Yamaha YBR 125. Part 2: installing spoke wheels, new chain and sprockets!

Hello everyone!

You and I continue to work on the Sandy project - a small scrambler based on the Yamaha YBR125 motorcycle.

The running gear is what needs to be finalized first.

First of all, we'll pick up and install spoke wheels - otherwise what kind of a scrambler is it :)

I don't know what attracted me to this shiny Chinese kit with 72 spokes per wheel, but that's what I chose:

The description on AliExpress says this kit is "designed" for the YBR 125:

- 18' 110/80 wheels (the front one is for Suzuki, the rear one is for Honda, but not for Yamaha)

- rear sprocket + retaining ring

- rear and front axle with bushings

- front brake disk (as it turned out from Suzuki GN125)

- rear brake drum (as it turned out from Honda CG125)

- speedometer actuator (which fits the front wheel well)

- "fasteners"

I want to pay tribute to the Chinese - only thanks to them you can buy such parts at all, and in one set at once. But still, by tradition here: plasticine bolts, wrong size bushings, under-tightened spokes, lack of any information about what motorcycle the parameters of the parts are copied from, etc., just like we like :). - just the way we like it :)

So, having found out what other parts I need to buy and what to "modernize", I realized that the Suzuki style front wheel format is even an advantage, because the Suzuki fork is more powerful and higher than the YBR. So it was decided to build a fork from Suzuki GN and implement it in our scrumbler - but about it later! In the meantime, I decided to choose tires - I wanted something fatter than Yamaha bicycle wheels. To match the new solid rims, and also for economic reasons, my choice fell on Michelin Sirac - a great option for a dual-purpose motorcycle. The size of tires at the back and front is planned to be the same: 110/80 - so they will be interchangeable, which will allow to use the tires longer, changing them places as they wear. Naturally, I had to pick up some tubes and rim protectors as well.

It was my first time doing tire fitting, so I screwed up the tube, but at the second attempt I got a pretty adequate wheel - I even started to think that all this was not in vain, and maybe the moped won't be so gypsy:

Then I started to think about how to install the rear wheel and what else to change. It was useless to save the old chain - it looked like it had never been lubricated, many links were jammed. Without much regret, I replaced it with a new reinforced JT chain, along with the sprockets. I chose a bigger rear sprocket - 47 teeth (from Honda CG125) according to the new purpose of the bike. As always ebay helped me out! The front sprocket was also replaced, but I had to modify the bolts and mounting plate - it turned out to be from another generation of YBR.

During assembly there were other inconsistencies, which, however, were easily eliminated:

- brake drum linkages were of different lengths (I moved the lever from the old drum)

- the rear axle spacer from the kit turned out to be the wrong size (I shortened it by 1 cm with a bolt cutter).

- The wider rear wheel was slightly hitting the brake reaction rod (I bent the rod).

The reason for all this is simple - the wheel from the kit is designed for Honda CG125 motorcycle.

A few photos of the installation process:

In the end, everything was successful, I had a test run - I'm satisfied, the desire to work on the project is not lost - and that's the main thing ;)