Craig’s Motorcycles
Honda CB125J
After fitting a pair of CB100 shocks and Michelins, I started going pretty quickly around corners. One day on the Great Ocean Road, I took a tight bend way too fast and lost it. The bike and I skidded towards a sheer cliff, beyond which was only space. An 'armco' barrier, perhaps the most welcome structure in my life, prevented me from sailing off the cliff.
My right knee, however, took the full weight of the impact. My knee came between a sharp-edged redgum post and the skidding motorcycle-human combo, as if between a pair of side-cutters. The impact exposed an amazing window to grey bone through a neat, 4-inch laceration. This hurt like hell, though not as much as the pressure of the bandages during the 12 days I spent in Geelong hospital under morphine. The rehabilitation was worse—stretching atrophied muscles back into line. The surgeon reckoned I'd very nearly lost the knee, and I have no doubt that a heavier bike (just about any other bike on the road) would have led to a much nastier outcome.
The wound healed up nicely, though, and these days there's only a big scar and slight local numbness to remind me of it. There's also an imprint of scarred muscle tissue in my thigh caused by the frame's front downtube.
Lighter is always better when it comes to motorcycles!
I remodeled the bike with a ducktail from a Z500 and a better seat. A plastic lampshade was fashioned into a bikini fairing, and the whole thing was prettied up with bog and black paint. The addition of a rejetted YZ80G Mikuni carby did wonders for the power.

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