Cynic

Teach you to check the bike properly next time eh. Tyre, tut tut.... Shock bushing, benefit of the doubt on that one but i bet there was a clonk, and as for the fork seal, you couldn't get away with a wipe and talc 20years ago. They see no end of bikes, soon as he saw that back tyre he would have changed into 'you ain't taking the piss outa me mode', my old man used to say it many a time (he MOT'd cars, taxi's and trucks) he had key pet hates and specific indicators and if they flagged up he would tear em apart. Esp cheapo taxi's. Bet you spend longer on it next time. My last MOT for the TDR, and i'm not saying where, Testers words.... "Fuck me thats tidy, I remember......." 2 cups of coffee and a chat later i came home with my pass. It was presented clean, good tyres, everything working as per. There was a tiny chance of a curveball screwing things up. Like the ballast resistor dieing at the MOT of my DT a few years ago that was annoying. Thats all. Hard lesson learnt. PS. If you can get a tyre off with a stanley knife, i'm glad your fighting on our side.........

But your still kicking it too hard.... I've had my DT over 20 years and been pretty pissed at it sometimes off road, wet, cold, bruised, etc but i have never managed to bust a kick start.

I nod to most everybody, trouble is most folk think the TDR is a 125 so i get ignored by the power rangers and the 125 riders recognise it as a 250 and again, probly the only time it happens nowadays most seem to defer to the bigger bike and slink away. Can, get, lonely, sniff

Mike your DT175 will have points for one of 2 reasons. It was a 125 and someone stuck the larger top end on, a favorite pastime of the oiks in the initial 125 laws (myself included ahem). Or the CDI died and some enterprising soul has made the retrograde step of points ig. Whats the engine prefix...my money is on 2A8-########## if your in the UK?

Pictures..............?

My friend you be speaking Americanos..... For us Limeys its thus: DT125, AT2-100199 on Pretty much covers Feb73-75 exhaust on the right.... DT125, 1F9-000101 75/6-78 very similar to above, exhaust on the left.... DT125 E 1G0-000101 78-79 again very similar, well nigh on exact apart from leccy start (very complicated and not worth the greif) Thats all we got in the UK.

As far as i know yes, they should fit but the box got an extra cog (from 5 to 6 speed) between the twinshock and the mx so ?

Not possible, 125 has 4 studs/holes 175 has 6. If you mean the whole barrel, piston etc then apart from a re jet all will be good (and a tweak to the oil pump), not much of a power difference (in my experience) but you will have to really rev the bastard to get the best of it as a 125.

Again, heat. Even money you heat the case with a heat gun and leave the shaft in the bearing (after chilling it in the fridge helps too) to keep it cool and it may fall out of the case, not joking! A heat gun is an engine builders best friend. When i rebuilt my DT motor i used the fridge/heat method and the bearings litterally rattled with the clearance they had till they heated up.

Could you not adopt a better starting technique, you shouldn't need to kick it that hard. I can start my 250 by hand and so long as i do it right my 175 goes easily (although not by hand).

Just an extra 2 peneth on the blow torch/heat gun option. A heat gun cannot heat the ali far enough to cause a problem no mater what setting etc and its constant.. Blow torch on the other hand......

Fogive me if your well aware of this but put the heat on the case and keep the stud as cool as you can, (damp rags etc) if you heat the stud you run the risk of damaging the case.

Suppose the biggest thing in your favour is the fact you have been riding a sportsbike already. The 125R will handle like the R6, as in steering inputs and such, seating position etc and will probably make the R6 feel like a tank for the first few miles with all the extra metal on board. It would have been a much bigger change going from a YB100.

Odd? are the carb tops sealing ok? can you see any high spots on the slide(s) it may only be one thats causing the issue. Have you set and balanced them at all?

Check your fuel feed and float height, sounds like fuel starvation to me more than the cables.

And the point of that would be? It still won't run, and compresion on a 2 stroke is a very mobile figure. Have you checked the other options such as ignition (which DT's are incredibly sensitive to) or fuel?

To fit what? CV, flatside, ?

Don't know on rebuilding the rear shock, so long as its got enough damping for the mot man i shouldn't worry. A cheap (read bodge) that is common is to re-drill the frame under the tank a little further back to lift the rear a little. Dont go back any more than an inch at most as that will equate to something like a 3 inch lift at the rear and seems to affect the sus ratio somehow as its firmer and helps. You really should weld some thick washers onto the the frame where you make the extra holes to put the strength back in the frame but its not vital (i can hear the restorers cringe ) the frame is plenty strong enough to handle it. I never had problems not welding the washers up. Other than that you can pi55 about with oil in the front if you want, maybe some stiffer springs but your flogging a dead horse tbh. The bike's strength is that it will soak up all the punishment you give it, more than enough to brake the newer stuff and keep on running. I have dunked mine more than once. Clean the plug 5mins stood on the back wheel and away you go. If you are running off road a lot you may want to knock up a sheild to keep the crud out of the airbox intake if you like puddles if yours is a 1980 model and run your gearbox breather and carb breathers up under the tank. You will anhialate the rear indicators very quickly, the tail light won't last long either and keep an eye on your fuel consumption as the tank is tiny 40mile is possible if you really enjoy yourself. The only other thing to watch is the u bend on the front pipe it is vulnerable infront of the bash plate. Otherwise apart from shares in WD40 (drench anything electrical) enjoy.

Giant killing on the DT, you want an open block road tyre on the rear, no silly huge blocked thing that you see on the modern crossers as you don't have the mud clearance on the sw arm. Do what you like with the front tyre. Thats more important off road anyhow. The suspention is limited, bike's 30yrs old, jack up kits appear from time to time on e-bay but its a lot of cash for what they are, how familiar are you with the fork internals? Don't be tempted by fitting DTR forks. You can fit them but you loose your steering lock massively and the disk is not that much better than the drum if its maintained. Try to bide your time till you get the technical bits, thats where the DT will shine. Tight twisty stuff and rely on spinning the rear up for traction. Don't forget it weighs a bloody site less a lot of the newer stuff.

Which one is he riding now, if its the 650 the TZR will feel like the engine is dieing at low revs. I would not be surprised ( and hope) to find very little wrong with the bike. My TDR 250 needs more than 4k just to move off and slowing into a turn with less than 5k on the taco would be bad as the engine will bog horribly.

Don't take this as an insult to your riding but 3-4000 rpm is not where the 125 motor wants to be. Nothing really happens till 6 grand. Be carefull obviously but try riding at 6000rpm instead, changing down if you need to. What have you ridden before, a four stroke i'm guessing as they have a lot more low grunt but give it all away at higher rpm.

what rpm oes it happen at?, is it stock?

So the mini was free then Steve?

You know much as i like mine don't you think they could have made them just a bit livelier, same off road. I keep looking at mine and wondering if a lc motor would go in discretely.........

Be carefull of just running that feed through the bike, the ind circuit is fed from the same live as the brakes etc as your prob aware. There may be connections within the loom that are not immediately obvious so take your time. Just so you know how it works. When you switch the switch at the bars to one side or the other you actually make a connection that links the indicator relay to whichever set of indicators is needed be it left or right. The dash light bridges the two, so it is fed from the lit side and earths through the unlit side (see?) so the dash lamp will never light without the indicators working properly as all its power comes from the wiring to the front indicator units.