Moving from Old School to Bike Buillds as I plan to eventually put some work into this and make it look/run better
Growing up always had crappy bikes but at least I was able to ride right from my house. A friend had a CR80 and one ride on that and I was hooked on getting a real motocross bike. Anyhow years go by and finally have a part time job and pick up a used ‘89 RM125 with low hours in the spring of ‘89. Although the magazines said it was underpowered I didn’t know and I really helped with this bike. My parents weren’t against dirt bikes but weren’t for racing…anyhow a guy saw us riding out by the land behind my house and asked if he could ride. He came out with a CR125 and found out he raced. He offered to take me with to the races and an addition was born…this bike I got my first hole shot, first win, first time getting ran over by 30 bikes after getting a good start and going down on the backside of a blind hill..,lots of memories. Anyhow, always wanted to get one to bring back the memories, seen a lot there were over priced, too far away, etc. Still kept a look out frequently on Marketplace. One shows up local to me but way overpriced. After a week I send a offer what I think is fair. As expected guy says no, I say understand, just looking for a project and tell my story. Anyhow a couple days later he messages back trying to counter, I thank him but let him know it would probably be a dumb purchase and would waste too much money on it. He comes back the next day and says he wants it to go to a good home so come get it if I want for my offer. So now have this, mostly complete 1989 RM125 that looks fairly low hour. Some bad corrosion and a blown shock. Here’s some pics of it as I picked up, little wash up and then after I replaced the wrong back fender and cleaned it up some. Probably done messing with it until winter, but what should I do with this??
1989 Suzuki RM125 - Yak651
Edited Date/Time
8/13/2026 5:47am
A couple pics from my RM days
It runs!
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
That last picture of the track (with the green grass) reminds me of what tracks did and should look like.
Race it in vintage 89 cut off yr is a popular class. Depending on how my 7 broken ribs heal & my shoulder. Hv to start using my breathing exercise machine again. I guess my collapsed lung doesn’t look so good. I stopped using it. Too much pain . But if I don’t need shoulder operation . I ,m looking for a 89 cr125 for vintage racing for fun next yr. And race the DBP in a modern class.
It was a track since 69 it closed for aprox 5 yrs around 2015. Reopened & it was a euro layout 1 hill had 4 lanes of floaters on a hill. 200 for an annual & 300 for life time membership. He talked me into a 300 membership last yr. He sold the land after taking membership money all winter. 20 min outside of Green Bay , it sucks not having the track. I was. Member since 90 our meetings then where in an old school house. A tornado took it out. I raced the last race last June it rained all night & in the early morning. I didn’t think we woukd race just practice later when it dried. So I got there late , skipped practice & raced, 1st race since 99 I think. I mistakenly put a richer needle in but I had fun . Wildfire smoke in rolled in for 2nd motos , I couldn’t breath. 1st moto 125 class I couldn’t get my gear on fast enough to race it. Uphill start that was unique
X2. It looks totally bad ass !
The guy who bought the land I heard his deal for building a house on it fell through. Rumor is 700k buys it , just outside of Green Bay off i43. I think the land would sell for much cheaper. Navarino ski hill has been for sale for yrs . I made a track on it in 90. It would make an awesome track , 38 mi w of Green Bay .
I'd keep it very simple, unless you are happy to dump a ton of money into it.
I've got an 89 RM250, which is now around 50% 1989 because a load of 89 parts are unobtainable, such as cranks, fork springs etc.
I'm not particularly familiar with the 125 but it looks to share quite a lot with the 250 chassis wise.
Depending on what you are used to riding, the suspension sucks, the brakes suck and on the 250 the gear box sucks. However I still love my 89 RM250, its turns incredibly well and is lovely and forgiving on hardpack tracks, the chassis is nice and soft compared to modern solid aluminium bikes.
An Ohlins shock on the rear is a massive upgrade, 93/94 Forks/Clamps are another great upgrade. 260mm Front discs/brackets are available but rare. I swapped the clutch side crank and engine case to 1990+, it has the seperate clutch cover that allows you to access the plates without draining the coolant. I imagine this is do able on the 125 as well.
You can fit DRZ pegs that are a bit wider.
Nice! Yeah most likely going to keep it simple as don’t plan to ride it much
Awesome!
Couldn’t help myself and got some UFO plastics and decals. Not OEM but looks ok. Also found an old seat I had and a pretty mint ‘90 pipe. If anyone is interested and has some cool parts to trade let me know
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100% I would pay hard earned human monies to be able to ride a more natural style track like that today.
I'd keep that thing blue and yellow and silver if it were mine.. black rims, plastic..just imo, do not look great on vintage iron like this. Call me conservative and old in my ways idk
You can freshen up those fork boots with a set of new Emgo yellow 43mm boots:
https://www.dcvmx.com/Fork-Boots/emgo-mx-post-vintage-mx-43mm-fork-boots-yellow
Thats a nice clean original bike mate.I am also restoring a 89 RM125K but its been a long arduous journey.
Pit Row
Yeah sticking with the blue and need new fork gators! Am looking into possibly going with yellow/gold rims but agree stock looks good
Was my local track about 45 minutes from where I lived. Spun many laps on it, unfortunately non race days were not nearly as fun when the track wasn’t prepped but was still good memories!
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