So you’ve got your first wheels after doing your CBT but you wanna switch things up a little.. But where to begin?!
Starting to get to grips with small customisations on your first small engine, post CBT learner bike can be a great way to get to know the machine you’re riding and to understand how the thing works!
There’s a ton of stuff you can do with a little knowledge, a couple of Youtube vids, the right bolt on custom parts and your Haynes manual and from there you’ll start to build up your knowledge of your bikes anatomy and know what you’d like to attack next.
Best advice? We’d always advise a bit of caution to begin with (ok, ok, we cant exactly admit that we’ve always lived by that advice but believe us we’ve made enough mistakes cutting bits off our bikes to attest to it) and start small with stuff like grips, mirrors, indicators and changing the bars, working your way up to carbs, exhausts, full tank resprays and any fabrication work.
“The worst idea in the world is to buy a stock bike with no previous mechanical or build knowledge and start stripping bits off until you don’t know where you started (yep, we’ve also been there….and yep, it wasn’t pretty). “
ALEX GRANT
Also, some boring stuff but a Haynes workshop manual is the best buy you can make if you wanna start tinkering. It’ll guide you through how your bike ticks and how to sort any problems you may have along the way. It will also show you how to do all the basic bits of maintenance (like oil changes to chain tensioning) to keep your ride running sweet.
Next up, grab yourself a basic tool kit. Halfords actually do a great kit at a good price to get you started. Be sure to check them out around sale time as they often discount their tool kits. If you grab some decent quality tools they should last you a lifetime so they’re well worth the ££.
SO WHERE CAN I GO TO LEARN SOME BASIC MECHANICS?
Well aside from your Haynes manual and the rabbit hole of YouTube videos available online (we learnt a lot of what we know from either friends, YouTube or forums) there are some great courses out there. If you’re looking to get to grips with some basic mechanics before taking a stab at your own bike mods check out BOLT MOTORCYCLES. They’re based in Stoke Newington, London and they do a great beginners’ basic mechanics class that’s deffo worth a look in to get you started on the good foot. That way you can ask questions about your own bike ideas and how to pull them off whilst learning about basic bike mechanics. Also if you’re in the midlands in the UK checkout THE MACHINE SHOP who do some similar courses.
SO WHERE THE HELL DO I START???
Here’s a quick run down of some of the first easy-ish customisation ideas to get to grips with and some of our fave parts out there right now so you can get that first taste of switching things up! It’s by no means a completely exhaustive list but it’s a good start to the places to look for parts.
GRIPS
Ok, well admit it. We’re very partial to a weird and wonderful grip at VC (see our choppers as case in point). It seems like an obvious and quite small thing to change up but with soooooo many different custom grips on the market now you can literally go wild (think bright green mega glitter flake extravaganzas) with your grip choice now a days. Be sure to check your handle bar size (either 7/8” or 1” - small bike are usually 7/8” but make sure you check for good measure) and arm yourself with a wire coat hanger and some fairy liquid or WD40 to get those old grips off !
Wanna find out how to get your original grips off (because believe us it can be a right old faff) then check out this helpful little vid on YouTube. A little extra tip is to use a wire coat hanger instead of a screwdriver to get inside the grips ;)
Check out some of our fave grips around right now below:
VANS X CULT MC WAFFLE GRIPS
SEVEN SINS GALAXY GLITTER GRIPS
SEVEN SINS NIGHT GLOW GRIPS
LOWBROW
FLYING MONKEY GRIPS
BILTWELL RECOIL TPV GRIPS
BARS & MIRRORS
HANDLE BARS
Another faffy job but well worth doing is switching up your bars as it can totally transform your front end in a relatively inexpensive way. There are a ton of different handle bars out there you can choose from from some rad chrome options from BILTWELL to a more dirt bike style, black powder coated bars from a brand like RENTHAL. Actually, a note while we’re on this is that even though some bars may be advertised as dirt bike bars etc they don’t always have to go on a bike of that style. The VC Yamaha SR125 build was a stock 125cc road bike and we put some Renthal 7/8” dirt bike bars on it that worked perfectly for what we wanted, so don’t be put off by trying out something a little different on your bike. You can always return the bars when they come and you’ve had a look at them next to your bike IRL!
