Honda-SOHC
SOHC.co.uk Forums => Other Bikes => Topic started by: Yoshi823 on April 26, 2010, 10:49:46 AM
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I've had this bike for quite a while now & have decided that i'd like to restore it...
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/LatterDays012.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/BikesBikesBikes246.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/LatterDays039.jpg)
I don't want to go silly & try & make everything exactly right as I would if I was restoring something more worthwhile like a Honda 550/750, but it can be a long term project to maybe make it look similar to what was in the brochure of its day...
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/Snaps/HondaLeaflets031.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/Snaps/HondaLeaflets030.jpg)
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Go for it Tim, if you can do it cheaply enough it should be a good little project
Pete
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You just have to have something to potter on !
Cheers
Den
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I'd bought the bike for my daughters to learn on, but now that they have cars they're not so bothered...but the missus has taken a shine to it as she used to have a CB125TD Superdream when we first started to go out together. But she always enjoyed going on the back of the 750 or riding her own 550.
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You just have to have something to potter on !
Cheers
Den
The 125 is a sideline...this was last week...
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/Workshop/Picture314.jpg)
& this on the other side of the garage...
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/Workshop/BikesBikesBikes313.jpg)
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Recently completed this one for my lad. Bought as a 'shed find' job, 1978 CB125T, re-built spoked wheels on powder coated hubs, BNOS front disc came with the deal, new seat - the old one was scrap & they are very difficult to find - David Silvers do a very good 'pattern' Honda logo'd one for a 'fair' price. A pair of NOS OEM exhausts, a lucky find complete BNOS Honda front forks and sliders, re-bored .05 & new pistons & rings, Sprockets Unlimited sprockets & chain, home paint job with RS paints & Sunrise Graphics decals, frame shot blasted & home painted with top-notch zinc primer & chassis black, Avon road-runner tyres.
(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/comic_muse/CB125Twin001-1.jpg)
(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/comic_muse/CB125Twin002-1.jpg)
Insurance for him on this as a Classic is 1/3rd of what it would cost him to insure a 2000 or later CG125. It has quite a bit of 'go' to keep up with traffic.
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I remember those engines as being a swine to strip with the duplex cam chain
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There is a knack to it ::) ;) & it definitely helps having nimble fingers :)
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(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/comic_muse/CB125Twin001-1.jpg)
(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/comic_muse/CB125Twin002-1.jpg)
What a lovely example...I hope that my T2 comes out as good as your son's bike looks.
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I just hope HE keeps it looking like it ! ::)
It's an all-weather rider, not a poser he has to do 15 miles a day to School & back on an 'trunk' road & through town as he's not eligible for school transport now he's turned 17, + running around to his various clubs & groups.
We didn't polish up the engine & cases & the shocks could do with changing, otherwise, it has settled down into a very nice ride.
If you find you need any bit's, please give me a shout, I have some odds & sods about. French Ebay is quite good for bit's - the T & T1 & 2 variants seemed to be a popular model over there, they seemed to market them longer, whilst 'we' were running the TD Superdream's ?
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Now that I have dug down to the bottom of the box of bits and pieces, I have found that somewhere along the line I have mislaid a number of items from this bike. The little 'W' shaped bits that hold the needle in place in the slides of the carbs, the studs that hold the rear sprocket in place in the rear hub and the big circlip.
I have found that the centrestand has dug itself into the cross frame member so that when the bike is on the stand, the rear wheel touches the floor. A bit of welding will be needed there I think, so as to stop the stand from moving forward too far.
The paint on the tank, front and rear mudguards and side panels is cracked quite badly...I think that it has been applied a bit too quickly without allowing for the previous coat to dry, causing an orange peel effect.
I have three wiring looms in the shed...but I am not sure which one is for the 125. The Haynes manual for the bike deals mainly with the Superdream and so the photos tend to be more relevant to the later machine.
If only digital cameras were available in the day when I stripped down this bike.
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I have found an ideal way of removing paint from the side panels of this little 125 of mine...I put them into the bead blaster. It has taken them down to a base layer & given me a good starting point for the primer. The problem with doing the same with the fuel tank is that my blaster cabinet is too small...
