Custom Honda CG125 Scrambler by Scars Motorcycles.

In my last video, I visited SCAR's Motorcycles Workshop in Peckham and Jack, the owner, showed us the Honda CB650 that he exhibited at the Bike Shed show last year. Not only will that bike appear at this year's show again, but Jack's also been working on a new build, a CG125 that he's going to talk us through today. This is a Honda CG125 from 1995. Obviously, it looks a bit older than it does from when it came out of the factory, but I'll just run through the bike from front to back, I think, and tell you exactly what's been going on. We'll start with the tyres. These are just Continental TKC 80s. A bit tricky to get the right size on this, especially with the rear to do the swingarm clearance, but a bit of trial and error, get the right size, but nothing too chunky, but enough to make it give it that scrambler stance I was going for. These aluminium mudguards, they came from a guy who just rolled them for me, and then I just finished them off with a brushed effect, and then just cutting it in into the forks. Then if we go to the headlight, it's just a very simple one from, I can't remember where I got it from now, but very simple with LED indicators, rental handlebars, slight rise, and just to get a bit higher stance for the scrambler effect. Then we've got just some brown gum handle grips with some old-school looking switch gears off a Honda CG, but I'm not too sure which year, but they're a good eBay find. And then a simple Speedo with just a light, nothing else really, and then all your information you can just get from your switch gears. The tank was sprayed by Paint Monkey, you can check them out on Instagram. Did a really nice job, and this colour's actually off a Ford, just with a little black detailing, so that's kind of really nice how that just lines up with the seat, flows down, and then this seat just covered in leather, but that detail sort of lines up with the frame there. Powder-coated frame, it's got a slightly sort of metallic look to it, and the engine's done the same as well. That's pretty standard apart from the RAM air filter and tweaking of the carb so that it can fuel the extra air going in. The exhaust, it's just a universal fit, sounds quite throaty, just a little single thumper. And then what else have we got? Again, we've just got another little aluminium tail tidy which incorporates the rear light and indicators. Again, there's LED flashes, re-chromed wheels, standard suspension, and just good polish as well. What made you choose to do the 125? Because you did a 650 first, so it's like a smaller capacity bike. What was the reason you chose the CG? The CG was just to sort of, mainly because it appeals to a wider market, a lot more people have licenses, they can just jump on a 125 from a standard driving license, and especially in sort of places in London or other cities, it's just a nice little quick get-around. And yeah, after working on the CB650, I just fancied something a bit simpler. But in actual fact, the same amount of work goes into this as the other custom, it's just a smaller engine, that's the only thing, and you can pick it up with your hands instead of using cranes. Because you were saying there was a few things that were a bit, like the carbs would be the thing that was easier? Yeah, the carburettor is easier just to tune up because it's just a couple of screws, I didn't re-jet it, there's only one of them so you don't have to sync them all, obviously you've got four carbs, then you've got to sync them all. And generally it's just easier, and it's kickstart as well, not electric, so you're not worrying too much about where the faults are, it's just turn it over very simply. And yeah, it's just something I could, just an accessible bike really. You said it was a bit simpler than doing that bike, a lot of work still, but anything particularly difficult or unexpected that came up on it? Good question. Not really? Not really, no, because there is a photo on Instagram of what this looked like beforehand, and it had this sort of, just a horrible 90s sort of plastic wobbly sort of design at the time, and I suppose getting the fuel tank fitting right, because obviously underneath it's essentially the same bike as it was made in the 70s, but the way the fuel tank's mounted is different, so I had to cut away the old mounting, drill a hole through the frame and then put a new mounting, and just making sure it's all lined up correctly so that the lines are flowing, because it's quite easy to spot when someone just plonks a tank on the bike and expect it to look like a cool bike, it takes a bit of time to get all those lines flowing. Yeah, stuff like CXs have that kind of slightly upward tilt, and a lot of people kind of flatten those out and it really changes the stance of the bike. Yeah, and a lot of people, they will then try and compensate in other areas, like pushing the forks through the triple tree here, to lower the front, but it kind of messes up handling the bike, so it's nice to keep it as standard as possible, without sort of fiddling around too much, if you're not going around the realms of putting forks or upside down forks on it, or whatever you want to do. So it's still pretty much stock, apart from the tank and obviously the accessories that go on it, like the suspensions are the same, the swing arms are the same, obviously the tyres will change the handling, but it's the sort of look I was going for really. Yeah, did you say the tank was from the original, or is it a different year? I don't know, I've got it second hand, so it's a bit impossible to say what year it came from, but it's the same tank as they put on photos of the early 80s, even the late 70s ones. And then was there any other bits you swapped out, I think you said the switch gear were off? Yeah, so I found these on eBay, but I'm not too sure what bike they actually came off of, it was obviously an older one, but yeah, I could do some research actually, because these actually look pretty good in it, there's no wing mirrors on it, so optional extra, look over the shoulder, and the little speedo is just from a company in Germany, but it's super simple, that's what I kind of wanted to go for, because you could have like the lights there, and you know, you're turning left, turning right, four beams on, but you can see all that just by looking at your controls really, and then yeah, it's tricky because a lot of time these speedo cables, they're so rigid in the way that they turn, so if they don't have enough curve on them, then they don't spin properly from the wheel to give you an accurate reading, so routing that, so it's not interfering with too much, I mean here it is slightly rubbing on the headlights, so I might have to just put a little cushion on that to stop it from wearing through the paint, but there's not much movement in that when the bike's turning, so that's a bit tricky, obviously wiring is difficult, that's probably one of the hardest bits actually, because you've got all this gumph and crap from before, where they've had lights and stuff around here, and you've got to somehow tidy that all away, and you know, you want to keep all this clean and nice, so it doesn't sort of interrupt the negative space, because that's, as well as what I'd call is the positive space of the tank, and the seat, and the bars, and the wheels and stuff, but with the bikes it's almost about the negative space as well, so what's left here and I mean with these bikes, obviously being a smaller engine, they do look a bit weedy down here when you start filling up stuff, that's why I've kind of tried to keep it as stock as possible, apart from the handlebars and stuff, because if you start like, I don't know, I'm not a fan of putting like clip-ons, I'm probably going to disgruntle people here, but with putting clip-ons and stuff, it's trying to be something it's not, so it's not a powerful bike, so you know, why am I going to make it look like a 650 or a, you know, 800cc motorbike? Because you said actually the guy who bought it off used it for tearing around the fields and that kind of thing. Yeah, it was the right state when I bought it, it was just covered in mud and bits falling off of it, so yeah, if you check out the before shot on my Instagram, you'd probably be quite surprised what it looked like, but that's part of it, it's part of the fun, sort of restoring something that was completely dilapidated and ready for the scrap really, and then bringing it back to life and giving it a new lease of life, as it were. So, plans for it are, it'll be at the Bike Shed show in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Then after that? After that, it's going to go to the Mal Mile, or Mally Mile, however you want to pronounce it, and yeah, just going to tear around on it really. The only annoying thing is that with the new emissions in London, it's a bit tricky, even though it's such a small bike, you can't actually drive it in central London anymore, but yeah, just have some fun on it, I think. Sweet. Yeah. Anything else? I don't think so, no, that's about it, and this is my workshop. Thanks again to Jack for taking the time to make these videos with me. You can see more images of his builds and videos of the bike starting up over on his Instagram, which I've linked to in the description below. Let me know what you think of the bikes down in the comments. Personally, I think this CG125 is really tastefully done, and I think it'd make a great little urban runaround, and of course, if you're new here, and you want to see more videos like this, click subscribe, and I'll catch you next time.