One important thing to consider is that the type of bars you’re gonna put on your bike may drastically change the riding position of your motorcycle.It’s worth spending some time considering how you want your riding position to be before you go buy those cafe racer style bars that don’t match the riding position of what you originally intended.
Renthal 7/8 22mm Road Handlebars
BILTWELL 5/8” BARS
MIRRORS
As they’re in the handle bar area let’s talk mirrors. Never have we ever seen a stock bike that comes without a large dinner plate type mirror as standard. That being said, it’s all down to personal taste and how confident you are riding with a different type of smaller mirror. There are some rad custom mirror options on offer now that either bolt on to your bar ends or clamp on depending on your choice of bars. We’ve used the OBERON clamp bars on our builds before and love that you can pretty much place them wherever you like on your bars but, be warned, custom mirrors are often much smaller than stock so if you’re new to riding and feel you need larger mirrors at first until you’re more confident there ain’t no shame! It can wait until later.
BILTWELL ROUND IN-BAR UTILITY MIRROR 7/8"
OBERON SMALL HANDLE BAR CLAMP MIRRORS
BILTWELL ROUND CLAMP-ON UTILITY MIRROR
INDICATORS
Another one that can be changed relatively easily and it’ll transform the look of both the back and front of your bike is your indicators. There are literally a thousand different options that look smaller and neater than your potentially flying saucer looking stock indicators and they come in some really nice finishes from brushed chrome to black powder coated that will immediately look more modern. The biggest challenge that can come with changing up your indicators is where to put the new indicators, as they may need some custom brackets to affix them to your bike if they won’t fit exactly where the originals came off. Take your time and really think about how the new indicators will sit and where. Also, it’s worth getting yourself some basic moto electrics kit like some electrical tape, crimpers and some basic connectors (also available at your local Halfords) but get your new indicators first and see if you can literally just plug and play before investing in anything else as it’s possible you might be able to do this.
Also a note is to check if your bike has a 6 volt or 12 volt battery as most new LED indicators struggle to be powered by a 6 volt bike and you’ll run into problems (we speak from experience on this one….urgh). We can’t say it enough…PLAN, PLAN, PLAN and you’ll make fewer mistakes when buying the stuff you need.
POSH JAPAN MINI INDICATORS
MCS MICRO BULLET CHROME INDICTAORS
MCS MONO LED TURN SIGNALS - BLACK
SPEEDO /TACHO
Game changer! Although it’s a slightly more costly thing to change (especially if you need both a speedo and tacho for your bike) switching up your speedo to a smaller custom one is a relatively easy thing to do. Most new smaller speedos come with a little mounting plate too so they’re relatively easy to just plug and play where your old speedo was. We’ve used both the MCS mini and the Daytona clocks before and they’ve fit easily onto our Honda CG125 and Yamaha Sr125 builds without much fuss. Again, think about how the clock will mount to your bike when you’re stripping off that old speedo and also label up any wires you remove from the clock so you know what plugs back in where on your flashy new one!
MCS MINI SPEEDO
DAYTONA MINI SPEEDO
DAYTONA VELONA SPEEDOMETER
TANK
Now tanks and spraying are a world unto themselves and require a certain amount of space and set up for you to fully spray your own. That being said, it’s an ace way to really drastically change the look of your bike straight away. Even though we had absolutely no idea when we built our first bike we just dove in and started spraying up our tanks in a makeshift spray booth after watching some YouTube vids and getting some tips from mates. And they came out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves. Best bit of advice we can give is go on eBay and buy yourself a crappy cheap old tank to practise on first if you don’t wanna dive straight in on your own tank.
