Posts
2841
Joined
1/22/2012
Location
Fallbrook, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
4/25/2017 12:11pm
The idea of this build is to get a nice bike which I can race some enduros with. The other idea is to do it economically. I would like to stay around $1000 total. I don't have anything against the bling or A kits of some other builds but it isn't in my budget and I want to race this and not worry about scratching my show bike. The idea for this came up a couple of months ago but really cheap bikes are few and far between around here. As luck would have it, someone listed a 04 RM125 in need of some work for $650 on Craigslist last weekend. After checking it out, we agreed on $550 and the project has begun.
The good:
good price, overall not too beat up, has title, has all of the parts
The Bad:
Blown crank, overall really dirty and just neglected, in need of a bunch of small stuff. bike was taken apart before it was cleaned.
Here is what I am starting with. The motor and the rest of the parts are in that blue tub.
The good:
good price, overall not too beat up, has title, has all of the parts
The Bad:
Blown crank, overall really dirty and just neglected, in need of a bunch of small stuff. bike was taken apart before it was cleaned.
Here is what I am starting with. The motor and the rest of the parts are in that blue tub.
51 tooth rear sprocket and a V-Force go a long way on these bikes, helps awaken the low end.
HGS pipes are very good on these bikes if a new pipe is on the shopping list
The Shop
I was first in line to get it until the wife ended that haha
Glad I get to see what it turns into. What did you end up getting it for?
Pit Row
The clutch was too grooved to be used so, I did a little Ebay shopping and found one for $105. I had never heard of Surflex but it was made in Italy and the price was right.
Install was the usual and everything went smoothly.
My friend was able to get the crack welded up. Although, it was a pain in the ass as there was some kind of contamination either in the tube or in the crack along the motor mount. The contaminant had the weld doing all sorts of weird stuff. Regardless, he finally made it happen . The welding allowed me to finally get a coat of paint on the frame. That was nice as it marked the turning point to where parts are going on instead of coming off.
I have had some luck in the past by straightening the fins with a scribe tool. I am talking about the kind that looks like a pick and has a straight point and a 90 degree point. Essentially, I stuck the straight point in until it was the right width on the wider side of the V. Then, I pulled towards the skinny side and pulled up as I went. That was time consuming but made a nice V which looked close to stock. Some fins were too waffled to be perfect but that method was a lot better than straightening with a small screwdriver.
Edit: just saw. Will be watching your thread closely as I just got one as well!
I recently rebuilt a 2005 RM125. I had Eric Gorr go over the engine and rebuild into a 144. I think the added low and mid power would really help for enduro riding.
Here is a pic of the Time-Sert kit IMO, these are the only way to go for thread repair. If you aren't familiar with them, they are a solid sleeve that has a slight hour glass shape, You drill, countersink, tap and then install the insert. Inserts can be bought in any number of different sizes, lengths and materials. The kits are pretty expensive at around $75 per size but they work well. I have found some good deals on Ebay by searching "kent moore thread" That company made a number of multi sized Time Sert kits for car dealerships and they go pretty cheap.
Here is the finished product. You can barely notice the repair.
After that repair, I was finally able to start putting a few parts back on the frame.
Steering bearings kit $27
Linkage kit $47. It has way more than I anticipated. It has every part less the aluminum casting to rebuild the linkage.
Here are the two bad slides.
For future reference, I have also had very good luck with jetsrus.com for pretty much anything carb related. They have a lot of good cross reference info on their site too if you dig around a little.
Post a reply to: 04 RM125 build for the rest of us...done