Typhoon 125 Ride Report?

[predator dad]

Does anyone have feedback on the 125 yet? I'm thinking of purchusing one soon.

[317GRFX-John]

My wife supprised my son will a 125 typhoon, which we picked up friday. Here the first ride low down. Changed the filter to a UNI filter, the stock one falls off very easy. Took some time to ride easy and break the quad in. After a few hour my son 10 yrs old about 70lbs. started to pickup the pace. Great torque and power on the top end. We went to Badland in Indiana, with is sand? ( Pea Gravel HA HA ) so most mini quad have trouble there because of small tires that dig into the sand. Due to the 4 storke torque of the quad this was true today. All the mini quad today had the same trouble.

Postives, Torque Great, Top End Great, Ride and Handling Great, Easy to control for my son, which is not Cody type ride ( Pappy's Son ) who tested the typhoon 90 Overall for the first day I would say an 8 of 10.

Negitives, this quad will be converted to an xc quad. To low to the ground for xc racing ( I'll modify the from A-Arms over winter , Air filter will have to be fixed for xc racing, the heal gaurd will break ( Not a good design, will be fixed this week, trany is hard to shift at first ( this will come in time ).

Overall a great quad for the money. All quads need work if your going to race them. This one I think is a little bit more closer than most stock quad. Riding on Sunday again and next weekend, Going to race in 1 month, which will be the real test. I'll keep thing up to date.

[predator dad]

Thanks for the info. I'm ordering one tommorrow.

[YZ120]

got ours last sat. my son rode it twice now and really likes it 8yrs old 100lbs. like john said its very torquey.
stiffined up the suspension a bit really helped him out in the desert.
will be building onto the nerfs for heel protection.
needs a skid plate because its too low.
ANYONE KNOW OF ONE THAT WILL FIT? (TRX 90 POSSIBLY)

otherwise great starting package

[Quintonsdad]

We have had ours for a week or so. Rode it for 2 days before going to the mx track.
Had problem with the start button getting stuck in the housing when the button was engaged. I also had a problem with the nuts on the A-arms being loose. not sure if the came that way or became that way, might check though. My son is 8 and weighs about 95lbs. He got first at the track against slightly modded 2 strokes. Like most have said soft suspension, hard to shift, stiff throtle. Overall good starting point. Chose this route over new front end and stuff for the trx90

[daddyrat]

Originally posted by Quintonsdad

Had problem with the start button getting stuck in the housing when the button was engaged.
Does the 125 have electric start?

[newnick]

Just a heads up. A good size boy in our org. has a 90, he's about a hundred lbs.
His rear subframe, under the seat began to bend quite a bit. They had to bend it back and add some gussets so he could race last week. Might want to keep an eye on it if you have a large rider.

[317GRFX-John]

The 125 does have electric start. Add at the last minute.

[predator dad]

Got my 125 yesterday. It's a lot nicer than I thought it would be. Pretty fast and handles great after I adjusted the shocks. Sounds almost as good as my modded YFZ. Shifts up and down fine. There is a little play in the steering stem. Anyone have any suggestions?

[KWIK CHIX RACIN]

Two people I know have bought the 125 for their sons to race.
Both have bad swingarm bushings from the factory. Check the play in the swingarm, they are supposed to send them both new bushings. Also, one bent the back subframe, and the steering stem is splined and it stripped out after about two hours of running the quad. Just a heads up on this stuff. The other one isn't going to run his until the proper bushings are sent to him, so I can't say about play in his steering.

[Troy Leuthard]

Predator Dad,
The steering stem gave us a bit of trouble at first too. our track side fix was ,about 12 inches of ellectrical tape above and below to steering stem bushing. This held up for three mottos. Also, keep an eye on you chain tension, if it is too tight there will be noticable stess on the rear frame mount. Do you have any issues with brake linkage hitting the rear of the swing arm? If so, we have move ours up about 3/8 of an inch and the existing adjuster works fine. My races his 70 in the 50 class at local tracks. Worst he has done is 3rd overall with no DNF's. Keep on eye on everything as though you kids health depended on it!!!!

[markvette]

ok i have had many ask me how to fix the up and down play in the steering stem. i have fixed 4 so far. i will try to explain here but will be hard. the problem is at the bottom of the stem. the plate at the bottom that is held on with 4 bolts and holds the bearing. the orfice that the bearing goes in is deeper than the bearing is thick so when you pull up on the handlebars the bearing moves up and down, ok, at the bottem of the stem there is a allen head bolt that goes through the bottom of the stem, take this out. take the four nolts and nuts off that hold the bearing plate to the frame bottom. pull up on the steering stem and take out the plate with the bearing. now on the bench turn the plate up side down so you can see the bearing. you will see that the bearing is recessed a small amount and this is where the play comes from. find a washer the right diameter and thickness to take up this slack. you will have to make the inside hole of the washer larger so the steering stem ball does not hit on it. bolt everything back together and your up and down play is fixed. i have done this on 4 typhoons so far and it fixed all of them.

Mark

[predator dad]

Thanks. I'll do that the first chance I get.

[predator dad]

My son hit the track today with his 125. He did great. It's taking him awhile to get used to shifting.

[motoxgirl419]

Originally posted by predator dad
My son hit the track today with his 125. He did great. It's taking him awhile to get used to shifting.

