My name is Kincade and I am so excited to show
you this Suzuki RM125 build from start to finish. I've put hundreds of hours into this
bike and am so proud of the outcome. I want to give a massive thank you to all of the
sponsors who helped out with this build and made it possible without me going broke. There are
tons of great parts and components on this bike. All links to sponsors will be in the description
below as well as links to my social media and tools and parts that I used on this bike.
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the build! I bought this 2003 Suzuki RM125 from a 13
year old kid who tore it apart. He had hopes to rebuild it himself, but became overwhelmed. I
spent $1000 and brought it home in cardboard boxes. It seemed mostly complete, but you never
really know when you buy a bike in boxes. Over the past few years, I had the opportunity to build
a CR, YZ and KX125 and I had been on the hunt for a Suzuki. I had a vision for an incredible Suzuki
that I wanted to bring to life, and this is it. The crankcase sustained some major pitting from
a previous failure when the bike had blown up. I was able to buff it out with the magic of
Pryme MX cleaning wheels. Once the cases were fully stripped down, I sent them off to Greg
Hitchko for some vapor blasting. I continued my progress by stripping the cylinder and sending
it off to Millennium Technologies for replating along with the transmission for micropolishing.
I also sent them the crankshaft with a new connecting rod from Pro X as the rod bearing was
completely blown up. The radiators were bent, grimy and caked in JB Weld, so I sent them off to
Myler's for repair as well. I had some discussions with MX Tech suspension about what we could
do to improve the suspension on this old bike, and I ended up sending the forks off to
them to receive some Blackjack cartridges. With so many parts sent off to so many
people and companies, I decided to continue my progress by stripping the chassis down to
get it ready for Powder Coating of Montana. After Powder Coating of Montana sandblasted my
parts, I brought some of them home to clean up a few imperfections and remove casting
lines. From there, everything went back to Powder Coating of Montana awaiting color.
I spent many, many hours using this Harbor Freight bench buffer with Pryme MX cleaning
wheels to restore axles and other components to better than new condition. Sometimes I
wish that this buffer had an hour meter. Whenever possible, I ground the casting
marks out of parts to give them that nice factory look. Also, I want to take a quick moment
to give a shoutout to my good friend Chandler Bouldin. We went to high school together and he
produces beats. He produced all of the beats you hear in this video specifically for use in this
video. He's a great friend of mine who makes awesome beats and if you ever have a need for
beats I would highly recommend checking him out. As parts slowly transformed
from grimy to restored, I chose to use brand new Pro X
bearings throughout this build. DeCal Works made the graphics and the
seat cover for this bike and they made an incredible custom seat cover to match my
design. I decided to install the seat cover while I awaited other parts in the mail and
procrastinated a few other areas of the build. Initially, my plan with the wheels was to
only reuse the stock hubs but not the rims. Unfortunately, I couldn't find gold rims so I
instead decided to have the stock rims anodized. At the point when I tore these
wheels apart I did not yet know that, which is why I did not remove the tires
before cutting the wheels apart. Hence why you see me cutting the tires off
with a hacksaw like a barbarian. Although the rims were very beat up, with a lot
of time and effort on the bench buffer and with the dremel using Pryme MX cleaning wheels they
were restorable. I got them looking almost new before I sent them off to TCR along with the
nipples for anodizing. Shortly after, I received a package from Millennium Technologies with the
old rod bearing as a souvenir and the crankshaft with a brand new Pro X connecting rod installed.
