Why I Love My 125cc Dirt Bike!

This is my 125. I've had her since I was 15 years old and we've been through a lot together. Race wins, broken bones and blown up engines. She's a 2011 Yamaha YZ125, although I have to admit she has had a few upgrades here and there over time. In fact, many things have changed in the 10 years since this old girl came into my life. I've attempted to grow a beard for one, and the extra timber I've put on in lockdown light is another. But some things have stayed consistent, such as the size of the smile that this thing puts on my face. My name's Max, this is 999 Laser, and in this video I'm going to tell you why I love my 125. So we're at the track here today to have some 125 fun, and for once I'm actually going to be the guy on the bike. If you've been following the channel for a few years, you might recognise this machine as the bike that we did the full restoration of back in 2016. But if you're slightly newer to the channel, you might not even know that I can ride a bike. And to be fair, it's been a while since I hit the track, so that might not actually be too far from the truth. As I mentioned in my intro, I've had this bike for over 10 years now. We got her in the winter of 2010 and she was actually my first full-sized bike after graduating from the 85 class. From the very beginning, I fell in love with the Yami. The handling had me hooked and I had some early success on the bike, grabbing some race wins at my local club. But at the time, I was an overzealous 15-year-old who probably wasn't quite strong enough to handle the might of that Japanese motor. And that resulted in some crashes and some injuries. Around the same sort of time, this channel and my job as a media creator had just started to take off, so my racing took a backseat and my bike got neglected. Over the next five years, I pretty much ran the old girl into the ground until 2016, when she finally gave up the ghost and blew up. Luckily, at that time, I was a member of the Dirt Bike Rider magazine test team and we came up with a plan to rebuild and restore my bike as an ongoing feature for their magazine in a project that we called Back to the Future. Our goal was not only to rebuild my bike, but attempt to turn her into the world's greatest 125. We wanted her to rival the Austrian competition. So with the help of Roland Shaw from Hardcore Racing and a lot of other people, we did just that. We kept everything legal. There's no 150 kit here, but Roland did work his magic, fitting a long-rod conversion, a VHM head, V-Force reed and a full HGS exhaust system. He turned what was already a decently enjoyable little bike into the most fun 125 I have ever ridden. She's a grin machine. And that's what I've come to show you guys today. So here we are, on the track, on board. My beloved Yellow Heart YZ 125. Now, I've only ridden the bike a handful of times since last August. Twice, actually. So please do forgive me if I'm a little bit rusty. Don't be expecting any Axel Hodges type stuff. Think more Ronnie Mac. As I get back into the swing of things here, this video and motocross in general these days is all about having the maximum amount of fun possible. I like that. I listen to her sing. And that's what this bike is all about. Don't get me wrong, she's fast. She's snappy. And she'd be a weapon in a 125 race series. But this is just all about fun. And this might be the funnest bike I've ever ridden, to be honest. Long and short. Hardcore racing. Special. Long wheel conversion. VHM. Head V-force reeds. Works. Means that she's a proper nice little bike to ride. So it's all about back-end sliding, front wheel pumping fun on this thing. There's plenty of that to be had today. Brap. 125. It's perfect for me. Not riding as often as I used to. I can hop on, have fun and not worry about riding too far over the head. Oh yeah. Oh god. Overshoot. So that's what I'm going to continue doing here. My beloved Yamaha YZ125. I'm going to continue having some fun. Why do I love my 125? Well, even though she is a seriously competitive race machine with enough ponies to rival any of the Austrian competition, no matter the colour, that's just not what motocross is for me at the moment. For me, racing has had to take a back seat, as we spend most of our weekends at the track filming instead of riding. Personally, for the moment anyway, motocross is no longer about the lap times and the race wins. It's purely all about the size of the smile underneath my helmet. And although I might be getting older and I might be getting fatter, riding this thing for 10 minutes still feels like injecting a whole load of dopamine directly into the bloodstream. The wheel popping, the back-end sliding and the motor screaming makes you feel alive and fools you into thinking that you're the fastest rider on planet Earth. Even when that is most certainly not the case, as I've just shown you today. But that's exactly why I love my 125. Thanks for watching guys. I hope you enjoyed this video and my little love letter to my beloved YZ125. I'm hoping to do a whole load more riding this year, so if you want to see more videos like this and a whole load more dirt bike content, be sure to like this video, share it with all your two-stroke loving friends and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. As always guys, I'm Max. This has been 999 Laser. Until next time, I'll see you at the track. you