What happens now with the SS125?
So Project Honda SS125 is completed and bar an unexpected MOT failure or an advisory it should be in the bag. So that’s it right? Well to be perfectly blunt, no way Jose! Just because it starts, runs and stops doesn’t mean the bike is totally sorted. This is something that really perplexes some people new to the arcane world of motorcycle restoration. Knowing you have all the correct parts even if they’re NOS does not confer an automatic right to a sweet running bike. When Honda rolled our SS125 off the production line five decades ago it was one of thousands built in series by a dedicated workforce who’d had every potential problem ironed out for them by the design, assembly and quality control teams. Build manuals and diagrams littered the production line, there were daily changes to the build programme and numerous checks made by people who were employed to ensure the bike worked faultlessly. And even when the bikes reached the dealers there was always a PDI (pre delivery inspection) to be carried out which would often throw up a few odd assembly faults. Even the most skilled restorer can and does make mistakes, oversights and assumptions. Unless you’d worked on an SS125 before would you genuinely know which side of the air filter the loom runs? Ditto does the loom exit to the right or left of the headstock? On top of all this there’s going to be a settling in period while the newly built engine beds in so valve clearances and points will need checking. Likewise the carb will probably need a minor tweak, the brake will require adjusting as the shoes bed in and there’ll probably be a few fixtures and fitting that need retightening as the fresh paint compresses. Around 90% of the work in any restoration is inevitably on the bench or in the shed but that last 10% is out there on the road. Get that last bit right and the bike will probably be a keeper; get it wrong or ignore the evidence before you and you’ll be wondering why you bothered.