Along with freshly vapor blasted cases from Greg Hitchko, the engine build was finally able to
begin. I washed the cases thoroughly in my sink with Dawn dish soap to make sure that any abrasive
material from vapor blasting was fully removed, and then I baked the cases in the oven and
froze the bearings to aid with installation. For this build I used a brand new fastener
kit from Fast Metric for all new engine hardware. When you're going this all out on
a build, new bolts go a long way in the look of the bike so I was really, really happy to
have Fast Metric on board with this project. The OEM clutch basket had severe notching, so I
decided to upgrade to a Wiseco basket. The Wiseco clutch basket has numerous benefits over OEM
and I'm really excited to have it in this bike. Installing the piston is always an exciting
progress mark during the engine build, and I just knew that this bike was
going to absolutely rip with a brand new Pro X piston along with a replated
cylinder from Millennium Technologies. I opted for a Phathead cylinder head on
this build. Luke at Phathead racing is one of the nicest people you will ever deal
with and he is incredibly knowledgeable. These Phatheads have interchangeable domes so
that I can change the compression of the engine and switch between pump gas or race gas. Luke
also anodized these heads in a variety of colors and offers custom laser etching on
the heads so I ended up getting my initials on this one, which
I was really excited about. After some consideration, I decided
to paint the engine covers so I began preparation. Dupli-Color sent me this prep
spray that I used in the pre-paint process. VHT sent me the primer and engine enamel
that I used after proper preparation. The durability of this paint is
comparable to powder coating. Dupli-Color and VHT are paid sponsors of this
video. With that said, I have been using their products long before they became a sponsor of mine
and I stand by the quality of their products. Now if we could all just take a moment to appreciate
this gorgeous engine before it goes in the frame. I picked up my parts from Powder
Coating of Montana, and I was a little bit nervous about my choice of yellow
but very happy with it once I saw it in person. Powder Coating of Montana did an incredible job. I started getting the chassis together by
installing some IMS Pro Series footpegs. On this build, I chose to run Dirt Tricks
sprockets. Not only for their great looks, but for their 1 year warranty, durability,
weight and the fact that they’re made in the USA. So it wasn’t until the engine build was complete
and installed in the frame that I realized the kickstarter pivot was filled with dirt and
rust. This was literally the most I struggled with removing a bolt on the entire build. It
took my impact screwdriver and a sledgehammer to finally get it removed, and then a lot of
effort to get the kickstarter off of its shaft. From there, it went pretty smoothly with
regreasing it and making it good as new. After a whole lot of anticipation,
the suspension finally arrived from MX Tech. They managed to modify these
forks to fit their Blackjack cartridges as well as customize their National shock
to fit this bike. I can say with a high level of confidence there are very few
RM125s that will handle like this one! NoToil is not even one of my sponsors, but
I just have to say I am a huge NoToil fan. I wash my air filters in the washing
machine and dry them in the dryer. This Pro X air filter got a nice
coating of NoToil before installation. In addition to engine hardware, I utilized a
Fast Metric kit for new plastic bolts as well. The ignition cover was a step behind
the other engine covers due to the fact that I wanted to mask the letters off yellow
before painting the rest of the cover black. Per VHT’s instructions, I gave the yellow an
entire week to cure before doing the coat of black and I used some Dupli-Color foaming
prep spray to make sure all oil residue was removed before doing the black coat. From there,
I followed the instructions to bake it in the oven once again to make sure the paint was fully
cured before installing it on the bike. The radiators came back from
Myler’s looking amazing, with real welds in place of JB Weld
and completely straightened out. I was a little disappointed to find
that the seat did not fit properly with the Polisport restyle kit, so I made
some modifications to the side panels. Again DeCal Works supplied these awesome custom
graphics, and I used their application kit for graphic installation, which really helps eliminate
air bubbles and ensure proper graphic placement. I want to give a quick shoutout
to my amazing girlfriend Ren who got me these awesome Engelbert
Strauss overalls on a trip to Germany. These have been great for working
and poorly dancing in the shop. At this point I tried the seat again and it still did not fit, so I made further
modifications to the restyle kit. I used Rit dye to dye some of the OEM cable guides
black, and this stuff works like a charm. After this I finally got around to rebuilding the rear
brake, which I had been procrastinating for ages. The rims and spoke nipples finally came
back from TCR looking beautiful, and the hubs came back from Powder Coating of Montana
with a perfect color match to the graphics. I used brand new Pro X bearings and seals in the hubs, and then proceeded to lace up
the wheels with some brand new Excel spokes. I opted to run a 51 tooth Dirt Tricks zirconium
steel sprocket. This geared the bike down just a little bit because I knew I’d be doing some trail
riding on it along with a little moto riding, and from there I went with the Shinko 540
series tire combination. Shinkos have been awesome tires for me over the years and I’m
stoked to be running them on this build. The OEM front rim had to be drilled
out to fit Excel spoke nipples, so after 36 holes I was able
to lace up the front wheel. I will admit that I would be lying
if I said I didn’t pop one tube. To make this build even better, I bought
a modern CRF450 front brake on eBay, which bolted right up to the RM and is
much stronger than the OEM RM front brake. I was initially using a Chinese throttle assembly
I bought on eBay since the original was missing, but it ended up being junk. So I had
to swap out the throttle assembly, throttle tube and grips. So with this change
I decided to switch it up on the grips and went with some red ODI lock ons, which I
think really tied the bike together nicely. After 6 months of hard work, the vision I had for an incredible Suzuki RM125 build
had finally been brought to life. With the bike finally complete,
it was time for the first ride. This thing is so sick! Ahhhh
