GP’s Classic Steel #49- 1975 CR125M-1 Elsinore

For this week’s GP Classic Steel we are going to take a look back at Honda’s sophomore 125 two-stroke effort, the 1975 CR125M-1 Elsinore.

For this week’s GP Classic Steel we are going to take a look back at Honda’s sophomore 125 two-stroke effort, the 1975 CR125M-1 Elsinore.

After taking the motocross world by storm in ‘74, Honda decided to come out with a mildly refined bike for the ’75 season. The CR125M-1 offered a few minor upgrades, but no revolutionary changes. When faced with stiff new competition from Yamaha and Suzuki, it was not nearly enough.

 It is no bit of hyperbole to say that Honda virtually created the 125 motocross class here in America with their revolutionary 1974 CR125M. Prior to the introduction of Honda’s 123cc buzz bomb, the 125 class was a motley assortment of half-baked machines. Riders had the choice of riding expensive (but unreliable) European bikes, or going with cheap, but poor performing budget bikes from Japan. In either case, a huge amount of massaging and upgrading would be necessary to turn your chosen mount into a competitive racer. All that changed in the fall of ’73, with the introduction of the first Honda CR125M Elsinore.

The 123cc piston-port motor on the ’75 Elsinore was light, compact and competitive. It pumped out a decent 19 horsepower, but was outclassed by the rocket-fast, reed-valve YZ125. Overall, it was the second best engine in the class, outpacing the mellow five-speed Suzuki and rotary-valve Kawasaki.

The Elsinore was a revelation at the time, offering unheard of performance and reliability at the budget price of $749. Overnight, the 125 class became the Elsinore class, as little Honda screamers dominated the starting lines from coast to coast. After the tremendous success of CR125M, the other Japanese manufacturers were quick to refocus their efforts in the 125 class. For 1975, both Yamaha and Suzuki would offer all-new machines to take on the dominant CR. Gone would be the unloved TM125, replaced with a startling new long-travel RM125. For Yamaha, ’75 would be a truly watershed year, as their exotic works monoshock rear suspension would make its debut on the YZ125 for the first time. After wiping the floor with its 125 competition in ’74, it was pretty obvious Honda was going to have a much harder time holding onto the top spot for ’75.

The hot setup on six-speed Honda mill was to drill a small hole in the alloy shifter mid-way down the lever. This prevented the non-folding lever from damaging the fragile shift shaft or engine cases in a crash (a common problem on bikes of this era). The idea was that the shifter would snap off in a crash, instead of transmitting that force directly to the transmission.

While the ’74 CR125M was by far the best 125 ever offered for sale up to that point, it was far from perfect. In most respects, the Elsinore was considered bulletproof, and far more reliable than its finicky competition. Its most glaring fault was the pathetic plastic bushings used for the swingarm pivot. If not replaced with aftermarket units, the flimsy bushings would fail in short order, leading to excessive play and eventually frame breakage. Another trouble spot was the Honda’s stock foot pegs, which would droop and eventually break off on bikes that were ridden hard. The last issue major issue was with the Elsinore’s undersized rear sprocket bolts, which tended to come loose regularly and shear off if left unchecked.  Other than those few issues (which were considered very minor by 1970’s standards), the little CR was the model of good behavior.

125 National Champion Marty Smith’s ‘75 Factory RC125 shared little more than a set of decals with the production machine. His bike offered more travel, more power, and a trick “up pipe” to go with its luscious red paint job.

For ’75, Honda did very little in the way of major updates to the CR125. They addressed the footpeg breakage issues with beefier welds on the M-1, and upgraded the rear sprocket bolts to prevent breakage. In the motor, Honda engineers made some minor porting changes to increase the top end power and fine-tune the powerband. As to the rest of the bike, the chassis, bodywork and suspension remained virtually unchanged from the ’74 model. Visually, the only difference between the M and M-1 was a new coat of red paint for the tank and numberplates.

