so, i bought this little bike, as a bit of a project.
it says its a 2005 cg 125, but finding info on this thing is difficult
is it a chinese copy? is it the 'nostalgia' model?
none of the other pictures i've found match this, and the year seems off.
the vin plate thing says its a 'HONDA WH125-3'
anyone got more info on this thing?

[IMG][/IMG]

ok, dug out more info,
i have an old parts list and it lists the engine as a
'Chinese motorcycle engine 157fmi honda cg based'
so maybe its one of those? misleadingly stamped with honda?
and the body seems to be a honda cg 125 br/st from the 90s
wierd.
i guess that means i can fit a proper cg engine into it once this one dies.

The whole thing is made in China, its a Joint venture with Honda for the Chinese market & that would be a grey import.

Don`t think it will be Japanese quality for a second though just because it has the Honda name attached to it.

Mezo.

thanks man, yep, mans gonna give me my money back and i'm gonna do more research on things before buying them in the future,
everywhere on the documents and vin plates say honda, but the engine is a cheap chinese thing.
the search continues...

As the others say its a Chinese import. Stay clear of these as the build quality is not very good. Get a good original Honda CG 125 and you should have a good reliable little bike.

I had one for 10+ years as a second bike to commute on and it never let me down. 100+ mpg and all the parts + tyres are cheap as chips. Just make sure you change the oil regularly and you cant go wrong. I changed mine approx every 3k

ok, so what do i look out for on these things, are there any more dodgy cg's like this.
its the look and the mpg i'm going for, so other that the actual honda version of this bike is what i want, the 'nostalgia' model.
what are the signs of a proper one
is it the 4 speed gearbox, speed and rev counter, no fuel indicator, does that sound right?
the rear shocks and the back frame on the chinese one were different, and the engine.

any experts out there?

It is a Honda (like a said before) but its a Chinese version, made for the Chinese market & was grey imported to UK.

An old Japanese made CG125 will be made to a higher standard using quality materials, meaning bits wont start falling off a Jap version & will outlast your Chinese piece of crap.

Mezo.

yeh, already took it back
but i'm still looking for a proper one.
trying to make sure i know about anything to look out for, so i dont make the same mistake again.

Here is a clean & tidy "proper one" in Yarmouth.

HONDA CG125 CDI - August 2001 – 13037 miles | eBay

He writes,,

"This is a genuine UK registered Japanese Honda CG 125 CDI motorcycle, it is not an import, this is not a Brazilian or Chinese copy"

Mezo.

righto. certain i have a correct cg now.
2001, upside down gear box, no electric boot, made in japan.
might make another thread to give more info on this thing, because i had a nightmare finding a correct one.
seems all the Chinese copies are based off these ones.

fyi found an interesting article on the origins of the CG125.
Honda Worldwide | History | CG125 / 1975
At a time when 2-strokes were still dominant looks like H thought it all through from the very start as a '3rd world mule'

Must be the most copied 125 engine around.

__________________
Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

That's a great article and gives some insight into the thought processes behind the CG125. Almost disappointing that it came from the minds of a few key players rather than (as I imagined Honda worked) a corporate engineering juggernaut identifying market sectors with ruthless efficiency and producing designs for those sectors through devolved and dispersed responsibility - Manhattan project style. The only chink in their armour being Soichiro Honda's disdain for two strokes.

With the background of the SE Asia market in mind I can see why they produced what they did but I remember the CG being introduced into the UK in the mid 70's and the ridicule + puzzlement that accompanied it. Honda had just seen off the British bike makers and their superannuated 30's designs by way of high tech, high quality, modern bikes and what do they then introduce - a pushrod single with less performance than a BSA Bantam.

The ability to keep going with just the rain from the monsoon to lubricate it was a big advantage over the OHC CB125 (that I had). Those things may have produced a lot more power but they were really sensitive to lack of oil - or dirty oil - or the wrong oil or .... In no time at all the cam bearings were shot and you were in the hands of either Honda, who charged close to the price of a new bike for a replacement cylinder head or (if you were really, really desperate) Jock Kerr Motorcycle Developments who err ... advertised repaired heads. Fortunately I dodged both bullets when someone stole mine.

I suppose that's where the two strokes had an advantage. With pumped oil there was no forgetting lubricant for years on end and there's not much chance of recycling used two stroke oil so it was always fresh. You could cut it with white spirit (as we were once offered in Morocco) but it's not that hard to spot from the smell. With decent lubrication and a half decent design the Japanese two strokes were almost unbreakable - something I found out last weekend when I took my 60's design Suzuki B120 on the Stella Alpina. You would not believe what I did to that bike to get it and me to the top of the mountain and it just kept going. Not only that but it kept on going afterwards, close to flat out, to get me back to the UK and is still puttering around here none the worse for it - and it came as standard with a flat tank for the extra child. Whatever Honda produced was going to have to go some to beat that, and the CG obviously did - particularly in the long run when stuff like pollution started rising up the political agenda.