2001 Ballards RM125

The 125 hype has been at an all-time high from the start of the pandemic and I was fortunate to get on the front side of it bringing an epic YZ125 over to Australia that I ended up selling to get back on a Austrian machine. When you are riding a GasGas you are really limited to making big gains with performance and power with technology being as current as the model year you have. My GasGas is the complete package for me to go racing but to tinker and make something from nothing I started thinking a project bike that I could use to flip and learn a little doing it. I have built plenty of Yamaha’s KTM’s and now a GasGas 125, but I have always like the look of Suzuki’s.

So that’s it I was on the hunt for a RM125 that wasn’t a complete pile of crap and hada. Good base to work with. While my team at MXstore was looking for the next Wreckers to Checkers bikes I spotted a 2001 RM125 that looked like the right bike for me to use as a platform. The father and son that started this project did a lot of the important work but after some issues with using an aftermarket carb the bike seized the top end twice when it went lean. They found an OEM carb did a little clean up and paint and put it up for sale. The first day it was for sale I messaged the owner and said I’d take because there wasn’t any inventory, and I was itching for a project. “Note it’s not always good to buy when you are desperate”. Once I saw the bike, I could tell that it was meant to be rode not a show piece or flip so there was some low hanging fruit with clean up. The important part was the motor was fresh with all the cases freshly vapor blasted, Excel rims, Talon hubs, FMF pipe and silencer and other bits and pieces that would make this bike a great candidate for a project bike. I gave it a start and it fired right up a little rich down low and the idle a little high, but everything seemed tight.

I got the bike home and just did the stare down at while the Wife gave me the stare down as to what the heck did, I just buy and why a Suzuki.? I explained don’t worry! a little elbow grease and it will be back up for sale and I’ll put the money back in our bank account. I knew it was going to be a little more than that, but I was stoked with what I just got. After admiring my new project, I started tearing into hoping I wouldn’t uncover anything that would cost me money or a scavenger hunt for parts. As I was tearing into, I was really stoked on what I was seeing. The father and son didn’t hack it up when building it they were just not concerned with the little details that I have learned over the years.

Once I had the plastics stripped off, and it sat there like Julia Roberts in Pretty Women I started seeing the big gains I could make. The first major one was the swing arm was painted black, so I needed to get that taken off. The other was just a good clean-up of the radiators. I was going to service the linkage and swingarm bearings, so I wasn’t bothered about taking off the swing arm. Once I got the swing arm off, I took it and the radiators out to front yard for a clean-up. Once I hit the swing arm with the Ryobi Pressure washer the paint started coming off right away so that was a relief. I tried using just some Maxima Bio-Wash and scotch bright pads on the radiators but that wasn’t going to cut it so I went to my secret weapon Blitz alloy cleaner by Chemtech. This stuff works amazing to clean alloy and get it back to a fresh look instead of using a vapor blaster. Yes, it’s more work but it’s not a cost and you can do it yourself. Once I got the linkage, swingarm, and radiators cleaned up I decided to start using the Blitz on the brakes. I was pleased to see that worked the trick on those parts as well.

The heavy cleaning was done so now it was time to identify what parts I was going to use build this up and what theme was it going to be. Re-style or original? Inventory now days can help determine what the theme will be at times and in this case it did. I wanted to do a Bills Pipes Primal Impulse themed bike but finding a Bill Pipe was harder than I thought so I was going to stick with the FMF pipe and silencer and make the bike a Ballard’s Off-Road themed bike. Ballard’s is one of the inhouse brands at MXstore and they have some real trick parts that would apply to this bike build. I was going to use black anodised Ballard’s parts, so I decided to use the Polisport Black restyle kit.

Now it’s the time to get online at MXstore.com.au and get my parts. MXstore has the largest range of parts and accessories in Australia and when building this bike, I knew it was going to be a challenge for the company having everything in stock, but I wasn’t faced with many out-of-stock items when building out my bike in the MXstore Garage. I wanted to stay with a small number of key vendors, so I went with Ballards, Pro Taper, FMF, Maxxis, Maxima, Precision Bearings for this build

Ballard’s Pro Taper Maxxis

Brake line guide Bars. IT front

Clutch Cover Clutch Perch IT Rear

Ignition Cover lock on grips. Heavy Duty Tubes

front and rear sprockets

brake pads