Mutants of Moto – 7

Donor Bike #1: 1990 Honda MTX125 

Donor Bike #2: 1989 Honda CR125R

Wow, just…wow. I’m really not sure where to start with this poor little 125. The bike appears to be cobbled together conglomeration of parts from a Honda CR125R and Honda MTX125 dual sport. One would assume the powerful CR125R motor was repurposed for a three-wheeler or some such death trap and the resulting rolling chassis looked like a perfect home for the mild-mannered MTX’s street bike engine. The stock MTX came with a left side pipe, and this does not appear to be the stock CR unit either. It actually appears so be similar to the one-off works pipe Mike Kiedrowski ran on his Factory CR125R in ’89 (Ron Wood actually trimmed the bottom of the stock shroud so it would clear), so maybe they scored that for this beauty.

This banana seat is actually quite interesting. It appears to be somewhat similar to the stock saddle, but has been through some Bizzaro world transformation. It looks to be about two inches too long in the back and that kick up in the rear was definitely not Honda OEM. Maybe this is another Factory Part pilfered off the MX Kied and it is an early version of a “speed hump” seat? Perhaps the best part of this whole package is the padlock on the rust-crusted chain and sprocket, which makes the assumption that someone, would actually be looking to steal this lovely machine. 

The HRC decal is a sure giveaway that this was the handiwork of Honda’s top-secret skunk works department. 

While the Works pipe is certainly trick, the most unobtanium part of all on the TRX/CR is certainly the prototype Red Bull racing shock, which no doubt gives you wings when it rebounds you into next week.

Donor Bike: 1995 Suzuki RM125

While would certainly not know it today, once upon a time, this was one bad machine. The Suzuki RM125 was light years better than its craptacular big brother and one of the best 125’s money could buy in 1995. It offered, excellent handling, broad power and plush suspension, but it did lack some of the colorful character of its earlier predecessors. There were no tiger stripes or paint splatters on the seat, just a clean, serious machine. For people like the owner of this classic machine, that austere nature was just not going to cut it.  

Donor Bike: 1991 Yamaha WR200R

As any true mutant connoisseur knows, the true joy of discovery lies in the listing that usually accompanies these amazing machines. Nine times out of ten, the owner has no idea what year, make and model he has. For exhibit number one, I present the beauty you see above. Apparently Rambo here thinks this is a 2000 Suzuki RM250, which is only one decade and about twenty five horsepower off the output of this Yamaha foof bike. These WR200R’s are rare birds enough in their own right, so I can sort of excuse him no knowing the species of mutant he had in his mitts. They were popular in other countries, where they were sold as inexpensive street bikes, but they never caught on here in the USA. The irony is, Travis Pastrana could have probably won on this anyway and the WR could have finally got the glory it deserved. 

Maybe it was the camo that threw our intrepid Craigs-lister off? After all, it can be hard to discern a bike’s true nature through all that badass. The competition would never see you coming (except for the seat, where the Desert Storm treatment has given up the ghost), and that whisper-quiet WR muffler would certainly not give you away. Viewed in that light, the $900 looks like a pretty screaming deal and of course it is “READY TO TEAR UP SOME DIRT”!