Watch: A Honda XL125R Paris Dakar Gets A Restoration

Restoration videos normally take a common bike that’s been run to the ground or abandoned, but this is a little bit more special than your run-of-the-mill motorcycle TLC session. Instead of an old Honda underbone, we have a special Paris Dakar edition of the XL125R. 

The video opens up with the bike running, which would have been a rare sight in the world of restoration videos, but as you might notice, that’s a shot of the bike running after it was worked on. The real situation is that the motorcycle was worse for wear before the restoration session started. The video may span 37 minutes, but the clips are sped up, likely to accommodate the long hours it took to take the bike apart, order the parts, and account for daylight while shooting the video (most definitely since it says “timelapse” in the video title). 

All details aside, the video opens up with the Honda being stripped of all its old and worn parts. Apart from rust that pervades most of the componentry, the bike has also seen a ton of miles with its worn-out tires, and a ton of dust or dirt, which could indicate that it was used to the ground or kept behind a barn door so to speak. It appears that the bike has not been running for quite some time prior to this video, as evidenced by the rusted fork tubes and the caked-on dust and dirt. Judging from the tires, however, it’s likely that the owner of this Paris Dakar edition at least wore it down until its tires squared off. 

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Following disassembly, it was a quick trip to the pressure washing area, then to the sandblast zone of the shop. Rust was peeled away, along with the factory paint. On top of that, a few welding jobs were done to repair cracks and fractures in the frame along with buffing, sanding, and a fresh coat of primer and paint. 

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After the part refresh the suspension got a bit of love with new seals and oil, the wheels got a refresh and a new set of tires, and while we didn’t get to see the engine rebuild in the main video, it got a new paint job and a rebuild. 

When everything starts coming together, it’s a magical trip. The bike is back to its former glory. Purists might argue that it’s not totally original, but it works great for a resto-mod and makes for an extremely satisfying video. 

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