Kickstart My Heart

A Passion Project by Spencer Luczak

Video by Jason Leeper | Photos by Shane Wilkerson

 

Words by Spencer Luczak

 

Project “Kickstart My Heart” conceptually began over a decade ago amidst the industry shift from two-stroke to four-stroke R&D.  I was born into a racing family where my father not only had his own professional racing career, but also had a large impact on the motorsports community promoting and running everything from monster truck shows to mud bog races to building and showcasing racecar and motorcycle events. From my dad’s satellite factory support, I was fortunate enough to always have a bike throughout my life and have access to parts from Team Green until 2005 where I regrettably sold my last KX125 and got caught up in the craze of loud, gear-lugging thumpers. Throughout my junior high and high school years, the Splitfire and Chevy Truck Pro Circuit team bikes were at the top of their game and were without a doubt my favorite bikes to watch race. Back then it seemed like a pipe-dream to even consider the possibility of riding one, let alone having the chance to own a factory bike. Despite those feelings, I always had the hope of one day building my own version of my childhood dream machine. Roxanne was the first bike I ever named when I was 6 years old and ever since I've been naming all of my projects/bikes after women from rock and roll songs that seam to match the personality of the bike. From the moment I purchased this ride back in 2016 I knew I was going to create something special to pay tribute to all those who made the sport what it is today.

Roxanne spawned from a history of riding, racing, event promoting, and mindset of living a life different than the norm. To me, this project is a small taste of what happens when passion and vision meet creativity. I wanted the bike to tell a story and remind the moto community why we do what we do. Dreams do not work until you do...

 

 

Project Details

 

Project name: "Kickstart My Heart"

Bike Name: "Roxanne"

2004 KX125 SR - Bought for $1000

The only things stock on the bike are the frame, swing arm, seat pan, shock body and a few parts of the engine cases. The rest has been replaced, rebuilt or completely customized.

 

Bolt on parts:

  • Renthal bars, grips, sprocket
  • ARC clutch perch, folding levers
  • DID T3 Gold chain
  • Dunlop MX3S tires (110 rear)
  • New OEM tank, cap, hose, and a few engine bolts (Every bolt, nut, washer, gasket, petcock etc... has been replaced on the bike, but mostly with Ti and Carbon... the rest was OEM for strength/reliability)
  • Acerbis plastics (front end fender/number plate from 13-15' models)
  • All rubber, air box, rollers, kickstarter, brake/shifter etc replaced by OEM spec items
  • CV4 hoses and radiator cap cover
  • WC oil plug and some other covers
  • Twin Air filter

 

 

Custom Parts/Work

 

  • 2011 KXF Spring SFF fork (last of the spring forks before moving to air) -- I did this to keep the kawasaki feel to it. I had plans to run KTM AER air fork or get an old KYB SSS spring fork, but chose the Showa for continuity. -- Bones at PC put all A-kit internals and rebuilt everything inside.
  • Motowhips did DLC to the shock shaft, fork tube lowers and fork feet. Justin also did the custom coatings to the shock body and fork tubes as well as custom polish work to the linkage system and some engine parts.
  • Justin also helped me build the custom PC works stand with side plates because PC doesn't make/sell the plates anymore.
  • Frame: I had a company in Texas who builds super bikes for Ducati do a custom E-nickle or Electro-less nickel process to the frame, sub-frame and swing arm. I'll explain more later on this but the whole process ran me 1700 just for that. Then I had Justin at Motowhips put on a clear coat. 
  • Frame changes - Allen Brown (old honda XXX team manager) fabricated a new bump stop to fit some custom Ride Engineering triple clamps with new offset. He then fabricated the bung and corrected the geometry to run a Showa steering stabilizer from Ride Engineering as well as a new bracket for a Vortex Ignition so we could map the bike properly on the dyno. Allen also cut/lowered the sub-frame 5mm to fit my body better and help the geo get rid of the stink-bug effect. He then made sure everything lined up and reinforced some weld areas. 
  • Triple Clamps, etc. - Ride engineering new offset (I need to double check what we went with), showa steering damper, one-piece bar mount (custom black anodized bar mount with a brushed silver triple clamp), extended rear master cylinder piece for more oil to reduce heat build up)
  • Dubya Wheels - Custom set of Talon Carbon hubs with Mag CNC outer hub, ceramic bearings, Excel nipples/spokes laced to A-60 rims. (Tom White was a big sponsor for my dad in the 80s/90s)
  • Carbon - Light Speed made a few parts they haven't in 14 years... I kept nagging Will and he made the glide plate, chain guild, rear caliper/rotor cover, fork guards, front rotor cover, frame guards and case saver. The ignition cover I got from a guy in Italy that was referred to me by Brett at ICW radiators.
  • Radiators - ICW seam welded everything and reinforced the radiators with brackets and cross members and polished everything up. using Evans coolant for performance.
  • Braking - Scott at MotoStuff helped me build some custom braking items. CNC machined front caliper (mag color) with Ti and billet aluminum pieces, custom braided black steel brake lines with gold banjos, 280mm front rotor with matching rotor in back. mag cerakoted master cylineders. 2018 Honda Master cylinder up front with 11mm plunger. They also provide a bunch of Aluminum drilled out spacers to trick things out.
  • Gold heat wrapped tank
  • Bud racing burnt Ti footpads with Ti mounting hardware
  • Works PC pipe and carbon silencer and axel blocks (I tried to find a PC works pit mat, but they said they don't make them any more).
  • Motoseat custom foam and seat cover
  • Magik Graphics custom metallic silver/flo green Chevy Trucks PC graphics
  • One-off custom clutch cover (Tony at Jeske's Customs) made a 3D rendering of a Hinson cover and then machined a CNC billet Aluminum cover, hard anodized to match engine cases, and laser engraved the Pro Circuit, Hinson logos.
  • Full Hinson clutch system
  • Custom Lectron 38mm high velocity Carb
  • Motor work: Full race-built 144 motor - about 4k
  • Tom Morgan at Millenium Tech built the top end (144 kit with plating, port work, polishing, high compression piston, rings, squish/head work etc)
  • Tranmission sent back east to a company that recut the dogs to 7 degrees back to prevent slipping gears and clean up the tranny.
  • Everything internal was super finished for smooth power delivery and more oil contact
  • Powervalve parts rebuilt
  • New OEM crank/rod installed and balanced
  • Matched cases
  • Fuel - Jon Primo helped figure out what to run for fuel at our elevation. -- 3 1/2 gallons MRX02, 1 1/2 gallons C12, mixed at 36:1 Maxima K2 oil 
  • Proven Moto: Everything was built/put together and dyno tested by Matt Jory at Proven Moto in Utah. Matt was the mastermind that helped me piece my vision together. He spent hours and hours custom fitting parts that were difficult to line up. Almost nothing on the bike wanted to bolt right on... just ask Matt how gnarly this was. He tidied up the motor and did all the factory mechanic work at his shop. Two years he and I slaved over this. 

 

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