Thats the same way with my daughter. She rode it very well, and jumped it very well, but this is first time having to shift. But the more she rides it the better she gets with it. The very first time she got on it, she killed it quite a bit. Then she raced it for the first time last weekend, and by the 3 rd race she was able to get to complete the race without it dying.
But I personally like the typhoons. IMO.

[Spider 171]

Going to adjust the valves today, and change oil. Let you know how it goes.

Later

[Andyman17dad]

Just had Andy out on hius new 125. After 5 min, he broke the heel guard off, then after a bit longer, one of the plastic foot pegs started breaking. So new nerfs are definatly needed.
Power seems good, he is still getting used to the shifting thing. We got the new Fox shocks from Extreme but the front ones are too short, Extreme is designing brackets to make them work. (I'm not sure why they don't just use a longer shock?!?!?)
Dealer told me about the "bolt" issue. It is the right size going through the frame bracket, but smaller than the hole going through the engine. So we will need to drill the frame brackets bigger and get bigger bolts and that will solve that problem.
It is heavy, but Andy says it jumps really nice. The new alum nerfs should help some.
We are going to try it up at Jolly Roger next weekend.

Next year Rock Maple series is going to have a "stock" 90 class that we will run this in. Hopefully NEATV will do the same classes.

We will keep posting our "findings"

[Andyman17dad]

Oh yeah. I had to cut about 1 1/2 inches off of the carb spring to make it so Andy could even push the throttle!

[richmond559]

Thanks all for the updated info.. Davids is still sitting in the garage havnt had much time ,but he likes it so far about an hour of riding keep up th r&d you guys and will make these things top notch..thanks again

[Andyman17dad]

I just took out the closer nut/bolt where the carb attaches to the neck and loosened up the other one and spun the carb down towards you. Take the spring out and used a pair of snips and just kept clipping pieces off until it became compressable. THen took a pair of needlenose pliers and "rounded" the end back in to make it more "factory".

[YZ120]

we took the spring out of the throttle housing,it helped a bit then cut 2 coils off the slide spring. that made a big diff.
built heel gaurds and a heel toe shifter.
the shifter really helped my son out who had never really shifted before. shifting is still really notchy need to change the oil,maybe it will help. plan on using amsoil?

[Andyman17dad]

I have noticed that Andy now has been having a harder time shifting. And changing the oil makes it shift better??? Worth a try, certainly can't hurt!

One other thing, you will need to put a hose clamp (or maybe something a little more professional) above the plastic bushing on the steering stem to keep it from sliding up.

[Quintonsdad]

We just got back from 3 days at the dunes , it did pretty well there, it got around better than I expected, Had people looking and asking about it as soon as it was out of the trailer. I had fixed the broken starter button with some super glue. It is just a little plastic peice that was easy to see why it broke the first day we had it. I had taken the spring from the throttle housing it does help a little bit. We had a problem with it dieing I think it was mainly because he was having a hard time shiftimg it and luging it to the top of a dune in to high of a gear. I had a weld break on the rear fender bracket where it ataches to the frame, another small weld on the heat sheild on the head pipe also broke. I had the swingarm bolt come loose as well, I am sure all of these are from the pounding of riding on sand. Just simple stuff I would rather not see break. It got around very good. didn't have to get off and get him unstuck near as much as with the stock trx.

[317GRFX-John]

I have a solution to the hard shifting. Treat the left brake lever like a clutch. adjust it untill it all most doesn't have any tension on the cable. Every thime you shift use this lever like a clutch. Shifts very easy , up & down. Rode for about an hour like this never a trouble sift at all. 2 Postives to this are.

1. Easy of shifting.
2. Gets your child ready for the real thing ( the maunual clutch )

Trail riding on Sunday, I'll report how well this work ojn the trails and any other problems.

[Spider 171]

Ours seems to be slipping? It goes fine at a normal pace but when you get on it, it really starts to rev. and not gaining any significant speed. That is with me, 160 lbs. My son at 86 lbs. it will slip in 4th gear? Tried to adjust the clutch but no luck, I am baffled. This has about an 1 1/2 hrs. on it. Not good. I wonder how Xtreme will handle it?

[Andyman17dad]

Took it to Jolly Roger this weekend to run in the open practice on sat. One other 125 there as well.
Ran good, still having shifting learning curve issues! Of course I also threw him a curve by adding a heel/toe shift lever. (he likes it now, but took a bit!) I forgot to work with him on downshifting for the big hills. At home, our track is all pretty level, so he got used to downshift to slow down into a turn. So he thought it would slow him down on the hill too.

The other problem I saw was that the steering was wicked "twitchy" when they got in the loose/thick stuff. A lot of "bump steer" with Andy and on Devin's too. Might have to look into a steeering stabilizer or something to help that out.

And then Devin hit a rock or something and broke the bracket for the rear brake caliper that hangs down to protect the rotor and ended his day.

We'll get 'em straightened out. If nothing else, Andy is having FUN riding it and still loves it!!

[Spider 171]

Did he give it a run in a race, if so how did it fair? They seem to be quick enough out of the box compared to the 70cc, but I know it will need alot more for a 90cc class. I just don't think the clutch should be slipping. How much time have you on yours? What have you done to it? Did you loctite everything? Oil change? By the way how was the mud?