Posts
614
Joined
7/1/2008
Location
Scotland, GB
Edited Date/Time
3/12/2016 1:43am
Thought i'd put this post up for Kidkawie, it's a bit of a look back at a resto I did of my 1991 KX, a bike I got as in September 1993 for my 16th birthday.
It's the one bike I will never ever sell, far too much sentimental attachment and I still love to rag the shit out of it at 35 years old.
I carried out the resto in the winter of '08 - spring '09 whilst my wife and I were expecting our first child, Jill was always knackered and slept all the time which allowed me spin the spoons in the garage till the wee hours - it was the first bike i'd ever restored and definitely gave me the bug to do more.
Anyway, it had sat in my parents garage for quite a while, this is how it looked prior to being retired in '95, it's fair to say I liked my stickers as a kid! lol
The bike was stripped down, with the frame being blasted prior to powder coat. A couple of frame repairs were required, the lower pipe mount was damaged and both foot peg mounts had sagged.
Handlebar brace by devol
Linkage was rebuilt with Allballs bearings, ditched the puny stock pegs for IMS Pro series items
Ohlins billet shock mount
Swing arm was powder coated too, as a kid I spent hours polishing that thing and it actually came up pretty good, but a blingy bike wasn't really the look I was going for with this. Like the rest of the build, there is loads of NOS OEM stuff on here, slipper, fasteners, chain adjusters etc
Motor in
Ohlins shock on, this was supplied and tuned by MH Racing down in England
Anyway, that's enough for tonight, it's quarter to 1 in the morning here in Scotland, i'm goosed after taking a trip over the bars on the mtb tonight and need my kip, will chuck up some more pics in the next few days
It's the one bike I will never ever sell, far too much sentimental attachment and I still love to rag the shit out of it at 35 years old.
I carried out the resto in the winter of '08 - spring '09 whilst my wife and I were expecting our first child, Jill was always knackered and slept all the time which allowed me spin the spoons in the garage till the wee hours - it was the first bike i'd ever restored and definitely gave me the bug to do more.
Anyway, it had sat in my parents garage for quite a while, this is how it looked prior to being retired in '95, it's fair to say I liked my stickers as a kid! lol
The bike was stripped down, with the frame being blasted prior to powder coat. A couple of frame repairs were required, the lower pipe mount was damaged and both foot peg mounts had sagged.
Handlebar brace by devol
Linkage was rebuilt with Allballs bearings, ditched the puny stock pegs for IMS Pro series items
Ohlins billet shock mount
Swing arm was powder coated too, as a kid I spent hours polishing that thing and it actually came up pretty good, but a blingy bike wasn't really the look I was going for with this. Like the rest of the build, there is loads of NOS OEM stuff on here, slipper, fasteners, chain adjusters etc
Motor in
Ohlins shock on, this was supplied and tuned by MH Racing down in England
Anyway, that's enough for tonight, it's quarter to 1 in the morning here in Scotland, i'm goosed after taking a trip over the bars on the mtb tonight and need my kip, will chuck up some more pics in the next few days
Makes me really regret selling my first bikes, I'd love to have some of them to restore. I still have a 2000 CR125 that I may restore, but it's stored at my parent's house 1,000 miles away. Maybe I'll ship it to myself one day.
Nothing better than giving a bike you love a new lease of life, i honestly lost hours in the garage just looking at it, getting a kick out of the progress.
Get that bike shipped over from your parents, you won't regret it.
Rear wheel was complete NOS, rear caliper was rebuild with all NOS parts, pistons seals etc as was the master cylinder. Hose was replaced with Goodridge stainless hoses. Discs front and rear are motomaster items from Holland.
Front wheel had to make do with keeping the original hub and lacing it onto a new rim with stainless spokes.
Managed to find a NOS right hand rad, the left hand side was re-furbished by GMX in England.
This is the only element of the bike i don't like, and it still annoys me to this day. The PC platinum pipe looks shite. Original pipe was pretty badly corroded and pinholed, couldn't get a works finish pipe through any PC stockists, and man did i try. Must have e-mailed every stockist in europe and the states, even having dialogue with PC and Mitch at the '08 Des Nations lol If anyone has a works pipe or even better, cone pipe for this bike let me know!
