As a broke teen with a painfully undersprung 1970s enduro, my bedroom walls were festooned with late 80s MX finery. The CRs featured prominently. A kid could dream!
Back in '87, we had one guy who rode a Cagiva WMX 125 in the NESC in New England, and he hauled ass. His name was Pat Waitt, and I would always make sure to watch him go. He won the overwhelming majority of the races he entered and made that bike look great. When he got his expert plates, he switched brands, but I'll never forget watching him on the Cagiva.
The 80's were the best when it come to updates on mx bikes eg: disc brakes(both front & rear) liquid cooling, single shocks, power valves, safety seats, no 4 strokes... What a time to be alive !!! I own a 21 Husky 350 4 stroke now... but it's not the same as back then
Was lucky enough to be a skinny apprentice bike mechanic at a shop that had all 4 japanese brands starting in the early 80,s and yes the rate of development was FAST!. dirt bikes and road bikes, i didnt dare actually buy a bike myself for years as you knew every new bike out was a leap on the last one, just rode the second hand trade ins. Life was good!
I think it's funny that the only bike you didn't ride is the only one that I have. My friend had the 87 RM125. It was light and had great suspension but I couldn't keep it on the pipe. Thanks for all the great content.
....sounds like the 87 RM250....nothing down low with a great hit in the middle only to run out of puff - quickly. The 250 also had engine casing the interfered with my foot...or maybe both feet. And the seat/handlebar relationship was odd. It looked nice. I also rode an 87 YZ250T and it was one of the worst bikes I rode.
In the 80's I rode district 7 mx and MAMA it was a very competitive time, the 84 and 85 kx line up were strong and had alot of top riders. Believe me I bled yellow and loved to go up against the green and red bikes but the 86 and 87 Hondas with equal talent they were very hard to beat. The Hondas would crush right out the gate but one thing I say about those rm"s back then if you had them tuned right they would rip outta the corners and had good handling. Hey anyone have a time machine lol
Thank you Tony. You make the absolute best moto content on You Tube. My first full size bike after moving up form an '84 RM80 was an '86 CR125. It was great. It was the first bike I bought with my own money. My brother got an '87 KX125 that he bought used from Mercedes Gonzales. (I still remember picking it up from her in the Valencia Answer Products parking lot.). I remember her making a comment when I yanked too hard on the tie downs! After the '86 CR125, I bought an '89 CR125 and ended up riding/racing Honda's until my first KTM in 2009. Yep, that '86 CR sold me on Honda's for the next 23 years. Great content.
Love these shootouts, good job, ✌️I also like hearing your own experiences with many bikes reviewed, both new and used. I had the 1992 CR 125 and loved it, so fast and reliable but crappy forks. The 87 was probably Hondas best 125 ever. The 1987 CR 250 and 500 may have been the best year also for them😊 Maybe a Cagiva is worth the most now, as they were rare.
Shout out for the CR! 🤟 Owned one myself and sold my 85 CR125 to get it..... Absolutely loved it! Buddy had the KX.... Though it ran good, I never could like the ergos or suspension. Good job!
Other than a bit low on power, (which can easily be fixed), I think the YZ 125 and 250 2-strokes have proven that major updates today,---are a waste of money. I am actually reversing some of the updates on my 2019 YZ250, (like it being too tall), so I can ride the damn thing. I hate the shape of the plastic today too. Arrow tips and weird front fenders are abstract art that even the artist can not explain, and I don't want that meaningless junk on my functional dirt bike. I have had 5 250cc MX bikes in my life,---and off the showroom floor, this bike was the worst set up I had ever bought. So much for your upgrades. Other than suspension action, the bike is no better than my 1986 YZ250, and it is even the slowest 250 I had ever ridden. But worthless upgrades just add to the cost of making them, buying them, and fixing them.
By the way, in 2000, your upgrades of your KTM,----were probably some good upgrades. There may bot have been any 4-stroke influence yet. In reality, the 4-stroke started a trend of upgrades that cost much more then they are worth,---and it could not have happened with out the EPA force on the industry, or if the 4-stroke engine in fact,---did not hook up better to the ground, (making the bike easier to ride). That is the only upgrade for 4-stroke, how the power hooks up to the ground. Other than that,---the entire bike is a waste of money. Let me give you a tip. If the EPA or any other outside entity forces something on an industry,----it is not a upgrade and will surly result in less sales. I predict at least Suzuki will stop making MX bikes in the near future. The industry was forced to upgrade the price,---and the industry has/will shrink as a result. Go beg for FI, (for example). Today, it just means less bikes sold.
