For several weeks, I had been looking for a 125cc trail bike for my 13yo daughter. She has been begging me for a motorcycle, so I figured it was time to teach her how to ride.
On June 30th, we went to All Sport's customer appreciation day. Ran into somebody there who had a street-legal DR125SE for sale.
What!? I didn't even know that they made a street-legal 125cc dual sport. Turns out that it was only offered for a few years in the States. Shortly afterwards, Suzuki turned it into the DRZ125. The smallest street legal dual sport after that was the DR200.
So, I bought it.
1995 Suzuki DR125SE w/ 3k miles
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When we got the bike home, I rode it around the neighborhood a bit to get a feel for it. The brakes felt mushy, and the bike felt starved for fuel above half throttle. Gotta rework those.
I told my daughter that riding lessons could not start until I completed some work on the bike. But I told her to use the time to read the MSF textbook for the Beginner Rider Course and start familiarizing herself with the controls.
The next day, the battery was dead. I pulled it out to charge it and noticed that it was a Chinese no-name brand that was three years old. Tried to charge it overnight with no luck. Okay...must replace.
Also noticed that the fork boots were brittle in places and gummy in other places. Cut them off and inspected the fork seals. Not leaking, but a fluid and seal change won't hurt.
Front tire is new and only a year old. Rear tire has decent tread, but it is 10 years old. Must replace.
Overall, the bike is in good condition for being 23 years old. I've ordered and received fork seals and a battery. Still waiting for the carb rebuild kit. Need to order a rear tire and new tubes.
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I was really surprised by the keychain. My entire family on my dad's side resides in and around Hagerstown. Almost feels like this bike is coming home to family.
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We went up to Huntsville today to get some stuff for the project. The forks are caliper-measured at 35mm, but nobody had a fork seal driver that small. Lowe's had some pipe and fittings that are awfully close to the right size.
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Cycle Gear had LS2 dual sport helmets marked down 50%. Somebody likes her new helmet.
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This thread rules.
I don't know how long it will last, but right now, she is extremely excited about learning to ride, and she also wants to help with the refresh project.
So today, when we got home with the supplies, we proceeded to remove the forks. We're going to clean the forks; change the fork seals, dust caps, and fork oil; remove the triple tree, check and grease the bearings; and put it all back together. Also going to grease the axle and wheel bearings, clean the brake caliper, replace the brake pads, and flush the brake fluid.
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kid interested in learning...
dad interested in providing...
cherry dual sport about to be made more than new...
sticky this thread, everywhere.
I'm so excited about this project I can hardly stand it!!!
Today we finished replacing the fork seals, dust caps, and fork oil. Also greased the steering head bearings, replaced the front brake pads, flushed the brake fluid, and installed the new battery.
Lastly, we drained the tank and re-filled it with fresh no-ethanol gas. Fired it up and let the new gas work its way through the carb. It's running better now, but I'm still going to rebuild the carb anyway.
Also removed all the huge honkin' turn signals. This bike will get a full LED conversion.
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Every kid's dream; a Goat prepared dual sport!
You are an awesome dad!!
Great find of a bike! I hope she likes it :)
Won't make much progress on it for the next two weeks because of other happenings, but we've received the new handlebars, adapter/risers, hand guards with LED blinkers, diode kit, etc. Also got the new rear tube and rear tire. Probably the first weekend in August we'll work on it all weekend and finish it up. Then the riding lessons can start!
The bike is old and a little heavy, but we are enjoying the little refresh project. If she takes to it and learns well, we'll get her something newer and nicer.
For now, I've got her reading her second motorcycle book...
Best. Thread. Ever!!
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I don't know how I missed this thread. It's full of awesome. You two are going to have a lot of fun with this.
We worked on the rear wheel and rear suspension tonight. Changed the rear tire, cleaned and adjusted the drum brakes (brake shoes still have plenty of life left in them), removed/cleaned/greased all linkage bolts and the swingarm bolt, and cleaned and adjusted the chain. Good progress for one evening.
Only things left are to install the new handlebars and handguards, replace the lighting with LEDs, and clean/rebuild the carb. Also need to troubleshoot the non-functioning tail/brake light.
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Soaking the carb in PineSol tonight. Planning to work on the handlebars later tonight also. We may be ready for riding lessons by tomorrow afternoon!
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Got the carb cleaned, rinsed, and back together with new parts. It was amazing how much dirt and crud was in the carb. Now it runs like new!
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Still have a few small things left to do on the bike, but she had her first ride today!
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Quote from: Nice Goat on August 03, 2018, 07:20:35 PM
Soaking the carb in PineSol tonight. Planning to work on the handlebars later tonight also. We may be ready for riding lessons by tomorrow afternoon!
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So, how does PineSol work on carbs?
Quote from: DonJuan on August 12, 2018, 06:36:57 PM
So, how does PineSol work on carbs?
It does a great job of loosening the dirt, grime, and crud. You have to remove all of the non-metal pieces (rubber o-rings, float needles, diaphragms, etc.) before immersing the metal pieces in 100% PineSol, i.e., not diluted.
Take lots of pictures with your smartphone while disassembling the carb. It helps you remember where everything goes later on when you are trying to put it back together.
I also recommended taking one strand of copper from a twisted copper cable and cleaning the little tiny passages in your carb before the PineSol bath. The copper will not scratch or damage your carb.
The PineSol soak should last for 18-24 hours, depending on how cruddy your carb might be. Then you just rinse all the parts really well with water, and use compressed air to dry. Make sure all of the passages and crevices are dry.
And if you are going to do all of this, I recommend getting a carb rebuild kit, so that you can use all new needles, jets, o-rings, etc., when you reassemble the carb.
Awesome that you are doing this project with your daughter. It's so important to spend time with them at this age. She will be going off to college before you know it! It's not motorcycle related, but my son and I did a Father/Son project with an old Chevy Malibu that my dad gave to my son. We swapped an EFI 5.3L LS V8 into it and interior upgrades. It is something that I know I will remember and I hope my son will have fond memories of too. We completed it when he was a Junior in high school. He drove it his Junior and senior high school years. We parked it in the garage when he went off to college. He's graduated college and it's still sitting there. My son is saving up for a house now, but I hope he will ask me to "help" when he gets ready to get it back on the road again.
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Hope I didn't offend or take over thread with my "car stuff". This just brought back good memories of bonding time between my son and I. Awesome thread, looking forward to more updates!
I did the same with my son and his 73 Beetle and 78 Hawk. Good times that we will always remember. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180813/94f90de69fdd6b14b9745a39e47ab343.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180813/c63c35b9f93dd24bab1dd33f66b9c649.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180813/f6a1b83ef3b1dc9c997a53e8fe179421.jpg)
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Thanks, everybody. It has been fun doing this project with my daughter. My daughter can now start, stop, change gears, and ride around the neighborhood, so we're going to be passing this bike on to somebody else now. If anybody has a teenager, spouse, Mom, Dad, etc., who wants to learn how to ride, this is the perfect bike. It will not scare them or hurt them at all.
Quote from: Nice Goat on August 14, 2018, 06:32:17 PM
Thanks, everybody. It has been fun doing this project with my daughter. My daughter can now start, stop, change gears, and ride around the neighborhood, so we're going to be passing this bike on to somebody else now. If anybody has a teenager, spouse, Mom, Dad, etc., who wants to learn how to ride, this is the perfect bike. It will not scare them or hurt them at all.
So, wat are you moving her up to?
Quote from: 2372ighost on August 14, 2018, 09:42:47 PM
So, wat are you moving her up to?
Going to get her a new Honda CRF 125 (big wheel version)