I have now cleaned the frame & repainted it with Smoothrite Hammerite, together with a good number of other items that I have cleaned in the blaster. The swing arm just needed cleaning off the chain lube & degreasing before painting, as were items like the centre stand & the headlight bracket. Quite a few chrome items have been painted as I think that this will contrast nicely with the new red paint work on the tank/side panels/tail unit etc.
Items like the cam cover, gearbox sprocket cover & the alternator/points cover have been blasted & then highly polished, as I think that this will also contrast well with the black & red painted bits.
The engine is back in the frame, & as I have removed bits for cleaning from the engine I have this horrible suspicion that there may well be a leak from the vertically split crankcases. Still, that won't worry me...i've had the Exup 1000 engine apart so I don't think that a piddly 125 will give me any problems.
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Sounds like your getting stuck in Tim,when do ya think your have it done
Pete
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Hi Peter...thanks for asking about the state of the 125...i'm doing it bit by bit, but the list of bits that i've mislaid/lost since it was stripped down grows longer & longer, so i'm not sure when the final inspection will be. I've not decided on the seat base/foam yet, & the exhausts may well end up not being standard. My daughters boyfriend spends well over
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(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/20100611_12.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/20100611_10.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/20100611_9.jpg)
It's nice to have the engine in the frame & a rolling chassis now. Having the handlebars in place isn't always a good thing as they tend to get in the way when it's time to put it back in the shed.
One of the things that I did find with the engine was that the two removeable inlet manifolds have a rubber 'O' ring sealing the joint...& this perishes very quickly. Anybody who has such a manifold on their bike would do well to unbolt this part & to check the seal, especially if you're having problems with tickover mixture settings & trying to set up the balance of the carbs on any multi-cylinder machine. I learnt this fix at an early stage of my motorcycling time when a friend had a Kawasaki Z400 twin that had carbs problems. A smear of blue Hylomar is normally sufficient to get the mixture back to normal again.
I managed to procur a pair of gas shocks from a friend who was going to throw them out. The springs have polished up nicely & once in place do look the part. It's so long ago now since I first stripped it down, maybe 16 years +, & i'm having problems of where everything goes. I seem to have some bits & pieces in a box of bits that don't seem to go anywhere. The last bike that I restored back to roadworthy condition was a Honda CD200T Benly, & when a neighbour gave me his trashed (by his son....) & aged CD185T as a donor bike, there were quite a few compatible parts. When I sold the 200, I gave the new owner many 185 parts that were surplus. Unfortunately I think that I may well have given some of the parts of the 125T away as well...ooops. The list of missing parts has increased, as has the shopping list. Parts like the kickstart rubber, gearchange shaft seal, clutch cover gasket, alternator/timing cover gasket, front caliper gasket & seals, air filters x2, passenger footrests (which I might make on the lathe), silencer brackets (which I may well make) & a myriad of other small parts.
One of the parts that was missing from the auto advance/retard mechanism was one of the springs. I remember reading many moons ago how people would remove one of the springs on this unit so that there was less resistance to the bob-weights getting to full advance quicker. This was a trick used by people who raced 750 & 500 fours back in the old days, & I have a feeling that the previous owner thought that he could do the same thing to a 125 twin. But looking at the points backplate, it looks as though there had been many attempts at setting the timing correctly, not realising how much the spring made a differance.
There's no sidestand on the bike as standard, but when I bought the bike I was given a Honda MB50 in bits.
(http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss172/Ged1Grrrr/Honda_MB50.jpg)
One of the parts that were kept when this bike was scrapped was the stand, & so i'm looking to use the sidestand from the MB50 on the 125. It would certainly help with the rebuild, as I don't want to place the 125 on one of my ramps as these are already in full time use for the other...more important bikes.
I havn't got any further with the bodywork as yet, other than to cut back countless coats of dirt on the underside of the front & rear mudguards & the 'applied with a wallpaper brush' gold hammered finish paint on the underside of the tank, which has been smoothed out using glasspaper & repainted with black smoothrite paint.
