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advice on a 125cc step through and good storage

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sgebbie
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PostPosted: 11:04 - 11 Sep 2018    Post subject: advice on a 125cc step through and good storage Reply with quote

Hi
I am going to be moving away from the station and would like to buy a bike to take me 3miles every day. I don't plan to use it outside of that.

I'm looking to buy a 125cc on an A1 licence and the only requirement is storage, i'd like enough storage under the seat to put 2 helmets in. I don't like the storage boxes on the back.
My budget would be £2500 to buy it new, but I'd much rather buy a used circa £1500


if there any recommendations that'd be great.

thanks in advance
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Johanna
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PostPosted: 08:53 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Re: advice on a 125cc step through and good storage Reply with quote

sgebbie wrote:
...to take me 3miles every day. I don't plan to use it outside of that.

Sorry I can't advise on the specific bikes, but your situation sounds similar to that of a friend of mine 6 months ago.

He is a small guy, and he wanted a scooter to commute in the city and the ability to take his wife as a pillion passenger occasionally. I'm reminded of this because you say you will only ride 3 miles. This friend of mine and his wife are fine riding together on the small bike (except going up big hills) and they go on short day trips regularly. You might also find that you want to ride the bike more and go further with it!
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linuxyeti
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PostPosted: 09:23 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

If that's what you're doing, I seriously think you should look at electric scooters..

Such as

https://www.ekobikes.co.uk/electric-mopeds/black-e-moto-sport/
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linuxyeti
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PostPosted: 09:46 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Or, for 3 miles, why not consider a straight forward electric bike, have a look at

https://wooshbikes.co.uk/
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sgebbie
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PostPosted: 10:26 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Electrics and 50cc Reply with quote

Thanks, but I want to be going at more than 30mph, there is a 50mph section of road that I will go down hill on and when I'm going home I'd go back that way

I also just reallised the 3 miles was from the house we didn't buy, the one that accepted our offer is 5 miles from the station

thanks
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grr666
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PostPosted: 11:27 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some kind of Maxi-scoot seems a better choice here. Why a 125? Just looked up A! entitlement. Ah I see.
Why you no do A2? Then you will have miles more choice.
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sgebbie
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PostPosted: 11:58 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: licence options Reply with quote

I have zero intention of riding the bike for anything other than going to the station.
i have no need for anything other than CBT or A1 (just so i don't repeat the cbt), i'd be happy with a 50cc on my 22 year old driving licence except for the meeeeeeeeeh noise all the time.
I don't find maxi bikes comfy, I am only interested in step throughs and i think it's a choice of Peugeot Citystar 125 or piaggio fly.

if the car parking wan't so expensive at the station i'd get a cheapo car
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Teflon-Mike
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PostPosted: 12:56 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you done CBT?
Have you ever ridden a motorbike?

To my mind the dilemma over the crash-hat space is pretty irrelevant ideas in the grand scheme of stuff... really.... And why do you need space for two?

I don't think that there are many, if any scooters that have big enough and appropriately shaped under-seat storage to take two full face lids easily; heck, I can only just about squeeze two full face lids in a 46liter painer/top-box if I put them the right way round and shuffle them just so!

And if it's that desperately important... little reason you cant fit a rack and top-box to a scooter.

The more important ideas here, would to ME, be that leaving a lid on a bike, means that the scroat who niks it can slap lid on, and not be so obvious to the fuzz....

Planning on leaving motorcycle, each and every day, in the same widely accessible public area for long hours, to a 'walk-by' audience of every train passenger who goes through the station.... WOULD be to my mind, like standing in the middle of town waving £2K in cash, shouting "Free Money, come and get it!"....

LOCKS, chains, what railings or racks the station has to lock bike too, WOULD be rather higher up my agenda than lid locker space.... space to carry such locks and chains to tie the thing down sport, WOULD then still be more important than the lid-space.... and impinge on that idea.

Top is the list of things to worry about IS that CBT... find out if you can ride a bike; whether you enjoy it or could put up with it... especially in wet and dark as weather turns! It isn't for every-one!

Next, is that licence... sure you have 2 years to get a licence on CBT.... but CBT is just your first lesson, not a licence, and if you aren't up to par to get a licence, to my sense of sensibility you probably aren't up to par to commute daily by motorcycle.

Do CBT, do A1 tests... each step your learning will grow, your aspirations and attitudes will alter.... so many after CBT decide that actually a big-bike IS what they are exited by, and have to have one. Others fall by the way-side, disillusioned that this biking malarky isn't the fun they thought, especially if they dropped the bike on CBT play-ground trying to do a figure of 8 or something!

