RS125 Update

[Sharky]

So, for anyone who cares :p or is doing /thinking of doing a similar thing I've completed the last of my mods (for now) to my RS125 until I get my big bike license and then she'll be in for a Big Block Mod (thanks Loud for getting me addicted to that)

RS125 2002 with 28mm Carby

List of Mods/works I've done:

• Targa Carbon Fibre Front and Rear Huggers, Kicks and Engine Cover - Purely cosmetic and made the bike look much better as the old plastic ones had really faded!
• Full Arrow Zorst System - Long Manifold - This was the 2006-2011 Arrow Zorst, it fitted well except for the middle bracket which I needed change slightly as the 1999-2005 RS125 had a slightly different bracket in this area. Made my own out of Aluminum - Replaced Manifold Gasket
• Replaced Clutch Cable (Budget Range) to new Aprilia Original one
• Replaced Clutch Cam, cleaned ball- bearings holding the cam on, pulled clutch basket apart and checked for warping - all good
• Replaced Gear Box Oil with Motul Transoil Expert 2T - Made a huge different to how the gear box operated - Replaced Clutch Cover Gasket
• Replaced Plastic Oil Filler and Clutch Adjustment Caps with new Red Anodized Aluminum ones - Much better
• Removed existing Reed's and replaced with V-Force 3 - Required cutting of the Inlet Manifold but clear instructions on how to do it came with the unit so all good - This really crisped up the throttle response!
• Cleaned Power Valve and replaced gasket - Works much better now its not so gunked up
• Cleaned Carby and replaced existing 62 Pilot with new 62 Pilot - the original 62 had been fucked with slightly and was doing all kinds of weird shit (just to be technical)
• Replaced 120 Main Jet with 130 Main and worked down till i got to 122 Main with Needle 2nd Notch from bottom - Plug is now a beautiful Cappuccino Colour and makes me feel like coffee whenever i look at it
• Carby Mixture Screw adjusted to Three and a Half turns out
• Airbox Cleaned and missing screws replaced to make sure no extra air leaking in/out - Resisted temptation to replace airbox with pod filter due to lots of advice regarding horsepower loss rather then gain on my setup
• Replaced Water Temp Sender as I fucked the original when doing plug chops
• Polished Frame - Still needs another cut
• Coated bike in Kerosene and lit it ()..... no, left it for a bit and hosed down with high pressure sprayer - removed all the oil residue and grime/gunk (Thanks to Loud for this pointer)
• New Speedo Cable as the original one was broken and reading all kinds of stupid speeds or not at all
• 8mm Bobbins for Rear Stand
• Completely Drained Fuel and Replaced with new Shell Racing
• Drained 2T Oil and Replaced with new Castrol Gold 2T and Replaced Oil Filter
• New Front Tyre
• New Front and Rear Brake Pads

So After owning this bike for just on three months now - I have gotten exactly what I wanted out of it - That is to learn about how to maintain my bike.

I brought this bike with the knowledge that it may spend more time in my shed in bits then on the road and it would require loving care and attention. It has not failed in living to that expectation.

The bike has now been off the road for over a month whilst I f**ed around with doing the above, got frustrated, did stupid things like break the water temp sender, forgot to screw the spark plug back in fully and wondering why she was running like a dog, getting the slide in the carby caught up in the spring and wondering why the jet changes were making no difference.

But now she is running like a thoroughbred. The bike starts even after a cold night with no choke and kicks into a 1500rpm idle within 10 seconds. She takes off like a champion and requires minimal clutch slipping to beat the traffic when I split to the front.

The Boggyness before the power band is all but gone!, you still are aware its a 125cc 2T machine but shes doesn't splutter or carry on no dip between 5000 and 6000 rpm, once she hits the power band she takes off like a rocket ship with the RPM redline hitting easily and asking to be pushed further.

The new Zorst has changed it from sounding like a lawn mower to a Motorbike with menace. Once the power band is hit the sound is orgasmic and makes me grin ear to ear.

Am I happy with my purchase? - Yes. I now have a shed full of tools, spare parts, jets, gaskets and a bit of knowledge on how my bike goes together. The experience in pulling the thing apart and inspecting, talking with people about how to do it/what to do when etc has been great.

I'm sure my wife hates me now and the bank account isn't to happy either but I had fun and won't have done anything differently. My garage smells like 2T oil and all my riding gears does as well - I love it.

I can't wait to actually pull the engine apart and do the big block conversion once I have a bigger bike. Only 9 Months to go

Thanks to all who provided advice - looking forward to actually making a ride with you now and learning how to ride this thing!

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[bless_you]

Great read mate. I'm in the same mind as you. I'm looking for rs250, but I'm almost tempted to get a rs125 for half the price and play with it a littler more before doing the big block conversion

[Loud]

Great read mate. I'm in the same mind as you. I'm looking for rs250, but I'm almost tempted to get a rs125 for half the price and play with it a littler more before doing the big block conversion

There's a couple of nice RS125s on Gumtree at the moment. You'd be lucky to get much change from the amount you've budgeted for an RS250 though, unless it needed a bit of money spent on it. There's a forum member with an unlicensed one in pieces, you may persuade him to part with it?

If you get one and decide to go the Polini barrel, you're welcome to have a look at mine.

[Sharky]

If you get one and decide to go the Polini barrel, you're welcome to have a look at mine.

Yeah go have a look at it. Everything about Loud's bike is awesome.

