2002 CR125 I want to govern for my son

[Jeff Rainey]

I have a 2002 CR125 that, in my opinion, is a little too powerful for my 14 year old. I don't have the budget to buy another motorcycle right now that would better suit him. Is there a way to govern the motorcycle until he gets a little more comfortable with the size, feel, etc? Also, I realize these bikes are designed to run at high rpm's so governing would probably cause a flooding issue. Is there a different carb to use that would work to keep flooding minimal? Any thoughts are appreciated!

[hawaiidirtrider]

Your 14 yr old will be fine. He’ll ride it and learn and be fine. I was a lot younger and ride big bore 2 strokes.  If you want to mellow it out anyway you can put a stealhy flywheel weight to mellow revs a bit. That should be a hundred to 150 or maybe cheaper buying used on ebay. I think you should let your boy ride it first and just see how he does. Has he ridden before or is this his first bike?

Edited October 16, 2018 by hawaiidirtrider

[William1]

+2 your boy will do fine, just ask him to take it easy, like any kid with a throttle will do that! Do low speed skill drills. Get him to master throttle control. After a month, he will want a big bore.

[Jeff Rainey]

3 minutes ago, hawaiidirtrider said:

Your 14 yr old will be fine. He’ll ride it and learn and be fine. I was a lot younger and ride big bore 2 strokes.  If ypu want to mellow it out anyway you can put a stealhy flywheel weight to mellow revs a bit. That should be a hundred to 150 or maybe cheaper buying used on ebay. I think you should let your boy ride it and just see how he does. Has he ridden before or is this his first bike?

Thanks man! He had a smaller 80 pit bike up until 3 years ago. He wants to do more trails and such and this really isn't the bike for it. I'll check out the flywheel though.

[dfesmire99]

37 minutes ago, Jeff Rainey said:

I have a 2002 CR125 that, in my opinion, is a little too powerful for my 14 year old. I don't have the budget to buy another motorcycle right now that would better suit him. Is there a way to govern the motorcycle until he gets a little more comfortable with the size, feel, etc? Also, I realize these bikes are designed to run at high rpm's so governing would probably cause a flooding issue. Is there a different carb to use that would work to keep flooding minimal? Any thoughts are appreciated!

I bought my son a 2003 Honda CR125 when he was 14 & he caught onto the proper use of that throttle right away. Give him a little time & he'll be asking for a bigger/faster bike sooner than you'll want him too!! He'll be just fine!!

[hawaiidirtrider]

1 minute ago, Jeff Rainey said:

Thanks man! He had a smaller 80 pit bike up until 3 years ago. He wants to do more trails and such and this really isn't the bike for it. I'll check out the flywheel though.

This may be the perfect bike. He’ll learn clutch control and youll be surprised at how fast kids learn. Let em go. He’ll love the power and adapt. There are lots of 125’s in hard trails with kids riding. He’ll be fine and it costs nothing. You can try a heavier flywheel weight too. He might want it off later. It’s a mixed bag on preference on heavier fww on 125. Easy thing is you can take it off and resell too. 

[Jeff Rainey]

1 minute ago, hawaiidirtrider said:

This may be the perfect bike. He’ll learn clutch control and youll be surprised at how fast kids learn. Let em go. He’ll love the power and adapt. There are lots of 125’s in hard trails with kids riding. He’ll be fine and it costs nothing. You can try a heavier flywheel weight too. He might want it off later. It’s a mixed bag on preference on heavier fww on 125. Easy thing is you can take it off and resell too. 

Cool....I'm not an experienced guy when it comes to bikes. So the flywheel.....I'm assuming it's a heavier flywheel that causes the engine to have to rev more to make it rotate therefore reducing the power?

[ss-racing66]

My advise is, let him get used to it in a wide open space, or have him ride it on a motocross track 3 days. You don’t want him learning near immovable objects.

