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At the end of the 2000 racing season, I had bought a 1995 Yamaha TZ125 for my racing efforts. I still had Gretchen's little KX80 which she was no longer riding, having given up riding motorcycles for chasing boys. I was surfing the net one day and came across a web site for the Texas Mini Grand Prix, an organization dedicated to racing minis, primarily the little YSR 50s. They listed as one of their tracks a little track in Katy, Texas not far from home. I didn't know of this track, but was intrigued at the thought of racing so close to home. I rode the Wing over to a race day in the fall of 2000 and found a wee little kart racing track, not suitable for bigger motorcycles, but the little bikes seemed to be having a blast. I had been formulating a plan for racing the KX and found that I could run it in TMGPs "unlimited" class as well as the "backwards" race, so I set about modifying the KX. I laced a 17"x2.75 rear rim to the hub with heavy stainless spokes and mounted up 125 slicks front and rear. I sent the suspension, front and rear, off to Linderman Engineering, which in my research I had found specialized in mini conversions of motocross bikes. After building this bike and spending a lot of money, I was just hoping the bike would work well enough to have fun on. I had no idea what the coming season had in store for me. After testing at Hitchcock's Grand Sport Speedway in the preseason to the 2001 season, I found that the bike indeed handled very well. I had no idea how the motor, an '88 model, would stack up to the newer bikes which are mostly 125 frames with 80cc MX motors adapted to them. I reckoned that the dirt bike would be much better for the little kart tracks like Katy where a 125 frame would be nearly unridable. In my first race at Henderson, a CMRA race, I took a third. The bike lacked power on the competition, but seemed to brake and handle well. After that race I found part of the power problem, a loose spark plug allowing compression leakage. I also installed a new Wiseco piston and rings and a new FMF "Rev" pipe for some added high rpm power. In successive races I have found the bike to be the equal of most of the newer stock motors and have obtained the help of an experienced tuner, Duncan Paul, the guy who built my RD/TZ, to tune the motor for me.
In six races at the start of the season, though, I had finished a third in that first race and won five races. Three of those races were at Hitchcock in TMGP competition and two were in the RPM series. For a total investment of around $1600 to a bike that cost me $1000 originally, I felt this project had turned out pretty well. Since then, I became the 2001 RPM mini series Heavy Mini class champion on this bike. I raced the bike in 13 races in 2001, finished with eight wins, one second, and four thirds on the season in the three different racing clubs in Texas. I never finished worse than third and I won every race entered in the RPM series including a great weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, beating four GP framed bikes that were there. This project has been far more successful than I'd ever imagined it would be. It was a great season in 2001.
Jack
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