The best learner bike??

[b.c]

hey people, how is today's ride. hope is all good, if you have to pick a learner bike 125cc what bike would you pick, (think about insurance, handing, etc) doesn't matter what type

[c_dug]

Riddle me this.

How long, is a piece of string?
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[mattyfattyboo...]

Yamaha TW125. Miss my old one, slow, hardly nimble but enjoyed riding it and looked cool in a funky kinda way.

[c_dug]

Actually, given the lack of any criteria other than 125cc I think I would have this:

https://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/216384/the-bat-pod-photo-216392-s-1280x782.jpg

If I remember correctly the bike used for filming was powered by a 125cc 4t engine.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[b.c]

[hellkat]

Yeah, a TW125 is a good little learner bike.
I had one. Also an old Honda XL 125 avec kickstart.
Awesome little beaters
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Fladdem]

Fireblade. Complete with bent sub-frame and loose chain. Also, only ridden with poor observational skills.
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Current:1991 Honda MT50 (Soon to be a H100/MTX/MT5 hybrid), 1976 Honda Cub C70, 2005 Honda Varadero 125, 1993 Yamaha TTR250 Open Enduro , 2010 Road Legal Stomp YX140, 1994 Honda CRM 250 MK III, 1999 Cagiva Mito 125, 1992 Honda CB400 Super Four, Stomp T4 230, 1984 Honda H100s, 2009 Sym XS125K
Past:2003 Aprilia RS125, 1982 Kawasaki GPZ550(FREE BIKE!)
I'm having more fun than a well-oiled midget.

[Snorty]

[stevo as b4]

If I had over £2000 for a 125cc bike only I would want any of these in good condition:

Cagiva Supercity
Gilera Freestyle
Aprilia Pegaso
KTM Sting
Fantic Caballero
Aprilia MX125
Yamaha TDR

[27cows]

[Northern Monkey]

an MSX125 in white
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Fisty: after polishing the tank with the glistenng beads of sweat from my full hot scrotum, I filled the headrace bearings with 10cc of my manmilk

[Snop Doog]

[c_dug]

Answering it and answering it correctly are far from the same thing. Long words do not a correct answer make!

I'm pretty sure that mr 27cows tells us that a piece of strings length is half way between the middle and either end. Or, where the green lines cross the black line.

https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee81/paddy2007dug/Pieceofstring_zps4cf133c9.png

Because MSPaint wins all arguments!
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[MC]

[Chuffin Nora]

[lilredmachine]

Cagiva mito or rs125. Not being funny, but they ain't exactly going down in price. Who cares if you can't do a u turn on them.
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Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.

[sidewinder]

Id have to say the dt125
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"Nitrous is like a cheap hooker, you want to hit it but are scared of the consequences

[sidewinder]

Id have to say the dt125
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"Nitrous is like a cheap hooker, you want to hit it but are scared of the consequences

[talkToTheHat]

but what era DT, air cooled or liquid cooled?
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Bandit. does. everything.

[c_dug]

[Teflon-Mike]

"Best" is subjective; Best Performance? Best Looks? Best Value? Depends what YOU think is 'Best', there is no right or wrong answer.

BUT, you can waste your life contemplating and comparing the stats of all the shiny bikes listed in the buyers guides.. at some point you have to go buy one in the real world; THEN you find stuff that's not in the Buyer's Guides, while discovering that stuff that is, just isn't for sale..

You can only buy Bikes that are on sale the real world, that you have the money in your pocket to satisfy the seller to let you have it for.

There are aprox 20millon cars on UK roads; there are only something like a million motorcycles; of which about 1/3 are sub-125cc, while about three in five of them are scooters... so there's only some thing like 120,000 125 'motorcycles' out there; assuming that on average they are kept two years by their owners, means that there's only ever going to be around 5000 on sale in any month, across the whole country... Not all will be publicly advertised, but sold in the works canteen or in the pub, or whatever; The rest will be spread far and wide, and how many you might be able to get to, and view, and decide are worth the money, will depend on where you are in the country, and whether you can beg lifts or whatever to get to them, AND get to the good ones before any-one else.

THEN when you have got to look at a bike.. good chance its a total wreck, or stupidly over-priced.

There are a few inherent flaws in 125's... they are 'Learner-Bikes'.. they tend to be bought by learners, who almost by definition, don't know too much about bikes; riding them or looking after them; light-weight and low performance, they tend not to be the 'strongest' machines built; they have an expected 'service-life' of about seven to ten years, which is about half that of big-bikes, that are often still going strong 20 years on; Because, low performance, owners will tend to use most of what they have most of the time, probably not very 'sympathetically', reving the nuts off it, crashing through the gears, diving on the brakes, all putting extra 'stress' on the poor little thing, and very often falling off them.. THEN they look after them as well as they ride them; and maintenance can be as scant as thrash it till something brakes, then bodge it, or maybe as bad, being 'killed with kindness' being taken to bits every weekend, sump-plugs stripped being overtightened on a 'best be sure' basis, chains stretched to buggery knocking out out-put shaft and wheel bearings, being similarly 'the tighter the better' adjusted.

SO, when you DO get to go see a bike, 'in the metal', money in your pocket to buy... all the book specs go out the window, in the face of the actual, as it stands infront of you CONDITION of the actual bike you are looking at.

