Posts
31
Joined
7/28/2014
Location
Southlake, TX
US
Edited Date/Time
12/4/2019 8:36pm
Wondering if there was ever another a 125 from the late 80's or 90's that had a powerband like the 1984 KX125 ? Torque and grunt right off the bottom and ripped all the way to the top ? I know the CR125 engines from the 90's were legendary, but my understanding is they were mid and top with almost no bottom. Did anyone else ever recreate that 1984 KX125 magic ? (Or did Kawasaki in a later year)
The Shop
I realize anything is going to be subjective, especially when it comes to preferences, riding styles, etc.
That being said- I always loved my '85 KX-125 over the '84.
The '84 definitely might have had a little more low end grunt compared to the '85, but the all round spread of power was much better on the '85... at least in my opinion.
Technically, I'm not sure what actual changes and differences were made between the model years. I recall the '84 having a little more of a gap in the mid-range compared to the '85.
I think that the best way to describe it would be that they gave up just a little bit of torque from the '84 to the '85 and stuck it in the middle. This equated to a smoother and broader spread of power, and less of the harder "snap" that the '84 had when working its way from low to high.
I somehow managed to get my '85 really early- maybe like in August of 1984- which seemed pretty early in those days. I held onto my '84 throughout the year, and rode it only in a couple mud races- not only to spare my new '85 from getting ground up from the mud, but also because the '84 was more like a tractor in the mud with that low end.
Both were really great bikes, but my favorite was the '85.
In my 40+ years of riding and racing, the '85 KX-125 would make my top 3 favorite bikes that I've ever owned.
Had a buddy that ran belray and had a motor knocking and split the cases. Not a trace of the ball holders anywhere, just free rolling balls on both sides. Dealer said they were getting reports of similar failures due to some chemical reaction with some lubricants.
The powerband and handling suited me very well.....I have great memories of that bike.
Pretty sure I got my first (and only) top 5 in the 125 Novice class with it.
Sold it to my brother in 86 , and unfortunately it got stolen a few months later.
I had an 87 for a short time also which was nice, but the 84 was one of my favorites.
Do you have a front fender brace?
If you are going for new plastic go for Nightmare plastic. Although it still takes some tweaking. When building my 83 I took it down to the frame. I remember thinking how frail the frame looked. Remembering every one who raced an 83 KX back in the day had a 83 KX125 with a cracked or repaired frame I welded gussets all over the swing arm pivot area and also had a metal skid plate welded on. Looking at the Kawasaki Wrench report for the 84 I see I should have strengthened the steering head area a little more.
I've had my 84 125 for a few years now, but its just been sitting in the garage waiting for my time to get it race ready again. It's a relatively low hour bike. I just took the cylinder off tonight and a bit heartbroken to see the exhaust port bridge cracked right through. was this a common problem with this model? I guess its repairable... just thought i was through spending money on this beauty, i guess not. Took me the last two years to find all the original plastic pieces (bar front plate) nos, and a nice nos Answer silencer. Suspension all rebuilt. I was getting pretty excited about hitting the track soon but have to fix the engine now... these old KX's really are a labour of love, i've been temped to abort this one a few times, but i still think its just one of the greatest looking bikes Kawi ever made... my head says park it, my heart says build it up and rip it!
Pit Row
Dr Greg is absolutely right about them fixing the cylinder. I sent a totally trashed ebay cylinder to them with a 1/8" gouge the length of the bore. It came back way better than new. The early electrofusion was junk. The new plating looks too nice to use.
I added gussets to a friend's CR frame cut from a cromoly piece of tube. It was crazy hard to cut and work with
I would think anything you add is going to help. I see you are doing your build right.
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