I was hoping you would do the 87 after watching the 86 video..I own and still ride my 87 KX125. Purchased it from my neighbor in 2001 for 1000 bucks. Had a brand new KX80 BW in 1990 when I was younger.
I had that Cagiva picture taped to my bedroom wall. It makes me sick to think I threw away literally stacks of MXA Dirt Bike Dirt Rider magazines. My High School folders were festooned with pictures I cut from the pages. And my bedroom walls.
87, if it wasn't red it was dead. The rm that year wasn't as bad as i remember reading about, my friend had the 87 125 and i always ran wfo so i remember being fairly quick on the rm, it did eat the clutch not long after a pounding though, i thought it handled good and it had great suspension, the honda was the quicker bike but i remember headshake so bad that i had more fun on my buddies rm, even though i got dirt blasted in grass drags.
Bang on about having to thrash the clutch on the suzuki to keep it on the boil, a mates Rm 125 was the only bike i personally have ever seen where we were able to disbond the iron drive splines in the centre clutch hub from the hub itself. You had to absolutely beat that thing hard.
Bought a 87 rm 125 in high school put a top end in it and dg pipe and silencer I got many holes hots and won a few local mx s in the b class it was faster than a 98 yz 125 that was new at the time
Dirt Rider leaned more towards enduro.i lived in Zimbabwe & my dad got me subscriptions to Dirt Bike, Dirt Rider & Motocross Action. I read em cover to cover countless times. We had a 1985 cr80r, 1986 yz80, 1985 KDX200, 1984 xr500r, 1985 xr600r....ohh & 1980 Pe175 aka Rigamortis'
I wanted the 1987 CR125R so bad it wasn’t funny, okay maybe it was funny, I did get the 1988 which gave me lots of problems, probably my fault but I could never figure what was wrong with it. Did anyone notice in the photos that the KX and RM had kickstands?
I was in the bike industry from early eighties to early 2000, s and having a suzuki franchise was boom or bust. For whatever reason, they would create an absolute jem of a bike, then do virtually nothing to it for about 4 years until you just couldn't give the damn things away, then create another jem. They had a really good little 250cc road bike called an Across. For at least 6 years the only colour available was red! Take it or leave it!.
I hopped off my 86cr 125 to try my friends 87 rm125. This is in 1987. So I take off around our track we had in the hills and coming down the straight I go to brake where I'd normally brake on my CR and the I almost ate shit badly because the RM brakes wee so much worse than the CR. The power was much slower than the Honda. I rode the 87 yz125 and it had stiff terrible suspension and the power wasn't much nothing on top. The KX had a good low end punch but that was an 86 I rode. The Honda was so much better in 86 and 87. U can. Put the 86 cr125 in the 87 shootout and it still wins. The 87 cr125 was even better . I got an 88 cr125 and was somewhat disappointed. It screamed but had no low end at all , it handled great. I could turn faster lap times on the 88 but it wasn't as fun to ride as the 86 and 87
I used to love the shootouts too. The best part of dirt bike magazine was mr know it all rando Talbot I'd LMAO reading his replies to the mini morons and stuff
Ay man, I have a question, do you sell like t shirts or hoodies of a specific bike? (1988 cr125) my dad would really love one, so if you can answer or make on like that it would be nice
Did you read the 2021 125 shoot out in MXA? They think a bar graph, (along with 3 other charts) gives you more information about the engine than a dyno hp/torque graph. After some pretty decent history, (that was most of the article), and minor talk about the engines, (3 of which are identical), there is only 2 paragraphs for everything else of each bike, (and none of it is technical). There is really no in-depth comparison. Unlike the tests of the 80's, I really don't know much about those bikes. Back in the 80's, MXA made sure you knew what you were buying, with information that was much more detailed than today's new generations could think of. Today, they are just reading the brochures. Jeeech, they even think billet triple clamps affect the steering more than suspension set up variance. If you see anything technical from MXA today, it will be rewritten from somebody who knows what they are talking about, (and will mix some translation), and there will be no name for the article. In many cases today, they just flat out don't know what they are talking about,---and that almost never happened in the 80's MXA. This is not the only industry where we used to be better. It is every industry, and I can't even find a doctor with his/her own brain today. Buy the way, I am probably now the most successful 2-stroke engine builder in the world today, (30cc engines approx, sold all over the world for the last 18 years), and that should not be happening either. :(
87 CR lineup..the best looking motocross bikes ever made..they just had that look that made you want one..handsome machines even today
No doubt!
