CBR125 Dual sport. | GTAMotorcycle.com

CBR125 Dual sport.

Ride_Safe

Ride_Safe

Well-known member
Hey all. I've been riding for 4 years since my 16th birthday on my CBR125 and last autumn I decided to take off some of the lower plastics and throw some dual-sport tires on it, just to see how it worked out. I'm from Newmarket, Ontario, but I go riding up to Bradford and take some of the trails sometimes. I thought I'd show you some pics of what I've done.

- Tires:
Front - Shinko 244
2.50-17 (90/80-17)
Rear - Shinko 244
3.00-17 (100/80-17)
(all tubes the same size)

The small problem I do find while going off-road is with the way that the handle bars are oriented, it starts to hurt your thumbs and wrists after a while, if you don't wear good gloves.

By the way, the bike now has 48,000 kilometres on it, and still runs like the day she was made! :] Except maybe a little smoother.
 
I went out once in December on the first day it snowed, so I didn't have to worry about salt. It was also 1 in the morning when I went out with about a foot of snow on the ground, so I didn't have to worry about very many cars on the road.

They work excellent on the road, because they're already so rounded. They are rated up to 120km/h and I've taken them to 130 without a problem. No wobbles or uneasiness.

I bought the tires from a dirt bike shop in BC called Gnarly Parts and Accessories, and got them shipped to me in Ontario. I'm incredibly surprised at how long they have lasted, but I'm assuming because the 125 is so light and has such little actual power that the tires don't experience very much stress and wear. I've put almost 8k on them and there's virtually no sign of wear at all.
 
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Ride_Safe said:
Hey all. I've been riding for 4 years since my 16th birthday on my CBR125 and last autumn I decided to take off some of the lower plastics and throw some dual-sport tires on it, just to see how it worked out. I'm from Newmarket, Ontario, but I go riding up to Bradford and take some of the trails sometimes. I thought I'd show you some pics of what I've done.

- Tires:
Front - Shinko 244
2.50-17 (90/80-17)
Rear - Shinko 244
3.00-17 (100/80-17)
(all tubes the same size)

The small problem I do find while going off-road is with the way that the handle bars are oriented, it starts to hurt your thumbs and wrists after a while, if you don't wear good gloves.

By the way, the bike now has 48,000 kilometres on it, and still runs like the day she was made! :] Except maybe a little smoother.
Click to expand...

Why don't you find a way to mount a moto-x style handlebar using a different top triple clamp or modifying yours? Neat project...not sure I would run out and do the same thing but you already owned and loved the bike and I can't blame you one bit for wanting to make it more "dual purpose". Do you find that you have enough suspension travel and ground clearance?
 
Actually, that's exactly what I want to do with the bars! I just don't have the know-how to go about doing it myself.

The susspension is satisfactory for rough trails, but I don't think the tires are ever going to leave the ground.

I found a video of a guy stunting on his CBR125. He replaced the front cluster, the front fairings/headllight, and changed to mx bars. (You would need to, because the stock fairings would get in the way anyway)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNfCQKdn2q8

That's what I would want to do. I'd probably put some white hand guards on it too. :)
 
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Honda is notorious for (and so successful somewhat due to) their ability to produce so many bikes with shared parts. Search hard and long enough and you may find that a triple clamp up top from another model could provide the necessaryvmounts for moto-x style bars, perhaps like something from one of the XR/XL series bikes or another more "upright" version of the CBR. I'm just not that familiar with how similar the forks setup is on your bike compared to other Hondas but I'll bet that it's possible. Wide moto-x / dual sport bars will transform the bike. Worst case scenario, have your top triple clamp modified/ drilled to accept any of the multitude of bar risers/mounts available on the market and get yourself a moto-x bar. You may then find that your cables and lines fall short of reaching the distance caused by the raised bars but that is generally an easy fix too.

Or...just get a small and cheap dual sport bike :)




Ride_Safe said:
Actually, that's exactly what I want to do with the bars! I just don't have the know-how to go about doing it myself.

The susspension is satisfactory for rough trails, but I don't think the tires are ever going to leave the ground.

I found a video of a guy stunting on his CBR125. He replaced the front cluster, the front fairings/headllight, and changed to mx bars. (You would need to, because the stock fairings would get in the way anyway)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNfCQKdn2q8

That's what I would want to do. I'd probably put some white hand guards on it too. :)
Click to expand...
 
alon said:
Or...just get a small and cheap dual sport bike :)
Click to expand...

But that's the easy way out.

Plus, I don't have any other plans for my CBR, and considering it has nearly 50k on it, I doubt it will sell for much anyway. So it's worth more to me in the fun I can have with it while it's still running, than the amount of money I could get for it if I sell it.


Here's another video. You can see his bars/headlight modifications a little better. I believe he has the 2006 and earlier model of the CBR125 before it was offered in Canada. Those older fairings look like they would work better with the headlight/cluster, but you could easily order one and get it shipped overseas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g6P2A1aBwQ
 
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Just drill the triples. Piece of cake. You could probably reroute the cables to get them to reach. The brake line may not reach though.