SO, horse before the cart; Stop looking at the buyers guides and MCN Reviews; start looking at Gumtree and E-Bay and at the post-card ads in local shop widows; ask about over the college canteen table, down the pub, or wherever.... see what you CAN buy..in the real world, not what you might in an ideal one.

More 'networking'; how far might you go to go look? How you going to get there? When COULD you get there? IF you bought the bike, how would you get it home? Who will you need favours from? What chores you going to have to do to get them?

THESE sort of things are FAR more relevant to actually getting ANY bike, than whether Byke-Specs-dot-com say that the Yamaha YBR has an extra mph of top speed over a CG125, but that the CG125 has a extra point or two of MPG....

NOW, that bit of advice heeded.. the 'Bench-Mark' learner bike of the moment is a Yamaha YBR125,around four years old. Half way through its anticipated service life the 'premium' of new bike depreciation has bee paid by it's early owners; so you have a bike that should cost a little under half what it did new the show-room, but with a little over half its service life left it, AND the assurance t' not bee thrashed, trashed ad crashed into oblivion whilst still shiny and exempt from an MOT, or at least if it has, 1st MOT has at least made some-one make it at least notionally road-worthy. Yet, still young enough its not going to be totally worn out and cost a arm and a leg rung repairs and 'hassle' keeping it serviceable.

Back to earlier advice.. CONDITION IS ALL

Meanwhile, YBR, is a regulation 'Learner-Commuter'; it's not the most stylish, or exiting, or best performing or eve the most economical; but as an all-round 'compromise', total is greater than the sum of its parts. It's one of the cheaper 125's to insure; its one of the easiest to live with as far as being a common, popular and long lived models, from a brand with a wide network of franchise dealers; SO, it's well known, ad any problems you encounter are likely to have bee encountered by others and be easy to deal with, with know-how and parts easily and readily available, and usually not too expensive to get hold of.

Again, THIS is NOT the sort of stuff that is the brochure pictures or buyers guide stats; that make the 'whole package'

End of the day; you want to RIDE the dam thing; you don't want it breaking down leaving you to push it home, the spending weeks scratching you head, wondering what's wrong with it, how to fix it, or how to find the money to pay a mechanic to answer those questions.

So, taking the YBR as the 'Bench-Mark' of the current 'best value / least risk' Learner 125.. you have t get out there, and of REAL actual bikes, 'for sale', make up your OWN MIND, 'what's Best'.. FOR YOU.

As a guide;

1/ You can only buy a bike some-one offers for sale
2/ You can only buy a bike if you have the money to pay for it
3/ You can only buy a bike if you can get to it to do a deal on it!

4/ CONDITION IS ALL
5/ CONDITION IS STILL ALL! Look beyond the shiny bits, to see whether the thing has bee looked after beneath the surface, where metal rubs on metal.
6/ Style & Performance usually come at the expense of cost and practicality. More you like the looks, or idea of the extra speed, ore that is likely to cost you, and the more 'awkward' the bike is likely to be to live with one way or another; be it paying inflated insurance ad using more fuel, or having to do more maintenance, or whether its a cramped riding position, awkward 'balance' unwieldy steering lock, or simply lack of support to fix problems. Further you stray from the humble YBR like Learner-commuter,ore you strain the overall 'compromise' of the package, and the total is more likely to be LESS than the sum of its parts. And NOTHING looks 'cool' with L-Plates.
7/ If you know enough to be able to comfortably live with a Chiky bike... you probably know enough to NOT buy one.
8/ Want a better bike? Fit a Better Rider. Better Rider, goes faster; uses less fuel, wears less stuff out, crashes less, has more 'fun' for their money. Better rider also works on any and every bike they are ever put on; doesn't wear out, in fact usually gets better with use; doesn't put up insurance ad often gets it down. Its ALL 'win'.. and looking to THAT, the 'better-rider' is likely to make ANY bike 'better' by more than the small spec differences in the guides.
9/ So IF you have any money to indulge on a 'better' bike, THINK TWICE.. how much MORE you might get saving that to get a BETTER RIDER... and look towards training, tests, more training, and JUST RIDING... that's what its all about at the end of the day. The A1 licence might not offer access to bigger bikes, ad you may have a couple of years 'stuck' on a tiddler; BUT f you are goig to do it, might as well try do t well; and A1 is a step towards being a 'better rider' as well as a stepping stone towards higher licences later; and get rid of the L-Plate, while training is for life not licences, ad sooner you get it, sooner you learner to do the right stuff, sooner you get the benefit of that know-how to go faster, use less fuel, and NOT CRASH, which is where its real value is hidden.
10/ Stop Thinking-Start RIDING.... stop disappearing to the abyss of worrying about SO MUCH, zooming in on irrelevant minutea,like the weather, and what's the most bestest bike, and making a big deal out of them..

- look clearly at the big picture and recognise the actual REAL practical problems of getting ANY bike.
- Recognise what is and is't really important IN a bike; a REAL bike, the REAL world, not on a web-site or magazine but one in the metal you can actually touch and ride!
- Get out there See what's what for yourself.
- Make up your OWN mind what's best, and best for YOU, or at least what's the BEST COMPROMISE you can make...

GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT ------- AND ENJOY
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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?'

[Rogerborg]

tl;dr is stuck on the right time for once. Stop sniffing seats, actually do your CBT and then - unless you have some specific requirements which you haven't chosen to disclose - buy whatever you want and go and ride it.

Oh, and while we're being redundant:

[RePT]

Cg125. Simples.

[RePT]

Cg125. Simples.

[Wull]