What are the best (and cheapest) 125cc cruiser motorcycles?

[xMillZee]

Hello, everyone!

I'm a 16 year old college student, and I turn 17 in August 2016. I have wanted a motorcycle since I was about 12 years old, but I don't know what 125cc cruiser to get. These bikes are on my watch list:

- Honda Shadow VT 125
- Suzuki GZ Marauder 125

What bikes would you choose? I'm happy to use a Chinese bike, as long as its reliable. I only need a 125 until I'm 19, when I'll upgrade to a bigger A2 bike.

Thanks for your input

[V2]

Not Chinese!

You can never use Chinese and reliable in the same sentence!

[sjc]

I'd personally go for something non cruisery.
CG or similar would be more fun.
125s won't have the grunt to be a cruiser, you would be better off waiting till you can get a cruiser with a decent torquey engine.

[M.C]

Neither of those but that's just me I guess the days of getting any crappy old learner bike might be gone, as you'll be stuck with this thing for 2 years

If I had to go back I'd go for something a little different, like a TDR125. Being a 2-stroke if you get it for the right money it'll probably go up in value as well

[Val]

Bear in mind you have two lists here, the best and the cheapest.

You can add to the best list Yamaha XVS125 Virago

If you want cheap try Lexmoto Vixen:

https://www.lexmoto.co.uk/HT125-8.php

Huoniao HN125-8 or Jianshe JS125-6C

https://www.learnerlegal.com/125cc-cruisers/cat_12.html

INB4 do not buy Chinese, Yamaha YBR is made by Jianshe in the same factory.
____________________
Adrian Monk: Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not...
Yamaha Fazer FZS 600, MT09, XSR 900

[Snop Doog]

You'd have so much more fun spending your 2 year 125 life on a supermoto in comparison to a cruiser. Just saying.

[M.C]

Cheapest option would be some nakard old SR125, but I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

[talkToTheHat]

The suzuki GZ is reasonable. Cheap and good are rarely anything other than a compromise. I had two of them. Turning circle is wide and you can easily scrape pegs or your boot heels. All 125 "cruisers" will be as buzzy as any other 125 and not ride like a big lazy twin. The early ones with the megaphone exhaust make 10bhp and have tall 3rd, 4th and 5th gears so have no acceleration beyond 30mph. The later (2004 onwards) ones with the cylindrical silencer make 11.9bhp and have shorter 3rd 4th and 5th gears. Late model fuel injection ones in decent condition are rocking horse poo and priced accordingly.

I think the 125 shadow has a similar twin to the varadero which is very popular on here. Good examples are pricey as you get a full 15 horsepower and they have something resembling build quality.

Consider a YBR custom. Easily fixed with YBR parts, is mostly YBR, isn't too badly compromised as a small motorcycle.

You'll pay through the nose insuring a new chinese bike and it will be dead by the time a2 comes around, get a 2nd hand japanese bike and wait until you have a2 to get mad cruisery things. You can have an XV535 (if you can find one that isnt knackered), Sportster, VT750, Vulcan S, Dragstar or anything else that comes along in the meantime once you get to A2, but you've got to get there first. By the time you get there you might want something sporty.

I went down the small cruiser route. I had all kinds of issues with piss poor luggage options. Looking back i should have been looking at slightly retro naked bikes. This kind of thing is trendy at the moment. My sensible 4th bike was a bandit S, which takes all the luggage, doesnt drag pegs around every roundabout and is comfortable on motorways. Dont sink extra cash into styling exercise 125s, save that for a2 or A category bikes when you have an idea of what you want and aren't as like to get rid as soon as you can.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Rogerborg]

Do your CBT then ask again in August.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[wodge]

IMO You will probably look way more "sick" riding a bike that is older than you are than on a fake, quickly rusting badly handling motorbike.

I rode an sr125 on a CBT course, yes, a bit bland but practically indestructible according to the instructor.

If something a bit more modern is your thing how about a ybr custom. Similar styling to the cruiser you desire but with less of the compromises.
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nolidge iz pouwur.
Yamaha RXS100 RS100

[JoeDaStudd]

7 months is a long time.
Get a part time job, start saving and keep your options open.

