After

Troyce Walls' "Swap Meet Special"

Started out with a 20 buck CT90 rusted all to hell, and a TRX125 with a great running engine but a chassis that crabbed down the road sideways, hard to steer, all the wheels a'hoppin' off the ground, nothing in the brake drums, a total mess.

Hmm, says I, "Why not just . . . ?"

So I pulled the engine from the CT since it was stuck anyway, and the engine from the TRX since the chassis was basically shot, stacked some blocks up and wedged said engine into said frame. Ran some engine mounts bolts through and was amazed to see they went right in. I knew then it had to be done.

The drive sprocket and driven sprocket were ever so slightly out of line, but I turned down the bushing, added one, to fix that. Had to remove just a bit from the left front edge of the CT swingarm, and a little off the left rear inner corner of the reverse sub-trans case of the TRX, but otherwise it was a fine fit.

Pulled all the electrics from the TRX since it had digital ignition, and I didn't want to get into that whole thing otherwise, and kept the dash assy and handlebars as well with the controls and switches.

Pulled the CT frame back down to nothing but, and sent it off to a painter buddy for that wonderful - got to see it in the sun - "Illusion Blue" he put on it that is different colors, depending on the viewing angle.
Meanwhile I plugged all the holes in the motor and lightly blasted it as it was covered with red-clay mud (four-wheeler must have come from N. Georgia) that seemed to be literally part of the surface of the alloy. Then I detailed the engine out with paint, etc. Started with the TRX carbie.

Cleaned up the XL100-125 - whatever it is - front end with new seals, etc. Had checked and knew the XL triple-tree stem was not long enough to go completely through the CT frame steering head, so I ground the weld off the CT tree and pulled the stem, likewise removed the one from the XL tree, and welded the CT stem into the XL unit. Reason I didn't go with a stock CT front end is that I had this nice clean XL unit, liked the way it looked much better with that fender, and my CT unit was shot to shit anyway with those outside rusty springs, etc. The XL fork legs were the same diameter as the CT ones, but would not bolt up at the top clamp - different type mounting there. The triangle made by the fork legs and center stem has a different geometry too.

Basically, everything I went to do had some sort of similar obstacle; the fit of the engine to frame was just a cosmic tease of some kind.

Got the frame and swingarm back and put 'em all together, using heavier chrome aftermarket shocks. bolted up the front end to find that the fender would hit the engine head, so had to drop the fender a couple of inches on hollow studs made from PVC. Put a small spacer in on top of the fork springs to give it more pre-tension for my fat ass.

Stuffed all the wiring into the compartment where the battery would normally go, knowing I would need a bigger battery for the electric start 125cc engine, and that the battery would have to go elsewhere. A couple of the electrical components, the coil for instance, are under the frame downtube cover, as is all the wiring going forward.

Once I determined a good location, I searched high and low for a proper battery box, something that wouldn't rust, would contain the battery by itself, yet be strong enough to bolt to the frame.
My fine wife Laurie reached into a cabinet in the kitchen, pulled out that Tupperware container and said, "I never use this, and it is what you are looking for."

Put a couple of strengthening straps inside it and bolted it to the frame - had to drill some holes - made holes for the cables, and viola. Had to build a plate that would bolt to the bottom part of the XL handlebar mount flanges cast into the tree top clamp, and that would accommodate the wider attach of the TRX bar/dash assy.Headlight and mounts are cheap aftermarket stuff, headlight didn't even have a ground wire - I had to solder one to both it and the tail light, in fact. Tail light is also cheap plastic aftermarket, drilled and bolted to the stock CT bracket.

Front wheel is stock CT, a nice shiny one though from eBay. Same for the rear wheel, but with a too-large tire - good thing those chrome shocks raise the ass end or the tire would rub in the frame inner.

Lever for reverse is aftermarket compression-release lever, the cable for it and the throttle had to be made up. The front brake cable came from I don't know what, tell ya true, I just found something that fit.

Foot peg bracket on port side had to be extended about two inches to clear the reverse pod. Stbd side worked fine as it was, brake lever is something else, I forget what, but it was nice and shiny and new, so it got put on there.

Rear rack is older CT, without the hole for the back-end of the intake breather system. I used that last little piece of the intake system from the CT as the intake manifold! One end fit the carb perfectly, and the other that cool lookin' K&N. Crankcase breather is also K&N, attached to the first part of the standard TRX hose.

Can't think of anything else, but happy to answer questions. Rear sprocket needs to be a lot smaller, as it is geared way too low right now, and the front sprocket is really difficult to access.
Oh, it goes fine, and is a real hoot to watch faces when I stick it into reverse and haul-ass off backwards!"
~Troyce Walls