It's about time I did an update on installing a BBK on the Honda CT125. There are three of us here in Chiang Mai, Thailand that ride the Honda CT125 around the mountainous area of Chiang Mai. We stretch the limits of what this bike can and cannot do. Currently, all three of us have installed the iTimgarage BBK on our bikes. Until recently, my bike was the only one with even more mods on it than a BBK and a larger fuel injector (one for a Honda ADV150). However, both of the other two bikes had an issue with low speed engine knocks during high stress on the engine. In other words, climbing terrain either off road or up steep mountain paved roads. We noticed this problem a year ago and have been working on fixing it to stop the engine knock and in extreme instances, a loss of power while climbing steep terrain. We originally thought it was do to a improper adjustment on the exhaust valve. This was eventually proven not to be the case. A trip to iTimgarage to have them install diagnostic equipment on the bike to help solve this issue found that: (with the higher compression created by the larger piston and sleeve and the stock head was causing a pre-ignition detonation of the fuel. Basically called an engine knock. I had not thought of this with mine as I had a video from my local mechanic that did the hop-up work on my bike showing my BBK sleeved cylinder and the stock head and him saying something in Thai that I didn't understand, but I gave him a double thumbs up on my text reply to him. Not knowing what he was saying was a god send as he then Ported my stock head, a complete port job with the combustion chamber, air intake with even installing a larger butterfly valve in the stock air throttle body valve as well as proving the exhaust port, the injector port and then installing a Hot Cam. The outcome was amazing as now my bike will easily go over 115 KPH and pulls like a John Deere tractor. It also has loads of low end power to go with the 42T rear sprocket and the stock 14T countershaft sprocket. We went another step up and installed an SKA air filter (similar to a K&N) which has the ability to be cleaned and reused with a NK Racing SS air intake horn. All of these mods set me back a cool 8,000 Thai Baht, roughly $210 US at current exchange rates. Here is the thing, I had not thought about the fuel being to high of Octane for the amount of compression we all had with the BBK installed until Robert took his bike to iTimgarage for them to hook up to their diagnostic equipment. They told him to drop his fuel Octane down to see if that would stop the engine knock. He did as instructed and found he did not have near the engine knock as he had before so he set up an appointment to have his bike back at iTimgarage for a Cam, Head Porting and change the stock ECU to a programmable one. They used a Honda Wave ECU on his and I believe my Hop-up shop guys used a Monkey ECU on mine. We have taken Roberts bike on two tough rides since then and have had no issues with the engine knock since iTimgarage did the work on his engine. So, if any of you are wanting more top end speed and or more low end power, don't stop with just a BBK, go ahead and have the Cam changed out, port the head and have an ECU that can be remapped installed. It has taken us a year to get everything down that works and I'm glad to pass along to you all what we have learned. iTimgarage also told us that even with their BBK, there was a lot of the Honda Wave owners that had the engine knock with their bikes. Some just going to a lower Octane fuel solved the problem, some ended up having their heads ported and most of them still went with the camshaft and remapping their ECU. Hope this helps clear up some issues and thinking on the BBK, ECU, Camshaft and Porting that you all have.... We have been doing a lot of riding and testing the bikes this past two months to get these results so if you would, check out my YouTube channel at: Lazy Dog Productions Our last hold out on the porting job, Daniel, has had iTimgarage order all the parts needed to do the work on his bike and will be taking it in on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2022 to have the work done and is expected to get it back on Friday Oct. 4, 2022. We'll be doing a video after a test ride with Daniel, Robert and myself explaining what our process was to get where we are today...... Hope this helps you all out.....
