Last weekend I was in Albacete track, in the 4th round of the Spanish Championship. Supersport and Formula Extreme categories have very restrictive rules, so 125 is the only one category where it is possible to find something a little bit more interesting from a technical point of view.
Last season an english kid, Jess Trayler, atracted my attention, he was riding a Seel 125. Currently Joey Litjens, a rider of the dutch team Abbink Bos Racing, finished 10th in the first race of the season in Valencia, and won the second race in Barcelona, riding under the rain.
I was very curious about the Seel bikes, so last saturday night I went to the box of the Abbink Bos Racing team and I took some photos of the bikes. I also talked a little bit with Jörg Seel, the father of these bikes and son of the Seel company founder. Seel is a german company which makes racing special parts.
The Seel 125 uses a Honda RS 125 as a starting point. They have a special kit which is the whole engine, with a very compact crankshaft and the two crankcase covers (the one of the dry clutch and the one of the water pump) CNC machined from an aluminum block.
Regarding the chassis, the most interesting thing is that they modified the headstock area, allowing the airbox conduit going through it.
The bikes have an impeccable look. Seel doesn’t use any “revolutionary” technical solution, what they do (like other special parts manufacturers like JHA) is to evolve and improve the Honda standard material, creating new parts with increased performance.
In the Albacete race they weren’t lucky, Joey crashed in the first trainings and he had some injuries in one leg. Sunday he couldn’t finish the race.
If you click over the photos you will see it with bigger size, in the bottpower flickr gallery.
[tags]seel 125, 125 gp, special parts, spanish championship[/tags]