In my last video I visited Skars Motorcycles Workshop in Peckham and Jack, the owner, showed us the Honda CB650 that he exhibited at the bike shed show last year. Not only will that bike appear at this year's show again, but Jack's also been working on a new build, a CG125 that he's going to talk us through today. This is a Honda CG125 from 1995, so it looks a bit older than it does from when it came at the factory, but I'll just run through the bike from front to back I think until exactly what's been going on. So we'll start with the tyres, these are just continental TKC 80s, a bit tricky to get the right size in this, especially with the rear to do the swing arm clearance, but a little trial and error, get the right size but I think too chunky but enough to make it give it that scrambler stance I was going for. These aluminium mudguards, they came from a guy who just rolled them for me and then I just finished them off with a brushed effect and then just cutting it in into the forks. And then if we go to the headlight it's just a very simple one from where I got it from now, but very simple with LED indicators, rental handlebars, slight rise and just get a bit higher stance for the scrambler effect and then we've got just some brown gun handle grips with some old school looking switch gears off a Honda CG but I'm not too sure which year but they're a good eBay find and then a simple speedo with just a light nothing else really and then all your information you can just get from your switch gears. Tank was sprayed by paint monkey you can check about on Instagram, did a really nice job and this colour is actually off the Ford and just with a little black detail inside that's kind of really nice how that just lines up with a seat flows down and then this seat just covered in leather but that detail sort of lines up with the frame there, powder coated frame, it's got a slightly sort of metallic look to it and the engine's done the same as well with that's pretty standard apart from the ram air filter and tweaking of the carbs so that it can fuel the extra air going in. The exhaust is just a universal fit, sounds quite fruity just a little single bumper and then what else we've got? Again we've just got another little aluminium tail tidy which incorporates the rear light and indicators again they're just LED flashes, recramed wheels, standard suspension and just yeah good polish as well. What made you choose to do the 125 because you did a 650 first so it's like a smaller capacity bike. Yeah what was the reason you chose the CG? The CG is just to sort of mainly because it appeals to a wider market a lot more people have you know licenses they can just jump on a 125 from a standard driving license and especially in sort of places in London or other cities it's just a just a nice little quick get around and yeah after working on the CB 650 I just found to be trying to make a bit simpler by in actual fact the same about work goes into this as the other custom it's just a smaller engine that's the only fit real thing and I you can pick it up hands instead of using cranes. Because you were saying there's a few things that are a bit like the carbs would be the thing that was easier. Yeah the carburetor is easier just to tune up because it's just a couple of screws I didn't reject it there's only one of them so you don't have to sink them all obviously you've got four carbs then you've got to sink them all and generally it's just easier to and it's kick start as well not electric so you know we're wearing too much about where the faults are it's just turn it over very simply and yeah it's just so I could just in the accessible bike really. You said it was a bit simpler than doing that bike a lot of works that will but anything particularly difficult or unexpected that came upon it or. Good question not really not really no because because there is a photo on Instagram of like what this looked like beforehand and it had this sort of just a horrible 90s sort of plastic wobbly sort of design for the time and I suppose getting the fuel tank fitting right because obviously underneath it's essentially the same bike as it was made in the 70s but the way the fuel tank's mounted is different so I had to like cut away the old mountain drill a hole through the frame and then put a new mounting and just making sure it's all lined up correctly so that the lines are flowing because it's quite easy to spot when so I'm just put plonks of tank on the bike and expect it to look like yeah a cool bike it takes a bit of a time to get those all those lines flowing yeah stuff like c-axis have that kind of slightly up with tilt and a lot of people go and those out and really changes their like the stance of it yeah yeah I mean and a lot of people they will then try and compensate it in other areas like put it pushing the the forks through through the triple tree here to lure the front but it kind of messes up handling the bike so it's nice to keep it as simple as standard as possible yeah without sort of fiddling around too much if you're not going to go around the realms of you know putting you know forks off upside down forks and it will ever want to do so it's still pretty much darker apart from tank and obviously the accessories that go on it like the suspension is the same swing arms are same also the tires will change the handling but you know sort of look how's it going for really yeah yeah was the did you say the tank was from the original laws at a different year it's I don't know what year it's I've got it's second hand so it's a bit impossible to say what year it came from but it's the same tank as they put on suppose the early early 80s even the late 70s ones and then was there any other bits you swap to I think you said the switch gear were off yeah so the I've found the I've found these on eBay but I'm not too sure what bike they actually came off of it was also an older one but yeah I could do some research actually finding because these actually look pretty good and there's no wing mirrors on it so option extra look over the shoulder and the little speedo is just from a company in Germany but super simple that's what I kind of wanted to go for because you could have the lights there and you know you're turning left turning right four beams on but you can see all that just by looking at your controls really yeah yeah and then yeah it's tricky because a lot of time in the speedo cable cables they're so rigid in the way that they turn off you don't know if they don't have enough curve and then they don't spin properly from the world to give you an accurate reading so rooting that so it's not interfering with too much I mean here it is slightly rubbing on the headlights so I might have to just put a little cushion on that to stop it from wearing for the paint but there's not much movement in that when the bike's turning so that's a bit tricky obviously wiring is difficult that's probably the one of the hardest bits actually because you've got all this gump and crap from before where they've had lights and stuff around here and you've got to somehow tighter that all away and you know you want to keep all this clean and nice so it doesn't sort of interrupt the negative space because that's as well as what I call is the positive space of the tank and the seat and the bars and the wheels and stuff but with the bikes it's almost about the negative space as well so what's left here and here yeah I mean with these bikes obviously being a small engine they do look a bit weedy down here when you start filling up stuff that's why I've kind of tried to keep it as stock as possible apart from the handlebars and stuff because if you start like I'm not a fan of putting like Clippons and I'm probably going to describe some people here but we've put in Clippons and stuff but it's trying to be saying it's not right so it's not a powerful bike so you know why am I going to make it look like a 650 or you know 800cc motorbike because you said actually the guy you bought it off used it for tearing around the fields and that kind of thing yeah it was a right state when I bought it it was just covering a mud and bits falling off of it so yeah if you check out the before shot on my Instagram you're probably quite surprised what it would look like but as part of it it's part of the fun sort of restoring something that was completely dilapidated and ready for the scrap really and then bringing it back to life and and giving it a new new lease of life as it were so plans for it are it will be at the bike shed showing a couple of weeks yeah then after that after that it's going to go to the Mow Mile or Mally Mile everyone pronounce it and yeah just going to tear around a little really the only thing is that with the new emissions in London it's a bit tricky even at such a small bike you can't actually drive in such a London anymore but yeah just have some fun on it I think sweet yeah anything else that I think so no it's about it this is my workshop thanks again to Jack for taking the time to make these videos with me you can see more images of his builds and videos of the bikes starting up over on his Instagram which I've linked to in the description below let me know what you think of the bikes down in the comments personally I think this CG125 is really tastefully done and I think it'll make a great little urban run around and of course if you're new here and you want to see more videos like this click subscribe and I'll catch you next time