Lesley’s Honda CG125 (Red)

Lesley had been on the back of my bikes a few times for short trips and we’d rented a BMW R1200GS for a bigger trip round Scotland. When we were on a holiday in Poros (Greece) in September 2016, we hired a scooter and Lesley rode it, and loved it. She did learn the hard way about how hard to squeeze the brakes as she nearly crushed her rib cage almost going over the handlebars! In her defence, she didn’t have a driving licence so this was her first time at the helm.

In March 2017 I bought an old Honda CG125 down in Hull. I took the train down and rode it back to Edinburgh. It took ages! It was freezing and I had to lay flat on the tank on the dual carriage ways to get close to 60 mph. The first picture below is the old banger outside a pub in the Scottish Borders where I’d stopped for a cup of tea to try and warm myself up.

A few weeks later, we set to work sympathetically restoring it. I say “it” but “she” was named Red pretty early on. Obviously it’s the colour red but also because we were watching The Blacklist at the time and Raymond Reddington’s nickname is Red. We worked on the bike together. I was relatively handy with the spanners but it was a bit of a learning curve. You can read more and see a load of pictures on our restoration blog.

Lesley got her CBT at the beginning of June 2017 before she had her driving licence. We went out for a few local rides to build experience then an overnight ride to Newcastle. Our friend worked at Edinburgh Harley Davidson so we popped in past on our way south to show her Red. We lined her up with the rest of the big bikes. I was riding my Harley Sportster 883 Iron at the time. It was a great learning experience especially coming back north on the A1 with serious cross winds.

A few weeks later (mid July) we took a long weekend trip through the Scottish Borders to the Lake District. There’s nothing like jumping in the deep end tackling heavy rain, mountain passes and hairpin bends. You can read the full adventure in the blog.

Now and then, like all bikes, Red needed a little TLC to keep her running and looking good. I changed the clutch plates and Lesley did most of the servicing and painting herself. After a while, Lesley wanted the big sticking out L plate taken off. I’m not sure how “street legal“ the cut sticker was but she preferred it that way.

The next big trip was in September 2018 up to the north east of Scotland on the NE250 route. It started off well but on the third day Red started to splutter and wouldn’t idle so eventually had to be towed away. You can read about the full trip in this blog.

When Red got delivered back home I got to work cleaning the carb but couldn’t get it running smoothly. I thought she had an air leak so bought new seals, gaskets etc but still no joy. I eventually took her to the local garage and the valve clearances needed adjusting - I didn’t think of that!! She came back running like a Swiss watch.

In summer 2019 Lesley thought she’d commute the 17 miles to work on Red. It didn't go so well as thieves attempted to steal her on the very first day. They smashed up the dials with a hammer to try and get to the ignition cable and when they couldn’t get it running quickly they just ran away pushing it until another biker who worked there chased after them and they ran away. I’ve not got any pictures but we had to replace the whole binnacle / dash - a hard part to find for the later ES models.

Red’s last big trip was a Dumfries & Galloway night ride in autumn 2019. It was a great experience and both Red & Lesley earned their stripes on that trip. You can read all about the trip in this blog.

Not long after this trip we sold Red as we don’t ride in the winter and it gave more space in the garage for MABLE. Red needed a little TLC now and then but it was a great bike and helped create great memories. Lesley plans to get her big bike licence in 2020. Here are some final photo’s of Red, the last picture is the farewell ride dropping her off to her new owner.