I picked up a new bike!!! (Too!)

[justalonewolf007]

I've never been known to be all squeal-ey...but

EEEEEH!!! :)

It's mine! I can't touch the ground with either foot...but it's mine!

Here is the ad for those who wanted to read.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/mcy/751603510.html

It has been ridden pretty hard by the previous owners...but it should be a good bike...

Here's the list of "needed items" so far:

Kouba link (and shaved seat)
New rear tire
New chain
New sprockets
Kill switch


And here's the list of maybe needed items?:

Fork guards
Fork seals (said they had just been done last summer, but I saw a little oil there).
Front brake pads
Seat? (if I screw up the first try).

 

[LEllis7motox]

Very cool, that bike looks really small in that picture to me :whoa:.

 

[justalonewolf007]

It wasn't big looking at all...until I tried to sit on it. :whoa:

It all got kinda tippy from there on. I'll try get a picture of me standing beside it for...reference...

Maybe it would be more dis-reference, as my size will make the bike look bigger.

Either way, with my toes pointed as far as they could, it was a good three inches to the ground.

I'll have to adjust the sag quite a bit.

 

[fatcat216]

Good job. Will your dad be helping you with the changes or are you going to tackle them on your own?

I saw some 125s down here when I listed my daughter's bike on Craig's and thought of you. Didn't know if the injury and doctor's bill would prohibit you from taking the plunge so I didn't mention it. Glad you were able to move forward on it and within budget.

Congrats!

 

[oldguy]

When Spider had a cr125 he had the black plastic and it looked mean.

Congrats on getting it and have fun.

BTW I have a kill button from a YZ250F laying in the garage- I would think it would work if you are interested

 

[LEllis7motox]

It wasn't big looking at all...until I tried to sit on it. :whoa:

It all got kinda tippy from there on. I'll try get a picture of me standing beside it for...reference...

Maybe it would be more dis-reference, as my size will make the bike look bigger.

Either way, with my toes pointed as far as they could, it was a good three inches to the ground.

I'll have to adjust the sag quite a bit.

'

I know what you mean, I was looking at the 2003 yz250f im planning on buying and it did not look big until i sit on it and am 3 or 4 inches from the ground, i am only 5"3 so im pretty short.

But anyway i dont know if you wear riding boots when you ride but i do and i cant really stand tippy-toe in them they dont bend much like that which does not help the height issue but i never had a chance to sit on it with sneakers, but maybe they are just cheap boots, i dont know.

 

[Patman]

The first dirtbike I ever rode I had to start and stop at a picnic table because I couldn't come close to reaching the ground. Heck I just touched ckeared the seat standing on the pegs LOL! Don't worry too much if you can touch just lean over ;)

 

[kschilk]

I put a Koubalink on my XR650L and it works great, though you'll lose a bit of rear travel. Back-off the pre-load a bit, for a touch more sag.

 

[justalonewolf007]

Well...I'm in for a long haul fixing this bike so far. I changed the plastics and put some fresh gas in, and drained the carb (no, not in that order). I am lucky that we didn't run it very long on the gas it had in it, as there was some water, or water like stuff, in the tank as well.

Oldguy was right - with black plastics, it looks downright mean!

However, sitting on the stand for 4 days, it definitely shows the need for new fork seals again. There are two oil spots on the floor. One on each side of my front tire. Having been just changed last summer (if they weren't lying) this may mean that the forks are damaged or scratched somewhere.

Ish. Last time we did fork seals on the faithful little 80, it took 9 hours! (we did have to make some tools though which took a good deal of time).

I didn't have much more time to check anything other than that, as someone kindly failed to show up and purchase the faithful little CR after promising cash in hand. In about 5 minutes, after a sandwhich or two, I'll go change the oil, and pray they weren't lying about that either. Next, it'll take a ride over to the dad's workplace, and we'll take a few bigger things apart, like the top end, and check that over as well.

After that, I'll try shaving the seat, and make some starting blocks too. Then it's off for a little ride.

Oh...here's an update on my brokenedness:

Going back to the Dr for a six week visit, he seemed to be very very happy with my bone growth, and movement ability (I have 110% freedom in my shoulder now). There was no need for a plate, and he promptly said "you have six weeks left of no jumping."

My response was "Can I just ride? If I promise not to do any jumps or crash or go out of 3rd gear?!?! I kinda need the championship points!"

He said basically that it was about as dangerous as my going to work on the quad every day. "Any little thing will snap all that growth."

I felt it best not to tell that It had held up through several incidents already. For example, falling down the stairs, falling off the back of my fourwheeler while loading it up, and having it run me over (that's getting downright spiteful even if it is a rather evil little quad, my faithful little CR would never do such a thing!), opening the huge pickup door while parked in a ditch and having it slam on me...the list goes on. (I just have bad streaks of luck?)...

