DOn't buy old banger Honda CG125 bikes from E-Bay

[Jayneflakes]

I had some training today with a company called Motag in Weston Super Mare. The Instructor is a mate of Carol's from when she used to work for them and he is a great guy, although he makes me laugh when he tells me what Carol was like when she trained him.

Anyway, I prepped the bike yesterday, making sure Henry the Honda was full of oil and I even changed the spark plug. I thought everything was working sweet after I had even adjusted the throttle cable tension because it felt very slack. This morning I filled up the tank and set off for my days training for my Test on Friday. This morning was the off road test training, swerving through cones, stopping without locking up the rear wheel and then some slow control. All fairly easy stuff and my Instructor was ace.

Then after lunch came the road ride, just to make sure I was up to speed for my test. Today I learned about emergency stops and pulling over while every local biker sails past laughing!

The damn bike packed up again... That £300 E-Bay bargain bucket motorbike is cursed. The throttle cable I replaced (after it snapped and burnt out the clutch) last time was a pattern part and today it snapped again. Then to make matters interesting the gear box got stuck in third and I had to wait for ages before it would snap out of gear.

Now I know that as a motorbike mechanic I am still learning, but this seems almost personal. I was told that old banger CG gear boxes do get sticky and I have learned my lesson with pattern parts, perhaps there is a reason why the Honda original costs about £30.

Were it not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all. Anyway, I got it back home by bodging it with a mountain bike cable from work and have removed the offending cable. There must be a way of making cables at home with out having to pay such a huge amount of cash, surely?

Right, I am going out on the Mountain Bike, that never packs up...

I can't see what can be so special about a throttle cable. It's just a wire inside a plastic sheath! Have a look at how it's routed, maybe there's something causing the cable to fail. Did they both break in the same place? CG125's have a reputation as pretty bomb-proof, but I'm sure most just get ragged and/or neglected to death. Try using the mountain bike cable, as long as its sheathed to stop the cable rubbing round bits of frame I can't see how it would be any different. Are you sure it's the throttle cable, not the clutch cable? That would be more likely to burn out the clutch (if it was causing slip). I can't see how the throttle cable failing would do anything other than cause revs to drop to idle, and a stall if the clutch didn't get pulled in.

Good luck!

[punyXpress]

Hein Gericke used to do d-i-y cable kits. A length each of inner & outer & a selection of ends. Probably still do.

[yorkie_chris]

vehicle wiring products sell kits for making cables.

[Dave20046]

Doubt it was due to it being an aftermarket cable (unless it was a really poor one!) are you sure it just wasn't routed funny?

heing geriek do the cable repair kitss

[Jayneflakes]

I think the cable supplied was too thin, it broke at the nipple again. Also on checking the other end, a small splitter block had got stuck in the housing and jammed. If there was a tight spot at the splitter, it could weaken a thin cable.

I managed to fit a new cable, but the splitter is the real cause. It pulls two cables out of the carb and I suspect that these are what are running tight because the splitter is worn. For now it is sitting in the garage and I am going to have to shell out for a Honda one.

As for the gear box, I can only imagine that the route of this is 30 000 miles of learner riders, burning out clutches and changing gear badly. After the car park training, slow control and traffic, I think it just over heated and would not shift down. It always struggles with first gear, but it has never struggled in third before.

However, after careful reflection of the scenario, I would blame rider input and maintenance. Henry is an old bike, he burns oil, needs new rings and probably a full rebuild. It wont happen though, because any spare cash I have is going to go into my SV instead. She only has 8 000 miles on her clock and her gear shifts are always smooth.

[yorkie_chris]

Two cables? What model is it?

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Two cables? What model is it?

It is an old G reg, CG125 BrJ.

The cable wraps around the twist grip part and enters the housing. It follows the frame tubes down to half way along the tank where it enters a black plastic tube roughly half an inch in diameter. Inside the black plastic tube is a steel block that has two slits in the sides and a hole drilled through the centre. The cable is soldered through the drilled hole and the two slits hold the two cables from the Carburettor. (Similar to an Oddessy Gyro cable. See below)



The two cables that come out go into the Carburettor, one goes down through the top and has a very strong pull on it, the other goes to the side and activates a cam. I do not know what they do though, any knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

The top one opens the carb-slide, and the cam on the side is the throttle return spring - doesn't actually open anything in the carb at all.

If I remember rightly, anyway