I think that if you are self conciouse of, and thing that being a bit on the big size 6ft and aprox 15 stone, then perhaps a multigym would be more apropriate advice not a motorbike.
a) that's not paricularly huge, its about as big as I am, and I ant exactly lardy.
b) it will make bog all odds to the practical performance of a light-weight motorbike.
Very-Oh-dear-oh.... they haven't been in the UK Brochures for a decade. They were at one point the most expensive Learner-Legal on the UK market, at a gnats under £5K, and sold 'moderately' well to older owners, conciouse of how they thought they looked, not wanting to look like they were riding a 'toy' motorcycle, cos it sed ONE-TWO-FIVE on the side...
Wonderful creation, used the four-stroke VT125 Shaddow V-Twin engine. Enormousely 'intricate' bit of engineering for the performance/power it had, bang on Euro A1 limit of 14.5bhp. Clothed in all enveloping bodywork to hide its diminutive displacement... great.... until any-one needs work on one of the things...... not 'so' bad when they are still too young to need an MOT and obviousely affluent buyer is likely to just wheel it back the dealer, and if any thing makes eye-brows budge, it would be that the bill seems "Quite Reasonable!.... compared to getting his Audi serviced..." After that, as the 2nd hand prices have fallen into the realms of more every-day motorcycles, and DIY spanner jokey, the amount of spanner twiddling just to get at things like the spark-plugs or tappets, has meand they have tended to suffer a lot of out-of-sight-out-of-mind neglect and abuse.
And at ten-yeatrs old... the anticipated sercice life of ANY 125, the potential for neglect and rot and abuse to have taken its toll and rendered one if not actual, then very close to scrap, is high. And bits for a £5K motorcycle are bits for a £5K motorcycle, they dont get any cheaper just because teh scrap value has fallen to under a grand... and they are STILL more involved and more difficult than needs be to work on, almost garenteed to need working on.
This model, has been a money pit in waiting I have constantly warned away from for the last half decade, and there's even less reason to scorn that advice now.
CBF125.... Honda's CG successor for the los-cost-commuter and CBT school. Half the price of a Very-oh, in the show-rooms. Reletively simple, rugged and not so onerouse to get at four-stroke single motor, they have, as I'm sure you are now well aware, a rather dire reputation for RUST.
ACTUALLY... now no longer a current model, this MAY make them something of a bargain to be bagged.
Most will now be old enough to have needed an MOT, that hopefully has weeded out or begged sorting out the duffers.
Tons sold to bike schools, lots of bits likely to more obviousely rust, like handle-bars will probably have been bashed and bent and if not replaced, easily sorted by easy replacement. Reletively more accessible and easy to work on air-cooled motor, and a 'scraggy' example MIGHT be procured more cheaply cos it looks like a heap, and be reletively cheaply and easily scrubbed up, and dragged out of the usual 'maintenance-overdraft' so many Learner-Legals get into, and COULD prove a quite useful every-day hack commuter for some time to come.... IF you know what you are about.
Otherwise? Much of a muchness. Oft sold becuase Honda Dealers are most numerouse in the country, schools boght tons of the things, and Honda's 'Reputation' was assumed, if not deserved, and they 'looked' reletively smart with integrated nacelle plastics, unlike more bare-bones YBR.
Either way, ANY 125 on the second hand market will have been at the tender mercy of far too frequently, "Learner" owners, prone to not knowing so well how to ride them, burning outy clutches and bending gear-levers with clumsy shifts, wearing out brakes and hammering suspension with panic braking, and then thrashing the heck out of them trying to go as fast as BlitzenBimmer on the by-pass.... before thier ideas of 'maintenance' come into play, and they either dont get any, because "What you mean its NOT like my Dad's Volvo?!" or they are killed with kindness with "Oh yes! I did an oil change every 1000 miles, and used a TORQUE wrench on the sump plug and spark plugs to be SURE they were tight enough!" Or... "What do you mean £70 for new chains and sprockets! My MAYTE! Reckons you just need knock a link out the chain with a brick and nail!" penny-pinching Botchery......
