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/127682
:PROJECT. BIKE· FMF Racing Kawasaki KX125 By Donn Maeda Photos by AI King JWr \~~0~9~ite~awa's aki KX125 is a . ' • But why isn' t it grea t? Well, though the bike is blessed with great ' suspension and good handling charac teristics, the stock mot or delivers lessthan-stellar power that leaves many KX pilots in the dust, especially on tracks where lightning-quick acceleration is a must. Simply put, a bone-stock ' 94 KXl25 wheezes like a fat kid with asthma. Shortly after the bikes hit American shores, Kawasaki engineers came up with some mods to help the KX's anemic powerband. "Cut the sidepanels, rejet the carbu retor and carve out some of the ribs on the bottom of the seat base," they told us. Apparently, the bike was a bit choked and needed better air flow . But, while the modifications helped, the little green machine that could was still down on power. ooOD BECOMES GREAT Just as we sat down to make plans for our KXl25 project bike, a note from Don Emler came over the fax. "FMF has joine d forc es w ith Terry Varner," it read . While Emler needs no introduction, Varner's reputation is best known amongst Southern Californians. For many years, Varner operated his own race shop, Varner Racing. The small company had a cult following, with its claim to fame being a pair of ATV Grand National Championships, won with multi-time champ Gary Denton. Varner had been in affiliation with Emler since 1985, and the two often shared tuning secrets with one another. Varner moved into the same facilities as Emler in April of '94, and since then, FMF has completed their list of services available and become a full-service race shop. In addition to offering their wellknown Gold Series Pipes and Power Core silencers, FMF now offers motor mods and suspension hop -ups. One call solves all? You can't beat that, in our book. It was settled - our KX125 was off to see th e w izards at FMF. Varner and Emler tore into the KX's motor in search of more pow er. "We' ve taken on a ' m o re of everything' approach with the KXl25 engine," said Varner. "Our primary focu s was to strengthen mid-range and low-end, and that's what our head and cylinder modifications accomplish." Varn er changed the shape of the cylinder's exhaust ports, altered the transfer ports and milled the cylinder head to raise the compression slightl y. But what about top-end power? Simple: FMF bored out our stock 36mm carburetor to 38mm. In addition, Kawasaki's upd a ted reed p eta ls, (p art #12022-10 74) were add ed . The n ew (Above ri ght) FMF upped the power output of the KX125 co nsiderably, and the bike pulls hard from mid-range on up. (Right) There's little doubt that the bike has been modified by FMF. How many lo gos can you count?