1970 Puch Motocross 125 Racer - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Test Article

Description

1970 Puch Motocross 125 Racer - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Test Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
PUCH 125 MOTO CROSS RACER
There is a great deal of excitement
around the offices here at Modern Cy-
cle when we make arrangements to
obtain a new brand of motorcycle for
test purposes. When the new bike ar-
rives, we find that we are sometimes
pleased and at other times disappoint-
ed. The most recent machine of this
type to come our way is the 125cc
Puch (pronounced pook) moto cross
racer. If it is true that first impressions
are the most important, then the little
Puch scored very well indeed.
Puch motorcycles are not really new
on these shores since for a number of
years Sears has marketed the bike un-
der their Allstate label. The machines
on sale at the Sears stores can best be
described as utilitarian modes of trans-
portation. Granted the quality of work-
manship is quite high, but the ma-
chines offer nothing to excite the
sporting rider.
Several months ago When Ted Lapa-
dakis of Hercules Distributing mention-
ed that his firm was going to import
Puch motorcycles designed exclusively
for the dirt rider, we indicated our
interest in obtaining one for test pur-
poses. The first bike to arrive was used
as a mobile test bed to determine the
machine's suitability for desert races.
Scottish ace Derek Edgar, a winter
visitor in Southern California, rode the
Puch in several desert events and a
number of enduros. The machine
proved to be extremely capable in
both forms of competition. Needless
to say, the bike Edgar rode bore almost
no resemblance to the machine on
sale at Sears.
We can not think of a machine that
makes a better first impression. Were
it not for the small size of the expan-
sion chamber, it would be difficult to
determine the displacement of the
machine. It looks like it could be any-
thing from a 100 on up to a 360. The
machine also gives the impression that
it will function well in all forms of
off road competition. The aforemen-
tioned pipe is carried in the high posi-
tion on the left of the machine so the
rider need not worry about lack of
ground celarance caused by the under-
slung pipe so common on moto cross
racers. No skid plate is fitted; in its
place is a web of frame tubing that
does a fine job of protecting the en-
gine cases. In Six Days style, a nauga-
hyde shroud covers the carburetor and
air chamber. This is, of course, used
to keep the air entering the engine as
clean as possible.
Knobby tires are furnished as stan-
dard, polished alloy mudguards are
carried high above the turning knobs,
the seat is long and sufficiently wide,
the frame is painted in a glossy red
finish, and the fiberglass fuel tank is
finished in silver. All things considered
the Puch 125 is a very attractive motor-
cycle.
It's a good thing that the Puch made
a good first impression for the second
impression we gained was just the op-
posite of good. The nicely shaped sad-
dle proved to be almost totally worth-
less. Settle down on the seat and you
keep descending until your fanny
makes contact with the metal base.
Granted, the Puch is billed as a moto
cross racer and we all know that
moto cross riders spend most of their
time on the footpegs. Since the Puch
will perform so well in so many varied
forms of dirt competition, it's a
shame that the factory doesn't put
something a little more suitable in the
way of seating on the machine. In any
case, it's no big thing to peel the up-
holstery off and replace the padding
with something just a bit firmer. As
long as we are complaining, we might
just as well mention the other item we
didn't like. The wavy sides and rough
underside of the gas tank were at odds
with the Quality of finish on the rest
of the bike. The tank is pleasantly
formed, and the paint is nicely applied.
It is just that the quality of workman-
ship on the unit offended us. There,
the seat and the gas tank, you have the
major things we didn't like about the
Puch moto crosser. Almost everything
else we flat loved!
Like most people, we jump into or
onto things before reading the instruc-
tions or the owner's manual (not re-
commended). We mention this only as
an excuse for the amount of time it
took us to find out that the bike had a
six-speed gearbox. We fired the ma-
chine up, punched it into gear, and
merrily made off toward our favorite
little neighborhood moto cross course.
It was only when we started compar-
ing downshift points and the particular
gear we were using through a given
turn that we began to wonder about
how many cogs the thing really had.
It was then that we discovered that
the Puch comes with the six-speed
trans. We quickly found that the 125 is
one of the most pleasant competition
machines we have ever ridden. If the
bike has any latent bad manners, we
never discovered them. Handling is
excellent, suspension is excellent,
steering is excelelnt, and the output of
the engine is very, very good. Tuned
as it is to produce better than 19 hp,
the engine is logically a bit on the
peaky side. However, the six-speed
transmision makes it a simple matter
to keep the engine running "on the
pipe."
Anyone with an ounce of brains ap-
proaches a racing bike with a certain
amount of respect, expecting to have
to spend some time becoming familiar
with the way in which the machine
operates. The Puch surprised us in that
on our first lap of the course the ma-
chine felt like a bike we had been rid-
ing for months. In a very short time
our lap times were approaching the
record for machines of this size on the
course. That's the sort of performance
that instills great gobs of confidence.
Power for the Puch 125 comes from
a seemingly simple little single cylinder
two-stroke with a bore of 55mm and
a stroke of 52mm. Total engine dis-
placement is 123.5cc; compression ra-
tio is 13:1, and the manufacturers
claim that the power plant produces
19.4 hp at 8,500 rpm. (We tend to
think that that claim is very close to
accurate.) Massive, a much used word,
is the proper word to describe the
finning on the head and barrel. The
fins on the head are cast in the sun-
burst form and metal "bridges" are
formed to prevent vibration induced
cracking. A cast iron liner is pressed
into place in the cylinder, and the
forged alloy piston is supplied with...
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