On THAT basis, when it comes to 2nd hand learner-legals, what they may have said about them new in the reviews is pretty much irrelevent, what's before you in the metal is all that matters, and condition is (almost) ALL. A knacker is a knacker.... only real question is how well disguised it might be, which, on bikes with more fancy plastic like the very-oh, is that much more likely.
125's!!!!! In general.
Its a very condensed market. Costs much the same to make a motorcycle of any capacity. Still needs two wheels, a seat, petrol tank etc, and theres as much work to make them bits and bolt themtogether... they dont care how big the hole where fire happens, happens to be. There's only a small margin to 'get away' with lower grade components, like a smaller and single disc brake, or such 'just' because its only a 65mph machine not a 165mph one.
This is what encouraged the 'Brit-Bike' makers of the 1960's to shift away from making smaller displacement 'light-weights' to concentrate on middle-weights and heavy-weights, like the 650's for the US market, where customer expectations meant that they would pay for more cc's that didn't cost the manufacturers any more to make them, but did command more $ on the sticker price. A-N-D, its interesting to note, that the Japansese manufacturers, have for the last quarter century or more, been following a similar trend, migrating the manufacture of smaller displacement models to regional 'satalite' factories, and concentrating on 'the big bikes' in Japan....
Both Yamaha and Honda have 'partnership' facilities in China, making significantly 125cc models, that have spawned an awful number of copies and clones and derivatives, frequently of rather low quality, badged and sold with who-ever's name the whole-saler wants on the tank for that batch.
This rather skews the market, which dumbells between absolute bargain basement models that sell almost entirely on price, and the aspirational 'must-have' models that sell very significantly on 'Style' and ever more on 'ideas' of performance rather than actual performance.
In use, budget bikes, tend to be bought, 'at best' by folk that are budget minded, and not prepared to may more to start with, are loath to pay anything after, on things like new tyres or chains or even oil! A-N-D, incredibly short 1000 mile service intervals, can be something of a shock to use it like a washing machine until it breaks and get another buyers, used to 'maybe' having a new set of spark plugs each year when they put the Mazda in for its annual MOT..... The more aspirational models, sold on style and ideas of speed, rarely fare any better, and bought for those qualities, owners will likely continue, more want to spend money IF they have any left after the finance payements, on monster energy stickers, matching leathers, and noisy 'go-slo' exhausts....
CONDITION IS ALL!
And 125's, thier show-room price tags pressed by buyers who dont value them as much as bigger bikes, built down to a price and hence a grade NOT so likely to be as durable to begin with, THEN having to suffer the apauling treatement of almost NEVER getting the mainteneance they need or deserve, whilst being thrashed to oblivion to try and eek every last ounce of their meagre performance from them, DONT stand the best chance of lasting well, even before the same oft numpty learner riders... wear out the clutch & bend the gear selector dogs, with less finessed gear changes, rattle the tappets loose reving the crap out of them trying to go quick, A-N-D bend the bars and dent the tank crashing them, either being a bit silly on a round-about or not spotting SMIDSY backin off the drive.....
Big-Bikes... might not have any better treatment..... BUT, they stand a better chance!
For starters, with more 'fat' on the possible sticker-price, the manufacturer can afford to make them a tad more rugged; with more space for fire in the engine, they can also more easily achieve expected performance expectations, and owners will likely be a tad less want to thrash them trying to milk every last half a horse-power.... Those owners, also AUGHT be qualified riders, and at least have some idea how to change gears a BIT more smoothly, without bashing selector levers or wearing out clutch plates. They aught also have had a bit of training and got a full licence so stand better chance of spotting SMIDSY backing off the drive, and not making bike a hood-oprnament and trying to straighten it with a scaffold pole!
All up Costs As far as all up costs go? IF you are old enough to test for a full 'A' licence, then it is very little different, depending on how you go about it.
