Need advice picking a 125cc bike

[grant_86]

I've had a couple of 125s in the past (honda cbr and cagiva mito) but haven't been on the road in a few years. Started a new job recently in a bit of an awkward location so decided to get a bike to make things easier.

My price range is from about £700-£1000. I was looking at a few nice custom style bikes like Suzuki Marauder, Suzuki Intruder, Jinlun Texan JL-11, Lifan Skygo Heritage, Daelim Daystar. Can anyone recommend any of these or are there any I should stay away from? I know the top end is slow but are these bikes nippy from 0-60? Can you tune them (i.e upgrade the exhaust on them) to go a fair bit faster?

The slowness is the only thing making me a bit hesitant at the minute. If I do go for a sports bike I was thinking along the lines of another Cagiva Mito or Aprilia RS but have heard stories about them breaking down quit a lot and having to get engine rebuilds (I had only a couple of issues with mine thankfully). I'm not knowledgeable about bikes so would it be wise to stay away from these type of bikes or is it just a case of keeping the engine oil topped up and not revving out every gear, etc?

Sorry for the long post, I tried to make it short as possible! If anyone can give me some advice I'd be very grateful. Cheers.

[Teflon-Mike]

If you have a full licence, then that budget gives you loads of choice; from a cheaps as chips Honda Benley, for under £500 ready to ride, to a scruffy but serviceable VFR750, and in the middle, the 500 commuter twins, like GS500, or CB500, and all maner of irregulars.

Doesn't offer much by way of 'decent' tiddlers. What you'll be looking at will be Chinese, & crap, Japanese & old & abused, or Italian, old, abused & unreliable.

Why does it HAVE to be a 125?

125 cruisers are SLOW. and yeah, anything is possible by way of tuning, but with a 125cc pot the limit of displacement you ENT going to get them to go MUCH faster. 55-60ish from the better Japanese cruisers. Less for the Chinky ones you mention.

But hey, if ALL you need it for is to get a licence so you can have as much 'fast' as you like, does it really matter?

You may get lucky with a YBR125, though probably a coupoel hundred over your top budget to get a good one; but an old Yamaha SR125 or a Marauder would fall in budget & be good enough to test on. End of the day, 'good-enough' is all you need, to get at those cheap big-bikes.

And till end of the year you can still test on a 125 for a licence worth having; as of January Next testing goes DAS style almost across the board, and testing on a 125 will get you no more than a 125 'only' licence, from which you may have to re-test twice to upgrade to full unrestricted licence you can get this year on a 125.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[G]

Cruisers are slower than even the alternative 'commuter' bikes generally. They are far from nippy at any speed.

You can't easily make them go faster - it'd be a rather silly thing to do when you can just get a faster bike.

[keggyhander]

I'm a cruiser fan but I wouldn't recommend a 125 version.

[grant_86]

[stevo as b4]

You'd get a tidy CG125 for that budget. Cheap, reliable and easy to look after. It would do everything you need. Speedwise i used to get 63-65mph on the flat on my CG, and it's happy to sit all day everyday flat out. get a fairly tidy one and keep it nice, and you might make a profit on it when you sell. I did with my 95 N-plate model.

I'd run away as fast as i could from a sub £1000 Mito or RS125. they need expensive looking after, and i know it's a generalisation, but most 17yr olds who had them, couldn't afford no expense spared style looking after for them, so alot will be wreaked mechanically, cosmetically or both by now!