Posts
18
Joined
9/3/2022
Location
Alpine, CA, USA
I’ve always loved the conventional fork Suzuki of 1996-1998. I built a few of them a few years back and in the process came by this bike, which is some form of the original bike from the 1996 season.
It was in decent shape and was a running bike. I hadn’t planned on building a third bike, but when these things find you, you kinda have no choice. Since this one made bike of the day recently, I figured I’d give it a build thread and show how it all came together.
The bike was complete, but had the usual signs of wear and lack of maintenance. At first glance the bike looks stock. The clamps, pipe, wheels and other parts were oem, but the white plastics, seat cover and some other not-so-obvious details had me convinced this was at least some part of the original bike.
Probably an end of season rebuild so it could go out on the lot for sale.
Excited to follow!
Thanks for taking the time to share.
So we dug in. The deeper I got, the more I found.
The good, the bad, the ugly and the awesome.
The swingarm was one jump away from sending someone to LaLa Land! 🤣
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
It all starts with a good base. Frame was clean, no cracks in the peg mounts or the leading tubes. This was likely a replacement frame that never saw race action. Fine by me, this one goes in the display case.
Took to eBay to source many of the near 30-year old parts I would need to bring it back to some semblance of its original self. Gotta love some of the great finds that pop up there from time to time.
Could not believe this eBay find. Avoided the need to tussle with the original unit with the aftermarket sprocket bolt clearance. The added bonus was the near-new Applied linkage which was what they ran on the original bike. This was probably my favorite find throughout the build.
ICW did his thing and got these radiators back to square and gusseted for future impacts not likely to ever occur. Was still worth it to me to have this done.
Clean up continued and parts and pieces started going back together.
Progress continues.
Toughest part of the whole exercise was finding the white plastics. The team ran all white plastics across all three bike platforms that year (Honda, Suzuki & Yamaha), I would assume, for sake of visual consistency. Was probably easier to find some of these pieces then. Not so much anymore. This rear fender is an absolute unicorn and I’m sure I found the last new one on the planet. Had to have Phil at Plastic Renovations do some restoration on the shrouds since those just don’t exist in new condition anymore. Got lucky here. No doubt about it.
The engine was part of the original with the re-worked FMF cylinder and some other little tricks of the trade. Opted for a mild rebuild with as many Weisco parts as I could source, because why not overspend on parts for a bike you never plan to ride. Christian Stanya is my local for engine rebuilds. I love being mechanical, but I’ve never had the guts to get into one. I realize they’re not overly difficult to learn, but I have yet to feel the need to do so myself.
Vapor honing, case and cover coatings, fresh seals, bearings, crank re-build for a top to bottom new-again engine.
Post a reply to: #97 Greg Schnell/Chaparral/FMF Suzuki RM125