Best is probably going to be the YBR Custom or VanVan, but they aren't cheap.
The only cheap 125 cruisers you'll get will be Chinese (questionable build quality and devalue like crazy) or rather old.
Neither are ideal for a newbie as you could easily spent more time and money fixing issues then riding.

[Rogerborg]

Plus in 7 months you might have got over your Sons of Anarchy phase.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[xMillZee]

Thanks for the input everyone . I'd like to stick with the cruiser look, but I like all bikes. I wouldn't mind a Supermoto. Basically anything that I won't have to pay loads to insure.

I may go the Supermoto route in case I drop the bike. I've heard they can take a bit of a beating

[xMillZee]

Sons of what now? ;D

[ADSrox0r]

I had a YBR Custom. It handled like shit but was generally a good little runabout. Rusts like a bitch if you don't keep up a brutal regime of ACF50 and constant cleaning.

To be perfectly honest, it goes against the established tenets of the BCF Massive....but I'd buy a Chinky Cheapo for a 125. Something I couldn't give a fuck about if it drops to bits because you'll do your big bike license and forget all about tiddlers.
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Current bikes: '08 VFR 800 VTEC(yo) , '07 ZZR1400 Winter hack: '95 Aprilia 650 Pegaso Currently lusting after: RC30

[Bigvern72]

[sutty86]

I've rode a few 125s,personally I would stay away from two strokes and Chinese bikes.
2strokes - need high maintaince,and are also older bikes,parts are harder more expensive to source.
But they give a fun ride if sorted.

Chinese ,are rust buckets, there is a half decent brand which is mentioned higher up
Huoniao HN125-8 or Jianshe JS125-6

I have experience on a ybr custom and it was okay, but being new on a bike your quite low and can't really see over traffic to filter compared to a higher bike.
I would save for a derbi Terra
Good speed,nice looking park
Italian engine , Spanish built

[Teflon-Mike]

A motorbike is the last thing on the list to worry about.
The small differences between specific models when they left the show room? Even LESS important.

You have half a year until you can ride a 125, and even then, just being old enough to be allowed to ride a motorbike is only the first hurdle.

You need a licence.... do you have a provisional yet? If not, that's the first step! To get that you need to apply for the forms on-line or go to the post office, and you will have to get yourself a pass-port photo from a booth, and get your doctor or school-teacher to counter-sign the back of it to agree ugly mug the picture is you....

Then you need to book yourself a Compulsory Basic Training Course, CBT, complete that and get the DL196 completion certificate to 'validate' the entitlement of your Learners Licence.

THEN you might start thinking about buying a bike... BUT hold your horses....

You need a rash helmet by law; and unless you like getting cold, wet and loosing skin when you fall off, you probably want to think about some riding gear as well.

And while you are shopping, I suggest, if LONG before you buy a bike, you buy some locks, so that you can chain the bugger up to something hard and immoveable as soon as it's yours, so it stays 'yours'!!!!!!

THEN... you cant use any vehicle on the public road without insurance..... and for a teen-ager this is likely to be a pretty hefty chunk of money, and under 18 you cannot take the monthly credit plan.....

This needs researching long before you hand over cash for an actual motorbike....

BUT, armed with a Learner-Licence, a CBT Certificate, a crash-hat, a bit of riding gear, some locks and chains, and a few insurance quotes..... THEN you can start thinking about going to go buy an actual motorbike.... IF you have any money left....

Licence, is about £30 if I remember, if you have to pay the doctor to get your mug-shot signed, that could make it £50. CBT will be about £150, so there's £200 or so spent. Hat, gloves ad Jacket? Typical 'My First Motorcycle Outfit' is likely to set you back about £400 or so... if you skimp on that with the bare minimum, and some common sense and what's in your wardrobe? Maybe, £150-200-ish.. Add locks? Before we start, you are looking at the thick end of half a grand, £500.. BEFORE you can even dream to go looking for motorbikes.