The motor on the ’75 CR125M-1 was a conventional one for the time, piston-port design displacing 123cc’s at a 7.4:1 compression ratio. Handling the fuel and spark duties were a 28mm Keihin round slide carburetor and a solid-state maintenance free CDI. Putting the power to the ground was a slick shifting six-speed gearbox and multi-plate oil-bathed clutch. On the dyno, the Elsinore pumped out a claimed 19.7 horsepower, but the simple motor lacked the high tech reed-valve employed on the all-new YZ125-C, and suffered for the omission. On the Honda, power was focused mainly in the upper RPM range with little usable thrust below 6000 RPM. The Yamaha by comparison, started pumping out usable power a full 1500-RPM before its piston-port rivals and after a small dip, ripped out as much as a five horsepower advantage in the midrange. The high-tech YZ came out of the hole harder and faster than any of the other 125’s, and only lost that power advantage for a few hundred RPM as it transitioned into its explosive midrange hit. While the Honda ran crisply and pulled well, it lacked both the raw power and flexibility of the Yamaha mill. Only one year before, it had been the King of tiddler motors, but in the crazy one-upmanship of seventies motocross, one year could be an eternity.

The stock rear on the ‘75 Elsinore offered a meager four inches of rear wheel travel. That was nearly half of what the RM125 offered in ’75. Without a serious upgrade (Greg’s M-1 has had the spindly stock steel swingarm upgraded to a beefy Red Line Unit. This was a popular upgrade in ’75), the Elsinore was at a serious disadvantage. With the stock setup in place, the CR’s rear started out marginal and quickly transitioned to abysmal. The stock Showa’s were good for 10-15 minutes max, before turning into a pair of pogo sticks.

While the motor of the Honda was no longer the star of the class, it was certainly still competitive. Where the ’75 CR125M-1 really fell behind the competition was in the suspension department. For ’75, Honda and Kawasaki stood pat with their conventional upright shocks and short travel arrangement. On the CR, that equaled out to 4.0 inches of rear wheel travel from its gas charged dual Showa’s. On the KX125, that only amounted to a paltry 3.5 inches of movement in the rear. This was compared to both the Yamaha and Suzuki, which unveiled all-new long-travel designs that left the red and green competition in their dust. In the case of the ’75 ½ YZ125-C  (Yamaha did produce a limited amount of YZ125-B’s at the beginning of the year, but it was superseded mid-year by the racially improved C model), its revolutionary Monocross rear end came straight of Yamaha’s Factory racers and punched out 5.3 inches of rear wheel travel. In Suzuki’s case, Hamamatsu went with a more traditional dual shock arrangement, but laid them down at a extreme angle to attain a full 7.1 inches of travel. With one look at the spec sheet, it was not hard to see Honda brought a knife to a gunfight in ’75.

The stock Honda’s Showa leading axle forks were not as much of a handicap as its mini-me rear suspension. They offered 6.5 inches of travel, which was less than the RM and YZ but better than the KX. Performance was decent for lighter riders, but heavy or faster riders bottomed them easily. With the shocks constantly trying to throw the riders weight forward, they were often overworked and smashed into bumps the RM’s rider floated over.

In terms of performance, the short travel Honda was no match for its long legged competition in ’75. Bumps that the Suzuki and Yamaha gobbled up in stride would send the stock Honda’s Showa’s shooting skyward. They were stiff initially, and quickly graduated to useless in short order. Shock fade was a major problem on the little CR, with damping going completely away after around the 12-minute mark. After that, you were in for a wild ride as the Elsinore did its best mechanical bull impression and tried to swat you off its back. In terms of suspension rankings, the CR125M-1 was only able to beat out the woefully bad KX125 in the standings. At the front of the pack, was the remarkably plush Suzuki and its laydown shocks, followed by the super-trick mono Yamaha.

In the overall ’75 125 shootout rankings, the works replica YZ125 roosted to the victory by way of its Hot Rod motor and high tech suspension. The all-new RM125 came in second, with its awesome suspension and easy-to-ride motor. In third, we had the Honda; its motor was competitive, but its subpar suspension made it more of a thrill ride than a race bike. Bringing up the rear was Kawasaki’s poor little KX125. It offered a decent motor with its unique rotary valve mill, but had even worst suspension than the CR and was left to suck dust anytime the track got rough.

In the fork department, the Honda once again trailed its yellow rivals. In the front, the CR offered 6.5 inches of travel from its Showa silverware. That was, once again, less than the over 7 inches offered by the RM and YZ, but at least close to being in the ballpark. Ride quality, however, was not in the same league as the class leaders. They were decent on smooth circuits, but once you started hitting the bumps at speed, the ride went from plush to punishing. Part of the problem, was certainly the rear shocks, which tended to rebound violently and place too much weight on the front end of the Honda. Once the rear would start its dance, the hopelessly overtaxed forks would bottom and clank as the hapless rider hung on for dear life. Once again, it was the Suzuki leading the charge with 7.25 inches of smooth bump eating travel, followed by the slightly less plush Yamaha, with the overworked Honda and wrist busting Kawasaki bringing up the rear.

