Hi-Bird Sport 125

[Ascot500]

The seat height is right around 32"

[Dragon]

Ascot,
How loud is the exhaust? I have a Hi Bird Enduro 250, and everywhere I go on my Enduro people turn their heads and stare at me like I'm some sort of hooligan. I need a bike that is quiet.

[kczukiman]

Originally Posted by Dragon

Ascot,
How loud is the exhaust? I have a Hi Bird Enduro 250, and everywhere I go on my Enduro people turn their heads and stare at me like I'm some sort of hooligan. I need a bike that is quiet.

Change your exhaust.I have owned several street bikes and my hi-bird is the most quiet bike I have ever owned.I have never had a look because of the noise or a comment because of noise.

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by kczukiman

Change your exhaust.I have owned several street bikes and my hi-bird is the most quiet bike I have ever owned.I have never had a look because of the noise or a comment because of noise.

The bike is pretty quiet below 1/2 throttle. Above that, it's loud like a typical dirt bike/dual sport. Since passing the break-in period, I've been riding the bike very hard. The noise is breaking my ear drum and annoying the hell out of neighbors.

Hopefully, a scooter will let me ride fast and my neighbor live in peace.

[kczukiman]

I have to admidt .I have beem looking at the 250cc scooters myself.Since my wife got her scooter I have been riding it quite abit.(Don't tell Culcune).It sure is nice not having to shift gears.

[Ascot500]

The sport 125 is certainly quiet. It is not a true scooter however, it does have a five speed with manual clutch.

FYI: changing the rear sprocket has been a challenge, the pattern is four bolts on a 70 mm circle.
If found one on ebay that looked about right, had to have a guy at work open I.D. to 54 mm.
Oh. and it's for a 420 chain. Mines a 428. We'll see...

I now have a 16/37 combo - much better than the 15/42 I had.
I still think I could go to a 34 rear and be OK.

[IronFist]

On my street, I keep the RPM's VERY low. Everywhere else I don't care. When I'm riding I don't really hear my bike unless I go under a bridge. (where I always gun the engine.) :wink:

When I get off the bike I notice my ears ringing, that's tinitus, hearing damage. My bud uses earplugs and swears that he feels less tired after long rides. I have not used them yet. They are soft ear plugs so you can still hear but it knocks down the noise by about 12 Db. Or you could get an aftermarket quiet pipe, with a little more flow while you're at it.

[Dragon]

I've also started to use ear plugs on my commute. Without the plugs, my ear also rings after cruising on the highway; I guess that means I have ear damage already.

[IronFist]

I went to school for audio tech. Most sound guys at rock concerts wear earplugs. They are about 300$

They are designed for your ears only. They knock down the Db but don't affect the pitch of the sound you hear. You get to hear all octaves equally. High frequency is unidirectional. Bass is omni directional. that's why you only need 1 bass woofer. Your muffler Has both. The bass notes are louder cause you hear the noise from the motor and off the ground. Add the wind noise, high frequency, high volume and yep ringing=damage.

[Pat]

I have the MC125 that Baja sold to Pep Boys. Pep Boys quit selling them. I took a lot of time on Google, but figured out that it is made by Hi-Bird, in China. Luckily for me, their national distributor is here in Oklahoma City about 10 miles from my house. My sprockets give way too low gearing for me. 6.8 mph/1000 rpm in high gear. I have a 15/43 on it. I want very bad to find a 17 tooth front sprocket. Does anyone know where I can buy one? I have recently converted to Mobil One and installed an Iridium Spark plug and indexed it via another spark plug gasket so that it opens directly at the intake valve and it feels like I have 10% more power. They say top speed on this bike is mid-50's, but I cruise at part throttle at 50. With the gearing I want, my current fourth gear will become similar to fifth, and fifth will be an overdrive. I have 1,100 miles on it. Only problems have been a turn signal bulb and the speedometer cable. Either this engine goes wild with more power at 8,000 rpm or the tachometer loses its mind and leaps to 12,000 rpm. I wonder which is true. I like this bike. I plan on installing high quality tires sometime as I just wonder what quality is on there now. My e-mail is patrickwhunt39@yahoo.com.