Its been a few months since I wrote the above, but still no regrets on my decision. I did get lazy and forgot to clean the power valve and it got all gunked up and broke and cost me another $100 , so please just remember these things need attention, esxpically if your going to commute on it. If you like working on things and have the time to do so, these are great bikes and easy to learn with. I get a lot of enjoyment out of pulling her apart every so often and giving everything a good clean/tune up. Just last week, on advice from loud, i de-coked the head, cleaned the zorst outlet and the pipes. Bike running even better now.

Make sure you take one for a good test ride before you buy to make sure you are happy with the pull in low revs (the lack of pull in low revs does annoy the crap out of me sometimes when I'm being lazy or just wanting to pull of slowly )

I commuite on mine 3-4 days of of 5 and love it.

I'm actually now looking for a broken RS250 to fix, but can't find one at the moment. Good luck with your search, let us know what you do either way. If you need someone to come take a look with you, gimme a PM, happy to come along.

[bless_you]

There's a couple of nice RS125s on Gumtree at the moment. You'd be lucky to get much change from the amount you've budgeted for an RS250 though, unless it needed a bit of money spent on it. There's a forum member with an unlicensed one in pieces, you may persuade him to part with it?

If you get one and decide to go the Polini barrel, you're welcome to have a look at mine.

Just had a look and 3 of the RS125's have mysteriously disappeared that i was watching with interest
Who is the member with the bikes in pieces? I would be keen to have a chat and see what is there for the offering.

Yeah go have a look at it. Everything about Loud's bike is awesome.

Its been a few months since I wrote the above, but still no regrets on my decision. I did get lazy and forgot to clean the power valve and it got all gunked up and broke and cost me another $100 , so please just remember these things need attention, esxpically if your going to commute on it. If you like working on things and have the time to do so, these are great bikes and easy to learn with. I get a lot of enjoyment out of pulling her apart every so often and giving everything a good clean/tune up. Just last week, on advice from loud, i de-coked the head, cleaned the zorst outlet and the pipes. Bike running even better now.

Make sure you take one for a good test ride before you buy to make sure you are happy with the pull in low revs (the lack of pull in low revs does annoy the crap out of me sometimes when I'm being lazy or just wanting to pull of slowly )

I commuite on mine 3-4 days of of 5 and love it.

I'm actually now looking for a broken RS250 to fix, but can't find one at the moment. Good luck with your search, let us know what you do either way. If you need someone to come take a look with you, gimme a PM, happy to come along.

Thanks for the feedback mate.
I'm a but of a sucker for punishment and i love to pull things apart, so i would enjoy the fact of feeling like i am getting out of my bike from what i am putting in.

Sounds like there is a good small community of 2 Stroke and Aprilia RS owners here

[ninjaa]

Just had a look and 3 of the RS125's have mysteriously disappeared that i was watching with interest
Who is the member with the bikes in pieces? I would be keen to have a chat and see what is there for the offering.

Gday

[bless_you]

Gday

Awesome introduction to the thread and making your presence known

[DreamTheater]

Can't believe I've only just seen this thread! Bike is looking nice and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it!
Being a 2 stroke I thought it being laggy like that was normal but apparently not, nice

Cleaned Carby and replaced existing 62 Pilot with new 62 Pilot - the original 62 had been fucked with slightly and was doing all kinds of weird shit (just to be technical)

I hope that wasn't me by mistake, I remember checking some of the carby and hoping I didn't adjust anything wrong or put it back together wrong - apologies if it was

It's good to know the bike is being well looked after

[Sharky]

I hope that wasn't me by mistake, I remember checking some of the carby and hoping I didn't adjust anything wrong or put it back together wrong - apologies if it was

It's good to know the bike is being well looked after

I think it was the guy before you? Unless you tried to drill it out?? Yeah she's well looked after and sent to a good home :-) Going to get it resprayed and stickered once I get closer to my r's. Did you do the cdi mod?? That was also a little dodgy :-p but working sweet now.

[DreamTheater]

I wouldn't put a drill near my bike unless I was 100% sure what I was doing

Not sure what the CDI mod is but when I Googled it it seems to be with restriction? When I had my mechanic service it he cleaned the powervalve and I assumed it's unrestricted, was it?

Nice what colour? keeping it the matte black?

[Sharky]

hahaha, yeah, wasn't you then CDI Mod is a mod you do to the Computer to remove the restriction between 5000-6000 RPM which retards the throttle for the Euro Emissions compliance rubbish. You have to lititally dig/dril out the silicon on the back of the computer and snap a little circuit board, then re-silicon it back up. The mod had been done, but they had only drilled the circuit board, not snaped it off, so the throttle was still dipping between 5000/6000 rpm. All good now

I'm thinking of going a Gloss Black, still searching around for a sticker kit/scheme, might get something custom made up by BlackFZR. I did see a RS250 Colour Scheme on the Aprilia Fourms (thanks LOUD!) which looked awesome, may even do something similar to that.

[Loud]

Look at the Chesterfield scheme if you liked that one.

[Sharky]

This one?

Left-side.jpg

[DreamTheater]

Ahh okay cool, I think I remember reading about that one on the aprilia forums somewhere but I wouldn't be game enough to snap off a circuit board!

Nice, I tried finding the OEM stickers for the bike as some of them had started fading on the front/back but couldn't find the same scheme so I just left it as it was

[Loud]

That's the genuine Aprilia Futura one, earlier fairings than your model. I like this one more, it's closer to the RS250 you saw I think?

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