CG125 from crap to class

[Serpentza]

Hey there MCMers, I've started a new project bike!

This is now my third (well technically fourth) project bike that I'm going to put together.

The first one was "The Churchill" which was a scrap CG125 clone that I turned into a cafe racer, it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about modifying bikes during the process.

With the Churchill, I threw out the seized 125cc engine and bolted in a 6 speed 250cc, I also completely changed the wheels... this required a lot of modification, I had to modify the rear swingarm to fit in the new large 110 tyre, cut off the center stand and make modifications to the rear brake.. also I had to have a new stem engineered and welded onto the new front triple tree etc as I put on new forks with a disc brake assembly... anyway long story short it was quite a mission and involved many frustrations and setbacks.

This time I want to do it easy, I want to develop a "bolt on" kit that anyone could use to modify their farmer bike CG125 (or clone) into something that looks fantastic but still maintains its practicality.. and it's something that I want anyone to be able to do in about an hour or less with a set of spanners and a screwdriver... so here goes!

Here is the bike I'm going to use:

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This is a Wuyang Honda CG125, it is legally plated and works perfectly (as Hondas usually do), the only modifications this bike has had is the front light was changed from the stock rectangular one to this cheap little round one, and the ugly chain guard was removed, otherwise stock.

First, find a big box and strip off the seat, indicators, rear and front mud guards, horn, mirrors, instrument cluster and the headlight and throw them violently into the box of CG Shame (be sure to keep all the bolts and nuts in a plastic packet).

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This was a very easy process, All I needed were a size 12 spanner for the seat and rear indicator brackets, a size 10 for the rear mud guard, a size 14 for the front indicators and a size 12 for the headlight (also needed a philips screwdriver for the headlight), make sure to tuck in all the wires neatly and disconnect them in a civilised manner, there's only one wire you need to cut and that is connected to the ignition switch, I'll make a more detailed post about that once I describe the new hidden ignition switch.

In the next bit, I'll discuss installing the headlight that I've chosen for the kit.

- SerpentZA

[Serpentza]

Part one of the Kit installation... The headlight.

This is probably the most difficult and time-consuming part of the kit, so let's get it over with first.

I've ordered and tried a whole bunch of different headlights and I've finally found the perfect one, it suits the bike beautifully!

But, the stock headlight bracket is horrible, sticks out way too far and makes the bike look ridiculous if you attach the new headlight. This is the only part of the kit that involves any sort of modification (although you could just mount it to the stock headlight bracket, but it would look crap), for this bit you'll need access to a grinder.

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Here you can see the stock bracket in the foreground and the way I chopped it off in the background, I'll post a more detailed picture in a later post, basically I measured and marked off where I wanted to grind with a permanent marker and then cut it off with a grinder, it's fairly easy but take your time to round off the edges and make it look nice (remember to wear eye protection.. what good is a pretty bike if you can't see it).

Once the brackets have been ground down (remember to grind down the upper lip so that the light can tilt), simply bolt on the new headlight and connect up the wires, they are standard colour coded and will match the original wiring harness.

Here's what your bike should look like now:

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As you can see the whole look of the bike has already been transformed.

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So far all we've done is strip off the ugly and put on our new headlight, but the bike is already almost unrecognizable.

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In the next part we'll do something about that awful exhaust (although this is an optional extra). The real part two will be bolting on the new custom seat, see you all then.

- SerpentZA

[ZMC888]

Getting better, but that disgusting powder-coat exhaust surely isn't original. Needs a polished steel ASAP, maybe 100 yuan from taobao will fix that up.

[Lao Jia Hou]

This is going to be interesting. Looking forward to the next installment.

[culcune]

[Serpentza]

I plan to keep this initial bolt on kit to a minimum, in other words as easy and cheap as possible, I'm not just sourcing parts on taobao and trying to make a kit, I'm actually making and getting some very cool and custom things made, but I'll explain it in detail as this build continues. This next little upgrade isn't included in the kit, but is an optional extra that anyone can do.

