Queen's 1990 Kawasaki KX125 minimal rebuild

Seat cover donated from another Vital member came in today, along with this pristine ignition cover I found on ebay:

The tank looked horrible at first but after removing the caked on oil/dirt crust + old stickers, it's cleaning up nicely.  Still have a little more sticker residue to remove: 

Crank back from Millennium, waiting on cylinder next. 

Got some other bits in such as plastic kit, numberplate backgrounds, and the '91 KX125 CDI.

KM Carburetor out of Michigan hooked me up with some genuine "Kay-heen" jet block gaskets. Only two of those are mine.

Sorting out and cleaning up the electrical bits I have. I have both the 1990 and 1991 CDIs. 

The 1990 CDI gives more of a top-end hit whereas the 1991 CDI is more of a mid-range hit. 

With a little luck from the dirt gods, both old and new, I should hopefully have my cylinder back from Millennium sometime next week. 

Waiting on foam to arrive from Oz.. they were the only place I could find for my '90 pan. 

Local race shop is dropping gold valves and a full rebuild in my '91-93 KX500 forks. 

Opting to not go for powdercoating or wheels right now, but I did have to order some OEM spokes & nipples for the back rim I have. Money is tight with fuel prices as they are.. and soon we'll see groceries start to skyrocket yet again. I'm probably going in too  deep with all the mods I'm doing so far. Frame and wheels can be done later. 

Bought a beater Mazda5 last week so I could park my 7.3 except when I need to haul a bike or whatever. 

hopefully more substantial updates next week...

The stock 91-93 KX500 spring rate was only .39kg/mm.  THe stock '90 KX125 spring rate was only .365kg/mm. Not a huge difference.  I'm going to rock the .39's and if they are too stiff I can look at options. 

Seat foam arrived all the way from Australia 🦘

Dropping this by the local upholstery place on Monday

When I looked a few weeks ago they were out of stock

Bottom end is back together mostly.. 

Got the cylinder and head back from MT yesterday.. the shop I'm letting rebuild the bottom end have contacts at factory Kawie.. they called this morning to see if there was anything still hanging for a '90 125.. nope.. everything, all of the leftovers, were bought by Mitch 10 years ago. 

I wasn't specifically looking for any other tidbits but it was interesting to hear that he tried to find some extra stuff. 

Never raced wmx, never been to loretta's, raced a few races here and there locally, almost always finish close to the back of the pack. I wish my mx skills were as interesting as this thread appears to be, but here we are!

 I've ridden on the same track at the same time with Ezra lusk and Doug Henry at different points of my life. I pulled one holehot in my entire life at a hare scramble, my first hare scramble. I was doing well until we got into the first woods section about a mile in, when my front brake clipped tree and I went head over heels into a ditch. After I peeled myself off the ground I finished the race in last place 🙃

My first bike was a 1980 Honda CR80, but I  rode my older brother's Honda 65 trail bike a bit before 

I'm a little to the older side of the vet classes.. never bought a new bike in my life. The 327 will be my first. 

I'm not in love with the little pock holes on the top of the cylinder. The gasket will hopefully seal those over. 

and some other random pics:

Things are moving along a little slowly but steadily. Could not find a wheel set that did not involve green anodized hubs and black rims. Sticking with what I have although I'm rebuilding the rear rim with new spokes and nipples, and new bearings front and rear.

Also, after much hemming and hawing I decided not to go all in on powder coating the frame and swing arm. They are serviceable as is. I'm just putting way way too much money into this and have to draw a line somewhere. 

That line was after I foolishly decided to put gold valves in the shock and forks 😂

I had to cerakote the ignition cover which was badly worn. Decided on a wild 80's color (similar color as seat) instead of silver. Then decided for that same color on the outer clutch case, and cylinder head. I probably should have stuck with silver, but, things feel kinda heavy today so I needed a little more color and brightness in my life. 

I hope to start reassembling the little KX this weekend!

Not feeling the love for this project today 

Kawasaki made changes to the forks and triple clamps from 1990 to 91, 91 to 92, and I have fork bits from all three of those years in my possession. 

Issue number one, the clamps that I was going to use are from 1992. They have a larger steering stem diameter. The upper bearing/race is wider than the 1990 and 1991 kx's. 

Issue number two, I have 1991 KX 125 triple clamps these will work in my frame and they accept the 43mm fork legs. But, my 1991 lower clamp is boogered.. the stop is somehow ground off I'm not really sure how someone managed that (pic below). 

The 1992 lower clamp is dimensionally the same as the 1991, but Kawasaki changed the offset from 1991 to 1992, so I'm not able to use the 92 lower clamp which is not boogered up 

So I pressed the stem out of my 91 lower and will take the clamp to a shop next week to see if I can have the steering stop repaired 

Already had the 43mm 91 KX forks rebuilt with gold valves so I'm not open to just simply using the 41mm 1990 KX 125 forks

I really really wish I had just spent a couple thousand extra dollars months ago and bought a fully running already restored 1990s dirt bike. 

In the words of Johnny rotten, this is no fun