[Svscott]

I just picked up a 2005 ttr 125 le project bike yesterday morning for $500 outside of Erie, PA. I've owned a couple of street bikes (1984 KZ440 I rode for a year in the early 2000's and my current bike I've had since new.... a Suzuki sv650s) and a late 90'sYamaha Blaster but this is my first dirt bike. I am 5'9" and 140 lbs, so I should be able to have some fun with this thing in the northwestern PA woods. My son is ten and I got him started riding around our property on a Suzuki JR50 a couple years ago - I think the ttr will be too tall for him for a couple more years but maybe I can fit smaller rims for him to ride it sooner?
This bike has a couple of obvious electrical gremlins that I feel I should start with fixing, of course after draining the old fuel and swapping in a new spark plug.
The bike turns over when you press the kill switch on the left bar but the actual start button on the right side doesn't respond at all when pressed (maybe it would act as a kill switch and is just backwards?). I haven't yet checked for spark and haven't turned the fuel on, but there is compression when using the kick starter so I feel like this thing should fire up for me once I get fresh gas in and maybe a carb cleaning done.
The good (and bad) about this machine that I've figured out after a very brief once over - it has a brand new 19" Kenda Washougal 2 rear tire and a new 16" Chinese (Guangli or something like that) front tire.
The brakes work but are not rubbing or getting hung up while pushing the bike around.
The plastics all seem to be there, except the tail side plastics are removed and they have a couple broken tabs. The rear fender is cut off a few inches behind the seat and has a short fender extender piece bolted on including some aftermarket led brake/tail light.
It seems like the tail (subframe?) is tweaked a bit from straight.
There is a rectangular LED headlight bolted to the handlebar clamps and wired to a push button switch and it works.
The front brake lever is bent down and needs replaced.
The grips are in rough shape, with the handlebar ends being exposed - I'd think there should be a bar end of sorts so you don't impale yourself and take a plug of flesh out of your body when crashing?
The stock hand guards have been removed or are broken and there are aftermarket guards fitted.
I'm fairly mechanically inclined and am looking forward to getting this thing running and dialed in before next spring.
I also picked up a never worn Thor Quadrant 2 off road helmet for $50 about 2 miles from where I bought the bike, and was able to grab that on the way home!
Sorry the pics are out of sequence but this already took me far too long to write...
Any help and advice is appreciated!

 

[Svscott]

Hello ...., Yoo Hoo ...,
[/QUOTEI've been traveling for work and will be back to the bike tomorrow.

Hello ...., Yoo Hoo ...,

I've been away from the bike for the week but will be back tomorrow. Will update soon.

 

[Svscott]

Just a quick update, the tenth digit is a 3, so I guess this bike is a 2003 and is a bit older than I was told.
It'll be at least a couple weeks before I start tinkering with this little bike. The plan is still to first check for spark and clean the carb to get it running, then I'll clean and de-grease the whole thing and go from there.

 

[Svscott]

These things are pretty much bulletproof , Simple , Get a PDF version of service manual @ Manualslib.com .. cheap , and easy . Subscription covers hundreds of bikes , appliances , cars , boats . ..., Your 2003 is a great bike . Just clean it up , and enjoy ..., Help is here ..., I have right now , 2003 - 05 - 07 - 09 - 2015 .... Most everything is interchangeable ..., Parts are plentiful ...., EBAY has most everything ..., Good luck ...,

Thank you! I'm glad that I signed up on such a helpful and active forum.
I'll be honest, I'm not one to sign up for subscription sites, so I'll be hunting for a free pdf manual... there must be one available?. In the meantime, do you have any thoughts on why the shutoff switch acts as the start button, and how to rectify this?
Also, I read in a thread that the stator doesn't put out enough voltage to run lights. The headlight and tail light are on a switch (not yet sure if they're fused, if they're hard wired to the battery, etc) do you figure I'm ok leaving these hooked up and installed?

 

[Svscott]

It is the LE with starter and kick start. The previous owner told me the buttons are backwards but I haven't looked at it.
I just went out and checked the air filter and found out it's soggy with oil and disintegrating. I pulled the nasty foam from the air box and gave it a quick shot of starting fluid and pressed the little red button on the left bar and it fired right up for two seconds. I am positive it'll purr with a carb clean and some fresh ethanol free gas.

 

[Svscott]

Thanks for the help and advise. Now that I know this bike runs and isn't messed up internally, I'm excited to get it running. I don't plan to do anything cosmetically beyond a deep cleaning. New air filter,
new brake lever, carb rebuild, basic chain maintenance, and a peek at the suspension is all I've got in mind.

 

[Svscott]

In my trucks/ suv's, I run regular 87 but if I'm going to have gas sit in a carb or tank for more than a month or two without getting refreshed, I always use ethanol free. I keep a 5 gallon can on standby for my lawn tractor, rototiller, snow blower, and sailboat outboards. I'm not keen on tearing apart carbs annually. Buildup is especially bad in my 5 hp tohatsu 4 stroke outboard when I use regular.

