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The begining

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    In the nineties, I used to own and ride a 2 stroke 100cc Kawasaki RTZ. There were quite a few Japanese 2 stroke bikes around to tinker with. The Yamaha RX 100 was one of the most popular two-stroke,  100cc  motorcycles around at that time. Fast forward twenty years later and I bought myself a midlife cycle, but the force within to tinker and rebuild something was still strong. A mate of mine here in the land of Oz had bought one of these 1980's Yamaha RX 125 a few years back.  Intrigued by the fact that you could still get one down under, I spent countless hours browsing Facebook marketplace ads and gumtree listings. Finally, all the stars had lined up and I  found this little beauty. Rented a trailer with another mate of mine and drove up north to get this baby home! Yes, you can imagine the situation with the Missus when she saw this little rust bucket! But I wasn't one to get phased by a little, err may be a moderate amount of rust and a bike th...
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Rear wheel and sprocket maintenance

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 Since I had removed the wheel drum and brake shoes to replace them with new ones I decided to check my bearings and regrease them. Turned out to be a longer job than I expected as I had to clean the hub remove the sprocket and then clean the chain as well. below are some pictures.  This was how it looked with all the grease and dirt on it. Needed this bigass tool to remove the sprocket nut  One of the main differences between professionals and amateurs is using the right tool for the job.  Often trying to force a nut with a wrong spanner and hammer can damage the nut. After removing the wheel. Before the scrubbing!  After the scrubbing!  Used some Valvoline wheel bearing grease to lubricate the bearings. The bearings were still in good shape with no play and not gritty stuff.  Unbelievable for a 43-year-old bike! The final product!        
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Fixing the rear brakes

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So after finally getting the thing to move I needed to ensure it could stop as well! So here goes the next phase of my rebuild the brakes. Started by taking the rear wheel assembly apart and its a simple operation. The rear wheel assembly is pretty simple and I like simple things  The brake shoe drums had a lot of grim and dirt. However, the shoes were original Yamaha gear and still useable but I wasn't going to take chances with this. Especially after it had been sitting idle for so long. The last thing you want inside your brake drum is any grease or oil.  Gave it a good clean using some soap water a toothbrush and a hell of a lot of elbow grease.  Now it's nice and shiny. Bought these brake shoes from Thailand  After a slight struggle, I finally got them on.
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First ride

Finally, I get to ride the little beast!
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Side panel fixing

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The side panel  was scrathed  Used some epoxy as a filler  Had to sand it down  Here is the finished product
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Air filter replacement

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Getting it fired up for the first time

Well starting this was not as easy as I had first thought it to be. Replacing parts and putting them back to spec I imagined should do it but no it needs more than that. The first few hours of kicking it around resulted in nothing but frustration.  Checked the fuel flowing  in the fuel filter  Checked the spark plug, tip remove the plug leave it plugged to the cable and hold the metal portion against the engine and kick the kickstart if u see a nice blue spark your sparky is fine.  Still, no smoke and the engine just would not start.  Then I found the following tips to start a 2 stroke engine.  Choke on  Tilt the bike so you can get enough gas into the carb  Five small soft kicks to draw the gas into the carby. The ignition and a hard kick  And boom I had a brief amount of joy where the engine revved really high before dieing. Now I had cleaned the tank, cleaned the air filter and rebuilt the carb with a new kit. That should do it, shouldn't ...
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