The bike that changed MX more than any other.
Had one in April 1981, they were so late hitting the UK, raced it for 2 seasons till i went to Adults, and my first race on my 250, i won and the guy who bought my 125 finished second.
Always wanted another one but they were either too good and too dear , or too bad and needed too much work.
And i really didnt need another bike .
But 3 weeks ago, at a Car Show / Jumble, i saw this , and just happened to have an empty truck and a healthy wallet.
Having bought a couple of older bikes, i had to have this one, it was all there, apart from the El Gronko pipe, and Rad Scoops, and side panels, and the footrests are still level, and fairly tight with no signs of welds or anything .Also needs an air box which arrived today.
Stripped the bike, every bolt came out, wheel spindles and swingarm pivot even had grease on them, motor is blue over black, its almost certainly been in another bike, but as a start point, its all there, frame needs a blast and no repairs, pleased to pull of the cylinder and see it had a 54mm piston in it, less pleased to measure the bore at 54.5mm , but hey, it is what it is.
Not gonna bust my ass trying to get it done quick, and am going to try and buy and refurb plastics,rather than aftermarket, but it will be built to race, not look at .
And your cat is making sure it's not going to be blamed for dragging that poor bike home.
That's awesome, and no doubt in your hands it will recover nicely! Iconic bike.
Great find and what a landmark bike. I bought this one new and still have it
That was the first brand new bike I ever bought. $1425 out the door !
I was 16 at the time, but it seems like 2 weeks ago.
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Just read an article on Don Richardson's design of the Full Floater which included the Suzuki portion. Great start to a enjoyable project. Looking forward to the updates
We paid £1035 for ours , it was an awesome bike, we rode the crap out of it, it did a big end halfway through its second season, but other than that it never missed a beat .
Yesterday we had a UK EVO race and there was a pre 83 class with a few of these in it, all were proper race bikes, no trailer queens, looking forward to adding mine to the fold at some point.
Picked up a full rear end, with good links and rocker, and pivot , the original swingarm has cracks on the pivot , which have been welded , its would be ok to sit in the house with, but it needed a better one for riding.
Also sourced a full exhaust, which i really dont want to buy yet, but i am not going to miss out on as they are hard come by.
The challenge with this one is that i cant pick up part as easy as you can for 89-92 RM's which is what i normally do .
I never would’ve thought bikes would be collectors items. I legit saw people take old bikes to the dump back in the 90’s
Can say that about anything. As kids we had a few old Fords that we hammered around the farm and then scrapped. We were given a Mk2 XR2 and one of those today would be worth £3-4K in the state it was in.
They are only worth that now because you wrecked yours.
Cortinas and Granada's are rare because the banger lads killed them 100 at a time every weekend.
Not necessarily. RS2000s are worth big stacks of cash and there are 9000 of those left from the 5000 Ford originally built.
I think people in the moto community thought bikes would become more available and mass produced like cars. I sure thought they would. It’s crazy how much bikes are today even with inflation. And being where I’m at there’s nowhere to ride expect $30 tracks
The "Full floater" was probably the single greatest advancement in MX suspension ever.
Like Mugen Honda's in the UK.
Of the 10 sold there are only 52 left.
I thought I was fast on my 81 RM. Years later I realized my bike was so much better than the other brands and was the reason I did well
Its a love hate thing for me on this bike. I hate it because i bought the yz instead that year. The rm didnt come out until a few months later. I did not gel with the yammie, rode a friends rm, night and day difference.
The 250 was also a great bike in 81 but didnt line the starts like its little brother did here
Everyone here in the UK did the same, i think mine arrived end of March.. the Yamaha was here before Xmas.
And today i scored a NOS exhaust for it , 250 mile trip after work tomorrow to pick it up.
Also picked up a used gearbox complete , and the shift shaft that was dead on mine.
i have a target race for it to be ready for, which is 10 months i think.
And so it begins
Post a reply to: When you just cant not buy it... 1981 RM125X