Terminal oil starvation horror
A lack of oil was terminal for this 125
This sorry-looking 2014 Honda Silver Wing 125 on the bench at Doncaster Motorcycles recently is a perfect example of a new owner getting a little carried away. Seasoned mechanic Kev ‘Tepi’ Hollingsworth explains: “This local lad bought it off eBay from a seller in Peterborough. A train ride and a taxi took him to the seller’s house. He then rode it all the way back to Doncaster and I suspect it wasn’t in a steady, regularbreaks kind of way. It was quite possibly in a full-throttle-atevery-available-opportunity kind of way.”
A 125 on the Great North Road is always going to be caned just to keep up with the traffic, but if you’re going to do that, it’s even more essential you check the engine oil. But our youthful friend just wanted to experience the open road as soon as possible, and all went well… until 10 miles from home. “Looking at the scorch marks on the engine internals there was a strong possibility the oil was low or nonexistent on collection or if it did have some in, it was so poor that it just burnt away. No oil and thrashed on a long trip made the conrod look like a piece of steel in a blacksmith’s forge just before it turns into molten lava. It parted company with the crank and then all hell broke loose.”
But a single-cylinder 125 should be easy to replace? Not this time, used motors are as rare as hen’s teeth, possibly because other owners have made the same mistake, and the cost of new parts is a long way north of the bike’s value. Sadly, this scoot is now going to be broken for spares.