Last month I managed to drop onto this bit of retro goodness... a Honda SL125 Street Scrambler...
I've been after one of these for about a year but they are few and far between, very few were imported into the UK in the early 70's although they were very popular in the US, Australia and Asia.
I owned one back in the early 80's and have always had a fondness for these old bikes. They were a front runner of the modern Enduro and were tough old things. The 125cc engines is a single cylinder 4 stroke and are known for their longevity and strength.
This particular bike first registered on 1st July 1975 and retailed at £319.00 It was only used on the road for 3 years and was last taxed in 1978...
it's only done 5556 miles and has had 4 registered keepers...
Most of these for sale seem to be imports with either seized engines and missing or mismatched parts .... this bike is a genuine UK market bike with matching frame and engine numbers which makes it that bit more collectable. I've bought it a a long term project and investment and eventually plan to do a nut and bolt rebuild on it. It runs and the engine is good and strong... sohv engines can be a bit tappety but this one is fine.
All of the original parts are there but at some point over the bikes 43 year old lifetime someone has cut the loom out and wired the magneto directly to the rectifier and coil... there's not even a kill switch on it at the moment so I need to track down a loom to get all the electrics working properly.
In the meantime I'm going to get some insurance on it and have a bit of fun on it around the village... being a 1975 bike it's mot and tax exempt. I can't quite get my head around the fact that I was only 10 years old when this bike was new.... seems like a lifetime ago.
A few pics from today when I was riding it up and down my drive ...
the plan and hope is to get it like this...
I've been after one of these for about a year but they are few and far between, very few were imported into the UK in the early 70's although they were very popular in the US, Australia and Asia.
I owned one back in the early 80's and have always had a fondness for these old bikes. They were a front runner of the modern Enduro and were tough old things. The 125cc engines is a single cylinder 4 stroke and are known for their longevity and strength.
This particular bike first registered on 1st July 1975 and retailed at £319.00 It was only used on the road for 3 years and was last taxed in 1978...
it's only done 5556 miles and has had 4 registered keepers...
Most of these for sale seem to be imports with either seized engines and missing or mismatched parts .... this bike is a genuine UK market bike with matching frame and engine numbers which makes it that bit more collectable. I've bought it a a long term project and investment and eventually plan to do a nut and bolt rebuild on it. It runs and the engine is good and strong... sohv engines can be a bit tappety but this one is fine.
All of the original parts are there but at some point over the bikes 43 year old lifetime someone has cut the loom out and wired the magneto directly to the rectifier and coil... there's not even a kill switch on it at the moment so I need to track down a loom to get all the electrics working properly.
In the meantime I'm going to get some insurance on it and have a bit of fun on it around the village... being a 1975 bike it's mot and tax exempt. I can't quite get my head around the fact that I was only 10 years old when this bike was new.... seems like a lifetime ago.
A few pics from today when I was riding it up and down my drive ...
the plan and hope is to get it like this...