LIGHTEST HONDA CR125 EVER BUILT: TWO-STROKE TUESDAY

On this week’s Two-Stroke Tuesday we take a look back at an insane Honda CR125 project bike from the mid ’90s built by Terry Good. 2-Stroke Behind The Build features another Honda CR125 project bike with this  one being built by Justin Myerson and the crew at Motowhips.

In 1994 Roger DeCoster tested a very special motorcycle for Dirt Bike Magazine. Terry Good had built one of the world’s lightest motocross bikes as a project of passion. It was a Honda CR125R that was used to see how much weight could be shaved away if money were no object. For years it was just a dream bike. There was no reason for it to exist; it would have been illegal. Terry Good, the man behind the International Motocross Museum, had been harboring thoughts of building an ultra-light motocross bike since the early ’70s when the Suzukis of Joel Robert and Roger DeCoster had come to the U.S. and made winning look so easy. “I remember watching those old Suzukis and wanting to have something like that bad,” Terry says today. “They just looked light.”

This machine was the brainchild of Terry Good and was inspired by the works Suzukis piloted by Roger DeCoster in the early ’70s. At 167 lb. this just might be the lightest CR125R ever built and no one knows exactly how much it cost. Not even Terry.

Yep that’s a Mugen top-end and just about every fastener you see is titanium. Those aren’t carbon fiber graphics, the fenders, radiator shrouds, tank, airbox and number plates are actual carbon fiber. This saved another almost 9 pounds but was very, very expensive.

Not just anyone can build a bike like this. Many of the parts were HRC leftovers. Some parts, like the right-side-up forks weren’t even found on works bikes of the era. 911 MX Shop supplied loads of titanium that would ultimately lose 6.5 pounds compared OEM.

The pipe was hand-built by Don Emler himself at his Flying Machine Factory. Made with 47 cones out of special 22-gauge steel saving another 1.75 pounds. The four-inch long FMF silencer was loud but saved another half pound.

The man that inspired the build just happened to be on staff at Dirt Bike Magazine in 1994. Roger DeCoster is to this day still one of a very select group of people to ride this machine.

2-STROKE BEHIND THE BUILD

A remarkable 2003 CR125R is the subject of this week’s Behind The Build. What started out as a few pictures on a cell phone turned into an absolute work of art! We sent Justin Myerson at Motowhips images of a 2003 Honda CR125R frame, swingarm, radiators and a set of cases. A few days later, we were at the Motowhips headquarters in Southern California dropping off multiple boxes of parts that contained what we hoped was a complete 2003 CR125R. CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW FOR MORE.