It's coming along...
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Well done tim keep up the good work
Pete
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I've now ordered a load of parts as I had some money to buy them while I could. As I have said on another thread/post I was surprised by just how many parts I could still buy from Fowlers of Bristol...& cheaper than Dave Silvers as well. But a number of th larger items like the exhausts I have sourced from M&Ps at only
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Well it's been all very well ordering up the parts from suppliers, but delivery isn't always guaranteed. The parts from DS & Fowlers have all arrived, but the 125 exhausts are probably being made at this very moment somewhere in Xgijig in deepest China. I also ordered a complete gasket set, which may or may not include a crankcase half gasket, so, seeing that one of these was available from DS, I ordered & received one from them.
But the wait to bolt simple items like the alternator housing back into place was/has been aggravating, so I decided to make my own ones. By using a simple piece of cardboard of a similar thickness I cut out the shape, & it fits perfectly. I smoothed on some Blue Hylomar onto both gasket faces & the excess was easy to wipe off on the outside. I was even able to do this simple operation so's to make a totally unavailable gasket for the front caliper, which has now given me the required clearance so that new pads arn't binding, which is what was occurring without a gasket in place.
The other pieces that wern't available seperately were the little 'w' shaped clips that hold the needle into place in the carb slide...so I made some out of some stubby beer bottle tops carefully cut to shape, which are held in place by the return springs...& they work a treat.
There are some parts that I have had to buy, that I would gladly have made myself if I could have done, but Honda have made them so much cheaper that it would have cost me more to buy the material, then spend the time etc etc. But items like a front sprocket from M&P is only
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I'll go with the the cardboard gasket and Hylomar, usually made them as temporary fit over the years when stuck without a gasket (normally fixing something that somebody brought round with a problem at short notice) but never had one fail. And there's usually a good supply in the kitchen, Cornflakes boxes being my "gasket" material of choice being nicely rolled / compressed to a similar thickness to spec!
Could make one of those cereal ads for it ;- Biker goes to supermarket, selects crunchy nut cornflakes, empties box, pays at checkout then makes a gasket. Ha.
Sounds like your'e getting all the bits you need to complete it though. It's strange getting out on something smaller that you rode in the past as they now seem much slower / smaller than memory suggests.
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I had no choice except to make my own, especially for the front brake caliper halves. I also made one for the alternator & clutch cover sides, as the gasket set that I ordered from M&P had the order cancelled by them...so I thought 's0d'em...i'll make my own. But I ordered up the oil seals from DS as most of them are still readily available. Here's what I used for the gaskets...
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture132.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/PIC_0001-1.jpg)
The exhausts have arrived & I found the time to fit them to the bike just before I went away for a while...no, not for a stretch inside.
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture019.jpg)
But I have looked high & low for the silencer brackets to fit them to the frame, so, now that I have a MiG welder...cheers Jim...I should be able to knock something up out of some material that I have knocking around...& when it's warmer outside.
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Hi tim i have also used the cornflake box gasket trick in the past and it has worked a treat, i have just assembled my F2 engine with the gasket set from d silvers , and the gaskets were quite flimsy , lucky enough i had the original honda head gasket which i bought from you last year
Pete
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I often make gaskets. It is possible to buy gasket paper which is made for the job and comes in a variety of thicknesses. I made all the gaskets for my cb350 apart from the cylinder head and, so far, no leaks. Be extra careful to make sure it is exactly the same as the original; you would not want inadvertently to block any oil-ways.
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I remember now that we used to have gasket paper on rolls in the stores when I worked for the Gov of Her Maj, also as first year apprentice we made a small punch and die set with six different sized punches and this I still use for cutting stud holes in gaskets when I make them.
Don't know where you can buy gasket sheet now though.
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Try this:
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&_nkw=gasket+paper&_sacat=See-All-Categories (http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&_nkw=gasket+paper&_sacat=See-All-Categories)
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Hi, I'm Andrea an I'm writing from Italy. I've a cb125t1 re painted in three coulors.
