125cc for long distance(Daily)

[Jordan86]

Hi all,
I'm living and working in London.
I'm planing to move in Chatham(Kent) and travel to my job (Cental London) one way will be around 35miles...
I'm not biker yet and I don't feel ready for bigger engine than 125cc
So the question is do you think 125cc will do the job and is going to be safe with slow bike on A2...is going to be too much miles everyday?
Thank you very much

[Polarbear]

I suppose it's doable but if I was going to do it on a 125 I'd want a Varadero.
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[Azoth]

You meet the worst and most impatient drivers in the rush hour. In addition, London is a crowded place, and drivers are more intolerant. The most important question you have to ask yourself is, as a beginner, do you have the skill to commute that route confidently and safely?

That's a long distance away, and doing it on a 125 is easily possible but not necessarily comfortable. The journey will be tiring. Commuting on a 125 used to leave me with no energy left for anything, and my commuting distances were much shorter than yours. The weather will also be a challenge. Altogether, this could be a very unpleasant autumn and winter if you make the wrong decisions or are unprepared.

If you work out the costs on paper, the savings you may make might be negligible compared with the cost of a rail season ticket. I would recommend taking the train for now, and leave bikes as a leisure time activity, giving yourself lots of time to learn, take lessons and get a full licence.
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Safety in numbers

[Jordan86]

Thanks guys for the quick reply
The most important thing for me is the time...for sure the car is not a option.
The train is ok but from the door to the stations and changing these busy underground stations will lost at least 30mins...so in total will be around 1.5hour.But as you said until I get to work with 125 I'll be fu...dI'll try all options and will see.

[UncleFester]

You'll lose at least 15 minutes either end at getting changed / dealing with the bike.
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Module 1 and 2 passed - October 2014. Happy owner of a 2017 Z1000SX, ex owner of a YBR125 / CB500 / VFR800.

[Rogerborg]

Eh. Ten-ish, maybe. Parking location is probably as important.

I'd look into scooters, e.g. SH125 or PCX125. Much better weather protection, decent storage, less to bother about.
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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

[linuxyeti]

[WD Forte]

I reckon it could easily take an hour+ to do that 35 miles in busy London stop go traffic.

If you were to filter like a mad eejit you may knock some time off
but as a new rider you probably wont have the experience to do that right away and initially at least, find its hardly quicker than using a car.

I don't know that A2 route very well but will guess its busy and would also seriously consider a good, robust T&G scoot rather than tap dance on a 125s gear change plus the associated clutch grabbing for 2 hours plus a day
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bikers smell of wee

[Teflon-Mike]

First up, caution against commuting straight off the stops all too frequently; city and rush hour traffic is NOT the place to be doing your early learning; so I would recommend getting the licence and some experience under your wheels before you tackle it, and certainly not trying it fresh off the stops on CBT & L's on a 125.

Next; 35miles each way, 70 a day, 350 a week, 17,000 a year JUST going to and from work. That sort of mileage is going to be a strain regardless of the vehicle.

That will I imagine be at least an hour, more likely an hour and a half each way. even on a bike, even using its ability to 'filter' which again, as above I would NOT recommend you dive straight into fresh off a training course.

Bigger bikes tend to be more comfortable for longer journeys, but not necessarily much more so, and for that sort for environment dealing with that much traffic for that long, stress is going to make it tiring however long your bum may last on however soft a seat!

125's can usually go as fast as any powered two wheeler is legally allowed to travel in this country, and are a little lighter and nimbler; and COULD do the job as well as anything. Bigger Bikes tend to cost more, and more so the bigger they are.

One thing about little bikes though is that they tend to need quite frequent maintenance; and that can be quite expensive if you have to pay a mechanic to do it.

A little Honda CG125, begs oil changes every 1000miles; at your suggested mileage, that will be every three weeks, if you do no other miles. In the mean time, it will need its Chain & Sprockets checking and tension and oiling, probably every 250 miles; IF you have a decent set on there when you start you might stretch that out to weekly. Its very much a case of little and often, but can be a ballache finding that time.

