Aprilia ETX 125 (Don't expect to go motocrossing...)
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@mhbikesnbits Cheers bud, I'm excited myself to get stuck in, I've ordered all the bits to give it a good service and just eye ball that it's safe to ride for the time being. Ordered a brand new Full Arrow System, it's not for this bike so may need chopping and welding, but I won't be fitting it until the bike goes into for a restore anyhow. Be night and day when it rolls in and out of the garage over a weekend of tuning
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A friend of mine recently got an RX and I have to say without even riding it they’re hands down a better bike in every sense of the word, I was really impressed.
I’d say the RX is the superior bike too. Didn’t some ETX models come with non-usd forks and is she a U.K. bike?
Do you have plans to restore or just tune the engine and thrash it?Having seen the support and potential for tuning for those engines I must admit I’m a little jealous.
Also happy for you that brings bring you a decent combined sense of peace, happiness and satisfaction.
We all, and in some ways I think men especially need something like that in our lives. Look forward to seeing what happens with it. -
@Stevie-Wonder The RX/SX/MX just have better bits, immediately I can see that the shock is better, the swinging arm is better and probably the engine might be less restrictive.
I've ordered an RX swinging arm, SX shock for it. New piston, rings and gaskets. New plug, two stroke oil and gearbox oil. Full Arrow system, 28mm Flat Slide and VForce3 reed system for it. Would benefit from a new 28mm inlet as this one is starting to perish.
I need to raise the bike a few mm as it's a bit short for me, company in Germany make a jack up kit, but appears they won't ship to the UK, so I will probably just make my own jack up kit.
I'll whip the clutch cover off and make sure it's not going to shred the balancer shaft gears. There is a heavy rattling sound under load, that needs looking at.
I'll take off a few pieces run them through my shot blasting cabinet and get them looking pucker.
Plan is to thrash it on some green lanes, keep an eye out for brand new genuine panels and get it all refurbished in the future. But for now, I'm enjoying the dutty look as all my other bikes are pristine.
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@Calum gets exciting when your waiting for bits, would meet up a few guys from the forum and go for a good green lane ride out would be wicked
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@mhbikesnbits Years and years ago, the DTR forum used to go camping together. Can't remember how many people would go, but there used to be a whole turn out from all over would pick a medium spot for all and meet up and stay the night camping
https://dt125r.activeboard.com/t48288076/midlands-meetup-maybe-further/
Like 6 pages of material but it's not accessible anymore.
Spent this weekend tidying the bike, stripped off all the electrical tape that was used to hide the dodgy paint work, shot blasted and rattled canned for now.
Wire wheeled the expansion chamber removing the rust and polished up the end can.
Just to make a little less trashing.
It's like the previous owner went over this with a paint brush and some Delux paint
Unfortunately, the engine bits didn't arrive, but whilst the exhaust was off I had a look at the engine.
Piston skirt has scores down the exhaust side and the rings look like they've seen better days. Bore could benefit from a hone also!
Will be interesting to get the barrel off actually and see how it compares with an RS barrel, I noticed there were no auxiliary exhaust ports on this barrel. When this engine does go in for a tune up, it really is going to be night and day! The tuning potential from this base is staggering.
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@SpookDog That's the plan, crosser stylie!
£200 worth of my RS spares sold last night, so I could very much afford anothe Italkit 140cc.
I bought a 5mm stroked rod for my RS and the plan was to use this 160cc Polini kit on it, and use the 140cc kit that's on it for this ETX. But always handy to have spares...
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@SpookDog Ey?
Oh yeah I guess I haven't really shared this. HUNDREDS of pounds. I'll get some photos up in a second.
@markus-w No this is a stroked rod, 5mm longer than the stock rod.
@mhbikesnbits I actually have several RS 125 rear master cylinders, but I just got back in from a ride out now and the rear master cylinder doesn't feel like it's working so...might just buy a new genuine one.
On my DTR I run the stock Nissin master cylinder.
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@markus-w No, it's stroking the engine by a whopping 5mm. (that's sarcasm).
So the problem with big bore kits is that two strokes prefer "Square Engines". What this means is that, in an ideal world, the bore matches the stroke.
The Polini 160 kit has a notorious drop in over rev, stroking the engine back out so that it is now the same size as the bore, will enable the engine to make more torque and rev harder.
The price of the parts are pretty astronomical, especially considering I barely ride the thing. It's more of a thought experiment.
The Italkit 140cc I'm running at the moment is just incredible! The power delivery on that thing is such an adrenaline rush.
This is a long term project, and I'll probably never drop it in, but be nice to build this stroked polini, the eventual displacement will be 166cc, it's a real minimal stroke. It should hopefully enable the engine to retain some of its revvy characteristics.
