READER RESTO!
15-year-old Jack Watts restores a motocrosser!
We have to admit we like the cut of Jack Watts’ jib here at CMM. You’ll remember his little Honda moped resto a few months back. The lad from Norfolk is mad keen on our hobby of bikes and restoring and at an age when most kids are necking cider and snogging girls (well, at least I was trying to) he’s on it like a bonnet with his latest restoration. Yup, Jack is still just 15 and yet he’s re-created this beautiful classic ’crosser. Classic? Well, yeah… we would say so. It’s a 1996 Honda CR125 and while we’re no experts we have heard that this model was one of the last of the old steel-perimeter framed MX bikes. Our Jack has also managed to make it look like a bit of a race-replica, but more of that later. Let’s hear from the lad himself. How did you end up with such a scruffy off-roader Jack? “My brother does motocross and about a year or more ago, down the local track a bloke had this rough old ex-race Honda CR125 in the back of his van,” says Jack. “He was looking to sell it and I watched the person take it round the track and it being a two-stroke it sounded lovely. I was won over and that night I said I would quite like it so I bought it, took it home that night and gave it a power-wash to see what was hiding underneath all that dirt.” Buying old off-roaders – especially 20-year-old strokers – can be a nightmare, but Jack reckoned he’d done okay, at least until he stripped it. He says: “I paid £750, which I think was quite good. It was when I started looking closely I could see what I’d let myself in for – but to be honest I was prepared for the worst! This thing basically didn’t have a single Honda bolt left on it… maybe a few of the engine mounts/swingarm pivot etc. but that was about it.” After the good clean and realising what he was in for, Jack got to work. And he knew he had that work cut out for him… “The bodging that the previous owners had subjected the bike to before I got it was immense,” he says. “The major thing I could see was that the seal had gone on the water pump. It has a cover with a hole in the bottom of it. So, when the seal goes the water comes out of the hole – so you know the seal has gone. Well, instead of taking that as a sign that it was time to replace the seal one owner simply blocked the hole up with a wood screw! Unbelievable!” Despite the fact that they’re not registered and not requiring of an MOT, old dirt bikes – or ones that are used in competition – should be well maintained. Jack knows this as his brother races, right Jack? “With a motocross bike you have to give it regular maintenance and oil changes,” he says. “Of course, as these bikes aren’t registered you never know exactly how many owners it’s had – although I knew this bike had been around the block a bit! “Other things showed up quickly, such as the forks not having much oil in them. The gearbox also seemed to have major issues. And then there was the sump plug. Some bodger had over-tightened it and cracked the sump. Rather than sorting it a previous owner simply used PTFE tape around the plug and wound it up tighter.” Plenty to do then, eh Jack: “I started getting parts and unfortunately found it was generally easier and cheaper getting them from the USA than somewhere local like Lings. I did this with most parts including gearbox replacement bits. With the sump, me and my dad’s mate welded it up then spent hours with a Dremel cleaning it up before heli-coiling the plug. In general the engine was in a pretty poor state. It needed all new seals, bearings, piston/rings etc.
As mentioned the gearbox was just about shot to bits. I managed to save a few gears but the rest were replaced with new parts. The exterior of the cases were stripped and lightly grit blasted to give it a good key for painting. It was then etch-primed, painted black and lacquered. The motor itself was put back together by me with help from a good family friend at SH Racing who took me through the process step-by-step.” The chassis needed some work too, as did the plastics. This job was proving to be a big one for Jack and his helpers. He says: “The chassis was shot blasted and then powder-coated white, then it was just a case of starting at the front with the head race bearings and working backwards replacing all the suspension linkage. The exhaust header I got blasted and then I rattle canned it with some black heatproof paint. When it came to the wheels I had to get those sent to an expert as I would be well outside my comfort zone. Paul Ritson from SFX Wheels is well-known in the MX world. He took them apart, cleaned them – anodised the rims gold, put in heavy-duty period spokes and powdercoated the hubs black. They look awesome!” Indeed they do… but while waiting for the wheels it was time to look at the, er, looks of the bike itself. With motocross plastics being what they are (easily damaged and often brittle over time) Jack invested in some new ones. “Then I decided on some new graphics to go on them and plumped for a ‘Pepsi’ design based on that used by a top French Honda rider, Yves Demaria.” Jack has yet to put any numbers on those virginal number boards, nor has he run it in! Why not? “It starts and it goes and it sounds sweet but I don’t want to run it, ride it and ruin it. I’d like to keep it, but dad and I have an idea to get something bigger and more useful to restore next time, like a tourer/ explorer kinda bike. We did so much on this bike, dad reckons he’ll never help me with an off-road bike again! It’s a shame as it’s been a labour of love and taken me over a year, but having the room to keep them all is the trouble. I’d love to keep this in my room (like the Z50, but that’s another story) so really I think it has to go. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a big barn where I could keep every bike I restore – something like the Honda Museum over in Japan.” That would be nice mate, but keep on restoring: you never know…