A year and a half ago I built a 165 frankenbike based on a $900 craigslist 04 CR125. That build is here...
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/my-second-165-kitted-bike-and-its-the-frankenbike.29265/
It ended up a fantastic bike and gets ridden and raced a ton and has been my go to woods bike for a long time now. I just love that old POS. I have massaged it into perfection for me and love riding it and it amazes me all the time.
A few months ago high school buddy Mike, a very accomplished rider himself had just finished restoring and upgrading what he thought was the ultimate woods bike from his memories. He decked out a KX250. We went riding and after riding my WB165 he was in love. 2 days later I found him a super clean 04 on CL and he bought it, sold his KX and went to work virtually duplicating my WB165 but with some of his own flavors.
He started with what was almost a new 04 CR125 and did a frame up upgrade tot he bike. That build is here. It turned out beautiful and is a really nice bike.
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/2004-cr-wb165-build-thread.35916/
He finally got it done enough to ride and we took the WB165's out to play.
The area is full of chocolate single track goodness that we hit on a perfect day.
All in all Mikes bike worked great. Forks were way to stiff but some clicker adjustments brought them close to being very good. Mike loves the bike and he is very picky. Needs some more massaging but getting really close.
Here is what we learned riding them back to back...
1. The FMF pipe makes more upper mid and top, his bike is a rocket on top. My bike with the KTM 200 Doma makes way more bottom and mid. We both liked my motor better as it made much more useful power for our woods riding. Don't get me wrong had my bike not been there he would have been really happy with his as is, it is a great runner and powerful. The Doma just makes the power more usable and more like a 250, short shift and grunt it around. Better on loose rock hills etc.
2. The Lectron on his bike worked perfect as delivered.
3. He used the same Racetech gold valve settings I did on my fork and same House of HP progressive springs, same oil and level. But his forks seems a lot stiffer. We backed off the compression clickers 7 clicks and added 2 clicks of rebound and they are very good now. I think if he drops his fork oil level a little they will be very good.
4. My seat concepts seat freaking rules. Already knew this but back to back the difference is
5. He also copied my shock settings and sent the shock to TBT in WA for the same shim stack as mine and ordered the same 5.4 shock. His rear end works fantastic just like mine, maybe better.
6. He has his bike setup to accept my Motosportz damper but I have not got him one yet as I need to modify a top clamp for this application. I also wanted him to ride it once or twice without so he could see the difference. Shameless plug here but the difference is also. My bike is a lot more settled and relaxed and EZer to hold a line on,. It is a huge and obvious difference.
7. Tires. His had brand new Michelins on it. Mine has a new rear Motoz Terrapactor and very old 2000 mile Motoz ST front. Michelin's suck IMHO. Was joking about it before the ride. Mike concures. My 2000 mile ST worked way better than his brand new tire. Feels like your riding on super tall super soft knobs on his bike and it is unnerving. We both pretty much hated his tires and thought my totally worn out ST front worked worlds better.
8. My hydro clutch feels a lot nicer then the cable unit. Both worked great just the hydro has such a smooth feel to it.
So in the end both bikes feel great. Mike loved his new bike and riding it back to back with mine gave him some things to massage. His bike is great and going to be fantastic once he dials a few small items. His bike feels very tight and new where mine feels more like well worn in shoes. These plentiful 04 CR125's are a fantastic starting point for a great off road motorcycle (as are pretty much all 2000 and up CR125's). Bottom line is you can take a 10 year old bike you can buy for $1000, toss $2500 at it and build a bike that is as good or better than anything else out there. Its fun, rewarding and makes a great bike to keep and massage to your hearts content. Mike goes through bikes like underwear but I have a feeling this machine might stick for him and be a long time friend. Its a very good looking bike with tons of flare and coolness to it and unique and int he end works fantastic. Fun stuff.
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/my-second-165-kitted-bike-and-its-the-frankenbike.29265/
It ended up a fantastic bike and gets ridden and raced a ton and has been my go to woods bike for a long time now. I just love that old POS. I have massaged it into perfection for me and love riding it and it amazes me all the time.
A few months ago high school buddy Mike, a very accomplished rider himself had just finished restoring and upgrading what he thought was the ultimate woods bike from his memories. He decked out a KX250. We went riding and after riding my WB165 he was in love. 2 days later I found him a super clean 04 on CL and he bought it, sold his KX and went to work virtually duplicating my WB165 but with some of his own flavors.
He started with what was almost a new 04 CR125 and did a frame up upgrade tot he bike. That build is here. It turned out beautiful and is a really nice bike.
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/2004-cr-wb165-build-thread.35916/
He finally got it done enough to ride and we took the WB165's out to play.
The area is full of chocolate single track goodness that we hit on a perfect day.
All in all Mikes bike worked great. Forks were way to stiff but some clicker adjustments brought them close to being very good. Mike loves the bike and he is very picky. Needs some more massaging but getting really close.
Here is what we learned riding them back to back...
1. The FMF pipe makes more upper mid and top, his bike is a rocket on top. My bike with the KTM 200 Doma makes way more bottom and mid. We both liked my motor better as it made much more useful power for our woods riding. Don't get me wrong had my bike not been there he would have been really happy with his as is, it is a great runner and powerful. The Doma just makes the power more usable and more like a 250, short shift and grunt it around. Better on loose rock hills etc.
2. The Lectron on his bike worked perfect as delivered.
3. He used the same Racetech gold valve settings I did on my fork and same House of HP progressive springs, same oil and level. But his forks seems a lot stiffer. We backed off the compression clickers 7 clicks and added 2 clicks of rebound and they are very good now. I think if he drops his fork oil level a little they will be very good.
4. My seat concepts seat freaking rules. Already knew this but back to back the difference is
5. He also copied my shock settings and sent the shock to TBT in WA for the same shim stack as mine and ordered the same 5.4 shock. His rear end works fantastic just like mine, maybe better.
6. He has his bike setup to accept my Motosportz damper but I have not got him one yet as I need to modify a top clamp for this application. I also wanted him to ride it once or twice without so he could see the difference. Shameless plug here but the difference is also
. My bike is a lot more settled and relaxed and EZer to hold a line on,. It is a huge and obvious difference. 7. Tires. His had brand new Michelins on it. Mine has a new rear Motoz Terrapactor and very old 2000 mile Motoz ST front. Michelin's suck IMHO. Was joking about it before the ride. Mike concures. My 2000 mile ST worked way better than his brand new tire. Feels like your riding on super tall super soft knobs on his bike and it is unnerving. We both pretty much hated his tires and thought my totally worn out ST front worked worlds better.
8. My hydro clutch feels a lot nicer then the cable unit. Both worked great just the hydro has such a smooth feel to it.
So in the end both bikes feel great. Mike loved his new bike and riding it back to back with mine gave him some things to massage. His bike is great and going to be fantastic once he dials a few small items. His bike feels very tight and new where mine feels more like well worn in shoes. These plentiful 04 CR125's are a fantastic starting point for a great off road motorcycle (as are pretty much all 2000 and up CR125's). Bottom line is you can take a 10 year old bike you can buy for $1000, toss $2500 at it and build a bike that is as good or better than anything else out there. Its fun, rewarding and makes a great bike to keep and massage to your hearts content. Mike goes through bikes like underwear but I have a feeling this machine might stick for him and be a long time friend. Its a very good looking bike with tons of flare and coolness to it and unique and int he end works fantastic. Fun stuff.
