I have an xv125 and wanna paint the lower forks, is there a way of doing it in situ,  without removing front whel and brakes etc, 

You can paint the forks in situ but it's never going to be as good a job as taking the wheel out and doing it that way. I mean by the time you have masked everything up and got it so you get no over spray you could have taken the wheel out mudguard off and finished it! Best advice, remove wheel, mask top of stanchion, sand it down and spray it, job done.

Just acquired  a set of fork that were painted black , scraped them back with Stanley blade, and 1200 wet/dry,  looks mint now,,