As a broke teen with a painfully undersprung 1970s enduro, my bedroom walls were festooned with late 80s MX finery. The CRs featured prominently. A kid could dream!
...that RC DNA was paying it's dues. 😀
I like the elsinore
Back in '87, we had one guy who rode a Cagiva WMX 125 in the NESC in New England, and he hauled ass. His name was Pat Waitt, and I would always make sure to watch him go. He won the overwhelming majority of the races he entered and made that bike look great. When he got his expert plates, he switched brands, but I'll never forget watching him on the Cagiva.
The 80's were the best when it come to updates on mx bikes eg: disc brakes(both front & rear) liquid cooling, single shocks, power valves, safety seats, no 4 strokes... What a time to be alive !!!
I own a 21 Husky 350 4 stroke now... but it's not the same as back then
Was lucky enough to be a skinny apprentice bike mechanic at a shop that had all 4 japanese brands starting in the early 80,s and yes the rate of development was FAST!. dirt bikes and road bikes, i didnt dare actually buy a bike myself for years as you knew every new bike out was a leap on the last one, just rode the second hand trade ins. Life was good!
Modern bikes are like a Tesla techno weenie car, 80s dirt bikes are like a Lamborghini contact, totally rad!😎
I think it's funny that the only bike you didn't ride is the only one that I have. My friend had the 87 RM125. It was light and had great suspension but I couldn't keep it on the pipe. Thanks for all the great content.
....sounds like the 87 RM250....nothing down low with a great hit in the middle only to run out of puff - quickly. The 250 also had engine casing the interfered with my foot...or maybe both feet. And the seat/handlebar relationship was odd. It looked nice. I also rode an 87 YZ250T and it was one of the worst bikes I rode.
This needs more views.
I keep remembering the 84 KX 125 and the way it pulled with authority up hills. I haven't ridden anything else like it since, just magic !
...it was my first mxer. 😀
In the 80's I rode district 7 mx and MAMA it was a very competitive time, the 84 and 85 kx line up were strong and had alot of top riders. Believe me I bled yellow and loved to go up against the green and red bikes but the 86 and 87 Hondas with equal talent they were very hard to beat. The Hondas would crush right out the gate but one thing I say about those rm"s back then if you had them tuned right they would rip outta the corners and had good handling. Hey anyone have a time machine lol
Thank you Tony. You make the absolute best moto content on You Tube. My first full size bike after moving up form an '84 RM80 was an '86 CR125. It was great. It was the first bike I bought with my own money. My brother got an '87 KX125 that he bought used from Mercedes Gonzales. (I still remember picking it up from her in the Valencia Answer Products parking lot.). I remember her making a comment when I yanked too hard on the tie downs! After the '86 CR125, I bought an '89 CR125 and ended up riding/racing Honda's until my first KTM in 2009. Yep, that '86 CR sold me on Honda's for the next 23 years. Great content.
Thank you!
Love these shootouts, good job, ✌️I also like hearing your own experiences with many bikes reviewed, both new and used. I had the 1992 CR 125 and loved it, so fast and reliable but crappy forks. The 87 was probably Hondas best 125 ever. The 1987 CR 250 and 500 may have been the best year also for them😊 Maybe a Cagiva is worth the most now, as they were rare.
Another excellent video. I had an 85 and 86 KX 125, never rode an 87. Loved the 86, never got comfortable with the way the 85 handled.
Glad you enjoyed it
Absolutely love these shootouts man! They really take me back…please try to do some of the early 2000s 250 shootouts!! 98-01 in particular!!
