Lyndon at Boyd’s had previously built the
engine with the 146cc kit, so I dropped the
engine off to him to get it fully rebuilt before
the final install into the frame. While the
cases were apart for the rebuild, the boys at
NTB Motorcycles vapour blasted the engine
cases and rear swingarm to bring them back
to their former glory. The frame was blasted
and powder coated too, along with the engine
side cases. The motor is running the 28mm
carburettor that came fitted to the KTM 85
engine and we made a special air boot to fit
the Factory Twin Air filter.
For the wheels, we fitted new Excel rims with
Kite hubs fitted with Moto Master oversized
brake rotors for some extra stopping power.
Nitro mousse tubes were fitted to stop the
risk of getting a flat tyre during a race, and
it’s wearing Shinko 540 tyres at the front and
back.
One of the special things I like most about the
bike is the hydraulic clutch, which took quite a
bit of work to do. The KTM 85 has a hydraulic
clutch as standard fitment, but the little
CRF100F has a cable clutch. So, we decided to
build the bike with a hydraulically operated
clutch. We kept the KTM master cylinder
and then adapted a hydraulic slave cylinder
to fit the Honda. It’s kept the nice light feel
associated with a hydraulic clutch even though
there’s a heavy duty clutch kit fitted inside the
Honda lump.
It’s got Judd orange triple clamps and some
longer Flo foot pegs to suit a taller rider, rather
than the ones fitted to the KTM designed for
kids. Then there was the challenge of getting
a shorter gear lever to fit the CRF engine
so our adult feet could reach it properly.
To accommodate my 85kg, the shock and
fork springs are out of the four-stroke KTM
350 Freeride. Workshop graphics made the
custom Red Bull replica graphics and ‘Brownie’
at Mr Moto shouted those for us – he supplied
a lot of the parts for the bike too.