Project 1997 Honda CR125 Hans Laurense Motors HNR Team bike

It's not in bad condition, the engine is tight & I have had a couple of MX specialist friends look over it and should not need too much to get back to Race condition.

Ok as you can see it's not in too bad condition, everything looks original , however the frame has been powder coated in black so that's going to have to come off . The Harry Nolte Tuned engine is a winner . Harry as many of you know tunes the Monster Energy Kawasaki Team bikes , & according to Hans this 97' bike is very strong .
Small visible changes are the hand made exhaust and the HNR engraving on the barrel.The actual sound of the bike is different from the average Honda 125 too, even though it appears to have a standard silencer .

Also according to a a local MX dealer the rear shock spring is a white power. He also gave it a good going over to see what it needs and came up with the following list .
Swing arm ,Shock & linkage bearings require replacing
New front wheel required
Front brake not working
No Airbox filter cage
Chain and sprockets
Plastics
Seat cover
Levers
General service
Plus new graphics etc ... so not too bad for a project

Im not familiar with the team graphics on your bike , but it looks like it has ohlins front and back and the engine case cover is a Ramirez may be easier to trace that way I will see if any of my contracts know that engine build , looks a nice ride !!

Well today I bought a new rear fender , so it officially starts!

Today I have ordered up a new old stock Honda cover for the Laurense bike build . All the way from Italy , I have learned you have to look far and wide for bits and boy are they expensive .

Well the bike has had a good six month re-build. Starting with the frame , trying to get the swing arm bolt out was a mission , however after checking various forum entries I went with the wd40 and heat method and eventually she gave in .
Firstly the frame and HRC subframe went to be blasted and powder coated . This was away for about a week and a good time to strip down that Harry Nolte Racing tuned engine . The cylinder was in great shape with some nice port work and the signature HNR engraving . However the bottom end needed some serious work . All the bearings were worn . The clutch was using alloy plates which is great for a pro but this was going to be a riding bike so we opted for Honda units .
After some thought I went down the vapour blast route again . It's time consuming, expensive however, the finished results are justified . Whilst stripping we found an inner case hairline fracture so a replacement was sourced and vapour blasted too.
Various springs , clips and gear parts had to be changed also , before I got the engine back in one piece with a bill of about £1000. Expensive yes , but I am unsure if there are any other Team bikes with a Harry Nolte Engine out there still about so it had to be done .
The suspension was fettled by Technoflex a Dutch company . After removing the front forks there was a noise inside as a part had broken loose . So another total strip down new bits and rebuild without etc and they were ready to re assemble .
The rear shock was nice , also Technoflex with a nice HL engraving in the main body . The spring was measured and replaced with a heavier unit as I am considerably heavier than a young Hans Laurense was in 1997 . This too was powder coated in the correct black and reassembled .
The exhaust uses a HRC front pipe with a standard Honda Rear silencer . The pipe was in a reasonable condition so we had it blasted and a fresh coat of heat resistant black paint .
The brakes seem all original OEM equipment so we put new pistons and seals in and they seem fine .
Even using the original discs to keep the build as true as possible .
It was time to re -assemble now and , I was able to get most of the original bolts re-finished stripped and plated so it looked great and was nice to have fresh clean bolts to re-use .
I had a little Re-union Moto Cross day to attend and wanted the bike ready for then & was still on the build the evening before getting it finished . Luckily it started on the 4th kick !! Before we put it in the van ready for the morning .
Hans put me in touch with the people who made the stickers TMV and we had a set replicated , although it still wears the original rad shrouds and decals at the moment as they are so good condition.
The new Technosel seat cover was installed , bought from Claudio at Mastercross , and the fender decals were applied . We opted for the number 2 as in most of the photos Hans supplied us with had the bike sporting the no.2 before he won the no1 plate.
The bike looked and sounded awesome on the day , the HRC pipe makes it sound like nothing you have heard before , we gave the bike to Top Rider John King who gave it some laps before coming back and saying "It just keeps revving, you should give it to one of the new young GP riders to try they could really give it a go!"
His only down point was we did not have time to change the wheels and tires so the very worn wobbly rims with 20 year old tires were not giving much grip! ( this will be rectified soon )
All in all a great build , a Dutch Team bike , used in a couple of GP's restored to original condition a new addition to my collection .
Thanks to Hans Laurense and Laurense Motors
Harry Nolte
Elliot
Matt
Shane
TMV
And everyone involved in the build .
Regards Phil

Thank you , I like building the late 90s bikes , still good to ride now !

Yes it's a Honda HRC pipe , it has a very right angle bend on it and almost looks like 3 pipes welded together , but the sound is totally different to a standard pipe or any of the Procircuit /Dep /FMF after market pipes. It's hard for me to ride as the power is right at the very top ,

Some people re-build these bikes and never ride them , this was so cool it had to be ridden .

I have two ex team bikes wearing #2 now , my next build is another Ex team bike.

Thanks , I love rebuilding ex team bikes so if you know of any please let me know !