 

[Svscott]

I've got multiple small engines that sit for 5 or 6 months at a time. In November, I pull the batteries out of my riding mower, 2 boats, and bikes and put them on battery tenders.
I don't start engines unless I'm going for a mid-winter ride of at least 10 minutes. I've read that it can cause condensation in the tank and exhaust. I'm in Northwestern Pennsylvania, right between Ohio and New York and about 10 minutes south of Lake Erie. That pic is from a couple years ago, but we have over a foot of snow on the ground right now.

 

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Not yet, but I got my boat covered, my snowblower carb rebuilt and tuned up, and went on a 16 hour road trip to Kansas City to eat some smoked turkey with my brother and his family.
This bike will be worked on only sporadically this winter. I may be able to get the carb cleaned and fuel flowing this weekend.
We've had over a foot of snow already and the local ski slopes open next week. I'm a newish high school teacher at a technical school and free time is scarce.

 

[Svscott]

I just drained the old gas from the tank then removed the carb and partially disassembled it. I sprayed carb cleaner through all the jets and passages and reassembled. After adding a gallon of fresh gas, she fired right up with a pull of the choke. White smoke was coming from the exhaust while warming up for a couple minutes but mostly went away once I kicked it into gear and did a couple laps up and down the driveway.
The bike starts, shifts into gear, stops, and shuts off (with the wrong button, but we'll deal with that later).
I need to figure out this style carb though. The idle doesn't want to slow down after revving. Turning the little screw on the side of the carb made a difference but the engine wants to stall at slower idle.
I'm running it without an air filter but the air box is closed up... maybe that's an issue?

 

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I just read through a couple posts and watched a quick video about adjusting the air/fuel screw as well as the idle screw and will give that a try next.
I'm not doing that now though - it's 40 degrees outside and after about an hour of carburetor work in the garage, my hands are cold.

 

[Svscott]

Where do I get a wire brush small enough to run through a jet? It'll be cool to see how little $$ I can spend to get the little bike running properly.
Before pulling the bike back into the shed, I liberally sprayed the grease and mud covered chain, shock, and swingarm in WD40. I'll wipe it down after it's had a chance to break up the grease a bit.

 

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On my sv650, I've always used kerosene and a denture brush to clean the chain and other greasy parts but I don't have any kerosene on hand so I used wd40... not as lube but as solvent. I'll use some actual chain lube when it's time for that.
I found that this bike looks to be set up with a remote reservoir rear shock with the res zip tied to the front down tube. I don't think that's stock? No clue what spring is on it or if anything has been done to the forks yet. I weigh 145 lbs without any gear and my son is about 80 lbs.

 

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The new pre-oiled Pro Filter air filter arrived and was installed today. I turned the air/fuel screw out 2.75 turns from closed and the bike kicked over and idled nicely.... it's 45 degrees outside, and the bike didn't require any choke and took one kick to bring it to life.

Next up is a general clean and degrease and lube of the whole machine, along with going over the lighting circuit to make sure it's fused and the connections are clean. I'll straighten or replace the bent brake lever.

 

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Yep, electric starter works great... except for the backwards switches. They both work, so I'll fix it later. I hadn't tried using the kickstarter to start the bike since I cleaned the carb and got it running over the weekend.

 

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I've always subscribed to the thinking that it is way more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow. It's easier and more fun to push a beginner friendly machine hard than to just scratch the surface of a powerful machine's ability.
I've had great times on my SV, whether it's quick jaunts across town, half day rides to the national forest and back, multi day trips to the Midwest or Smoky Mtns, or tearing up the track. She's got enough power to always keep me smiling but not so much that I get in over my head

 

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Racing sounds fun but the only officialracing I've done so far is in my mountain bike.
I'll ride anything I get the chance to!. I've ridden only a couple dirt bikes but have ridden a bunch of cruisers and sport bikes.
I got a chance to actually ride the ttr today on a friend's property. After wrenching on it for an hour, removing miscellaneous hardware from the bars from some old brush guards, installed a handful of missing bolts, straightend the brake lever, lubed the chain, adjusted the drum brake, and put the tail side covers and battery cover on, I took it out for about an 8 mile ride through wet grass, mud, and gravel.
The motor and transmission run and shifts great but the suspension feels like I'm bouncing on a trampoline.
I'm going to do fork seals and oil for sure, and maybe new springs plus one of the rubber fork covers is ripped so I'll replace those. I'll have to research about servicing the rear shock. It looks like the spring is compressed as far as it'll go with the adjuster nuts already but the rebound damping is virtually nonexistent.
I took my boy skiing/ snowboarding this evening, after I got done riding and tinkering on the bike.