Lower quality chinese 125's are likely to need even more frequent attention; newer Japanese scooters with a belt drive possibly a tad less, but they are all in the same general 'order', and often comes as a shock to many, particularly car drivers used to having to do little but fill the petrol tank between annual MOT's.

Bigger bikes, 'tend' to have longer service intervals; oil changes are likely to come up at maybe 2or3ooo miles or so; chains & sprockets sill need attension at the same sort of 'weekly' intervals though, and services when they come up are often more involved and often beyond owner DIY competence. They still don't have that car like fill and forget useability; whilst service spares like tyres, brake pads & Chain & Sprokets, and in commuter service, worse city commuting putting extra stress on them, can be a pretty frequent and pretty hefty kick up the wallet; tyres particularly coming up every 4ooo miles or so and brake pads & C&S coming up every two or three tyre changes. Tyres costing in the order of £250 a pair, and liklihood youll need three or four maybe even five pairs a year... can rather dent a lot of 'presumed' ecconomic benefits of a bike! But, it's still added hassle getting them fitted.

Economics of a bike for daily commuting are very circumstance dependent; but the attractive MPG figures, particularly of smaller bikes, don't truly reflect what they are likely to cost 'all in'. and as a particularly wide generalisation, while a 125 is likely to be a great way to beat bus-fares, costs of even a pretty utilitarian 500 'commuter twin' are starting to shrink the margins, and costs of super-eco mobiles with 4-wheels are getting 'close' to being cheaper in the all in sums. And certainly by the time you are looking at newer, more expensive, more sophisticated and higher performance big bikes 600 and up, they can and often are more expensive to run, 'all in' mile for mile than 'cheap' cars.

Which is another matter; start up costs, getting trained, getting a licence, getting some riding gear, some security measures, etc, aren't all 'one off' costs, and particularly in heavier, more frequent, all weather, daily commuter use, hat gloves helmet's will need replacing on a regular basis, probably every year, blunting any economic advantage you might find, that will likely take an awful lot longer to show any 'return' than you expect, if ever, as new pursuit enthusiasm finds ever more 'stuff' you never even knew about you now need or want to support it!

[myvision]

If you get a PCX to do it on get a bigger screen than the standard one.
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VFR800FI, YZF600R Thundercat and FZS 1000

[Alpineandy]

[bamt]

[Jordan86]

Thanks to everyone that share his opinion...I'm 30 years old...
I start thinking to do the full driving licence and buy 250cc...if I manage to travel to London fine...if not...will be the train :)and the bike will be for the weekends:)

[faffergotgunz]

Smashing replies here. More than enough to think about.

Playing devil's advocate though, if you're up for the challenge, sometimes there's nothing to it but to do it!

Be aware of the risks though and deal with them maturely.
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[.....]

I commute to London every day, doing a similar mileage and do it on a 1400 with a shaft drive. No way would I consider doing it on a 125 but I suppose a 125 is better than the train.

[Reg]

I used to do 40 miles each way on my CBF125 for a year, although mainly A roads rather than central London. It used to take it out of me and now having a bigger bike I wonder how I coped for that year!

[Evil Hans]

[6r4h4m]

I don't know exactly where you work, how far you live from station, or what the trains your way are like, so I don't know if this idea would work for you… The way I used to tackle long commutes from Home Counties to work in London was a push bike at each end. Ride to station, lock up bike, get train, unlock bike at King's Cross, ride along canal most of the way to work.

Push bike is usually the fastest method for journeys in London. There's a bit of faff to consider with bike locking / unlocking, and the year I commuted that way was ridiculously wet so I was sopping wet through to my smalls most days. (Pro tip: spare socks and pants in your desk.) Still, when it wasn't stair rods it was actually really lovely.

[linuxyeti]

Hi

When I passed my CBT I used to commute 80 miles a day on my Chituma, never had a problem. However, once I took my test, I moved up to a 250, just because it was better on the motorway. THen, I decided I wanted a bigger bike, and, well, the rest is history.

But 70 miles a day on a 125, is eminently doable
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[onlyJaz]

[Alpineandy]

[Alpineandy]

[linuxyeti]

[Rogerborg]

[onlyJaz]