I would paint my cb125t in red, as that one in the last page. Please , can you tell me the paint code?
This is it:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/80/cb125t0022400.jpg/ (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/80/cb125t0022400.jpg/)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/511/cb125t0012400.jpg/ (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/511/cb125t0012400.jpg/)
(http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/401/cb125t0032400.jpg/)
I must paint it because it's without documents and I must restore it in original condition to try a reimmatriculation....
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Honda never used standard paint codes so you will have to use a reputable paint supplier and get him/her to match some you already have
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Well...for a while the bike sat in one corner of the shed while I worked on other projects. But more recently the bike looked like this
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture029-1.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture027.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture383.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture381.jpg)
And after 20 years of having taken on this restoration the engine finally runs...albeit with the need of a bit of fine tuning of the carbs required. I have also made a start to paint the final top coat of the bodywork...if only the weather stopped being so damp...
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture001.jpg)
So...I is happy :)
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Sorry about the pics missing but photobucket have said i've used all of my bandwidth & want me to upgrade.
I'll get it sorted soon...
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But when I had the engine running for the first time ever in my hands, it smoked quite a bit. So, out with the engine as the cylinder head can't be removed with the small space above the cam cover
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-02-26201740_zpsaf1f862d.jpg)
...and off with the cylinder head & barrel
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-02-26201720_zps932913f1.jpg)
...to show badly scored piston skirts & bores
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-02-26201657_zpsd43b809e.jpg)
So, having priced up oversize pistons/rings/circlips/rebore, it came to more than the kit from ebay which included a new barrel. But i'm having one or two issues with the kit, which need to be resolved before I can finish rebuilding the engine
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-03-19151408_zps9dda246d.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-03-19151426_zpse1a9b6e0.jpg)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-03-19151443_zps3389c7cf.jpg)
Such diddy little pistons :)
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-03-19153015_zps16bf167b.jpg)
...especially when compared to a piston ring from a Yamaha R1
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/2013-03-19155752_zps8e748ad8.jpg)
So. Handbook & gasket kit ready for the next stage
(http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv23/WiNot_Rhencullen/CB125T2/Picture393.jpg)
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They were such great little bikes these. I had one before I passed my test and it would rev to 11000 - crazy little engine. The only thing I didn't like was the cable front disk brake. I have a scar on my leg as a result, if they don't stop, trying to go through a hedge is not an option!
Apart from that it was incredible fun to ride.
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I still use the similar engined ca125 rebel and 250 nighthawk as daily transport, appart from going over to electric starting, I wonder how different the engines are - they look pretty well the same. Great little engines, though mine have suffered from low compression after 15k and need a bit of work - never stopped them running, just loose power.
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Unfortunately, the engine has still not been rebuilt as other projects have got in the way.
It would be good to get it done as I now have 6 bikes in the shed & not enough space to work out there unless I move 2 bikes outside. Not a good idea in the Winter weather.
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If you havent rebuilt it i remember that the camchains, even though a duplex chain, used to get horrible tight spots so may be worth going a bit farther and changing that as well
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My rebel has gone a bit sleepy on power and rattly on her original engine, reacon that could be camchain wear? I am planning to tear down the top end and at least re ring it as starting was getting a bit harder and sonic cleaning the carb and getting a more expirienced spanner man to do a service didn't regain the oomph. 31k on the clock. Funnily the replacement engine i fitted started to go the same way but came back to rude health after being laid up for 6 months and then only used occasionally for short trips. Very odd. Is 30k about the lifespan of these engines before a rebuild? History uncirtain but had regular oil changes and use for last 4 years.
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Never saw one get that high as they were normally thrashed to death by little assholes
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One problem with projects is how easily they're pushed to one side when other things pop along....like a grandaughter. This little wonder has made things difficult as she was born 5 weeks early, so the room in my daughter's house wasn't ready for the little one when she did go home.
Hopefully i'll find some spare cash at some time to finish off the CB125T2 project. It's that & the time that I need atm