SL125 Update

This weekend, I wheeled the thing out from under its tarpaulin and
started looking closer at what I've actually got.

First impressions: the paint job really is very high quality. I like the
black/ yellow colour scheme, so I'm keeping it.

Less good is the black paint splashed by the previous owner on every
other bit of chrome apart from the bars, but I'm working on that. First
replacement: the filler cap. Undo black painted cap, scre won shiny new
chrome one (£4 or so from Dave Silver). Sorted.

Silver also provided four nice chrome pattern indicators. These, on
inspection, had one wire coming out. The ones on the bike had two. One
is power, the other earth, and inside the indicators the earth has been
bodged to earth to the indicator reflector. Trying to earth it to
anything else drew a blank, so I attached one indicator, and then found
it as reluctant to flash. Hm.

I had a moment's suspicion, and inspected the bulb. Yup, I've been sold
four 12v indicators, so I'll have to swap all the bulbs as well. No
worries.

The front brake light switch was u/s, but I've got several spares, and
so one such was plumbed into the wiring loom, proved to be working fine,
and was fitted. All other electrical functions tested and found OK.

The front brake lever is a clutch lever turned upside-down, and in my
Big Bix Of Old Levers I had nothing that fitted, so I'll get one at
Kempton.

Removed seat to inspect pan. One crack in the side. Some spot weld blobs
and a bit of reinforcement will sort that. Otherwise the seat is great.

One side panel mounting bobble has snaped off and been badly repaired.
I'll sort it properly with some glass fibre reinforcement.

Fitted right-hand mirror. Left-hand lever mount has no mirror fixing
point. I suspect it's non-standard.

Lots of fasteners have been black painted and will need replacement, but
I have two big tins of stainless fasteners, so that will be easy.

Looked dubiously at camchain adjuster, whicvh is wound pretty much near
its limit. I've bought a secondhand engine (condition unknown), and I
have in my possession a spare camchain, tensioner and gasket set, so I'm
not too bothered.

Exhaust needs to come off to be repainted. Exhaust heat shield needs to
be refinished as well. It should be chrome. It's been repainted... guess
what? I'll use some silver Smoothrite on it.

All in all, a decent running bike that can be worked on and improved as
it needs to be.

 

that depends on who's buying. stuff is worth what someone will pay for it.
Look at the money crap such as the BSA C15 fetches.

 

Insofar as it's a decent learner 125 dirt bike, yes, because dirt bike
values obey no known laws. You just can't buy a good nick T&T 125cc
trail bike for under £500, unless it's one of those Chinese things, I
suppose. And this is, by Honda 125 standards, quite a desirable little
bike. Much more so than the rather porky XL125.

Realistically, by tidying this thing up a bit, I could get it to £700
worth. The cost of that improvement is going to be over £200, so it's
not going to be a profit-making exercise. But then I get paid for
writing about it, which offsets the cost considerably (I mean, think
of the Z650), and unwanted bits get thrown back onto Ebay, which also
cuts the cost, and I have a nice little trail bike to potter around
London on.

There's also the fact that I just want to play with it and twirl a few
spanners, and a 125 single is rather easier and cheaper in that
respect than (say) a 500cc ShiteOldBike bought for the same money.

 

Thus spake Austin Shackles () unto the assembled multitudes:

I had some of the best laughs of my biking life on a C15, I'll have you
know. Mind you, that doesn't mean I'd buy another one ;-)

--
Andy Clews
University of Sussex
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Bur most of those laughs were gained when you (probably) didn't really
have much better available.

I rode a Kawasaki KH250 the other week, same as I'd had when I was 17
(1976'7 ish) which at the time was the dogs bollocks for learners and
which I hadn't ridden since about 1980 ish.

I shouldn't have.

It really burst the memory bubble of how good that bike was.

 

Thus spake Paul - xxx () unto the assembled multitudes:

No; it was 1975, my biking childhood, and I had the choice of lots of
Japanese two- or four-strokes under 250cc as long as I was prepared to take
on a crippling bank loan, but my neighbour had a C15 going cheap, and it
sounded like a proper grown-up motorbike (speshly with only token
silencing). *And* my parents hated it. No contest!

Ah, but that's just it: I never had any illusions as to the reliability or
quality of the C15. Mine was a heap, but did I care? I just had huge fun,
caning it to from pub to pub with my mates on their motley collection of
small Japanese, French and east European two-strokes.

The very fact that I've bored this NG about my C15 on several occasions
shows how much fun I had on the damn thing!

--
Andy Clews
University of Sussex
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LOL, sounds like me with my current Fantic Trials bike ... 156 cc,
small, light, about15 years old but still more than powerful enough to
take me further than my actual ability.

I always come home smiling after riding it ...

 

Some of my best motorcycling laughs also involved C15's...

....Other peoples'.

I had a Honda (CB250 K0).

I wish I still had it.

Terry.

 

Thus spake Paul - xxx () unto the assembled multitudes:

Exactly; that's the whole point. If it makes you smile (or laugh) then
you're having fun on it, and that IMHO is all that matters, no matter what
heap of $hite it happens to be.

Contrast with the Lambretta SX200 which was my first two-wheeler. A pain
in the ar$e from start to finish. It's a wonder it didn't (a) kill me or
(b) put me off biking for good. Amazingly, it may still exist, if looking
up GCD 381D on DVLA is to be believed, though it is now apparently yellow
rather than the red and white when I owned it 33 years ago, though might of
course be a totally different Lammy. "Over the side with it!!"


--
Andy Clews
University of Sussex
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