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1972 RC125M update
Breaking news:
Taichi Yoshimura and Holly have been working on the back story
of the early Honda works motocross effort that went on in Japan
starting in the late 60's. As you know, Taichi was Honda's first
official works rider and did most of the development work on the
early two-stroke works motocross bikes. The transcript
translated by Holly in English just arrived and it is an
unbelievable story as to how Honda actually got involved in
motocross. This story will be forth coming and it is interesting
to note that it has never been told in print before, anywhere,
including Japan. A complete feature on Holly, the RC125M, Taichi
Yoshimura's amazing career and Honda's early works motocross
program will be coming soon.
The earliest works
Honda motocross bike in existence arrived in 10 separate
boxes. Holly did a fantastic job carefully disassembling the
bike and packing all of the parts.
The engine is
completely sand cast magnesium. All of the hardware is hand
machined titanium inside and out. The exhaust manifold is
titanium and the weight of the complete engine is just over 30
lbs. Holly made a great engine stand to keep everything safe
while in transit. It took over 3 hours with a soft brush and
cleaner to completely clean the engine. A very fine brass brush
was used to clean the countershaft sprocket and exhaust
manifold. Everything is 100% original.
A fantastic works engine. It is some of the finest workmanship
from any era, very surprising from 1972. The inside is like
jewelry!
Over 5 hours were
spent cleaning the works forks. We are very careful not to
over-restore the bike. It must be kept as original as possible.
Note the crude grinding marks where the casting ribs were ground
off. Also note the stamp A1C in the photo below. This is the
code for a works 125.
The steering stem and the triple clamp bolts are machined from
billet titanium.
Over 10 hours of careful cleaning has brought the bike to the
stage shown above. All of the paint is original.
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