Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126027
• er-tensite lJU FLYING MACHINE FACTORYvs. DG PERFORMANCE SPECIALTIES By Ji m Gianats is The eni gma o f the popularity of Honda's CR·125 Elsin ore is a little hard to explain. When it was in tr oduced to the public two years ago, there wasn't an other bike that could tou ch it for its speed, handling or price. But that was two years ago. Today th e market is proliferated with bikes that will blow the number panels off a stock Honda CR·125 and leave it spinning doughnuts in the dirt. Machinery like Yam aba's YZ-125 and Su zuki's RM-125 offer twice the handling and gob s more power for about the same price. A couple of hundred dollars more and y ou can have a Bultaco or Husky 125 which offers as much power along with big bike handling. Much of the CR-12 5 's popularity enigma has to be Marty Smith's two time l25 cc National Championship victories on the look alike bu t mechanically dissimilar RC-125 works bike . Now that the production CR -125 looks just that much m ore like the RC125 because of the red pain t , sales are guaranteed to con tinue at a fever pitch. One fact remains. If yo u wa nt to race a CR·125 in the big leagues the initial investment could prove to be very high. Bu t putting all that B.S. aside about the high cost of racing, when other machinery is availab le at a mu ch lower competitiveness per dollar ratio, perhaps the other reason for the popularity is the fact there's more trick stuff Fly ing Machine Factory, bu ilders of Mary Sm ith ' s practice bikes, offer a "Marty Sm ith replica Engine Kit" that will convert an y mild-mannered Elsinore into a phone booth destroying pseudo RC works machine. available for it than any other bike in existence. And y ou know how American riders are gassed on trick st uff. ' . Last year yo u could expect to double your initial investment, spe nding around $1600 incl uding purchase price of a CR·125 to make it compe titive for professional caliber r acin g. If the lat es t bikes introduced at the Anaheim St adium American Motocross Fin als by DG Performance Specialities and Flying Machine Factory are any indication of what you'll need to be competitive during 1976, you can expect your initial investment to triple. Fo r those of you interested in $2400 Honda CR-125 Elsinores , read on. Fo r th ose of you fain t of heart, p lease tum the page. DG Performance Specialities' bike is perhaps the mo st exotic of the two. Bro c Glover piloted number 43 to the overall win of the High School Championships at Anaheim Stadium. The FMF engine kit has been around a wh ile now, prov ing itself to be fast and reliable. Just ask Marty . 30 / Oth er than the main engine assembly and the wheel hubs, there's hardly an original part left on the bike. Most n otable change is a special lay down frame by DG with a super-strong b ox -section steel swingarm an d Girling gas sh ocks. For t hose of yo u who can't afford to go for a whol e n ew frame, DG st ill has th eir lay down frame kit (which includes a new swingarm) for modify in g a stock frame. If you don ' t want to weld on your fra me and hate to Extended lowe r sliders and big front fender gives the FMF bike a mean look.