106_2524-1.jpg
 
Z1K said:
Just drill the triples. Piece of cake.
Click to expand...

It's easy to bake a cake if you work in a bakery.

But if it's that easy, I would be willing to pay someone to do it professionally, rather than someone like me who has no clue what they're doing.

You'd need to drill into the triple clamps to install the bars, which sounds easy. But the bars would definitely get in the way of the front cluster.

So you would need to replace the cluster (or finding a way to modify the stock one) and headlight/signals. The cluster has a speedometer, tachometer, temperature guage, and a gas gauge. I don't know exactly how they all work, so I'm unsure how easy it would be to find a replacement cluster that utilizes the 4 of them.
 
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You probably won't find someone to do it professionally. Even if you did it would probably be way out of your budget for a project like this. I could point you in the right direction but you'll mainly have to figure it out for yourself.

This link would help:

http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51490

If you do need to remove the front fairing to fit a dirtbike headlight as shown in your videos, you will need to build custom brackets to hold your gauges. You do not need to replace them. My stock gauges are now mounted to my upper triple. It cost me all of $10, a drill, an angle grinder and a little ingenuity. There are no off the shelf kits for this type of stuff.

My gauge bracket:

106_2474.jpg


It's not pretty but you cant see it anyway. Looks like the first pic I posted now.



Most dirtbike headlight kits come with the mounting hardware included. It usually consists of rubber straps that wrap around your forks.

It probably seems pretty daunting when you look at the project as a whole. But It isn't that difficult to do once you break it down.

When I did mine I took everything off that I didn't want and then figured out how to reinstall what I did want.

First I did the bars.
Then I rerouted the cables and replaced the brake lines.
I then figured out the gauges
And the headlight was last.
 
You know, it does seem daunting, I'll admit. But I've always been great at figuring out everything else to do with my bike. I don't think I would have a problem taking it all apart and figuring out a way to mount everything I need. That much, I should be able to do myself. I've taken apart my signal/high-beam switch and brake assembly before. So putting those on the mx bars would be simple, if there's enough cabling. And I'm pretty sure that my cluster wouldn't need to be replaced. I don't have the proper tools to drill into my triple clamp unfortunately. That's really the only part that's stopping me.

Anyway, I'll see you guys at the Bethany ride and you can help explain it better in person. If I can figure out a way acquire tools to drill into my triple clamps, then all I'll need is someone to help point out the parts I'll need to buy
 
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Get all your parts figured out and acquired and i'll help you drill and mount everything as long as you're prepared to come to my place in Toronto to do it and that I'm in town long enough to make time for it - sounds like it would be / could be fun :)

There you go...you're all out of excuses now ;)


Ride_Safe said:
You know, it does seem daunting, I'll admit. But I've always been great at figuring out everything else to do with my bike. I don't think I would have a problem taking it all apart and figuring out a way to mount everything I need. That much, I should be able to do myself. I've taken apart my signal/high-beam switch and brake assembly before. So putting those on the mx bars would be simple, if there's enough cabling. And I'm pretty sure that my cluster wouldn't need to be replaced. I don't have the proper tools to drill into my triple clamp unfortunately. That's really the only part that's stopping me.

Anyway, I'll see you guys at the Bethany ride and you can help explain it better in person. If I can figure out a way acquire tools to drill into my triple clamps, then all I'll need is someone to help point out the parts I'll need to buy
Click to expand...
 
Well, I don't think drilling into my triple clamp will be possible, because there's this annoying honda symbol built into the flat part that I assume you would intend on drilling into.
 
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Ride_Safe said:
Well, I don't think drilling into my triple clamp will be possible, because there's this annoying honda symbol built into the flat part that I assume you would intend on drilling into.
Click to expand...

Let me try to understand this: you've converted your cbr125 into some kind of homegrown dual sport and you seem worried about drilling through that embedded badge or do you think that the badge itself will pose a challenge of some sort?
 
I don't think drilling through the embedded badge will be the problem.
I'm worried that maybe it won't be safe enough for the bar clamp to have enough structure beneath it? I don't know, just speculating I guess.
 
alon said:
... you've converted your cbr125 into some kind of homegrown dual sport ...
Click to expand...

It actually wasn't originally my idea to do this. I was inspired by this guy in Saskatchewan who decided to throw some knobbies with ice studs on his CBR125 and ride through a foot of snow everyday.
http://www.hondacbr125r.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4950
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drOAFm_bYDw

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This is called the Honda XL125 Varadeo. It's a tiny version of the 996cc one. Unfortunately, it's only available in Europe.
http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/honda_xl_varadero_125_2012.php


This is a thread from another forum for all kinds of people who want to make their own homegrown dual sport bikes.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330726

I think the coolest one is this guy who crashed his Honda Hornet 900 and turned it into a dual-sport.

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And THIS is a guy who turned his Ducati monster into a full on dirt bike, they call it the Terra Monstro:
http://westcoastdualsport.blogspot.ca/2008/10/ducati-terra-mostro.html
 
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