89 Honda CG125 Project

[clrrk]

Realised a few days ago that I have a thread on here for my very slow moving CB450 project and never posted up my CG125 project.

So... throwing back to May 2021, it was a sunny Sunday morning and I was riding shotgun in my mates van on the way to ride some enduro. Bored in traffic I thought its days like this when it would be nice to have a bike on the road. Next thing I was on ebay looking up project bikes that could be a quick turn around, knowing that my CB450 was at least another year off.

With a couple of mates only having CBTs, a 125 so I could ride with them seemed like a logical choice and I soon found this, a 1989 CG125 Brazil bike that had been a show bike for a camper conversion company in the deepest butt hole of Cornwall. It was quite a cool bike in its time, but it had been left in a corner of their workshop for 7 years and had suffered some damage to the seat and battery box, along with some general crustiness from sitting in a shed beside the sea for so long.

 

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A couple of days later, phone pings - Auction Won for £695 - or something close to that effect. I sent a bike courier to collect it and a few weeks later it arrived on my doorstep.

As part of the sale, the tank wasn't included so while waiting for the bike to be delivered I had ordered up an ebay special tank which as soon as I seen it on the CG, I immediately wasn't a fan. Ah well, another problem to sort down the line, at least this allowed me to put some fuel in and see how the bike ran - it ran fine.

Next step was to start tidying it up and add my own touches... this is where, as usual, things got out of hand!

 

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First I started making my own seat...

A new ABS plastic seat base was cut, nutserts added for attaching it and then some high density foam cut to size with an angle grinder and a flap disc - my mums garage still hasn't recovered.

I decided that the grey frame wasn't for me, and that I wanted to strip it back and paint it black again, so out the engine came... its so small beside the 450. With the engine out, it would be a shame not to clean it up and give it a lick of paint too.

 

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Back to that grey frame. The previous build, wouldn't have been to my level of detail - there was still a lot of unused tabs so they got hit with the grinder. No more pillion footpeg mounts, airbox tabs or chain guard mounts etc - basically if it wasn't going to be used, it was gone.

I wanted to keep the old airbox section clear, so decided to repurpose the lithium battery I had for the CB on this project, so made a little mount for it to sit in...

An entire weekend was then spent sanding the frame and swingarm for paint...

 

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It was at this point life got in the way - I bought a house and the painter that I've used for the last decade decided he was gonna close his doors, so everything went on hold. It was November before this started seeing any progress again. Got catching up with a friend of mine who is also a painter and he told me he was doing some homers, so off the parts to him for some paint...

During this hiatus I had also been gathering some parts...

The new tank, while it looked decent up top, was pretty crusty underneath - thankfully it was only surface rust tho and my painter was able to take it back to bare metal and get rid of all the crustyness and give it a coat of Ford Magnetic Grey (Focus RS colour).

With the parts painted and back home, set them out on one of the workbenches in my new garage to give me a bit of motivation every time I walked past it, to maybe do something with it...

 

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Fast forward to shortly after Christmas, and with some time off work I decided to put it to good use and start assembling. I also fitted some nice billet Honda Wing emblems that I had found on a late night internet shopping session.

This past week has been one of the most productive of the project. Long story short, I had a plan for the original wheels, it didn't work out as I'd hoped as I damaged one of the hubs and then had issues trying to get brakes and spacers to fit. Ended up throwing the head up and just buying a new set of wheels.

Decided a wheel and tyre test fit was a good idea as I had no idea if the tyres I'd bought would even fit. The CG runs a 2.75 upfront and a 3.0 at the rear as stock and I was trying to squeeze a 3.5 on the front and a 4.0 on the rear to beef the bike up.

Me and a couple of mates own a Rabaconda tyre changer for doing tyres and mousses on our enduro bikes, but it was with a friend 45 minutes away and I was impatient, so the tyres got fitted on the kitchen worktop with the handles of a couple of forks and spoons.

 

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Test fit was a success...

Now to get it off the work bench and try the rear. First time it been stood on its own two wheels in almost a year...

Was really pleased with how it was coming together at this point, so couldn't resist a quick photoshop of how it might look when done...

Finally, to bring us back to present day, I got the footpegs, side stand, controls and indicators mounted up, began some wiring, mocked up the exhaust and trimmed a couple of inches off the width of the bars as the whole over all width was too large for such a small bike.

Motivation is now high to get this completed so expect some more updates soon...

(P.S. - all the rusty bits in the last photo will be getting replaced)

 

[big_pete]

That it really cool!

 

[southsky sunrise]

That’s Class

 

[Todd]

Love that, very cool!

 

[Captain Starlet]

Amazing build. Love that you have hoarded most of the build so we get to binge on it. Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[clrrk]

Thanks folks.

Little lunchtime update - been looking at some options for mounting the headlight. As the CG runs such thin front forks getting brackets to mount a headlight other than the bulky OEM ones is difficult. Some people go for a bottom mount headlight and mount it off the yoke but I don't like how low it sits then. Ended up finding these on a German scooter parts website. They are meant as a universal part for mounting indicators to a scooter but I think they do the job well and keep the light nicely compact. Downside of this is that I'm gonna have to notch the top of the headlight to give me room to run the speedo cable, but I'm okay with that.

 

[gav525]

That's a great turnaround, looks class!

 

[clrrk]

Another update. Exhaust wrapped and fitted up, need to make one more bracket just to secure the back box.

Also started the wiring but been having issues getting any power. I think the ignition switch has gone bad so have a new one on order which I hope will fix the issue.

 

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Pushed it outside for a look...

 

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Almost finished, just some wiring to do now but in good enough shape now to get it to the ILB stand at Dubshed this weekend!

 

[southsky sunrise]

View attachment 355360

Almost finished, just some wiring to do now but in good enough shape now to get it to the ILB stand at Dubshed this weekend!

F c u k yess

 

[Captain Starlet]

Very good, very nice . Love the exhaust, the whole thing just works. Not sure I'd fancy my chances with the helmet or is that a modern take on an old lid?

 

[fj1200aa]

Ooooohhhhh!!!!
That is a lovely little thing.

 

[clrrk]

Very good, very nice . Love the exhaust, the whole thing just works. Not sure I'd fancy my chances with the helmet or is that a modern take on an old lid?

Thanks for the kind words. Helmet is a Bell Bullitt, it’s a modern helmet designed to look like a vintage one.

 

[Johnny_E]

That's gorgeous. I'm a massive Honda bike fan.... That's right up my street. Well done

 

[EF Ian]

Good work on this, very nice. Looks so small and simple. Frame shares a lot of similarities with my CX500 but I would hope this thing is a lot lighter.

 

[Peter]

That's a great looking bike. They really suit this style. Here are a couple of similar style from Stafford bike show.

 

[ace275]

Nice work, love a retro bike