Amaran 125 A Boy and his Dream Bike

I liked and have to fabricate only a few. Then the Amaran dream became possible so I decided to do it. As it turns out, the only parts I had to make from scratch were the gas tank, the seat and a few cosmetic features. I built the rest of the bike from parts I modified from other bikes.

The engine and chassis are from a 1973 Suzuki TM125 that I already owned. I cut off the sub-frame and fabricated a new one to accommodate laid-down shocks. The front forks, triple clamps and the front hub are from a 1976 Suzuki RM 250 which bolted right on. I modified the forks to be air forks with an oil/air separator piston. The front and rear rims are both from the TM125.

The swingarm, rear hub and the shocks are all from a 1976 Elsinore 125. I had to fabricate the piggyback reservoirs with floating pistons so I could charge the shocks with nitrogen. I assembled both the front and rear wheels with new Buchanan spokes. The front sprocket is Sunstar and the rear is from Sprocket Specialists.

The front and rear fenders are both Preston Petty items that I cut and reshaped. The front fender has Suzuki mud flaps. The front number plate is from a 1974 Elsinore. The side panels are from a 1975 RM125.

The handlebars are chromeplated vintage MX and the grips are from a 1974 Elsinore. The levers and perches are Emgo with Elsinore accordion covers. The throttle assembly is from the TM and the control cables are from Motion Pro.

The engine is from my TM 125 and I completely rebuilt it and added lots of mods. After replacing the connecting rod assembly on the crankshaft, I changed the balance factor. The engine didn’t have lots of time on it, so I just rehoned the stock bore and used a new piston from a Suzuki TS125. I modified the skirt to change the intake timing. I ported both the cases and the cylinder.

One feature of the cylinder porting is what I call “Ram Induction.” I added additional ports to the cylinder that feed the engine on a combination of intake velocity and expansion chamber negative pressure. That adds more air/fuel mixture during the transfer phase.

I modified the head with a different combustion chamber shape to achieve a more efficient burn and higher compression. I also made the necessary mods to eliminate the oil injection.

So it wouldn’t look so obviously like a TM engine, I changed the shape of the head fins. I also reshaped the kickstarter to clear the new exhaust pipe. Using a zinc plating kit I got from eBay, I plated the kickstarter, brake pedal, shifter and other miscellaneous hardware. I spent extra time on the kickstarter to give it a chrome-like finish.

The carburetor is a 34mm Keihin PWK. The exhaust system is a mix of different pipes and a fabricated cone. The header is from a 125 shifter kart. The rear cone and stinger are from a 1995 KX125. I had to fabricate a long middle cone to connect the head pipe to the rear cone. The silencer is a shortened universal DG unit.

The two biggest challenges were the gas tank and the seat. I wanted to make the gas tank look like what I had dreamed of as a kid. Little did I know what I was in for, trying to make that dream a reality.

I fabricated the gas tank out of .08” aluminum sheet metal formed over a piece of plumbing pipe and miscellaneous ball peen

hammers. I did a lot of shaping, cutting and welding to create the shape I was looking to achieve. I machined a mount for the petcock and bought an aluminum gas cap assembly from eBay to complete the task. Since I’m not a sheet metal guy, I had to rely a little on ‘Mr. Bondo’ to get the tank ready for paint.

The challenge with the seat was that it had to accommodate the gas tank, the sub fame and the rear fender. So, like the gas tank, I couldn’t take it off the shelf. I had to fabricate one. I built the seat base out of fiberglass because it would be easier to work with than steel or aluminum. I’m also not a fiberglass guy, but the process went fairly well. It was certainly easier than the tank. After the fiberglass was right, I trimmed the edges and made mounts to connect it to the sub-frame. The seat foam I used was from a 1978 Elsinore 125. That made the foam too big for the job, and that made it just right for me because I could cut my way to what I needed.

Once the foam was cut and sanded to shape, I was able to sew up the seat cover. After having done upholstery for years, sewing the seat cover was much easier. I attached the cover to the base with high strength contact cement.

As with most of my custom projects, I will choose my initial colours from what’s available from Powder Coating Specialties of Golden, Colorado. I always use them to powder coat the fames, the hubs and other miscellaneous pieces. I will then take the samples to my favorite automotive paint store and have them mix paint to match for the parts that can’t be powder coated, like the gas tank, fenders and side panels. The powder coat colours I chose were the brightest neon green I could find from their selections and light and dark gunmetal grey. The greys were no problem to match but the neon green was a different story. The paint store matches the paint with a special camera that prints out the formula for the mix but for my green, the camera printout was just an error code. It could not define a mix. So, I left the green sample with their custom-mix guy in the hopes he could match it by eye. After a few weeks he called and said he couldn’t get a match. After having committed to that green with the powder coating, I had to learn how to mix my own green paint to match. To do that, I bought from eBay the closest neon green I could find. Then over the next couple of weeks with left-over paint from other projects, in this case yellow, blue and white, I was finally able to get a colour that was very close. All that was left were the Amaran stickers and stencils. I got them from Fast Signs. I used the stencils for the back of the seat and the crossbar pad. Then it was ready for final assembly and that went well and there it was, my 1975 Amaran 125X, ready for prime time, some photos and posterity. Remember the error code? I thought I was through with all that. The camera from the paint shop couldn’t reproduce the neon green color and neither could my dad’s fancy digital camera. I was back to square one with the color. The problem persisted with a number of different cameras over spring, summer and finally winter. The solution ended up with one of the cheaper cameras and a bleak winter day. I haven’t ridden the Amaran yet but will when the snow melts.

As I look back on the project, I had to get better at sheet metal, learn how to do fiberglass, resurrect my upholstery skills, learn how to match colors, design logos for Amaran and learn a lot about photography, but that’s kind of been true for all of my projects. They always take more time and effort than I thought, but always became much more fun because I enjoy the challenge.

You can see all the steps of this project and more on “Jim Bennett’s All night Garage” on YouTube.