Using a Chinese 125 commmuter bike off road?

[ReadySalted]

Hi all,

My mrs has got a Chinese 125 which she bought for about 350 quid last year. She's got a good bit of experience on it, but it's not exactly the best thing in the world, and she has never felt comfortable riding the thing. She wants to have a few lessons soon and then have a go at her tests, so is looking to get rid of the bike.

Equally I've been looking to get a pit bike for a bit of off roading and mucking about. Would love an enduro bike for greenlaning, but can't justify two bikes and a car.

The idea dawned on me to buy a cheap bike trailer, and use her cheapo 125 off road/ greenlaning. That way it's legal, and all I'd have to get hold of is a trailer.

She's not exactly keen as she'd prefer the few hundred quid she'd get if she sold it, but I think I can talk her round.

Would it be any good d'ya reckon?

[Andy_Pagin]

Fucking good luck to you if you can persuade your Mrs. to let you have fun with something instead of converting it into cash she can spend.
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[pdg]

[Carvel]

[stirlinggaz]

hi,
what bike?
it does make a difference, those "dirt bike" things (usually have gy125 written somewhere on them) are f*ckin lethal off road.
seen a couple snap shock mounts,bend wheel rims & generally just fall apart.
not much better on the road either with those silly knobbly tyres.

cheers,
GAZ

[Rogerborg]

Yup, make and model.

12 month old 1500 mile (or km) TMEC Enduro 125.

https://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m492/sidewinder11/4b14ce531cd089a17d12798a1cb8d4ad_zps70535ebf.jpg
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[STONEY!]

I went green laning ie byways/unpaved roads with my friend On his ktm and his mate on a sfm zx125 which is a chinese dr125 copy ish thing.

It was his second time ever riding a bike, a chinese one at that. I had feared it was going to be a slow ride full of breakdowns/broken bits and falling off.

He and the bike surprised me and to be honest I was impressed, the bike took a kicking and kept going a few good crashes, hit some deep ish mud and water and got through it all nicely. He rode very well and only came off it due to pushing the bike a bit too hard on basically road tyres!

[Lord Percy]

I'd say it mainly depends on how much you want to thrash it.

There seems to be this strange idea about needing exactly the right kit to do exactly the right job for most things these days.

In other countries - India springs to mind for me - they take standard motorbikes (and other vehicles) anywhere they possibly can.

Personally I'd stick some nobbly tyres on and just go for it.

[Lord Percy]

[iooi]

[Iain.]

You can greenlane pretty much anything. Go for a knobbly back tyre if you don't fancy stopping all the time spinning the rear wheel up.

https://i.imgur.com/cv1sCr2.jpg

https://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/_Iain_/3A169900-2A48-4B96-BFD1-4B3C92BDF29D-566-0000010E6429ABDE_zps326af2e9.jpg

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=268366

[pdg]

[Lord Percy]

[Snowdonia Rider]

As far as a road bike for greenlaning, yes, do it Just put a knobbly on the back. When I was a kid one of thd bikes we had to ride round the fields was a CB100N with a MotoX tyre on the back. Went around the fields etc no problem and made many a fond memory lol. Don't know how long a Chinese bike would last off road but for the price go for it.
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[pdg]

I feel it was completely necessary.

The more people who think it's fine to flout the regulations in force (whether you agree with them or not - including iain and paddy's photographic admission of using a temporarily 'closed for repairs' byway) the more 'reasons' there are to permanently close all the remaining unsurfaced roads to vehicular traffic.

Did you know, if you get caught riding/driving illegally that not only can the vehicle you are on/in at the time be seized and destroyed but also the car and trailer you used to transport said illegally operated vehicle? That's on top of the prosecution for the act itself.

So, once again, thanks to those on both sides who are actively seeking to criminalise an activity I enjoy.
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Any and all advice given should not be followed - if you have to ask it means you don't know so get a man in to do it for you.

[Rogerborg]

[pdg]

[Teflon-Mike]

Tending to agree with PDG here.... and a 'little' Ian..
Green-Lanes are public roads, not, public access MX tracks.. in the same way that the UCR outside down isn't a public access road-race track, and should not be used as such. And in similar way to you not 'needing' the 'track' capability of an R6 for a little public road leisure riding, you don't 'need' the 'off-road' capability of a full on competition Enduro bike to ride 'on road'.. which is what Green-Lanes is.. just cos they have a bit of mud on them!
As has been said, you ought be able to ride most unsurfaced RoW in the UK on a CG125.... they SHOULD be little more 'challenging' than a farmers drive-way.... and are subject to a 25mph 'blanket' speed limit.. AND, to be quite honest, IF, you are expecting high adventure, 'off-road' thrills, big air off bumps, mega mud-splashes, up to your arm-pits river crossings, rooster tail cornering antics and all that sort of shit.. you are PROBABLY going to be a BIT disappointed..... Imagine turing down a country lane, following a hand-painted sign for 'Craft Centre and Tea Shop', and the broken council tar whithering away to gravel, then having to cross a couple of tractor ruts into the farm-yard... and you are closer to the mark.. both for severity AND duration! Few USRoW are more than a mile long, save a few notable, and now sore over-used 'Long Trails', local authorities have adopted the philosophy of 're-grading' by dumping tons of road-stone on them, to 'improve the surface' as the road-maintenance regulations require of them, according to the 'volume use'a road gets, ad doing it SPECIFICALLY, to make them 'more boring' to off-road thrill seekers on motorcycles and in 4x4's.. so they are often no more challenging than a really GOOD farm track and often better than a typical bit of tar-top road works!