3-5 miles? REALLY, to my mind, a push-bike has to be a bench-mark... no way around that 50mph limit road? If you cant hack that on a push-bike, it aint going to be a lot easier to swallow on an e-bike, or a moped or a 125.... dont matter how fast the bike go... there WILL be an AudiChoch trying to give you an enema on your bum, trying to go 10mph or more faster!

Push bike? No hat required. No licence required. No PETROL required! Let alone tax and insurance! Just as nickable mind, but hey, you can still pick them up brand new for £99 at Toys-R-Us or wherever! And you get fit into the bargain.

The cost and running costs of a motorbike, are an awful lot for the short time you might save using one for that sort of distance.. I would really have to wonder long and hard that it was worth-while money.

BUT, risks vs rewards, and that theft problem over and above getting the licence, getting wet and putting up with audicoch's?

What bike, is the LAST thing on the list to worry about.

What bike with enough luggage space for lids?!

There are REALLY much bigger fish to be frying in this little scenario, there really are!!!!
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Johanna
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PostPosted: 13:19 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

You say you're going to the station.

Could you go to your final destination by bike? It might be a lot better than breaking up the journey and having to buy tickets every day? Timing would be more flexible as well...

Why not do the CBT and see what you think?
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sgebbie
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PostPosted: 13:36 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: to london Reply with quote

I'll be living in northampton and taking the train to london so it's not a commutable distance by road.

i also dont need to physically put 2 helmets in the space, i just want enough space to put 2 in...that way i know the space is big enough for whatever i want and occassionally have to bring home from work.

Obviously i'd be buying locks etc. would never consider doing otherwise.
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Teflon-Mike
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PostPosted: 15:05 - 13 Sep 2018    Post subject: Re: to london Reply with quote

sgebbie wrote:
I'll be living in northampton and taking the train to london so it's not a commutable distance by road.


Yes it is... especially by bike... Known plenty that have done it... but 70miles each way, every-day is not easy however you try do it!!

sgebbie wrote:
i also dont need to physically put 2 helmets in the space, i just want enough space to put 2 in...that way i know the space is big enough for whatever i want and occassionally have to bring home from work.


https://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x349/snowtigeress/top-box/imag2175.jpghttps://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x349/snowtigeress/top-box/imag2177.jpg

That's a 45L top-box on the back of a Honda 125, That's how much space is in it.. you can just about squeeze two Full-Face hats in it side by side, if you turn them the right way, but it's a squeeze.

The box, is however huge; its a large suitcase, and on a bike, you really dont want to put anything all that heavy in them, especially on the tail, that high up, behind the rear axle....

If a scooter, with the engine at the back, and diddy little wheels, even less so! You would be better off, bungeeing the suitcase accross the front valence infront of your knees......

Meanwhile... if you are bringing stuff to-and-from work... hat is on your head, so space is available for luggage... and how you carrying that on the train?

As said, its not the size of the space that matters so much as the shape of the space, and if you need THAT much space, as much as a large wheeled suit-case.... then under-seat storage probably isn't going to cut it, you will want a rack and or top-box, and you will probably still need the wheeled suitcase to drag on and off the train....

What you want really is a car.... with a big boot!

sgebbie wrote:
Obviously i'd be buying locks etc. would never consider doing otherwise.


Fair enough...... what about all the other stuff on the list that's so much more important than "What-Bike"... like the CBT, like the licence, like going getting lessons?

The bike IS STILL the last thing on the list to be worrying about.... how much luggage space that bike may have even less so!!!

Especially when under-seat storage is but one way to carry luggage, and suitcases, bungee straps, racks, top-boxes and ruck-sacks could ALL offer solution, at some point, depending on what you need carry....

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=95134
That's a microwave oven on the back of my Seven-Fifty.....
https://scontent.flhr3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/11407028_1006697282688522_4405331422323684724_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=ea504945e2770e3d14730ccbb4660c2f&oe=5C1DC448
That's a dog kennel on the back of a Harley!
Where there's a will there's a way, with a little common cocum and enough gaffer tape!

BUT, This is NOT the most important thing to be asking about! It really, really isn't... it's like planning a round the world holiday, and asking what colour swim-shorts you should get! Before you have ordered your ruddy pass-port! Or learned to swim!
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Sister Sledge
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PostPosted: 08:18 - 14 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

My ten pennies worth...

Folk here are awesome and are looking out for your best interests. Sure some stuff sounds harsh such as actual bike training and I'm sure you're very focused on a problem and see only one way through it. Personally I'd consider all advice being offered here.