[Ascot500]

Pat,

The front sprocket is your basic JTF 259 which any bike shop can order.
A 17T will not fit, the 16T is as big as you can go ans still get the chain cover on. The rear sprocket is a JTR 262 which I have not been able to find in the US.

Interesting what you said about the spark plug, how did you come up with that?

[Ascot500]

Thought I would post about my experience so far.
I now have over 1000 km on it, I have changed the oil twice & adjusted valves once & intsalled an Iridium plug.

Sprocket combo is now a 16/37 combo but the rear is a 420 width.
I have had a 34T JTR sprocket on order for two months....
As is, 50 mph is still too buzzy for me and I am getting about 80 mpg.

To address the handle bars I took a standard street bar and split it in half.
The cables were long enough as is but I did need to omit the brake line mid clamp to fit - I may have a custom line made sometime.
I also bent the left mirror stem so that I can actually see past my arm.

It has stopped on me a couple times and after sitting fired right up.
I replaced the vacuum petcock with a manual one and put in a bigger filter.
It still happened one more time, but after I opened the gas cap and waited 30 seconds it ran.
This happened after running uphill about 1/2 mile and the tank was at less than half. I suspect that the tank being under the seat doesn't help.

After some research I have concluded this 'bird is a Suzuki Raider clone mated to a Honda CG125 engine clone. This class of bike is called an "underbone" and is very popular in the Philipines.

The folks I bought it from no longer have any and I haven't seen one anywhere else.

Like: Unique styling, light weight, simple maintenance, comfortable

Dislike: Stock gearing, too small (1 gal) gas tank
I have thought of trying to fit a Ninja tank - the frame actually has two top tubes like a sport bike.
If anyone can share a photo of what the bottom of a Ninja tank looks like that would be great.

[wvcruffler]

OK, it has been a couple years. How did everyone's Hi-Bird 125 turn out? I am curious as to how they did. I didn't order one at the time and now I can't find one to save my life.
Phil

Originally Posted by Ascot500

I have already posted some info on the dealer forum but started this thread to get into details about the bike.
I hope someone finds this useful.
Here is the picture of mine


This is the half exhaust collar from the factory, under the exhaust flange


The one I made


A view of the clip on handle bars


Here is the text of my original post on the dealer forum:

I recently bought a Hi-Bird Sport 125 "Scooter" from Motorxtremes.
After placing the order, it took a full five business days to ship.
While this is probably nothing to complain about, I was anxious.
It was delivered to my door on a lift gate truck.
The unit had a couple minor scuffs, but nothing I felt the need to complain about. There were no assembly instructions, but all that was needed was to install battery, front wheel, headlight and exhaust.
The exhaust uses a split collar - looks like a top hat cut in two - and one of the halves was missing. I have contacted them several times, the last time by phone about 10 days ago, and still have not received the part.
Unfortunately, you can't use the bike without it.
Being somewhat handy I was able to fab a replacement out of an old shock absorber, and it is doing the trick.
So far I have 200 km on it. I was able to register it in NC using the MSO and bill of sale. The DMV lady raised a stink 'cause the mileage statement said zero, but then gave me the plate.
I am going to change the sprockets - right now it is a 15/41 combination, to a 16/37. I can't understand how anyone would tolerate the stock gearing.
I also find that I don't like the clip ons - I am 47 - but haven't figured out how to handle that.

[Ascot500]

Wow, thanks for resurrecting this thread.
I still have the Yellow 'Bird, it now has about 1900 km on the clock.
Mods:
I have replaced the vacuum petcock with a manual petcock.
I took a street handlebar, cut it in half and used the halves to replace the straight bars.
After going from 15/41 to 16/34 sprockets, the bike will do 55 without sounding like it's spinning apart.
I get about 80 mpg and all my riding is in town - though not much in traffic.
The tank only holds about a gallon and being under the seat, I get afraid it will starve the carb if I let get down too low, so I tend to get fill ups at 1/2 tank.
The engine is very cold blooded and needs choke for a good while.
Overall I am happy with it, it's light and nimble and it tends to get a lot of looks.
After some research I believe the bike is meant to copy the Suzuki Raider, an "Underbone" very popular in S.E. Asia.
With the nice fall weather in NC, I hope to do more riding.

Cheers

[TheRealWorld]

So where an a guy order one of these, and where did HiBird go. Does VBike still handle them.