Its funny how I keep looking at my Honda CM125C and then I look at pictures and other bikes and somehow the overall look just doesn’t seem quite right. From the day I got it there was this niggling feeling always there that something was just not quite correct. I kept looking, couldn’t work it out moved on to something else and then a few days later would be back to the same issue.
Given that my front mudguard was very rusty and the wrong one for the bike I bought a cheapo replacement from Wemoto. Eyes open this time. I knew it was an imported copy and paid imported copy price. Arrived promptly with my new fork seals.
Put the seals to one side for another day and fitted the mudguard. For a copy the mudguard is not bad. At least it has the holes for the brake and speedo cable ‘grommet’ in the right place – the old mudguard didn’t have those. The new mudguard slotted in nicely. I popped two bolts in initially to stand back and view my purchase and that niggling feeling came back to me again. With the new correct style mudguard it now became clear that the issue was the front and something to do with wheel or forks. Out came the Haynes manual (I soooo love Haynes manuals) and I started checking measurements of stuff. I always manage to start these things in the wrong place and was measuring fork lengths and all sorts before I eventually checked the wheel size. Its the wrong size wheel for the bike – it’s smaller than it should be. At this point I lost all presence of mind and made a cardboard cutout of what the wheel size should be with a tyre. Sprayed it black. Popped a block of wood under my front wheel to get the right height and put the cardboard cutout in front of my wheel so I could see what it should look like and there we go. That’s the look I should have.
Picture below shows bike with smaller front wheel. Lots of mudguard clearance!
I guess there are all manner of advantages to having a smaller front wheel like quicker turn in and stuff but its the look I am after so I am now on the hunt for a new wheel of the correct size and I guess I will be after a tyre as well.
Did I mention I was going to do a bit on the forks?