Insurance? Prices vary from Daft through Stupid, up to plain crazy. Depends on your post-code and where you store the bike, how many miles you estimate doing each year, and whether you tick the box to include cover to ride to and from college; BUT if you got a quote on ANYTHING with two wheels and an engine for under £500 you would be doing bludy well. A student, with 'commuting' on the polcy, do NOT be surprised if quotes are the thick end of £1000 a year... which you will have to pay cash up front, because the monthly schemes are not for a months insurance at a time, they are a full years insurance, paid for upfront on a 'loan' you are not old enough to have.

So, £1000 - £1500 or more, needed before you can go shopping for an actual motorbike... how much have you got, how much might you have, and what'll you have left to go bike huntig with?

Anything that has an MOT you can hang an L-Plate on, and just about 'runs' will cost you £500.. if you like spending more time with spanners than riding.

£1000? Starts to get you into the territory you might get a useful 2nd hand motorbike; but 125's lead hard lives in the hands of know-nothing 'Learners'. £1000 will just about get you a Chiese bike-in-a-box, and leave you the hassle of getting it registered, or the dealer sneaking the price up with 'add-on' charges for 'assisted registration' to get a pretty sub-standard, high maintenance motorcycle. 2nd hand? ones will be hobsons choice, and at ths price, decent ones will sell very very fast, and you will be sfting through a lot of less inspiring and less well loved machines looking for one that actually does run, and has got an MOT and the lights work, and the brakes and 'stuff'.

What the bikes were like when new and reviewed in the magazines? Pretty irrelevant after they have had a learner thrashing the shit out of it, crashing it, forgetting to check or change the oil, get it services, or avoiding buying for bits they have broke or worn out along the way.

CONDITION IS ALL, what is 'best' will very much be a case of picking the one that's least fucked of what's put in front of you!

And that's another problem... about 30 million cars on UK roads... if I want a new one, I only have to walk round the corner and I have three or four used car places on my door-step and choice of makes models, ages, prices... there's plenty about. Bikes? There's only about quarter million on the roads.. about half are learner-legal, but of those about a third of them are mopeds. and 2/3 of them are scooters.. SO, you have maybe only 100, 150 thousand learner bikes in the country, of which maybe 1/4 are for sale in any year, of which, 1/52 are gong to come up in any week... that is about 1000 Learner motorcycles that could be for sale when you want to buy one, the whole fucking country! You ENT going to be tripping over them on your door-step! You aren't going to have a fantastic choice, AND you are likely to have to travel a far way, ad beat twenty other hope-ful 17 year olds to the till!

So, money in your pocket, where you going to look for bikes? How you going to get there? How will you get the bike back home?

Like I said, its the last thing on the list to need worryig about, ad what the pudits thought they were like, what they say in the used bike buyers gides, means shit...

What's 'best' will be between what is least fucked of what gets put before you when you are actually stood there, cash in hand ready to do a deal... and your dream bikes fro the buyers guides? Might never even be in that company.

Put the cart before the horse.

Sort the stuff you need to sort before you can ride any bike.

Make sure you have the money to pay for all of that, and see what you have left to buy a bike with.

Then see what you might actually be able to buy, when you have all the rest sorted to use it, and THEN, yo might start asking "Which is best" between, actual real motorbikes, specific actual examples of them, some-one is selling, yo can afford to buy.

Till then? Utterly irrelevant.. feel free to dream, but, it's not doing anything to help you get closer to riding a real motorbike on the road.
____________________
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?'

[Pjay]

tl:dr

Teflon is a buzz kill.

But completely right.

[Rogerborg]

The terrifying bit is that he actually seems to have read OP's question.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Alan1986]

Teflons post has even made me think about what I should do now I have passed my cbt,

I have just been eyeing up bikes and not really thinking about the extras too much,

Might be a good idea for me to buy a few items a week or something,

Start with gloves one week, helmet the next and so on then get a bike,

Just really want a bike!
Found one I want but can't really afford it just yet, I can if I skint myself out, this would leave no money for helmet and so on,
But at least I would have the bike ready,
3 miles from my house, low milage. Fsh and so on,
Another will come up probably, waiting is shit lol
Should have been more wise with my money in the past!
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Cbt Done, Currently wobbling around on a Cbf125 and love it
DAS some time soon

[M.C]

[Bigvern72]

[M.C]

[Teflon-Mike]