The man who mad the Honda Trail NGC

[steven c]

 No Guzzi content but a good story.
https://youtu.be/JZ0Ig8kxXBQ?si=-JS4xJItPjTXQKaF

[guzziart]

Great story!

The original Trails are going for almost as much money as the new re-pops.  And the new ones are nice..FI, abs, electric start,
etc.  One of my riding pals has a new one...CT125.  We loaded his new CT125 and my ct70 into his truck to use at Barber Vintage Festival last October.  We both had a lot of fun riding around Barber and to & from hotel on our respective bikes.  The auto clutch feature really makes these bikes great for noodling around swap meets.

[SIR REAL ED]

Great video.  I assumed that Herb was related to the off road racer Billy Uhl, and sure enough, Billy is in one of the photos shown in the video.

Anyone who liked that video will love the DVD "the John Penton Story."

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd4em7SGVF4qSUgTuhWR_Jw2pps1rF_24


What a different country the US used to be.

Listening to the old timers as a child, I often wished I had been born decades earlier.

[fotoguzzi]

I’ve had mine for 52 years

[Gliderjohn]

Learned the basics on a first year (64) Trail 90. Also the first bike I went down on at 10 years old farmyard racing my cousin who owned the bike. Learned not to use the front brake while turning on gravel. Not hurt, I mean I was 10 so very crash worthy at that age. About 10 years ago my late cousin's wife gave me the bike but 64 was quite a bit different than 65 on and some parts are very hard to find so I did not attempt to restore it at all. Ended up donating it at a fund raising auction hoping someone more talented and patient than me could do something with it.



GliderJohn

[Clifton]

I enjoyed the video Steven, thanks for posting it!

It sure brought back memories, back when I wasn't even old enough to ride, of a friend Grant who had a little motorcycle shop selling dirt and trail bikes (Herb Uhl reminded me of him). The brands he sold were Maico, Hodaka, and I believe Bultaco. I used to love stopping in and he always took time to talk to me about motorcycles even though I wasn't a customer.

 A couple years later after I had just purchased my first motorcycle, a 1972 Honda XL250, I stopped in to show Grant my new motorcycle. I told him I was looking forward to trail riding. He said "that's pretty heavy for a trail bike but take it out the trail that starts behind the shop. It ends about 1/2 mile out at a gate so just turn around and come back". I took off on that trail and quickly realized I was in over my head, but riding slowly in 1st gear, slipping the clutch and paddling my feet, dismounting and manhandling it over and around obstacles, I made it to the gate where the trail had narrowed to not much wider than the width of my bike. With effort I was able to get the bike turned around. When I got back I was exhausted but proud of having made it.

 Grant was standing there beside a Hodako Ace 100 trail bike. He started it and said now do that again on this. When I straddled it, it was so narrow and light it felt like a bicycle! First gear was so low I was going at a crawl with the little engine spinning well up in its rev range. I ended up riding the whole trail in 2nd and 3rd, easily bumping over the same ledges and logs that I struggled paddling over on my 250. I was having a blast on that little bike!

When I got back grinning ear to ear he pointed out what makes a great trail bike; "you want low gearing, light weight, good ground clearance, low seat, knobby tires, and plenty of steering lock. Lots of power and suspension travel isn't necessary unless you want to race".

Fast forward to now I have a CT125 Trail which I picked up used last year. It's a fun little bike to ride around but what prevents it from being a great trail bike is its 4-speed box is geared too tall. 4th is geared right for going 35-45 mph on the road but 1st and 2nd are too tall for riding challenging trails. The 4-speed transmission could really use a high/low range, or give it a WR 5-speed with a low 1st gear and 2nd through 5th being the same as 1-4 is now.

[SIR REAL ED]

I enjoyed the video Steven, thanks for posting it!

It sure brought back memories, back when I wasn't even old enough to ride, of a friend Grant who had a little motorcycle shop selling dirt and trail bikes (Herb Uhl reminded me of him). The brands he sold were Maico, Hodaka, and I believe Bultaco. I used to love stopping in and he always took time to talk to me about motorcycles even though I wasn't a customer.