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@Calum yes I know about bores and strokes but obviously installing a longer con-rod will not change the stroke, the only way to alter the stroke of any engine is by altering the crankshaft, even then you'd need to fit a longer stroke crank to give you more cc's, and for it to work you'd need a shorter con-rod to prevent the piston smashing into the head. Or am I missing something as it looks like there's some sort of spacer under the head? The only reason I know of for installing a longer con-rod is to allow for a shallower hence lighter piston.
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@markus-w Dude
Uhhmmm yeah you're absolutely right. I feel like such a dinglebat.Well, this is a long term project so more thinking is required! I'm not achieving very much here am I???
Thanks for correcting me, I don't know what I will do with these parts, more thought is required.
So it's still 160cc's, which is fine I am not interested in my displacement, but there are gains to having a longer rod.
Note here my failings were thinking longer rod meant long stroke which is NOT correct.
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@Calum no worries bud. As I said though I have heard about long rods being used to allow for a more shallow therefore lighter piston but thinking about it that must be on 4 strokes as the piston height is needed on a 2 stroke to close the ports. You had me thinking for a while there though. Anyway, sounds like you're going all out on this one. Quite a rare bike I believe too. Look forward to seeing the progress.
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@markus-w Yeah, well the intent on this bike is some green lanes. My RS is the all out one which is where the Polini 160 kit and Italkit rod is coming to play. But I was out on the RS last night and I am well happy with thr Italkit, it's superb. This setup is just something to build and put on the shelf.
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@Calum said in Aprilia ETX 125 (Don't expect to go motocrossing...):
@markus-w Dude
Uhhmmm yeah you're absolutely right. I feel like such a dinglebat.Well, this is a long term project so more thinking is required! I'm not achieving very much here am I???
Thanks for correcting me, I don't know what I will do with these parts, more thought is required.
So it's still 160cc's, which is fine I am not interested in my displacement, but there are gains to having a longer rod.
Note here my failings were thinking longer rod meant long stroke which is NOT correct.
I think everyone is achieving a lot here.
Reading this thread made me remember that conrod length is a major factor in most two-stroke tuning equations as it affects peak piston speed and whereabouts in the engine's stroke it occurs. It can also alter the position of the piston in the bore at a particular point in the the stroke.
On a two-stroke this is obviously critical due to port timing. Does this big bore kit come with the 5mm longer rod? Because if that's the case, it may be that the kit manufacturer has decided the power characteristics of the original 125cc engine are best preserved by maintaining the relationship between bore and stroke when increasing cubic capacity. So after you've put it together and set up jetting etc., it should still rev like the original 125cc engine but with more power.
Conversely, the DTR 170 Athena kit has a good reputation but is not particularly "scientific" in that it just increases the bore size which is probably why users report their top-end power gains aren't spectacular. "Piston speed is higher across TDC and lower across BDC with a short rod as compared to a long rod used on the same stroke." And just bolting on an Athena 170 effectively shortens the stroke from what Yamaha intended. Considering almost all cylinder filling/evacuation on our engines occurs between mid-stroke and BDC, this can seriously disrupt this process meaning the engine is unable to rev as well as the original 125cc engine (probably why a properly derestricted KMX125 had a reputation for being faster than a KMX200 back in the day).
This article is about big V8s at the dragstrip and so of limited relevance to us in some ways, but it explains well the concepts of bore/stroke ratio, peak piston speed which is what we're interested in. Not sure I've understood it fully so bear with me; I broke both my legs in December and have had 3 hip replacements since then. Hopefully the final one last week and the anaesthetic is still working its way out of my system!
https://www.chevyhardcore.com/tech-stories/stroker-engines-long-short-connecting-rod-length/
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@HOTSHOT-III I am going to consult my Graham Bell Two Stroke Performance Tuning. This was always my intent with this Polini kit build. To fabricate and do something unique and learn. But I'm glad I have been informed now so I didn't go away buying more bits before reading.
So I need to do a blog on the Athena kit. I've spent the last few weeks dialing mine in, after owning it for like 2+ years...
It's running better now than it ever has, including TZR RR Belgarda engine days, and my Mick Abbey 3MB Ported days.
This Athena kit would seriously benefit from some porting work IMO. My main issues with the Athena kit is by 10k it is totally out of puff, but I may need to richen that top end back up. Once I've dialed it in, I'm taking it to a rolling road and I'll report back with my verdict. But with the modifications I've got on my DTR it's now a little wheelie machine and I absolutely love it. The main thing is, it and I are a lot heavier than we were 12 years ago when I bought the bike, the extra torques has been really useful to me. But now I've dialed in the powervalve/ignition/jetting settings a bit better, the bike is running lovely. I'd expect if BHP isn't mid 20s then the jump in torque will justify the expense paid.
I also got my Athena kit from Germany for around £400. When you consider what's in the box, cylinder, studs, powervalve, head, skull cap, gaskets, piston, bloody good value for money. Consider the Italkit 140cc bore is £350 for a bore... But the Italkit makes $$$ power