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Now the original Honda exhaust is massive, unsightly and very very long (look at the pictures above), yes that ugly black powder coated thing is the original Honda exhaust (although the heat shield was cut off).

Lucky for us, when building the Churchill I found the perfect exhaust, it's basically a stock exhaust from a CG clone and it's really cheap (90RMB from my local bike shop so probably cheaper on taobao), I think it looks fantastic! It's shorter, smaller and the chrome finish suits the style I'm going for to a T, I couldn't ask for a better exhaust... so off with the ugly and on with the sleek.

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Now as you can see it doesn't stick out from the back of the bike like some or other turd chute, this is what this bike should have come with, I must point out that this exhaust is fractionally louder (not much) but that's actually an added bonus in my books.

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The chrome really brings out the other shiny bits of the bike (although in my experience these exhaust pipes are prone to rust, I sold the Churchill to a friend who lives in Zhuhai and he's been keeping it outside in the salty sea air, the exhaust was pretty rusted last time I visited him.. but they're cheap so I figure what the heck, I'm going to keep a close eye on this one and make sure it's not just his extreme weather conditions that caused the rust).

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The next part of the Kit (the real Part 2) is going to be the seat.. but it's complicated, I've bought the same seat that I got for the Churchill, I absolutely loved it... but there's one drawback, it's really expensive (it costs 500RMB from a specialist "cafe racer" shop on taobao), and I'm trying to make the cost of this entire kit to be around 500+- so that simply won't do, I've found some local pikeys that recon the can reverse engineer it and make it much cheaper, and even better I'll be able to choose different materials and colours. I can only hope that they can do a reasonable job for this kit to be viable for all the MCMers out there with farmer bikes knocking about. Anyway, the seat isn't the only custom thing I'm having made... but I'm going to leave the best surprises for last!

See you in part 2

- SerpentZA

[zhu]

you are going to need a bigger box

[Symon260z]

This a great thread. I have an old Japanese Honda CG125 that needs a little TLC :-)

[Serpentza]

Part 2 - The seat

My new expensive seat arrived today, I put it onto the bike and took a few photos, let's see the pictures then talk about the issues:

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As you can see it has a really nice side profile

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The quality of the seat design is great, but the material is that really cheap pleather crap and is easily damaged (I paid 500RMB for about 15RMB worth of materials :P )

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Once a thicker rear tyre is on this bike, the seat will really look fantastic from behind..

Okay, now let's talk about the problems:

1) This thing is bloody expensive (I'll link the Taobao shop later in the build report).
2) The quality of the material is rubbish... seriously... one good scrape of a boot or zipper or something will tear this crap
3) It's too short for the frame... now this isn't a problem if you want to build a project bike as you could just grind off the end of the frame.. let's look closer at what I'm talking about:

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As you can see, the two end bits of the frame stick out about an inch and a half, they can easily be ground off, but remember this is supposed to be a bolt on kit that can be reversed at any time (in other words, you should be able to revert your bike pretty much back to stock if you wanted to)... so there are a few options here
1) make the seat longer... this is probably the best idea, if it's a little longer then you could probably still fit a passenger on there, at the moment it's a one man machine only.
2) Design some sort of rear light/ indicator assembly that disguises that part of the frame.
3) Ride around with two poles sticking out the back and hope nobody notices
4) Grind them off and then make custom brackets for the old indicators to be able to be re-attached

Either way, the next step is to try and get this seat reverse engineered and remade, I'll ask them to make a longer one (we can see what it looks like), make a completely flat one (without the hump at the back... then you could carry a passenger) and get them to make one the same as this... firstly we'll be able to see if they're any good at making seats, secondly we can try a few options and perhaps have different kits depending on what a person wants.

What do you guys think about all this?

- SerpentZA

[bikerdoc]

So long as it doesn't depart substantially from the original photos etc. otherwise you might find it an issue at reinspection time depending on your plans at keeping the bike plated etc. Just sayin...