As a pass-time, most challenging 'bit' is often, not the riding or driving, but the 'treasure hunt' finding them in the first place... and 'status checking' to make sure you CAN ride or drive them.

SURE they are 'some-times' marked on OS maps, IF you know what you are looking for... you wont find 'Green-Lane' in the key.... but while you are looking, take note of the Disclaimer... "Public Rights of Way shown on this Map have been taken from local authority definitive maps and later ammendments. The map includes changes notified to the Ordnance Survey by 1st Nov {Year - usually immediately before map publication}" AND exclude any 'Temporarily Restriction Orders' that may be imposed by the local authority, for a day, a week, a year, or whenever they feel like, practically...

OS Maps show features in the terrain, and routes across them, they DON'T tell you the 'definitive' legal status of those routes, in all cases, or at the time you are looking at a map, that COULD, even if you bought it in the local shop that morning, be almost ten years out of date, due to how long t takes OS to go up and down the country updating each map.. even a brand new, published THIS year map, is likely showing features surveyed more than a year earlier, and indicating 'status', as made known to OS up to six or eight moths earlier.. and relying on what they get off the councils at that time to have been 'up to date' and more importantly, 'correct'.

Meanwhile, I don't really 'get or agree with this 'vogue' for hauling dirt-bikes' into the country on a trailer or in a van... I understand WHY.. but I just don't 'get' it.....

Yup, riding from here, slap in the middle of the country, to, ooh.. lets say Corwen in Wales..... that, is about a two and a half hour, three hour journey up the A5.. still be a two and a half-three hour journey if I did it in on a CG125, an R80GS, a Transit Van, or a Honda Civic with a trailer on the back....

Bike still needs to be taxed, insured & MOT's when you get there to ride USRoW.. AND, you have to go BACK to where you left it.... so these folk ted to ride smaller loops of USRoW, multiple times in a day.. treating the trails as public access MX course,pissing off the natives and the bobble hatters, WHILE, to my mind, just NOT GETTING 'Green-Laning'.. riding the same trails over and over. NOT really getting the 'adventure' finding new and lesser used paths, or seeing 'more' of the country they have ventured out and into.. WHILE, given the 'less challenging' nature of most public rights of way, NOT even getting the full possible quota of 'off-road' thrills!

Remains something of an anathma to me...

IF you are going to load a bike into a van or onto a trailer, and head off for a 'bit of off-road fun'.. TAKE IT OFF-ROAD!

Competition Trials, is THE cheapest, most accessible form of motor-sport in the country..... e-bay keeps pumping adds to the bottom of posts, and I watch regularly as older comp-trials bikes pop up for under £500.. there was a Gas-Gas in one t'other day £350 of best offer or something daft!

FAR more off-Road capability than a CG125, for less money than a chinky copy, BEFORE you start hunting for more suitable off-road tyres for the thing!

Probably weighs half as much too... I don't cart my trials bike on a trailer, I use a bumper-rack across the back of the car; mines an old dinosaur, weighs about 75Kg.... most of the 'more' moder stuff is half what a CG weighs threatening to come nuder 50Kg, gassed to go! I have, dropping the wheels off mine, and loosing the handle-bars, hauled it in the boot of a small hatch back!

And doesn't need to be taxed, insured or MOT'd... So you are saving before you even begin; and at between £5 & £10 an 'entry' for a club-trial, I can compete an ENTIRE club-season, for LESS than it costs, me, an old duffer, to insure a 125 Super-Dream for a year!

There's no expensive medical, no onerous 'licencing' system; its pretty much get a bike, turn up, and compete....

AND you get REAL, no-stop 'challenge' riding..... that sort of makes it obvious how 'tame' public-roads are....

So, cheaper, more fulfilling, if that's the sort of 'excitement' you are after; no chance of having the bike taken off you, or getting points on your licence, or pissing off the bobble-hatters.. its all WIN for the same hasle, effort ad money as trying to stick some knobly tyres on a Chinky Commuter 125, and chucking it on a trailer....

Want more 'speed'? Well, Enduro is't quite as cheap or accessible; and the bikes tend to be a tad more expensive, and sore used, or thrashed.... but same ideas work, and you can STILL get a heck of a lot of the 'real-deal' you might be hoping for, for the the price of an annual insurance cert, to NOT get all you could from the thing, to my mind!

