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/128239
Topar Racing makes the anodized upper and lower triple clamps, while the bars are Universal's So lex bar. The Sen DEC hour meter w ill help you keep track of maintenance inte rvals. Pro Circuit turned the m erely excellent KX susp e ns ion int o awesome suspensi on . .... S TO RY A ND PHOTOS-BY BLAKE CONNER -- hen it comes to rid ing motocross , I love rid ing 125s. I was alwa ys a road-ra c e guy , but since starting at Cycle News ove r three years ago , I've become addict ed to motocross. As a kid I had th e opportunity to trail ride a l o t wi th fri ends and their bikes, but my parents weren 't too hip on the id ea of my owning a bike. So let' s just say that I' m a late... well, rea ll y late bloomer. One thing that I learned right away was that I'm much more comfortable riding 125cc two -strokes 250cc four-strok es on the motocross track. I enjoy riding 250s and big thum pers on ~tJ1 e old school, Ca rlsbad -type - t r ack s . but for the Supercrossy . -.Sou th ern Ca lifornia tracks the 12 5 s are perfect for me . The only . problem is that it's a lot of work ke iPing the ' tiddlers on the pipe, 'especi all y' when I'm chasing Editor Gar ruthers ' around on h is YZ250F. While he's able to take.to the inside line in every corner, I'm stuck ' tr y in g to _~a il the outside berm at mach speed ,1:ne weapon 1 _ decided ~ needed to .counter th e four- . s troke's.advantage ~ver my t w o stroke "w a s m ;;;'e' -dis pl ~cement ...so;newh~re between.a 125 a~d 250. - - Th~t's why i g ave Rick Peterson at .or - ... .- - ... ;. The Powersport Graphx Gripz shroud graphics help loc k you in place In those bumpy, nits. e ye l . n RPM a call to see what he could do for ' me. T he Kawasaki KXI25 won our 2003 Cy cle News 125cc Shootout, based on its excellent power, awesome handling and impeccable sus pension. So what better bike to pick for m y ultimate giant killer? RPM's KX 167 kit is one of the company 's m ost rad ical transformations . In order to attain this displacement, the motor n eeds to be bored and stroked , because the bore can 't be made any larger than 60mm without getting too close to the water jacket. The KX 's stock bore an d stroke dimensions are 54 x 54.5mm , while RPM strokes the 167 to 59mm. One of the k ey s to RPM's motor is thai" after the cy linder is bored and th e rest of the head m od ifications are . m ade, th e cylinder is nikas il plated in house. And there isn 't a better anti -frictlon coating - out there . If you feel a Iitt1; mo;e conservat ive but still want a decent increase in power, you can also go for the KX 151 k it . I had n need for this o wimp'Y'approa_ and went for it all. ch The more th e me rrier•. I figured, when • it came to displacement v • Additionally; I needed to personal- . ize and update the c h assis to de al .. _ !IS • NOkMBER 5 . 2003 23