Will do!
Shout out for the CR! 🤟 Owned one myself and sold my 85 CR125 to get it..... Absolutely loved it! Buddy had the KX.... Though it ran good, I never could like the ergos or suspension.
Good job!
I really wish this channel had more subscribers. Tony does some of the most in-depth reviews of bikes. And it just brings back memories.
Thank you
Suzuki in the 90s were great i mis my rm125 96 great bike
Yamaha for the visual win
I love your videos Tony! I would love to see you do a review on the 2000 KTM 380, as it's the last big bore two stroke to receive a major update.
Other than a bit low on power, (which can easily be fixed), I think the YZ 125 and 250 2-strokes have proven that major updates today,---are a waste of money.
I am actually reversing some of the updates on my 2019 YZ250, (like it being too tall), so I can ride the damn thing. I hate the shape of the plastic today too. Arrow tips and weird front fenders are abstract art that even the artist can not explain, and I don't want that meaningless junk on my functional dirt bike. I have had 5 250cc MX bikes in my life,---and off the showroom floor, this bike was the worst set up I had ever bought. So much for your upgrades. Other than suspension action, the bike is no better than my 1986 YZ250, and it is even the slowest 250 I had ever ridden. But worthless upgrades just add to the cost of making them, buying them, and fixing them.
By the way, in 2000, your upgrades of your KTM,----were probably some good upgrades. There may bot have been any 4-stroke influence yet. In reality, the 4-stroke started a trend of upgrades that cost much more then they are worth,---and it could not have happened with out the EPA force on the industry, or if the 4-stroke engine in fact,---did not hook up better to the ground, (making the bike easier to ride). That is the only upgrade for 4-stroke, how the power hooks up to the ground. Other than that,---the entire bike is a waste of money. Let me give you a tip. If the EPA or any other outside entity forces something on an industry,----it is not a upgrade and will surly result in less sales. I predict at least Suzuki will stop making MX bikes in the near future. The industry was forced to upgrade the price,---and the industry has/will shrink as a result. Go beg for FI, (for example). Today, it just means less bikes sold.
Love your reviews such good work thanks heaps 😊
Thank you!
I was hoping you would do the 87 after watching the 86 video..I own and still ride my 87 KX125. Purchased it from my neighbor in 2001 for 1000 bucks. Had a brand new KX80 BW in 1990 when I was younger.
I had the Honda. Awesome year
I had that Cagiva picture taped to my bedroom wall. It makes me sick to think I threw away literally stacks of MXA Dirt Bike Dirt Rider magazines. My High School folders were festooned with pictures I cut from the pages. And my bedroom walls.
To be fair they weren't really worth anything other than nostalgic value which is Kool too
Awesome Jim Hollywood holley
👏💪😎
This channel is bliss. I'm obsessed with MX bikes
Very enjoyable 😣. Awesome bikes
I raced the 87 Honda and Loved It !
87, if it wasn't red it was dead. The rm that year wasn't as bad as i remember reading about, my friend had the 87 125 and i always ran wfo so i remember being fairly quick on the rm, it did eat the clutch not long after a pounding though, i thought it handled good and it had great suspension, the honda was the quicker bike but i remember headshake so bad that i had more fun on my buddies rm, even though i got dirt blasted in grass drags.
Bang on about having to thrash the clutch on the suzuki to keep it on the boil, a mates Rm 125 was the only bike i personally have ever seen where we were able to disbond the iron drive splines in the centre clutch hub from the hub itself. You had to absolutely beat that thing hard.
Bought a 87 rm 125 in high school put a top end in it and dg pipe and silencer I got many holes hots and won a few local mx s in the b class it was faster than a 98 yz 125 that was new at the time
Dirt Rider leaned more towards enduro.i lived in Zimbabwe & my dad got me subscriptions to Dirt Bike, Dirt Rider & Motocross Action.
I read em cover to cover countless times.
We had a 1985 cr80r, 1986 yz80, 1985 KDX200, 1984 xr500r, 1985 xr600r....ohh & 1980 Pe175 aka Rigamortis'
I wanted the 1987 CR125R so bad it wasn’t funny, okay maybe it was funny, I did get the 1988 which gave me lots of problems, probably my fault but I could never figure what was wrong with it.