You can do anything from some pin striping/sign writing classes and hand paint a design on your own tank to learning how to fully strip down back to bare metal, primer coat and then full respray your tank to an entirely new colour. We’ve heard a lot of people moan about rattle canning a paint job before but its always worked great for us. A little hack tip is that we’ve always used matt spray paints (MONTANA do some amazing ones in an incredible range of colours) and then get a professional to clear gloss coat your tank to finish it off in a petrol resistant lacquer. We’ve got our local spray shop to do this for us before and it cost us about £50 so don’t be afraid to pop your head round your local spray place door and check it out…You don’t ask you don’t get right?
Finally for any hand paint work we suggest using ONE SHOT enamel paints and some half decent sign painter brushes. You don’t need to clear coat the one shot enamel paint to finish it so it’s great for painting onto your tank if you’re already happy with the colour but want a custom design on top.
HEADLIGHT &
TAIL LIGHT
HEADLIGHTS
Just like indicators changing your headlight from the giant beamer you may currently have as stock can look awesome but again you’ll need to remember that you might need some special mounts or CLAMPS to attach your new headlight so again do your research on how you plan to do this. You can buy these online most of the time but sometimes you’ll need to fabricate your own which can be a job you’ll need a hand with and some specific tools for at first. This is another time when you will possibly need your basic moto electric kit too as more often that not you may need to clip off the plug that comes with the head light (if it doesn’t fit with your old light attachment) and either use electrical connectors or solder the wires together to connect everything. You can get some great headlights in different shapes and a range of sizes now too so plan and think ahead how small you wanna go to get the look you want on that front end!
POSH JAPAN MINI HEADLIGHT
BATES HEADLIGHT
TAIL LIGHTS
So, when you’re thinking about switching up your tail light it often comes married with a range of other mods that you’ll need to make that means potentially removing your whole back end set up (which on stock bikes can often come as one solid unit that encompasses both tail light, back indicators, number plate and sometimes even your whole back mudguard!) so make sure you’ve sat down and had a good old look at the whole back end of your bike. If you’ve got nowhere to put on that bad ass new tail light after you’ve taken off your whole back end you may need to fabricate a bracket coming out from your seat or that will sit on top of your mudguard so plan carefully.
It’s also worth researching a lot as some backlights come with a nice number plate and attachment bracket set up, like the MCS RUNAROUND below, that will make your life easier. Also remember if you buy a light that doesn’t have a number plate bracket, that your number plate needs to be lit up by law so if it doesn’t have a spot right below your light (and a way for your backlight to light it up - they often have a little clear window at the bottom of the lease that does this) then you’ll need to think that through.
MINI LED TAIL LIGHT
MCS RUNAROUND TAILLIGHT
EXHAUST MUFFLER
Ok, so we’re getting into more of a “chopping bits off” territory now which isn’t for the faint hearted (or the under prepared with no tools and no space to do this in) so we recommend finding someone to help you out with this one who has a bit more experience. BUT it’s a great thing to do that really makes that little ripper look rad!
We’ve done this on every bike we’ve had and aside from them becoming louder its not really been a huge problem with some of the great bolt on options out there today. That being said you will need to chop your stock muffler off (!) at the pipe in order to fit the new one and this can be tricky and take a lot of planning, measuring out and messing about to get it right. Also you’ll need to think about making sure your muffler will fit the original pipe (you can but special size reducer sleeves to help you if they’re different diameters) and mounting points that can work to bolt everything back onto the frame but mostly all custom mufflers come with a hand little slider bracket that will help with getting it in the right place. Again, research the bike builds that you already like to see what look you’d like to go for as there are a ton of different options out there. Like we said, it’s not the mod to take a stab at if you’re completely new to this so maybe start smaller and work your way up to this one if you’re not confident.
Check out this page on The Cafe Racer shop to see a massive range of what’s available!
So there you have it! Like we said, this list is deffo not completely exhaustive but it’ll start your mind working about how to attack those first little changes that can transform your bike pretty simply and quickly. Other mods you can start to think about that possibly need a bit more time, thought and skill can be:
LOOKING FOR YOUR FIRST MOTORCYCLE TO CUSTOMISE?
We’re loving the new range of 125cc bikes that HERALD motorcycles currently do!
Also check out our article on our fave small bike builds to get inspired!