 A couple years later after I had just purchased my first motorcycle, a 1972 Honda XL250, I stopped in to show Grant my new motorcycle. I told him I was looking forward to trail riding. He said "that's pretty heavy for a trail bike but take it out the trail that starts behind the shop. It ends about 1/2 mile out at a gate so just turn around and come back". I took off on that trail and quickly realized I was in over my head, but riding slowly in 1st gear, slipping the clutch and paddling my feet, dismounting and manhandling it over and around obstacles, I made it to the gate where the trail had narrowed to not much wider than the width of my bike. With effort I was able to get the bike turned around. When I got back I was exhausted but proud of having made it.

 Grant was standing there beside a Hodako Ace 100 trail bike. He started it and said now do that again on this. When I straddled it, it was so narrow and light it felt like a bicycle! First gear was so low I was going at a crawl with the little engine spinning well up in its rev range. I ended up riding the whole trail in 2nd and 3rd, easily bumping over the same ledges and logs that I struggled paddling over on my 250. I was having a blast on that little bike!

When I got back grinning ear to ear he pointed out what makes a great trail bike; "you want low gearing, light weight, good ground clearance, low seat, knobby tires, and plenty of steering lock. Lots of power and suspension travel isn't necessary unless you want to race".

Fast forward to now I have a CT125 Trail which I picked up used last year. It's a fun little bike to ride around but what prevents it from being a great trail bike is its 4-speed box is geared too tall. 4th is geared right for going 35-45 mph on the road but 1st and 2nd are too tall for riding challenging trails. The 4-speed transmission could really use a high/low range, or give it a WR 5-speed with a low 1st gear and 2nd through 5th being the same as 1-4 is now.

From reading this, i take it that the new Honda trail 125's do not have the automatice clutch of the older versions.  Is that true?

[guzziart]

From reading this, i take it that the new Honda trail 125's do not have the automatice clutch of the older versions.  Is that true?

My riding buds new ct125 is a "semi automatic" clutch...no clutch lever, I suspect it works the same way my '91 ct70 clutch worls just like the old Trail 90's.

[Clifton]

From reading this, i take it that the new Honda trail 125's do not have the automatice clutch of the older versions.  Is that true?

The Trail 125 has an automatic clutch which works fine IMO, although I'd prefer a manual clutch. The real issue (for me) is gearing. So I just ride it as it was designed to be which is on 50mph and under roads down to easy trails. If I geared it down for more serious trail riding it'd loose top speed which is already limited to 50-55 on level or down hill, much less up a grade.

For trails like this it's fine.

[rudyr]

Got one of the yellow one’s 10 months ago.  I try to ride every day feed some cows, I got up in another pasture.  They know what the yellow means.  It dose pretty good in snow not so well in ice.  Then it’s 4 wheeler time.  But it sure is fun to ride maybe trying to recapture my youth, but is fun 57 mph going down hill tops If I run over 50 mph very long I begin to smell oil, just like the Harly when I push them to hard they begin breath hard. Rudy

[Scott Carpenter]

This light fun bike on the trails is so true. In the 90s my TY175 was just enormous fun on those NSW trails. One day I'd love to own another - maybe when I retire...

[Huzo]

‘Trouble is, you can’t go anywhere much on them…
They’re just too small.










15,000 km is about it, distance wise…

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

I did a coast-to-coast ride on my Trail 125 back in 2023. It's documented over on the HondaTrail125.com forum.





As for the gearing, try swapping the front sprocket with a 13T. JT sprockets makes a good quality one, part number JT273.13. The same OEM 108-link chain will fit it. You will end up at higher RPM on when running wide open throttle on the road, but you may find that you don't actually lose any top speed because with stock gearing the bike doesn't hit the rev limiter at the top of 4th. Note that switching the countershaft sprocket will skew the speedometer since its reading is from the countershaft. Personally I tried it and went back to the stock 14T front. Anytime it's an issue, just remember you're basically on a farkled up Honda Wave, not a "real" trail bike. In NZ they sell a farm kit for it with much more serious off-road gearing, 13T front & 51T rear. They also have a farm kit for the XRM125 since it is the same platform.

The modern 125cc and 110cc Honda Cub-type bikes are very similar to the old ones in design, just updated. One of the newer changes was going to a two clutch setup (technically three since there's a starter clutch). The centrifugal clutch is now separate from the shift clutch. There's a good video (and series) on that here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI7jaKpGD40