Looking for a learner legal 125 cruiser looking bike

[calvinup]

Hey all

New biker and this will be my first bike! Looking for a good leaner-legal 125 cruiser looking bike.

Some nice looking bikes are the Keeway Superlight and the Kymco Zing II. However, the Keeway is a Chinese bike and I think the Kymco is Taiwanese.

For a cheap bike that looks the part and I will only have for a year is a
Chinese/Taiwanese bike a bad choice?

If so, what do you suggest?

Thanks

[notbike]

Kawasaki EL125

[Rogerborg]

I honestly think it doesn't really matter. Whatever you get will look great but be (relatively speaking) lardy, underpowered, clumsy and over priced.

Get a well looked after used example of whatever floats your boat, punt it on as soon as you hit 19 and get your A2, look back with fond nostalgia, job done.

I will fire in with the usual recommendation to consider getting a commuter rather than a cruiser, or at least a bike with some cruiser styling cues but not the lard and dynamic limitations. For example, the YBR Custom (or of you want to gamble on the Chinese branding, the Jianshe JS125-6C).

While I wouldn't recommend one unreservedly, my HN125 aka Lexmoto Vixen was a surprisingly decent bike for the budget price. They quickly lose a few hundred £s from new and then don't really depreciate again.
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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

[MC]

If you want a ghey crap 125 cruiser, get a cheap SR125...
https://www.roadsmile.com/images/yamaha-sr-125_key_3.jpg

Some people really like them.
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Yamaha MT-03 '08 (crashed)
Honda XR-125L '04

[Wonko The Sane]

If you want to go a bit more cruiser than the above suggestion then Honda do the 125 Shadow

It's a small v twin (same engine as the 125 varadero)

My uncle has one, very happy with it.
____________________
Looking to pass your CBT / Bike tests in Bury Lancashire? try www.focusridertraining.co.uk Would recommend.
They're also on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-Rider-Training/196832923734251

[HotdogMcDraw]

[talkToTheHat]

Suzuki GZ125, get a 2004 or later if you can, more power, more useful gear ratio selections. Had 2, loved them. They will turn tight enough to pass a mod 1 as well.

For me, insurance was peanuts on old GZs, quotes for new Chinese bikes were prohibitive.

I have no idea what the depreciation is on a newish chinese bike, probably fuckloads, you might lose £100 on a second-hand Japanese bike if you buy and sell privately.

The little honda shadow and the yamaha SR and YBR Classic are also good little bikes that wont devalue loads.

Don't go expecting lazy cruisery riding though, they're all 125s, you'll need to rev the tits off them and have the throttle permanently pinned to get anywhere fast. Having said that I've carried that behaviour through to riding my 535, so wheter or not you potter about on a cruiser mostly depends on how mad you are.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Wednesday Biker]

The ybr custom is ok but the one we had rusted in 6 months.So in that regard I don't think a kymco could be any worse.
Also the ybr and sr aren't exactly cruisers like the others mentioned.
Kymco seem to be pretty respected as far as the cheaper brands go.Maybe they are the Kia of motorbikes?
There were loads of kymco's on holiday and they get ragged day in and day out by tourists. Can't be that unreliable.
I like the look of the Zing II.
If you see one for cheap and in decent condition I would go for it.

[DiggerHD]

Well.....what did you get?

[alex965]

I picked up an 8 year old GZ125 for about £650...that was four years ago and it's still going strong, and if I was to sell it tomorrow I would probably look to get ~£500 for it. That's £150 for 4 years of problem free biking. If this is going to be your first bike, and you plan to sell it on quickly, brand new isn't really the best way to go.

If you only want a 125 and nothing bigger for a fair few years, and you are willing to lose hundreds in depreciation, then buy what you want.
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Passed A2 licence 19th Dec '14.

[DiggerHD]

[Barton316]

I had a YBR custom which looks a bit like a cruiser. I loved it. One of the most comfortable bikes i've been on and very very easy to ride.