My Bike

So this is the page for my TM EN125 enduro racing bike. Keeping with my current theme of showing images when I got them, here she is when I bought her.

It’s a hand-made, off-road enduro racing machine from Italy. They are known for being a bit temperamental and needing constant maintaining, but they are also blindingly fast.

I got it for £750 knowing that it needed some work before I’d really want to go out and ride it. I also wanted to get a 2-stroke since they are much easier than a 4-strike to work on. Having worked in a bicycle shop for 10 years or so I’m not a novice using tools, but I don’t have any experience with motorbikes at all and I thought it would be best to start off on something easy. A ’smoker’ (2-stroke) was also recommended by a lot of the more experienced riders on the Trail Bike Magazine (TBM) forum.

The first thing to do was give it a good clean. Get all the old makeshift numbers, misc. stickers and old sticker residue off so I could see what I was working with. Here she is shortly after a general clean up.

The next thing to do was to remove all the old, messed up stickers and get into replacing various parts and checking everything out to make sure it is all working.

Here’s what I’ve done so far

UFO Headlight – this was recommended by the TM parts supplier in the UK as the best replacement. The OEM light is £75 and the UFO is £30. No choice really.

Acerbis Handguards – the old ones were totally trashed and I expect to run into quite a few things so they are also important.

Rear Trials Tyre – I went with a Mitas ET01 trials tyre on the rear since a lot of the events I plan on riding require trials tyres. I thought I’d start off with one since it should save me having to change back and forth all the time. We’ll see how it goes after a couple of events. I have a sneaky feeling that a trials tyre would be better suited on a banger (4-stroke) but we shall see.

Front Enduro Tyre – I went with a Michelin Comp IV on the front based on many, many recommendations.

Clutch Lever – ’twas broken. I didn’t do any fancy upgrade or anything, just a standard replacement.

Brake Lever – ’twas also broken. See above.

Misc. Stickers – new stickers are very important to overall performance! First, I took off all the old ones and then I added a Renthal swingarm sticker, some UFO stickers and a TBEC sticker to the front mudguard. I’ll be replacing the main graphics at some point as well.

Carburetor – the carb has been pulled and given a good clean. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, but I wanted to make sure it’s all tip-top before I get in an event. See details below.

Rads – the radiators needed rehabbing since they were pretty battered. I pulled them off the bike and sent them off to a specialist who reshaped them and fixed all the leaks. This is what they used to look like.

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And here is what they look like now.

Essential Maintenance

This is the work that MUST be done before I can ride it in an event.

Hydraulic Clutch – the clutch doesn’t seem to work very well. I have to pump it to get it to build up any pressure and engage. The most common problem with these are the seals around the master cylinder piston. I have a set, but I haven’t installed them yet.

Brake Pads – both front and rear. I’ve got them, but haven’t managed to change them yet. I haven’t attempted this for the same reason I haven’t tried to fix the clutch – I don’t have the tools nor the know-how to bleed the lines once I’m done. I also need to get some copper grease to lube them up with when I’m finished.

Planned Mods

This is all the stuff I’d like to do eventually.

‘Drive Kit’ – this includes both front and rear sprockets and a new chain. The new chain will be either an ‘x-ring’ or an ‘o-ring’ depending on how flush I am at the time.

I’ll also take the opportunity to change the gearing ratio from the 13-51 that I currently have, to 13-48. This should give me better ‘pulling power’, keep the wheelspin out of corners to a minimum and keep me from changing gears as much.

Wheels – the current wheels are totally trashed and could be replaced.

Flywheel Weight – adding a flywheel weight would help with low-down torque and should help prevent stalling. I’m not sure if I’ll need it yet, but I imagine I will.

Current State

Here’s the current state of the bike.

Before I removed the rads.

After I removed the rads:

So that’s it for the moment. As you may have seen on my main page, I now have a trailer. That means I will be able to go around to a friend’s house who can help me do the brakes and the clutch. I’ll update this page as I go along.

Cheers!

13.03.08

Well, it’s going to be “carburetor Saturday” this weekend. It’s about time I yanked the carb and gave it a good clean. Since the rads and fuel tank are already off the bike, it seems like the perfect time to do it. I’ll update with the report and a few pics once I’m done.

17.03.08

Well, I managed to get all the work done I wanted