My new bike 1996 Honda RS125

I just bought my first two stroke race bike a 1996 Honda RS125. It is being shipped from the east coast to me here in Colorado.

I have no experience with one of these machines. Last year I raced a Yamaha R3 and have a mini that I race which is a KX65 with a 80cc big bore kit.

Any tips on how to care for this bike and race it properly. I have a season pass to my local kart track and was hoping to practice on it there but my friend said it would be impossible to use there because of the way they are geared internally. Is there a way to make it kart track friendly without changing the motor out?

The big track that is nearby is getting repaved so no riding until the spring and I don't want to wait.

Here's some pics

 

Jettng, jetting, and jetting lol....I have had many of these. You need to learn to jet this bike and keep the routine maintenance up.

For each track I would start making a chart for the following.

track distance
number of laps per session
Temp
Humidity
Main jet size
gearing
suspension settings

Keep up with these. you can multiply your laps times the track length to record mileage. If I remember correctly I ran 1200 miles max on a crank and about 300 on a top end.

Here is a good resource.
http://www.fatbaq.com/mainpage.phtml?topic=tech

There was a basic jetting chart I used to go buy. I always jetted richer 1-2 jet sizes if I was not sure. You can do plug chops on and read your plug and get
it close once at the track....Its not hard at all to maintain and jet the bike once you get familiar with it. The first time I rode one I was hooked....Going to make to not want to ride
the R3...

Chuck

 

http://www.fatbaq.com/mainpage.phtml?topic=jettinghistory


also add track elevation to the list of recordables...it will effect your jetting


I would stock up on the exhaust gasket at the head, head orings, cylinder base gaskets, jetting, gearing, top end kits.....or at least a few piston rings...

And contact me when you want to sell lol

 

Congratulations, Shawn!

What a great bike. I had a 1990 RS125. Running at IMI will be tough. The 1st gear is very tall, you will need to slip the clutch just to get going. The bike is made for corner speed, and a stop and go kart track will be tough. As the others have mentioned 300 mi on the top end is not very much. I would get a couple weekends out of a top end. It's not an endurance bike.

Run the bike rich while you are learning and make sure it is up to operating temperature, you may need to tape the radiator. It's a grand prix bike and will need a world of more maintenance than your R3, but not that much besides the jetting, top end, and crank each season. My bike ran the best before it seized! A lot of fun turning the bike on its rear tire between some essess!

 

Wonderful little bikes, but pretty much unrideable on a kart track.

 

Yes i forgot, that thing needs to run at min temp of 55 deg c. Put duck tape on radiator to keep temp above that. If gets hot remove a row.

These are not a go cart track bike. Launching the bike is a lot of practice. One year i endurance raced a gsxr1000 at Roebling Road Raceway. The next day i got on my 125 and turned same damn lap times! These bikes are 165 lbs and over 40hp. Most people class them as a small amateur bike but you will learn how to race one one of these for sure!


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All previous posts are useful. Your first problem will be starting it. I see newbees struggle to get the bikes to start. The trick is to push start it with throttle closed. Completely closed. Look at your hand and tell it...do not roll open! drop the clutch and push...when it farts open the throttle a bit. Only when it is running and you have pulled in the clutch to stop it from moving away do you think of full throttle open. Practise this. RS Hondas make power at 55 degrees C to about 65 degrees C . Hotter reduces power and even hotter melts down the top end. parillaguy

 

If you want to run on a kart track, consider this.

http://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/for-sale-rs125-nf4-yz85.344929/#post-5220093

 

Probably just gonna leave it the way it is and stay with big tracks... that's what I really bought it for.
Thanks for the advise. I will learn as I go and hope luck is on my side with reliability. Reading the owners manual now. I should receive the bike tomorrow, it's being shipped from the east coast. Excited!

 

IMO, you will love it once you get the hang of it....When I was racing mine back in 2002 I ran Road Atlanta
and coming up over the hill at T5 I had hit my jetting dead on and it was power wheeling at the top... Same
under the bridge....

 

Guy who sold it to me send me this video of him starting it up

 

Is he including that starter too? Awesome if he is, those are quite expensive.

 

Yeah that would be a deal!


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Congrats! I also have a 96, you’ll likely not really care for any street bike after you ride it.. be forewarned! Lol!

my best advice is find another 125 owner and start sponging... you now have a piece of GP history and in charge of maintaining it... that’s almost 85% of the fun of owning in my book!

Get the 96-97 manual and follow it to the letter!

 

Oh and forget the kart track! you’d kick yourself for trying and a good crash on these bikes isn’t necessarily the cheapest - and as stated above service intervals are short so you’d be wasting miles on a track that won’t get you into wringing the bikes neck (you’ll need to!)

post pics of its arrival!!

 

Go memorize the shop manual, yes really.

Then get your bike to a dyno and get a baseline jetting setup going. It would really help to have an air density gauge while doing so. That way when you're at the track you can jet the bike and forget all about it and concentrate on riding.

 

Got the bike today and it looks great. He included a nice spares package also with tire warmers, starter tool, jets, sprockets, gaskets, pistons, crank, quick shifter, reed cage, and the tires look good also, Pirelli Supercorsa slicks with lots of meat on them... also front and rear stands and extra bodywork set.

My local kart track sells 110 leaded gas so I'll likely start it up tomorrow and see how she sounds... supposed to be 65 degrees here tomorrow in Colorado.

Here's some pics

 

profile... so tiny, and the spares

 

First startup success

 

Nice bike. Funny, the first thing I noticed is the bike idles.
http://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/do-your-2-stroke-roadracers-idle.348849/