Dire Need of Advice

[fra-zzr]

hey, im a student in accomidation 10mins from town and want a bike for rides into town and then the occasional ride home which is mabey 1h30mins on awesome country roads. I havnt sat my cbt yet but am just looking at possible bikes. i startes off looking at the cg125's but they dont look particulary attractive and just seem pretty boring. I dont want a sport/racing style bike cos the noise from a 125 one would drive me nuts. Also if possible it should be a bike that i can keep for a while without having to buy anothe. so i was debating the rv125 vanvan, any opinions would be much appreciated, thanks

[Trixie]

The RV125 looks like Suzuki' answer to the TW125. If I remember rightly the TW has a 180 section rear tyre - making the running costs far more expensive than a CG.

If you're a student, I would recommend the cheaper of the 2 - the CG. It's not ugly; there are far uglier bikes around, and the CG really is der cheap to run.
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Dead nobodies in company cars...

[fra-zzr]

yea i looked at the TW but its really starting to edge way more on the trail bike side of things and im not sure i want to go that far and loose handling for increased tire noise of the road, thanks

[map]

FWIW the VanVan would be more individual. Depends on the image / style you want. For something to be seen with then the VanVan. For something to just ride without worry then the CG.
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger?

[Dark]

How long do you plan to use this bike in this way for?

I woould go for the CG for reliability over a long period IMO
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My Bikes in order:- Yamaha RXS100 / Suzuki X7 250 / Yamaha RD350LC / Kawasaki
KR1S 250 / Kawasaki ZXR750 H2 / Honda C50 / Kawasaki ZX7R P5 / Kawasaki ZX10R / Suzuki GSXR 400 / Honda CBR1100 Blackbird & Yamaha FZR 600

[jok]

Up front: I own a CG125, so I'm biased . I did, however, seriously consider an RV for a long time and it's only because I found a better deal on a CG than I could find on the RV that I went that way; I've not had any reason to regret this yet.

The CG has one major advantage: a rock solid reputation (which means it'll sell fairly easily) which is well deserved (they can take some serious abuse before they break, and even if they do their quite cheap to fix). The current VanVan is a fairly new bike (despite the retro looks) -- by all accounts its a good bike, but it simply does not have the literally decades of incremental design improvement that have gone into the CG.

The RV does however look much more friendly than the new style CG and even though it'll have an identical performance to the CG, it looks neither very fast nor particularly slow, which may help both the riders attitude and other peoples judgment of what it can do.

Something that will have changed somwhat by now, but which was very noticeable about a year ago when I was looking for a bike is the price tag: CGs and their various models could be had from a few hundred, while the cheapest RV would start around £1200. Grab a bike trader (or look on their site) and have a look for your self though to get an idea of current prices, but chances are this hasn't changed all that much.

Yes, the CGs looks are not its strong point. It is so fantasticly average looking in fact that it'll turn your hair gray before turning a head. They are, however, not boring: they will do a consistent 60mph, up to near enough 70 when the conditions are right (don't expect more than that from any other 125cc four stroke except maybe a the "race rep" CBR125), especially at town speed (under 40mph) it's surprisingly nippy, and last, but not least, it'll give you about 80mpg even if you ride it like a drag racer (which means an all day ride-out will probably cost you about a fiver in petrol).

In all, the RV is probably much the same, but it does not have the karma the CG has built up. If "pure function" makes up more than half of your bike choice, the CG should win hands down. If you really don't get on with the looks, however, and you can afford the Vanvan, that may be the better choice for you.

If you haven't done your CBT yet, there's a pretty good chance you'll get to "test ride" a CG for it anyway , so you'll see then how "boring" that'll feel
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CG125 (stolen->recovered!) || Wars do not decide who's right, only who's left.

[DJ Big D]

I am not expert but have a look at YBR 125's too ( I have one so i am being biased lol)

They are a lot better looking than the CG but like everyone says the CG is solid

[fra-zzr]

k, thanks allot, turns out the vanvan i was concidering is way out of my price range and theres and awesome loking 2001 cg for sale at £500 which is in gd condition so i might go have a look at that

[Zen Dog]

[Torque05]

CG all the way, so reliable and trusty little bikes if you look after it well it wont cause you too much hassle and expense.
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~Sahf East Winnah~

~Yamaha Vmax 1996~

[Pete.]

I'd buy the OHC-engined VanVan over the pushrod engine CG any day. Apart from that the VanVan is a really nice bike to ride, for a small bike

[Rocker_rego]

CG I would say. Neither bikes would turn heads with there looks so don't worry about it.
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