I'm a new (almost) biker. I'm a returning biker who has had a gap of many years away from two wheels. Advice given here was to do some refresher training before coming back to motorcycling despite not legally needing to do so. Folk here are right though and I will indeed be getting some lessons.

I know advice given doesn't always fit with a plan but these people are in at the deep end and will have experienced similar situations.
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sgebbie
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PostPosted: 08:29 - 14 Sep 2018    Post subject: thanks Reply with quote

I definitely appreciate the responses.

I do tend to look at things from the wrong side, but after all the chats with the wide I'm probably going to be buying a yahama tricity if it qualifies for the free parking at the train station.
which is totally the opposite of what i started out thinking i wanted/needed

going for the cbt tomorrow
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Johanna
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PostPosted: 17:06 - 15 Sep 2018    Post subject: Re: thanks Reply with quote

sgebbie wrote:

going for the cbt tomorrow

Good luck!

Or assuming it's over, hope it went well!
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Kentol750
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PostPosted: 00:36 - 16 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hope CBT went well, decent storage would need a big scoot. However, if you have transport, how long would you have to pay for parking before you were out of pocket for bike,kit,insurance and sundries?
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andyscooter
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PostPosted: 08:20 - 16 Sep 2018    Post subject: Reply with quote

maxi scooters are the only scooters that will take two lids under the seat

and a few of them struggle


for a 125cc scooter you are looking at about two grand for a decent one that is used with prices at the moment

Yamaha majesty 125 my do it or the honda Dylan

but realistically you are looking at the s-wing or burgman for the space you require
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Teflon-Mike
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PostPosted: 08:43 - 16 Sep 2018    Post subject: Re: thanks Reply with quote

sgebbie wrote:
I'm probably going to be buying a yahama tricity if it qualifies for the free parking at the train station.


https://www.bikesrepublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2F5D2AC700000578-3359441-The_ex_Hubert_Chantrey_Brough_Superior_750cc_BS4_is_one_of_the_h-m-14_1450117559921.jpg

That's a 1932 Brough Superior, Austin Four.... Is it a bike or is it a trike?

It has three wheels... it's a trike... right? Well! Because the track width of the two driven rear wheels is under 24inches.. NO... it qualifies as a bike.

George used close-paired driven wheels for a couple of reasons, first was that the bike was powered by an inline Austin car engine, and the arrangement meant he could use the car gear-box and drive shaft, rather than have to make a new transmission to take the power around the wheel, or put things all off-center... he was also concerned that 'tuned' 750cc Austin engine's 10 or 12bhp, would 'shred' the rather weak, basically push-bike tyres of the time.

BUT.... it got into a bit of bother with the British Tax man... as a motor-bike, it wasn't subject to the sales tax of a car, or even a three wheeler... So, they conceded it WAS a motorbike.... BUT... add a side-car, which was popular at the time... it was definitely a 'car'.. and subject to both sales tax and road tax as one..... but since they only ever built ten of the things..... NOT really likely to be a problem to very many that might be able to afford over quarter of a million squid to buy one.......

Enter the Piaggio MP3.....
https://cdp.azureedge.net/products/USA/PI/2016/SCOOTER/SCOOTER/MP3_500_BUSINESS_ABS/50/WHITE/2000000006.png

Launched, 2006, what, three quarters of a century later...... Same dilemma remains..... is it a bike or is it a trike?

Again, it depends how close together the front wheels are. As supplied, 'most' of these are technically bikes, B-U-T.... if the front wheels are just an inch further apart... it could be a trike.....

This would be quite useful; as a trike, it could be ridden on a much more common car licence, without CBT and without motorbike tests, and driver could not only carry a passenger, or use motorways, AND not have to wear a crash helmet... if they so wanted.

Hence a factory 'wide-track' kit was offered.... and as long as it was fitted before the vehicle was registered, by the dealer, and the owner had a log book that stated it unequivocally as a "tricycle"... then to all regulative authority, THAT is what it is... and subject to tax and licence and we assume parking regs as a trike....

And the contention flared up again, as folk bought these things, to 'dodge' the motorbike licence laws, using a wide-track 'kit', often retro-fitted, not factory fitted, and picked the bits or law and regulation they preferred, rather than actually applied.....

Yamaha Tricity, AFAICT, is inspired by the MP3, but unlile the MP3, uses more conventional motorcycle suapension at the front, with the forks turned leg-side-out, to the wheel, which I suspect, would mean that fitting wider wheels or wheel spacers as was done to turn an MP3 scooter into a trike, would put the wheels coser together, not further apart.... BUT.... contention remains...

