It's always something…

Going back in time is not easy. But it can. In any case, a lot of work is being done in the retro corner. In the automotive world, fuel injection has been the norm for decades. And in our classic world there are already quite a few 25+'ers with petrol injection. But 'new' motorcycles can no longer do without emission tests.

In the car world of a moment ago, especially when it comes to USA eight-cylinder engines, many have already been rebuilt to old-fashioned carburetors. That is technically simpler. And a bunch of fat carburettors under the hood looks indescribably nicer than a nest of wiring and bits of an injection system. In the motorcycle world, that conversion to carburetion, as far as we know, mainly happens with Harleys. But we also know a Moto Guzzi and a BMW K75 (!) that simply breathe in classically atmospheric again.

Such a conversion sounds simple: Remove the injection debris. Carburettors on it.

And then possibly some fine-tuning in terms of nozzle occupation. And so we come to the retro corner where you naturally hope to find the best of both worlds.

Here at the editors is a 125 Mash 2017 running.

That retro Franco Chinese from 2017 was bought with an embarrassing 6D kilometer for loose change. A year later, with rides in the neighborhood and buying cigars, thick 2D has been added.

Now 'writing off' for brands that are not yet anchored in the market is something that you have to take seriously. And if the engine also doesn't work… The Mash was stripped of its broken sidestand protection. The other 'protections' were removed as a precaution because they came across as a bit too Italian.

Only the Delphi injection remained a problem child with which a Real Specialist asked for help could not help much. Remember me: The Mash was a few years old and the failure may have been exemplary.

And then you get into the field of tension

The purchase price was ridiculously low for such a nice and neat thing. But the parts prices are at a 'normal' level. Then you are in the middle of the splits whether it 'pays' to see half of the purchase price as an extra investment to get your moped completely okay. Because for that amount of parts you also have a Yamaha Fazer 600. And that's actually a 'truer' classic than the Mash. And it runs faster than about 95 km/h.

But because that Mash is regularly mistaken for a Hondaa from the sixties, the solution was thought in 'historical thinking'. Because under the Mash hangs a clone of a Suzuki GN125 block. And those Suzukis once simply breathed through carburetors. In order to put things in perspective in terms of the environment, the Chinese later modeled injections on it.

Via the Internet, Ali offers Suzuki GN 125 carburetors all over the world for prices from 28 euros + freight costs. That is nice and nice, but within the digital circle of friends Ben van Eerdt reported that he still had such a carburetor in a box and with purchase receipt somewhere. The purchase receipt from 2019 stated 109 euros. I actually paid what I would have lost to Ali and for that amount Ben came to bring the carburetor too. On his neat and tidy Fazer 600 (which he had bought for an amount that I would have lost on new Mash parts).

Then it turned out that the injection is still more involved than I thought.

An impressive amount of wiring and plugs emerged from under the tank. Surely something needs to be done with that. But of course, purely mechanically, there was little difficulty in getting the Suzuki 125 clone to breathe normally again. And that's on the schedule for next weekend!