I put a good bit of work into restoring the tank, shaving it to removes nicks, various levels of sanding and polishing to restore it's luster. It tones in pretty well with the NOS rad shrouds, i ended up getting those from a Kawi dealer in Pensylvania and the other from New Zealand.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Yeah the fork caps are new, kept the tubes and stanchions. Adjusters were replaced with NOS, internals are all NOS Ohlins which was a popular mod for GP guys back in the day.
Just finished my lunch break, back to work for me man.
More pics and video to follow.
I haven't looked on ebay for a while, had it set up for a saved search for a while but it only brought up FMF fatty's or roached old stock pipes no better (and probably worse) than the one i had.
See you also have a KD100, we still have a KM100 - maybe that'll have to get the resto treatment too
I picked this up about a year or so ago for $75. Put about $200 into it since it was missing some parts. No engine work, runs like a top. Took a double take on the shift pattern. lol
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n248/Jeekinz/KD100/IMG_5581.jpg
As someone who has restored a few bikes it's fairly easy to see how much effort you have put in.
A few years ago I acquired a brand new 1992 KX125 frame from a mate of mine that was doing a clear out of his garage...he had a ton of bike bits and was going to take them all down the skip before I jumped in and rescued them all like the motocross eco warrior I am!
I ended up putting the frame on evil bay and it was bought by a nice lad doing a resto in the Orkney Islands!! I thought it was kinda funny as never imagined motocross being big way up there
Honestly working on this gave me an immense sense of satisfaction, it was my favourite bike of my schoolboy career, I still lose 1/2 an hour just looking at it in the garage some nights. However, the best thing in the world is getting out on the track and ringing the shit out of it, makes me feel 16 all over again.
As for Orkney, yeah there is a pretty healthy club up there, there used to be a few boys that would travel down to the mainland for the scottish champs, some commitment. There' s also a great beach race on Orkney every year, you owe it to yourself to go up and race one year!
Any pics of your build?
I also emailed every single Pro-CIrcuit distributor world wide and not one had stock of a works pipe, I gave up and stuck with the platinum.
Can't fault the performance, it just looks shite.
Prefer works connection or devol if possible.
Incomplete but getting there, concentrating on the hard to get parts first
I now have the works pipe on and gold rims on order, and the correct white procircuit front guard sticker.
Found some NOS OEM complete forks, then these will go on the 92 kx250 im doing up to ride as a BITD race replica. Good thing these bikes are similar I swap out the not so clean bits to the one im going to ride. Theres another pic of this bike in a different thread under 93 splitfire 125 dressed as a factory production replica but those pieces are now on the 250.
Speaking of hard to get, anyone know where I can find the seat cover.
Pit Row
Hey Ewan, I decided to ride my 94. Taking it out this Saturday (weather permitting). for the past year or so I've just been pushing it from my office, to my house, now it just sits under a tarp in my shop. Screw that. I'm riding it.
I spent a morning on the tank, removing any nicks best I could, shaving any raised bits of plastic using a Stanley blade.
I then wet sanded it using different grades of paper, then applied 3 coats of plastic renew. Strictly adhering to the instructions.
That was 4 years ago and it still looks good today.
No point at all in a motorcycle that does not get used!
Have fun!
Bike looks awesome!
L = 1990
M = 1991
N = 1992
P = 1993
It's highly doubtful to find a useable cylinder, you should send yours out to get replated. The new plating is much better than the back then.
and who is a good person to take my cylinder to? or should i send it out to a professional to have a look at it?
-Air Filter Case
-Seat and assembly
-exhaust and silencer, basically the whole shabang for that area
-all new bolts, the guy i bought this from frankensteined the shit out of it and i have 3 different metric and 2 different US
-plastics
-brake and clutch handles
I think that is all i need as of right now
thanks in advance for any and all help
If you've read over these older bike restoration threds, you'll see that these projects are usually tough to do on a shoestring budget and take a lot of time also. You have to scour the Internet, constantly check eBay, etc. A lot of stuff (like the plastics) is going to have to be sourced internationally.
TBT, there's just no magic place or person who is going to have all these parts and then give you a discount like say, MotoSport does when you get parts for a modern bike.
Think about how much time and effort this bike is worth to you. If the answer to either question is, "only a little," then you will probably be better off with a newer bike.
If you are fine with a project that can take up multiple months of searching and building -- and potentially cost a couple of grand-- greetings & welcome to the club.
Post a reply to: 1991 KX 125 Resto retrospective