Anyhow...the pictures speak more than words!

Before (The day after the crash):

At 6 weeks:

 

[btm1948]

ya i have the black plastics on my cr125 and man it looks like i could eat 5 450's for dinner. haha any ways good luck on the recovery

 

[BigSwole]

nice looking ride bro.

 

[inotocracy]

Cool bike, nasty xray!

 

[justalonewolf007]

Some more update-ey stuff. Here's a pic to show just how big it is. The handlebars come up to my shoulders. The weird angle is because my hand moved and shook too much at arm's length (okay, okay, I think it looks pretty cool too).

Full view of the bike in black plastics. I put them on because I won't feel as bad when I scratch them up.

**Dave, by the time I had seen your post, the kill switch had already been ordered, but thanks for the offer :) It's people like you that keep me riding.

After riding it around at the farm a little, with the brother and the dad, we discovered this:

Bent rims/wheels both front and rear.
Loose spokes.
Needs new wheel bearings/bushings? (I ALWAYS get these two confused).

And it DEFINITELY needs new fork seals!

The doctor said I could ride (but NO jumps and NO crashing). So I had been taking the faithful little 80 to races..one of these days I'll post some of those adventures.

I figured "what the heck" and we tagged as much as possible together, and fixed what we could in the couple of hours we had. This included tire pressue, trying to tighten some of the spokes, without over tightening them, and lubing as much as possible. I changed the oil...and found that the previous owners probably had never changed it *cringe*

I soon found myself headed to the exact track I broke myself on, with the big black beast in tow. Really, it is in such tough condition, that riding it 8 laps, with no jumps, isn't going to hurt it any more than it already is.

I pulled in, almost late for registration, and paused by the main trailer to get things lined up. People had noticed the bike even before I had hopped out of the car. "Hey girl! Nice bike!"

Soon after, when they got a lot closer, then the comments started coming. "What happened to the sprocket?!? I've never seen a tire so treadless! Your fork seals are leaking. You need new front brake pads. It's huge! Can you even touch the ground?"

By doing a LOT of hopping, I can manage the bike as is at a standstill (starting the bike and shifting into 1st). As for the rest...it needs a LOT of TLC.

I found a spot to park, and went to change into my riding pants before the porta-loos got all...disgusting and smelly.

When I came back to my trailer, a very slightly used rear tire and a pair of starting blocks were standing there. It took a little asking around, but I finally found the trailer of people that had gifted the tire, and loaned the starting blocks to me. I couldn't thank them enough. The people I race with, are downright awesome!

Practice came very quickly. A lot of people laughed at my antics while waiting in line. They especially laughed when I threw a leg over the bike to wait. It didn't even come close to reaching the peg on the other side. It made me look twice as small as I normally do.

Practice was very interesting. Being it's first time on the track for a while, the big CR was not exactly paying attention to what I told it to do (I'm not used to the powerband on this bike...and with the sloggy jetting, things were interesting). I took it very easy the first lap, getting used to the super wide bars, and differences in turning.

The second lap, I opened it up a little more in the straight sections. To my surprise, my left hand grip was rotating, making it downright impossible to hang on. I decided that I had better sit down and hold on with my legs a little tighter to try counteract falling off the back.

Here's where things got downright silly.

Gripper seat + pants looser than you thought + your butt trying to slide off the back of the bike = you nearly - pants.

(If that doesn't make sense, well, I NEARLY LOST MY PANTS!)

Apparantly I wasn't the only one who noticed. I had a few guys come up and thank me for making their day. I didn't stop, but I did slow to frantically grab at my low riders and jerk them into proper fitment again. And...it did take more than one try.

The first moto went actually quite well, and we snarled up and down the straight sections, braking for jumps, and all in all, finishing in 8th out of 10th place. It was extremely fun. I had to use the ruts, as trying to turn anywhere else meant a lot of fishtailing and close calls.

The next moto was not so good, and I lost all front brake power in the 3rd corner. I had to slow down a LOT, and ended up 9th for the day. It was even harder to not do any jumps. Talk about scarey. As I rode to load up the snarley machine, I glanced down, and noticed that I had a lapfull of fuel. "Great...add a new gas cap to the list too..."

There is the short version...now begins the long haul of work.

 

[medwaste]

I love the black plastic on the bike and I'm sure you'll get control of the 'beast' soon enough. And stop hurtin' yourself!

 

[IndyMX]

Very nice looking bike.

I also noticed that gripper seat covers and not tightly fastened pants can be a bad thing. Fortunately mine didn't come off.. It was close though. I'm pretty certain that no one would really want to see it either. :(