You can buy a T&T'd ready to ride 'over' 125 for as little as £250, if you hunt. Cheapest stuff out there, is much like the 125 market, either bodged to oblivion miser-mile commuter hacks, like an old ER5, or its a thrashed into the ground 600 Super-Sport like a CBR600. B-U-T somewhere in the shaddows you can find things like old Honda CD200';s or CB Two-Fifties', Yamaha SR250's or Suzuki GN's, that can offer MUCH more comfortable 'performance' for your money, as well as have more useful life in them.
Honda CD200 Benly, for instance barely makes 15bhp and might be Learner-Legal were the hole where fire happens a little smaller! CB, GN, SR and many others dont make much more than perhaps 20bhp, less than unrestricted two-stroke 125's of old, but it's enough to more easily hold a comfy road speed on faster A-Roads and duel carriageways, and not be so paranoid about aquiring an audi Enema. Plenty biking for your money.
If you MUST have a 125, because on 'L's or A1 licence... then what you might get your hands on for £250 PROBABLY wont have a ticket. It will likely be a 'project', and good chance it will be shown to you in a selection of card-board grocery boxes!
£500, 'might' just eek you a whoile running motorcycle, and if you are very lucky, something with an MOT... tghough likely that its an eithert or choice... you can have a bike with an MOT OR a bike with a running engine... but at that price likely not both!
£750 up... you stand a chance of looking at a bike that a) runs b) has soimne tax and test on it... how far you could ride it from where you biught it is another question... it would probably need attension straight away, and be a last-legs special staving of trip to the scrap heap.
£1000-£1500 is the danger zone of the 125 market. That is about what most people are prepared to pay for one, plenty of bikes about at that price, but whether they are any better for it, remains hobsons, and theres far more buyers for thes things than sellers.
Starts to make 'Big-Bikes; look actually far more affoirdable IF you got a licence to ride one... A-N-D you steer away from the more audaciouse offerings like the sport-600's.
Things like Yamaha 600 Diversions, are an old battle tank, renown for being tough as nails, and a staple of the schools and despatchers.
You can pick up a good one for a grand... thats 50% LESS than you suggest spending on a 125..... Like for like... I pay 50% less a year to insure my 750, than I do my 'four-stroke' 125... this begs the suggestion, and its far from unreasonable, THAT for the same money it would take to buy, and insure, either of the 125's you suggest, that at best are likely to be uninspriring, at worse a complete liability.... you COULD do a DAS course, get a bike 4x the displacement, AND insure it, AND do miles on it, far more comfortably and justr as cheaply, with actually LESS risk that the thing is going to grenade on you......
A-N-D with a weeks worth of lessons and learning chucked into the deal? Hmmm, yeah... slightly better chance you'll spot that SMIDSY fella before your onspecting Renault door handle lock mechanism... as you pick it out your theigh!
The suggestion of going DAS, you have aluded to having considered and dismissed, and suggested is only a non starter because you aren't banned and can get insurance?!?!? I dont know..... SOMETHING there dont add up.....
Your licence status is your licence status, and if that's going to put insurance prices up, it will put insurance prices up... whether that's for a 125 or anything else. Given you will be paying the 'learner-loading' and as suggested likely as much as 50% more to insure a 125 as anything else, logic says that that 'reason' for not doing DAS is actually backwards, and sticking to a 125 will STILL actually cost you not save you.....
Me-Thinks, as so many newbies, here that there is rather a lot of kiddology going on, to c onvince yourself why a 125 is absolutely, in the face of all contrary advice the 'best' idea, and as has been suggested, you are deturmined NOT to take any advice that contradicts you pre-conceptions here about what you want to do....
And I SUSPECT that an enormouse chunk of that is reluctance to go do a dang DAS course, cos of the week off work you presume you need or whatever...
BUT remains, there is something you are not admitting here.... and likley as much to yourself as us...
Your call...
Answering the question you posed and pandering to your pidgeon holes....
CBF125 vs Veradaro?
Neither really, but most definitely NOT the Veradaro, based on likely money-pit age. CBF based on inflated dealer price and reputation. |