My idea of 'Green-Laning'? and the tool for the job? An old East-German MZ250ETZ with knoblies, a rack for my sarnies (and the bottle of two-stroke for the 'pre-mx') and an old Russian Zenith SLR film camera... cos why not.. sod the Go-Pro.... you want pictures of what you have passed through STOP! take the time to enjoy it! Take a proper' picture... move on, find somewhere ELSE to take a photo of, have a sarnie, look at the map, and enjoy the WHOLE... rather than trying to cherry-pick the 'interestig bits'.. in an apple orchard!

My tuppence worth.... and I WILL get my value from it....

BUT.. IF you are contemplating this whole 'Trailer to the Trails' thing.... back up, THINK about what you hope to get from it.... and look into the costs of REAL 'off-road' be it organised competition or P&P sites, and making it work for you, rather than having so much 'against'.
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[Rogerborg]

Let me try that again.

[pdg]

Under the pretence of 'innocent until proven guilty' - show me how it would be entirely unlawful under any circumstance.
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Any and all advice given should not be followed - if you have to ask it means you don't know so get a man in to do it for you.

[Iain.]

Rogerborg vs pdg

Place yer bets...

[stevo as b4]

I fully condone legal T&T greenlaning, but and it's a big one, I don't want to ride a trail/off road bike (that is fully road legal) on big knobblies with lowered gearing very far on the road to find said green lanes. As even more so if closest green lanes are 1/4 or half a mile long, of gently rutted farm track or broken up old tarmac routes etc.

I ride my mountain bike on waste ground, building sites, around derelict factories, and other non used old industrial sites or ground. I have ridden across farm fields to get to a road, or on disused railway tracks etc.

I want to be able to ride my KMX200 one day on similar area's of ground, and in places where there are hazards, challenging terrain, spoil heaps, land-fill sites etc. The fun to be had is more, and I could spend hours minding my own business on such sites without needing to ride too far on road to get there, or annoy other people like horse rider's, ramblers etc who like me shouldn't be there.

Pay and play sites kick the hell out of the average green lane, so does private woodland and old gravel pits, or disused bits of verge/council owned land etc. I'd be happy to pay £10/20 etc for a day at a really good big pay&ride site, but for many people living in non rural area's they just don't exist, and are not feasible.

I was in Cornwall last year up on bodmin moor walking, and I saw two guys doing practice riding on trials bikes. They were having fun, but keeping well out of everyones way, not distressing animals, or racing along defined pathways or near to parking area's or picnic sites etc. I know motorcyles are banned from Bodmin, and my mate living down there was not impressed by them being there, but I genuinely could not see what possible harm these guys were doing to anyone or even the land the were riding on.

[Rogerborg]

[Sable]

[Fizzer Thou]

Teffers makes a few interesting points about the whole idea of taking a motorbike into what for many is unknown territory.

But.A 'green lane' is a term given by someone in the past to a route which is unsurfaced.It has no basis in Rights of Way law.

There is no '25mph blanket speed limit' apart from what the TRF have suggested that their members abide by.This has no basis in Rights of Way law.

As a long term member of the TRF I find the whole idea of making use of unsurfaced routes such as 'D' roads and BOATs (Byways Open to All Traffic) ONE of the reasons for having a decent and capable dirt bike.But I certainly DO NOT use the same lane again and again throughout the day to have my bit of fun.And at the end of a days ride around the BOATs around the Folkestone area,having traversed 38 DIFFERENT lanes in 85 miles,the last thing that I would want to do is to ride home in anything other than a comfortable seat in a car or a van with the bike/bikes in tow on a trailer or in the back of a van.

But the Folkestone area is not the only place to have my bit of fun.If I wish to race competitively then I ride in Wales on private land (like FIBUA near Sennybridge on the Cambrian Enduro).As a one time ACU Rights of Way Officer I made it my business to traipse around the various County Councils in the South-East and to ask to see the Definitive Map,which,being a public document,they are obliged to show anyone who asks for it.But this map is usually only ammended with diversions of footpaths and not with any major changes unless a housing estate is to be built on private land and the occasional footpath has to be rerouted.Ordnance Survey maps are UPDATED once every four years and they do not show UCRs (Unclassified County Roads) but ORPAs (Other Routes with Public Access).Not all of these are public Rights of Way,but many can be ridden once information has been gleaned from what is known as the List of Streets (maintainable at public expense).

So OP.It is not just a question of finding what looks okay to ride along or practice on.Far too many useable routes were deemed to become known as RESTRICTED Byways due to the Ramblers heavily influencing Labour to introduce the NERC and CROW Acts,which effectively stopped much fun being had riding along what were RuPPs (Roads used as Public Paths) which should...should have been researched and upgraded into BOATs.Shame really,as we have some cracking ex-RuPPs/now RESTRICTED Byways in Kent.

Some useful information here

https://www.trf.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3760&sid=5ce6f6eaeea0d5625b5d0765f72d4e51
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