Although the stock ’75 Honda had fallen behind the best in the class, huge aftermarket support still made it a popular race machine. This super-trick FMF Marty Smith replica CR125M-1 put together by the Vintage Factory is a perfect example of the amazing machines being turned out at the time. Common mods included: a FMF “Porcupine” radial-fin head, modified forks, long travel rear suspension, a bigger carb and a FMF 520 “Big Chain” upgrade kit.

While handling is certainly tied closely to suspension performance, taken on its own the Elsinore was a pretty good handling machine. The CR125M-1 sat low (one benefit of its short suspension) and felt very planted in the turns. It offered very good steering feel and most testers ranked it as the best turning bike in the class. Some of that credit may have gone to Honda’s use of a very Maico like leading axle front fork, that improved the steering precision over the inline axles of the competition. As long as you could keep its hobbyhorse suspension from upsetting the chassis and sending the wheels skyward, the little CR went exactly where you pointed it. Unfortunately, however, motocross is not road racing, and in our sport bumps are part of the deal. Once your typical chewed up MX track was added to the equation, the Elsinore’s handling went from tight-and-right to loose-as-a-goose, and the superiorly suspended Suzuki shot to the top of the heap.

The most common mod by serious racers to the ’75 Elsinore was a suspension upgrade. Companies like DG, S&W, FMF and Red Line all offered parts to bring the Elsie up to snuff with the long travel competition. This particular FMF Honda is using a set of long-travel Gas Girling shocks and a Red Line swingarm to upgrade the rear.

Some nice features on the ’75 M-1 included the only genuine chromoly steel chassis in the Big Four. All the other Japanese 125’s made due with thick and heavy mild steel tubing. The Honda also used lightweight aluminum for things like the shifter, brake pedal and kickstarter. This helped make the Elsinore the featherweight of the class at 179 pounds. That was eight pounds lighter than the Yamaha and a full ten pounds below the Suzuki.

While all the bikes of this era generally sound like rattily rat traps, the ’75 Honda was by far the worst offender of the ’75 125’s. All the magazines complained about is obnoxious exhaust note on the track. FMF sold a lot of pipes for the Elsie in ’75.

In the braking department, the Yamaha was the most powerful, followed by the Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki in a tie for second. None of them offered ideal braking and many riders also found the Honda’s rear brake pedal difficult to find at times. Another issue with drums of this era was water, as a simple splash through the wet stuff would render them completely useless for half a lap. With the Kawasaki and Honda’s brakes, the real problem was just keeping the rear tire in contact with the ground. Their eject-o-matic rear shocks preferred to pogo around instead of following the ground when hitting bumps, leaving the rear brake grabbing at air instead of dirt. One other bone of contention on the Honda was its exhaust note. It was the loudest of the four bikes by far and belched out an ear-splitting cacophony that only a Harley rider could love. The Flying Machine Factory (now simply FMF) sold a lot of pipes to CR owners in ’75.

The $889 ’75 Honda CR125M-1 was little more than a retreaded ’74 CR for $150 more. Amazingly, Honda would be very slow to react to the incredible advances of the competition, and would continue to trot out this moldy old jewel for several more seasons to come. It would be 1980 before Honda would once again offer a truly competitive 125.

The seventies were a cutthroat time in the motocross business. If you sat on your laurels for only one year, you were likely to get smoked by the competition the next. In ’75, Honda went from turning the industry on its head, to playing catch up virtually overnight. The bike that had seemed unbeatable only the year before, was suddenly old news, as the long-travel bikes from Yamaha and Suzuki stole all the headlines. Thankfully for Honda, its huge success the year before had led to a tremendous aftermarket support, so there was no lack of companies offering to fix the Elsie’s suspension woes. Companies like DG (yes, the ATV guys to those of you under 30), Red Line and S&W all offered kits to sort out the Honda and bring it up to speed with the Yamaha and Suzuki. Unfortunately, this cost no small amount of money, and you would still have a bike that was slower than the Yamaha. In ’75, Yamaha came out with a bike that offered works bike power and suspension to the masses, and redefined the standards in the 125 class. As for Honda, they would continue to offer mildly reworked ’74 retreads for five years, until finally making the jump to long travel suspension in ’79.  Even then, it would take them another year to finally offer a truly competitive 125. Honda may have gotten the ball rolling in the 125 class in ’74, but they squandered that lead and left the door open for Yamaha and Suzuki to dominate the rest of the decade.