A few years back, I rebuilt a motorcycle to get to work and back during summer. I found a (Japanese made) 1987 GN125, one of the least sexy motorcycles on the road. The brief - to make it cool.

Around the mid 90’s, the manufacture of the GN125 sadly relocated from Japan to China and unfortunately the build quality was subsequently reduced. The most notable difference between the two is the Japanese models had the spoked wheels whereas the Chinese models were produced with cast alloy rims.

I tried to keep as much of the original bike as possible and tried to utilise what was on hand around the property at the time.

This included using an old earthing stake to make clip-on handlebars. The 3.5mm thick wall galvanised pipe by fluke had the perfect outer diameter for the throttle.

A friend of mine gave me his leather jacket in return for a box of beers. The leather jacket in brown with a patina which had been worked since the 70’s was perfect for the aesthetic. The jacket provided the leather for the seat, handlebar grips and a tool roll which sits beneath the battery box.

The battery box was made using a local NZ timber, Rimu which had been pulled out of the renovated kitchen in the property at the time.

The exhaust pipe is the original from the bike, cut back with a custom silencer made with scrap steel and a wire pot scrub.

After the modifications the bike was awarded with road legality and provided a summer of cruising and an extremely cost effective commuter.

Here are a few images of the building of the bike.