By Jim Gianatsis
A neat little fox
in grand prix clothing
.".
There are two different ways for a
factory . to build a new 125cc
motocross bike. If you're a big
Japanese company like Honda,
Yamaha or Suzuki You'll design a
co mpletely new m'otorcycle from
.
the ground ~p . It will be smaller
and much lighter than the other
36
bikes in the company's lineup , and it's
dimensions will fit perfectly the 14 to
18 yea r old age group the bike is
intended to sell to.
On the other han d , if you're a smaller
European manufacturer like Bult aco o r
Hu sq varna ,. you know that your sales
vol ume is sma ller t ha n t he J apan ese
com pa nies. T he o nly way to build a new
125 cc m o tocr osser is to use as m an y
exis ting p art s as pos sible fro m othe r
bikes in yo ur lineup . The res ult migh t
so u n d lik e -a . b i k e t o o f u ll of
co m promi ses to b e co m petiti ve, but not
if th e p arts com e fr om o t he r m od els
which have th e rep utat io n alrea dy for
b ei n g lightw e ight rocketships tha t
handle.
Case in point is th e new Husqvarna
125 C R. It 's a little bike m ot or in a b ig
b ike fra me, yet it tips th e scales at less
th an 200 pounds. It's no t th e lightest
bike in its clas s, but it's n o t anc hor b ait
eit he r. Where the new 125 CR reall y
comes o n strong , th ough, is in the
handling department . It handles so well
that it almost makes its big brothers the
175/250 /360 GP Husk~s s~e m
awkward, and awkward certainly Isn't
th e right word to describe the'
winningest production bikes on t he
Nation al a n d International circuit.
Presently, Mik e Kessler has one of t he
new 125 CR Huskys in 3 rd p lace in the
125cc National Points Standings be hi nd
fa ctory riders Marty Sm it h and Bru ce
McDou gal on th eir tri ck Ho ndas and
Y am ah a s . Mike's Hu sky isn't even
ported. . . he runs it b ox stock in t he
tou ghest class of highly mod ified tri ck
st u ff going.
Our tes t bik e ca me to us co ur tesy of
Gary J ones (no, no t that Ga ry J ones)
an d his sho p, Cycle Sh ack in Pica yune.
M i ssi s s ippi. The only modifications
G ar y m ade to th e ' bike when he
prep ared it for Cycle News were to
replace t he 160 Bing m ain jet with a
150, and put l 60cc of regular 30 weight
n o n-deterg ent motor oil in each of the
Husky's fro nt forks. Gary explained
that . th e lighter 125 CR works better
with less oil in th e fo rks t ha n th e larger
Husky s which need 2 00c c of o il in each
fo rk leg. He was righ t , as we soon
discovered.
Gina Prichard, o ne of the fastest
