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MotoVert RX125 Stage 1

WORDS BY SIMON MAKKER
PHOTOS BY SIMON MAKKER AND JAKE VANDERROL

To tell the truth, I was a bit worried. Three Queensland Transport inspectors were poking and prodding my new MotoVert RX125 project bike, jotting down notes on their clipboards, scratching their heads and looking far too serious for my liking.

It’s a good thing I had allowed plenty of time to get the thing registered, because at this stage it could take all day.

“What are you going to do with this bike?” one particularly serious inspector inquired, staring over her glasses at me. “Are you really going to ride it on the road?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” I shrugged. “Why would I pay money to register a bike I didn’t intend to use?”

“You’ll get killed!” Inspector B exclaimed. “It’s so small, no-one will see you!”

“Look, I’ve ridden bikes all my life, I’ve had my full motorcycle licence for years, and really, how different is this to the postie bike that delivers the mail?” I replied. “In fact, this bike has a bigger engine, better suspension and better handling than almost any scooter out on the road.”

With that, the inspectors went into a huddle, shrugged shoulders, nodded heads, murmured seriously, then turned and said “OK. You can pick your plates up inside, but we’re not responsible for any injury you experience due to us registering this…” he looked down at his form “…MotoVert.”

And just like that, I was legal. My world had opened up and I wasn’t just limited to shopping-mall carparks, deserted sidestreets and alleyways. Commuting to work had become a whole lot more fun.

The beauty of the RX125 is its bottom-end power. Off the lights it pulls surprisingly hard and gets you out in front of the traffic, away from the fumes and into the wide-open spaces. To help get us out front sooner, we’ve replaced
the standard 16-tooth sprocket with a 15-tooth, which has made a noticeable difference in how quickly we can move through the power curve.

Initial tests of the little RX saw it hit its straps at 87kmh tapped in fourth gear, which we thought was a little slow (even if you are straddling something not much taller than a tricycle), so we tacked on an aftermarket MotoVert header pipe and muffler to open her up. The header is significantly shorter than stock, and as well as providing a slight increase in power across the range, it’s made the RX almost embarrassingly loud, and we now feel like right bastards starting it up in our quiet neighbourhood at 7.30am for our daily commute to work. Because the pipe has a different shape, it was also a bit fiddly to fit and we had to grind off a little bit of the battery box to make some extra room for the muffler.

We’ve also installed a 125cc high comp piston into our new toy. While this hasn’t made any power difference, it should mean the engine will be a lot more reliable and we won’t have to worry about the piston smashing to pieces after prolonged periods of high revs on the open road.

In our first test in issue #47 we commented that we found the 35mm Marzocchi fork’s limitations easily: it was soft and dived through the stroke under brakes, but because they were non-adjustable, there wasn’t much we could do.

Now we’ve added some stiffer fork springs to address this, and it’s made a huge difference. It now feels a lot more stable and we can brake harder and practise our supermoto technique around roundabouts with a lot more confidence.

We’ve also found a cool set of dirt jumps a couple of blocks from the Freerider MX offices, and we’ve had a blast hucking them every morning on the way to work. Thanks to all the ADR crap hanging off it, the RX feels noticeably heavier than a normal pitty in the air, but it’s still no big drama to manipulate. If things do go wrong, the adjustable shock and upgraded fork are surprisingly forgiving, even on harder landings.

But really, the road is what this little bugger is designed for, and it’s the road where we’re spending most of our time. Sure, cars seem big around us and we’re always mindful that they mightn’t have noticed a pint-sized motorycle in their rear-view mirror, but really, people can’t help but look at us riding the RX. Seems every time we take it out of the garage and on to the road we get people waving, laughing and calling out to us. At the lights people are helpless and gawk at us with a weird cocktail of curiousity, envy, amusement and, occasionally, condemnation.

We’ve only been pulled over by the cops on one occasion, but we suspect it was more out of nosiness than anything else: once they were satisfied our plates and rego was in order, then had a quick look over the bike, asked what it was like to ride, then with an amused smile, they let us go on our merry way. Two years ago the bike would’ve been impounded, the cops gruff, the fine in the region of $4000 and we would’ve faced a long walk home. It feels good to be legal … even if it’s only by the skin of our teeth!

WHAT’S THE DAMAGE?
Rightly or wrongly, Chinese-made bikes have a reputation of breaking down, and being little more than a bag of bolts after a couple of rides. While we’ve had a few things break on us, MotoVert’s importers, Mojo Motorcycles, have a 12-month warranty on all parts and they’ve been only too happy to help out when things go pear-shaped.
So far our damage list looks like this:
• Electric-start was faulty out of the box
• Rear brake assembly replaced after locking on when hot
• New battery
• Plastic indicator/headlight beam button snapped off
• Stator broke and needed replacing
• Rear brake pedal spring keeps coming off
• Our shins and calves copped a hiding from the razor-sharp pegs until we filed the teeth down


WHAT’S NEXT?
Stay tuned to future issues of Freerider MX, as we transform our MotoVert into a red-hot-looking 140cc trailbike and hit the mini-bike track, bush trails, and even the odd skatepark.

STAGE 1 SHOPPING LIST
MotoVert 125cc High-Comp piston    $89
Marzocchi fork springs    $169
MotoVert 2008 125cc header and exhaust    $210
MotoVert billet fuel cap     $50
MotoVert 15-tooth front sprocket    $20
MotoVert red anodised dress kit    $120