At first I thought it was an old, ratty CD175. But I looked a little closer under the road grime. Turned out to be a 1968 125SS. The owner came back as I was peering at the machine. A young lad who explained that he had just passed his test and was moving on. Was I interested in buying the bike? £350 cash. He gave me his phone number, started the OHC twin first kick and roared off down the road. The engine sounded good and there was no smoke out of the exhaust. The clock read 23000 miles.
Back home I consulted the UMG - 15hp, 75mph, 70mpg and 250lbs, at least when new. The price seemed about right, too, but that didn't stop me phoning up to offer £250. We agreed on £300, and him riding over to my house to deliver the machine. A quick test ride revealed no immediate problems and the deal was done.
One reason for buying this machine was to persuade my son on to two wheels. He was seventeen, fed full of TV inspired fantasies about fast cars and looked askance at the Honda's old fashioned appearance. It took me a while to explain to him that in its day the Honda was a state of the art, sporting machine and would, even now, beat the balls off 12hp restricted learners. For myself, I was quite happy screaming around on the high revving little twin, revelling in the fight with gearbox and throttle. The gearchange had some quaint ideas about slickness, needed a firm foot and a week or so of learning. The power only came in way up the rev band and the gap between the four ratios was large. Nothing an experienced rider couldn't cope with.
I took the kid on the back a few times to get him used to the experience. The suspension probably wasn't stock as it was very firm and shrugged off our combined weight. The Honda went wide in corners, needing a lot of correcting but could be banked over so far that the stand dug in. The resulting lurches had the passenger in religious experience mode, judging by the way he hung on.
After several trips he was ready for a go on the controls on a deserted country road. It wasn't an impressive sight as he was lurching and wandering all over the place, mainly as he kept finding false neutrals. He finally found a gear and scooted off up the road flat out. A good job it was a long road as he took a while to sort himself out. He came back with a grimace rather than a grin. Oh well, it looked like I'd have the bike all to myself.
After the first month of thrashing I gave the bike a full service - oil, points, valves, plugs and tensioner. All straightforward but the points needed a bit of cleaning and one of the spark plugs nearly cross-threaded. Old Honda alloy is not the best in the world but tolerable if a little care is taken.
One annoying trait was that every time I filled up the petrol tank, half of it came seeping out of the cap. The solution was to cut up a bit of old inner-tube, making sure not to obscure the vent hole. This wore out after about a month and still allowed a slight amount of fuel to escape but it a was better than just having half the tank filled - fuel was 45 to 50mpg which didn't give much of a range.
As well as fuel spillage it would also often flow out of the carb bowl when the float needle stuck. I think this was caused by the inside of the tank corroding, sending grit into the system - only the reserve tap had a gauze filter (and consequently rarely worked). The red and grey bike was otherwise in good nick for a machine 25 years old - I've seen five year old CG125s that look much worse!
Vibration didn't seem much of a problem, only coming in hard when I sat there with the throttle to the stop in second or third gear. If I resisted the urge to change up, the whole bike started buzzing, even the petrol tank thrumming away between my legs. Ridden into the red in third, then knocked up to fourth, a long road would put as much as 80mph on the clock but more moderate revving through the gears only gave 70mph.
Despite having 15 horses, any number of restricted 125s would see it off up to 40mph when the Honda started to catch up, getting into its stride at 50mph, taking them at 55 to 60mph, and not letting them catch up again. This infuriated learners on modern machines. One such came up to me when I'd pulled over for a fag to tell me it wasn't half bad for a 175! His jaw dropped to his kneecaps when I pointed out the real capacity.
The Honda had a two stroke-like habit of oiling up a plug in town, then coughing along at sub-moped speeds until it cleared up. It may have been a bit of valve wear or an oil ring on the way out but it wasn't a chronic problem, happening about once a week. A new set of plugs every other month helped as did 500 mile services.
I let a friend use the bike for a weekend. He dominated the machine, being over six feet tall and twenty stone in mass. He came back quite happy with the experience, having thrashed the bike from Bristol up to Manchester and back. However, his mass had wrecked the kickstart mechanism - the lever wouldn't return to its original position. The spring was broken. A bit of wire kept it in the upright position and I had to perfect my first kick technique. The motor always needed the choke from cold and preferred a dead throttle until it rattled into life. Despite pathetic electrics, that made the SS dangerous at night, it usually came to life first time.
The bike was certainly comfortable and competent enough for running through traffic, even the clutch refused to drag, a common old Honda complaint. The SLS drum brakes were adequate stoppers in the dry and nicely sensitive in the wet; the shoes last for ages and there're no calipers to corrode. Unlike the CD175, though, there's only a minimal chainguard and the chain needed attention every 200 to 300 miles, despite a soaking in Linklyfe grease.
Overall feel of the 125SS was just a little nervous, especially in the wet on the Far Eastern tyres, but there was only 250lbs to control, a low seat height and not a hint of the top heavy feel found in, say, a Superdream. Potholes would shake the whole chassis but the oscillations were damped out as soon as the tarmac proper was regained. The bike felt better than a five year old Superdream I'd once owned but nowhere near as good as the TZR 125 I've recently acquired as a replacement.
The only real mechanical problem I had was a gearbox seal leaking oil. They are still available from bearing factors and can be knocked in without too much hassle. The seal quickly becomes covered in crud thrown off the chain, so it's a chronic problem on Hondas of this era.
In all, I did 6000 miles in seven months. Because it's faster than the 12hp learners I was able to sell it for £450, which meant I'd had all my riding for free. Lovely. I finally persuaded my son on to the TZR, he was much more impressed by its looks even if, in 12hp form, it's no faster than the Honda.
Garreth Dale