Did anyone notice in the photos that the KX and RM had kickstands?
The RM during these year's was doable
You know it is funny how Suzuki tanked after 83 for so long ..you wooda thought Hannah would've been able to help devolopment in these mid 80s rms..
I was in the bike industry from early eighties to early 2000, s and having a suzuki franchise was boom or bust. For whatever reason, they would create an absolute jem of a bike, then do virtually nothing to it for about 4 years until you just couldn't give the damn things away, then create another jem. They had a really good little 250cc road bike called an Across. For at least 6 years the only colour available was red! Take it or leave it!.
I hopped off my 86cr 125 to try my friends 87 rm125. This is in 1987. So I take off around our track we had in the hills and coming down the straight I go to brake where I'd normally brake on my CR and the I almost ate shit badly because the RM brakes wee so much worse than the CR. The power was much slower than the Honda. I rode the 87 yz125 and it had stiff terrible suspension and the power wasn't much nothing on top. The KX had a good low end punch but that was an 86 I rode. The Honda was so much better in 86 and 87. U can. Put the 86 cr125 in the 87 shootout and it still wins.
The 87 cr125 was even better . I got an 88 cr125 and was somewhat disappointed. It screamed but had no low end at all , it handled great. I could turn faster lap times on the 88 but it wasn't as fun to ride as the 86 and 87
Can you please do a review on the 1989 Honda Cr 125 that would be a amazing
I will in the future yes
@@TheMotocrossVault thanks that sounds good. I just wanted to hear about it because I recently rebuilt one and love riding it.
cagiva wmx 125 # 87 😍😍😍😍😘😘😘😘💜💙💚💛❤️
I own a 1984 CR 125. I was wondering if there was any possible chance you could do a review on that bike
I will be in the future for sure
Maybe i saw dt or yz for adventure becase they had sign lamp left n right
I used to love the shootouts too. The best part of dirt bike magazine was mr know it all rando Talbot I'd LMAO reading his replies to the mini morons and stuff
Honda was so good back then especially after they outlawed works bikes 👍
A super motocross mag review coming soon!?
I can do one for sure!
The elsinore is the best bike in my opinion.
Ay man, I have a question, do you sell like t shirts or hoodies of a specific bike? (1988 cr125) my dad would really love one, so if you can answer or make on like that it would be nice
I can make one with the 1988 CR125 for you no problem
@@TheMotocrossVault Really, I would really appreciate that, awesome thanks, when do you think it will be out of sale
Do you have any content on the yz125 n the 1985 was my first real motocross
I have not done that one yet but I will be in the future
@@TheMotocrossVault I will be looking forward to it👍
Did you read the 2021 125 shoot out in MXA? They think a bar graph, (along with 3 other charts) gives you more information about the engine than a dyno hp/torque graph. After some pretty decent history, (that was most of the article), and minor talk about the engines, (3 of which are identical), there is only 2 paragraphs for everything else of each bike, (and none of it is technical). There is really no in-depth comparison. Unlike the tests of the 80's, I really don't know much about those bikes. Back in the 80's, MXA made sure you knew what you were buying, with information that was much more detailed than today's new generations could think of. Today, they are just reading the brochures.
Jeeech, they even think billet triple clamps affect the steering more than suspension set up variance. If you see anything technical from MXA today, it will be rewritten from somebody who knows what they are talking about, (and will mix some translation), and there will be no name for the article. In many cases today, they just flat out don't know what they are talking about,---and that almost never happened in the 80's MXA. This is not the only industry where we used to be better. It is every industry, and I can't even find a doctor with his/her own brain today. Buy the way, I am probably now the most successful 2-stroke engine builder in the world today, (30cc engines approx, sold all over the world for the last 18 years), and that should not be happening either. :(
The Honda was dominant that year.
1. CR
2. Nope
3. Nope
4. NOPE
MY BROTHER WANTS TO KNOW WHO THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE IS ?
Never heard of reliability issues with a honda... # fakenews
Tell that to Larry Brooks. That bearing cost him a win in the 1987 South Carolina 125 National
@@TheMotocrossVault 😅😅😅