And the definitive answer is what the V5 registration says..... and whether you would like to have that argument with a parking warden or railway porter in the car-park, when you are in a rush to catch a train.... your call.

MEANWHILE..... whether a bike, or a trike... it's still an automotive anathema, and any ideas or notions (that you DO seem rather prone to!), that the thing, as a 'scooter' and more as a 'three-wheeler' MUST be 'safer' than a regular scooter or motorbike are at best spurious....

Just because with a wide-track kit one might dodge the test and licence and probably even the helmet laws, DOESN'T mean that that's necessarily such a great idea... they can still fall over, and you can still fall off the ruddy things!

A-N-D... lack of training and qualification to ride a motorcycle, IS the more likely to let you get into such trouble in blithe ignorance.

As an engineer, Scooter's are something of a curiocity to me, and I have been boggling at the things since I was 10, and tried to understand a Vespa 90 that ended up on the scrap heap after a SMIDSY...

Legend recounts that the name "Vespa", meaning 'wasp' is a tribute in Latin to the old aeronautical engineering conundrum, 'How does a Bumble Bee fly?'. It defies all the 'rules' of aerodynamics, its wings are too little, and its body too big, and it shouldn't be able to fly.. yet it does.... because no one has told THAT to the bee!

That, at least is the 'joke'.... modern computer science and super-high-speed photography in the last decade, has I believe found the answer in a quirk of 'wing-warping', where the bumble bee achieves the lift its not supposed to have by warping its wing during flapping, so it generates lift on both the up and down stroke of the flap.... which rather spoils the joke... but still.

Back to the Vespa; Piaggio made planes and components for planes, and after WWII were banned from anything with military application.... so they Vespa was conceived as a 'civilian' product to utilise redundant factory space, and they gave the job of designing it to a fella who LOATHED motorbikes with a passion!! Idea is that he so hated motorbikes, he had the idea that he would design a bumble bee... something that broke so many design rules and conventions, and was so utterly flawed, 'Management' was bound to deem it a REALLY bad idea, and send him back to design aeroplanes!

So he started by listing ALL the things that a good motorbike should have.... like big wheels for stability.... and engine in the middle for balance, good suspension for road-holding and comfort, a stiff frame for the same.... etc etc etc... and started by asking "Oh-Kay! What is the SMALLEST little wheel we can use?!" Conventional motorbikes of the day, used perhaps a 21inch front wheel, and 19" rear.. he decided to use 8 inch wheel-barrow wheels.. this is NOT a good start! Putting the engine behind the rider at the back of the bike, isn't either, and off-setting it an inch or so so that the wheels aren't even on the same axis is just ludicrous! Suspension? Well, just let the whole engine bounce up and down... given the other fundamental design flaws this really is a small crime! Rider's knees? Yeah! Lets cut most of the frame away so they can wear a skirt! It REALLY is a bumble bee of a design!

The fact that a scooter works at all, is pretty astounding, but like the bumble bee, it does... some-how... and in the last forty years, inspired by the Japanese getting 'Techno-Crazy", makers have been chucking ever more at the dang things to over-come basic design inadequacies, rather than go back to the drawing board, and admit that it REALLY wasn't a great idea to start with... and design a proper motorbike!

And SO, chucking a double front end on a scooter, to try and over-come the inadequacies of just having such diddy wheels to start with?

Yeah... great achievement of imagination over common ruddy sense! Same thing could have been done with none of the complexity or cost, JUST giving the dang thing sensible sized wheels and decent suspension to start with! Like, Say a Honda CBF125!!!

But this is scooters, and devout scooteristi defend them to the hilt, and beyond all tenability insisting any-one that doesn't appreciate them to the same degree, is just prejudice.... bit like cruiser rider's in that... but still.

Top of the list is STILL the CBT... what bike, is still at the very bottom of the list..... and in between, some proper training and tests aught be some-where, and slightly higher than how many miles to the gallon you might get, how much you might have to pay to park, or how you might carry luggage.... and with an over complex three-wheeled anathema of limited sales... suc h practical considerations as maintenence and servicing and resale, probably trump most of that early on... but still.

So how did the CBT go?

And are you now utterly enthusiastic about bikes... and still convinced of the scooter notion, or inspired to 'maybe' go for a big-bike....

Or are you completely put off by how hard it is, and getting hurt, and all the niggles of living with a powered two wheeler?
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ThatDippyTwat
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PostPosted: 09:16 - 16 Sep 2018    Post subject: Re: thanks Reply with quote

Teflon-Mike wrote:

Or are you completely put off by how hard it is...


People are put off by your multi-page ranting. Shut the fuck up.
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