1984 RM125

[BAHNZY]

Well she’s finally finished. What started out as 3 various parts bikes/basket cases is now a running machine. Nearly 2 years of work and help from the following people got it to where it is.

- The drug crazed kid from Bendigo that sold me the 1st bike as a e-bay “minter”
- Rob Kent for the 2nd parts bike.
- e-bay for the basket case 3rd bike
- The OHLINS shock came courtesy of E74
- The USA customs officer that let me carry the front forks onto the plane as carry on luggage.
- Mario from Top Line Upholstery for the seat foam and cover
- Anthony & Paul from Power House Motorcycles
- Doc for the help with the Zinc Plating
- Bill for the genuine rear muffler
- The Taylor clan from NZ for the barrel
- Walter for the tips with the WP forks.
- Zorroz for the Twin Leader front brake system
- Dingo for some very trick parts. Perhaps even Yamaha at that.

First outing will be the VIPER 1st round in the Pre85 125/250 event.

[zorroz]

That looks awesome would look great next to my 250E! So how does it go? Nothing, nothing them bam hits hard in the upper revs?! Thats how I remember my friends bike when they were new.

[holeshot buddy]

nice rm i am trying to fit some wp forks to my rm
but they are drum brake model and i have tried
every twin leader brand and none go close
i have to track down a ktm one which is off
one model only the 1984 :'( :'(

[BAHNZY]

The front brake is a rather bastardized unit. It uses an 84 spec fork leg with the original KTM drum brake knuckle removed. At the time of purchase Walter warned me that the drum brake knuckles were fragile at best and this one was no exception. When we tried to weld it it just fell apart and was totally un-useable/destroyed. The solution was to use a 86 disc nuckle and modify it to do basically the same job, but much stronger in the area of the axle clamp (where they are prone to break) I then used a 83 Honda XR500 Twin Leading backing plate matched to the original 84 Suzuki front wheel. Spent a bucket load of time to make a torque plate and spigot to match it all up.

[Tex]

First outing will be the VIPER 1st round in the Pre85 125/250 event.

Thay's one neat lookin' unit. I look forward to seeing it there.

Tex

[monaro308]

JEEEZUS Rod...that looks great....now i understand what you were up to!

[oldmxracer]

NICE. That thing is dripping cool.

What "kind" of plastic is the front # plate and where did you source it?.?.?.? I need some of that for my RM175 project.

[Davey Crocket]

Thats a cool looking bike, the only thing Suzuki got wrong with that model was the shape of the guards......just dont look right to me, but cant take anything away from you... great job!!!.

[DR]

very nice job Rod

[monaro308]

Thats a cool looking bike, the only thing Suzuki got wrong with that model was the shape of the guards......just dont look right to me, but cant take anything away from you... great job!!!.

Agree with you Davey...the rears i can live with but the fronts don't do it for me.
As in my RM175 project,the front is actually a UFO guard and a nicer shape (to me)
Either way Rod's bike looks the goods.

Oldmxracer...what have you got cooking? Got any pics of the RM175?
Cheers..Mario

[BAHNZY]

I originally was going the way of genuine everything but the cost was worth more than the bike! I also looked at Vintage Suzuki but they don't do the radiator shrouds so i would have ended up with a miss match of yellows. In the end I went with DC Plastics, they wernt the best fit and finish, but they are perfect for a race bike and I was super impressed by their support and shipping. The main thing for me was that all the colors matched. And you are 100% correct, the design is far from good, but that was what they fitted back in the day,

[suzuki43]

Bahnsy,
Great work mate.
I love that brake pedal mate real works look,did you fabricate it?
Cheers
Craig

[oldmxracer]

[/quote]
Oldmxracer...what have you got cooking? Got any pics of the RM175?
Cheers..Mario
[/quote]

Nothing to see but a fresh painted frame right now. An 82 PE into an 80 RM125. Grind a little off the rear cases to fit the engine and we grafted the 125 stinger section onto the PE pipe to clear the airbox.....Andy

[zorroz]

Almost looks like this:

[BAHNZY]

Craig, At a guess there is about 30 hours or so tied up in that rear brake.
The brake pedal is cut from a single peice of alloy 8mm plate that was bent ever so slightly to fit around the clutch cover. A machined boss was welded into the pivot point to accept 2 x skateboard wheel bearings (same as a KTM/Husaberg and the tip is a SHERCO enduro piece. The backing plate had both the axle support sleeve re-manafacured and the brake cam had a new phosphor bronze bush machined. The brake arm is a KX unit that has been completely re-worked to accept a stainless threaded pin rather than a pin with a hole where you would normally use a wing nut to adjust the brake. In this case the cable has to removed from the pedal and the cable turned. The cable is a re-worked 78 RM400 inner and the torque arm is an OW Yamaha part. At the end of the day it was done to replicate the 85 RM125 factory unit. Having a ex Glenn Seton fabricator on hand certainly helped with the welding.

Apparently the bikes that were used in the 84 world championship bent and by the end of the race the bikes had little or no rear brake.

This is where the original idea for the brake came from. The 1986 works Suzuki RA125 Euro GP bike