1986 cr125 q's

I had one for a long while technically speaking your KX has better suspenion the CR had the pre cartridge forks (87 model 1st yr) it has the TVC (tension valve control) damper rod style forks. They was good forks but not up to same level of perforamce as your '88's cartridge forks can be. The 86's shock was lacking even back then it required that you stay on top of rebuilding it. The shock body wasn't hard anodized so if they aren't kept up they can wear out and be very expensive to fix. Once again in 87 this was done also along with alot of other things. The motor is good motor lacked bottom end, really strong in the mid good top end lots of over rev. The motor was really reliable hardly had any real issue's with it. Later on had the bike total modified by Pro Circuit, porting/head mods, carb bored out, suspenion modified along with thier trick taper swing arm and square tubed aluminum sub frame bike was alot better afterwards. But technically speakin your 88 KX should still be a better bike it was brand new bike that year from like the ground up. The two most popular 125's that year was the KX and CR's, If I was looking for an old school CR 125 again from that era I'd get at least the 87 model it was all new from the ground up too, new motor,frame,suspenion disc brakes along with some important durability mod's like hard anodized shock body, nikasil coated cylinder, case reed plus even to this day you can still get alot of engine parts for that ride and almost all of the plastic's still threw maier I bet a very fresh one could hang with newer 125's of today. This is just the jist of things but if your lookin at an 86 I could give you alot more reasons on why the 87 was better.

Sorry to not help out on the '86 wornknobby, but just wanted to say those Pro Circuit ads with the swingarm and subframe looked TRICK back in the day.

I know the '87's had one reliability problem, the top end bearing. After MXA told everyone to swap it out for the newer style, I saw Larry Brooks seize her shut at the South Carolina MX national.

Did the '86 Honda CR125 have Showa forks or KYB? I know the '86 and '87 KX125 had TCV - Travel Control Valves.

wornknobby, did you ever get the forks fixed? It was the forks, right?

yea the CR 125's had KYB's that year same forks that the 87 KX had and it was a KYB shock also. The sub frame was just for that extra added bling bling effect its soul purpose was mainly just for weight loss it was like 1.5lbs less then the steel stocker. The swing arm was worth it just cause the axle/chain adjuster bolts were moved to the front of the axle like a newer bike today, plus it also had a stronger tapered design. The stocker has the bolts coming off the back where they could be broken off. Pro circuit also used to remove the ATAC chambers to run with thier porting/pipe/timing changes, the atac didn't work anyways really so they claimed it was removed to give the bike more of a hit in the mid. All of which where addressed in 87, and the 87 even had the "works" style two piece clutch cover.

I got curious enough to go look on the Race Tech site. It shows the '86 CR125 as having the TCV's, then the '87 with cartridge forks. I knew '88 was the first year for cartridge forks in the KX. Thanks for the info. I would really like to see what those TCV's look like. Back in the day, I know DMC (Dave Miller Concepts) had a service to put TCV's in KDX forks. Back in the mid to late 80's is when I was really into keping up with the magazines.

wornknobby: You can check on e-Bay for a MX Action magazine or Dirt Bike or Dirt Rider magazine with a review/test of the '86 Honda CR125. That might help you figure out what were the good and bad points.

HEY! I actually have the Dirt Rider test of the '87 Honda CR125. It said the '86 Honda was the best 125 in 1986. It doesn't say anything else about the performance of the '86. It said the ATAC was beefed up a good bit from a '86 sheet metal design.

Hope this helps.

86-87 makes no difference at that age..What condition its in makes all the difference!

hey I have the MXA issue that has the test of the 86 CR & KX in the same issue, that 86 KX had some neat stuff done to it that year. It was called the "works replica" big deal then cause the AMA production rule went into effect. I've tried scanning my mag's before but to be even read able the jpg's are like 300 megs!! When ya start trying to shrink them down the quality just go's with it and you can't read it anymore I know it can be done though. Look on kawasaki's website at the part diagrams, I'm sure it has the exploaded view of the fork internals. The TVC is like a small rod with a spring I can't remember exactly now been long time now :) To bad you couldn't retro fit the 86's shock on your kdx it had high and low speed compression which disappered a year later. Kinda funny how it showed up ten years later as a "new" concept. I doubt it will fit it had a whole new linkage that year doing away with the famous uni-trak arm. The other big thing in 87 was to add the cartridge setup that was offered later in the year from kawie as an opitional part for $300. Sudco also used to offer similar setup, kinda like the race tech cartridge fork emulators. 86 & 87's ATAC chambers are totally different the 87's was alot better because it was more like a power valve now part of the cylinder not just bolted on. wow you guys are really making me think trying to remember this stuff.

I think I had that issue and sold it about a year or so ago. It has a red cover with them popping a wheelie, right? I think both bikes are side by side.

Yep. The '86 KX125 saw soem big changes. Besides the modern linkage style, it had some other KX firsts such as piggyback mounted reservoir and rear disk brake.

The '85 KX125 had high and low speed compression adjusters as well. I just checked my '85 KX500 manual, and it has them, too. Maybe the KX250 did, too.

I was watching my old VHS tape of the '86 Anaheim SX race the other night. It was hard not to watch someone do a triple without thinking he had damping rod forks. :-) Well, not Rick Johnson. He had USD Showa cartridge forks that night, but the other folks mostly had damping rods, I suppose.

You might try something like Adobe Acrobat to make the magazine pages into a pdf file. I have never tried it myself.

My bro had an '86 CR125 and I had a '88 KX 125. The CR is a very good bike but the KX ('88) had better suspension. My bro also got a '87 KX125 and that was not a good bike, the forks were terrible. I think I'd rather have the '86 CR than the '87 KX. Over all those bikes I would take the '88 KX 125

qwick sell it fast like steve mill band "c'mon take the money and run...woohoo!"

Why so cheap on the CR125? If you can get $1,200 for the KX, you should be over at his house instead of reading this. You should be bumping his front door with the front tire to wake him up and sell it.