[ss-racing66]

2 minutes ago, Jeff Rainey said:

Cool....I'm not an experienced guy when it comes to bikes. So the flywheel.....I'm assuming it's a heavier flywheel that causes the engine to have to rev more to make it rotate therefore reducing the power?

It simply acellerates slighlty slower

[Jeff Rainey]

1 minute ago, ss-racing said:

It simply acellerates slighlty slower

OK that makes sense. Thank you!

[dfesmire99]

12 minutes ago, dfesmire99 said:

I bought my son a 2003 Honda CR125 when he was 14 & he caught onto the proper use of that throttle right away. Give him a little time & he'll be asking for a bigger/faster bike sooner than you'll want him too!! He'll be just fine!!

I should have mentioned that my son had been riding this 1988 Honda 250R since he was 12 years old. That did help him a bit w/ the throttle control & he had also been on Honda dirt bikes (50/70/80) since he was 6 years old.

[Orange Crush 500]

With your sons past experience, i dont think u  have anything to worry about with your son riding a Cr125. He will learn throttle control all by himself.

But as stated the 125 is not the best trail bike for a novice,  but the flywheel will help alittle with building the rpm's slower and be more controllable for him. 

But if you let him go, he will learn quickly and learn  to control it, and he will  be ripping around you in the near future,  and you will be trying to slow him down so you can keep up. Lol.

give him the proper safety gear like helmet, boots, chest protector, goggles, knee and elbow  pads and let him go.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Orange Crush 500

[hawaiidirtrider]

50 minutes ago, Jeff Rainey said:

Cool....I'm not an experienced guy when it comes to bikes. So the flywheel.....I'm assuming it's a heavier flywheel that causes the engine to have to rev more to make it rotate therefore reducing the power?

It slows the initial rpm when first throttling up then it has more rotating mass. Guys put heavier flywheel weights more for adapting 2 stroke mx bikes to trail bikes. There’s alot of info if you google search. There might be earlier threads on cr 125’s for that matter. Some put it on their bikes to smooyout the power. It’s a common mod. I put one on my cr 250 in the past.

https://www.steahlyoffroad.com/honda-cr-125-01-03-flywheel-weight-510l-7oz-510-9oz

Edited October 16, 2018 by hawaiidirtrider

[dirtjumpordie]

Your son can handle it.  14 is the perfect age for a CR125.  

 

[Jeff Rainey]

OK guys, so I bought the Steahly flywheel for the motorcycle. It came through the mail and my son decided to try and put it on before I got home...………. So he watched a YouTube video and saw where removing the spark plug and putting a string in the hole to lock the piston up would allow him to tighten the Steahly flywheel. All that worked well with one exception.....we can't get the string out. See below..... How screwed are we? I just couldn't allow myself to fuss at him....at least he tried.

[cooldudesmd]

Assuming the drive chain is on the bike, put it in gear and try to roll the bike backwards a hair (clutch out). The string is likely stuck with the piston at TDC (top of the stroke). If not, you can pull the head off the motor (probably something YOU should do). Someone will be along shortly with different/ better options/ explanations. If you have to pull the head off, it’s fairly straight forward.

 

 

[mlatour]

The string method works well but you must feed the string in while the piston is almost at TDC so that it has closed off all the ports,

also making sure the direction of rotation the engine while tightening or loosening the flywheel is going to immediately put pressure on the string.

 

Don't force anything (don't kick start or turn the flywheel with force!) as the string is no doubt stuck inside a port.  

If wiggling the flywheel back and forth in either direction won't free it, you should disassemble the cylinder head

and carefully pull out the offending piece with pliers.  Your mistake will cost you a gasket or a few o-rings.

 

I've gotten string stuck in my YZ125 cylinder once, by pulling / tugging on it too much a piece broken off but luckily was accessible thru the exhaust port.

Edited November 3, 2018 by mlatour

[Jeff Rainey]

Thanks guys! Sting is out with no damage!