the HRC pipe makes it sound like nothing you have heard before , we gave the bike to Top Rider John King who gave it some laps before coming back and saying "It just keeps revving, you should give it to one of the new young GP riders to try they could really give it a go!"
His only down point was we did not have time to change the wheels and tires so the very worn wobbly rims with 20 year old tires were not giving much grip! ( this will be rectified soon )
All in all a great build , a Dutch Team bike , used in a couple of GP's restored to original condition a new addition to my collection .
Thanks to Hans Laurense and Laurense Motors
Harry Nolte
Elliot
Matt
Shane
TMV
And everyone involved in the build .
Regards Phil
I remember the top end was a little lacking on mine or just didn't rev out as much as I'd like but once it had some work done on it was probably my favourite bike I've owned. Steve Ashkenazi here in Aus had worked on the Honda factory teams 125s in 96 and had mine crackin!
Pit Row
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