Quick learner bike question - CG125 replacement?

[m1tch]

Hi all,

I am looking to take my CBT next year so I am currently looking around at various bikes, I am looking for a naked style of bike so looking at a Honda CG125 or a Yamaha YBR125.

I notice that the CG125 stopped production in 2008 and just checking on the Honda site at the moment there doesn't seem to be an equivalent replacement? I am not really into the sports bike style - owing to the fact that its a 125cc for starters.

Just find it odd that there isn't a replacement to the Honda CG125 and it seems that the go to bike is the YBR125.

I have no issue with looking at getting a YBR125 as at least it has a tacho and disc brakes unlike the CG125 but was just wondering if there was a successor from Honda at all? I guess the CBF125 is probably the closest? Just looking at the YBR125, seems that most of them are fuel injected, looking for a carb engine instead so I guess I need to look around a bit more!

Thanks in advance!

[rpsmith79]

The replacement for the CG125 was the CBF125
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Current Bike: Honda CG125 ES4 // Honda CB600FS Hornet // Triumph Street Triple R

[FretGrinder]

[flearider]

if you want a carb then your going to have to buy something older ..
cbf I would not touch they rust like mad .. a cb125f is a better bike .
the ybr has been replaced with the ys ..
after that you go with the sportier model's @£3k+

[linuxyeti]

Yep, for carb, basically, you're solely looking at 2nd hand.. As for a new 125, you'd be pretty much better to look at some of the chinese bikes, on offer from Lexmoto, Sinnis, AJS, Mash in particular. For the most part you can ignore the scaremongering around owning a chinese bike, simply look after it, as you should any bike, and the majority will probably rust/rot less than a CBF125.

Or.. if you're feeling flush, get a Zero S 11Kw bike.. Well, worth considering..

https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/eu/11kw

I would have suggested Evoke Urban, but things appear to have goine quiet, in the UK at least.
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Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Both my YBRs were FI, they converted me from carb. No hassle, start on the button regardless of weather. Looking at getting another for my now shorter commute, couldn't get them to go below 100MPG with the throttle pinned and my fat arse on it.
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Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[DrDonnyBrago]

If 2008 isn't new enough and you are smitten with carburetors then I wish you the best of luck...

An FI YBR seems like a suitable 125 commuter given that the CBF is a rust bucket.

[Riejufixing]

[m1tch]

I am not looking for a new bike as my first bike, would rather a carb bike as its simpler with less to go wrong - aware that it might need some adjusting which is fine. The bike will be used as just a ride around on a nice day sort of bike rather than daily commuting etc.

Looking at the CG125, looks like the later model had disc brakes on the front rather than drum, it also looks like they stopped making it in 2008 BECAUSE it was carb and so didn't meet emissions etc which is why newer 125s are FI.

I don't have an issue with getting a slightly older bike, just more of a case of getting spares for consumables and engine rebuild parts - I gues the CG125 won't have an issue getting spares for quite a while! Sounds like I might be leaning towards getting a CG125 as its got slightly more 'classic' styling vs the YBR125 which is more modern - although seems to have 80s style blade wheels.

[DrDonnyBrago]

I think they made somewhere in the region of 10 million CG125 over its lifespan so I doubt you'd struggle with parts unless you went for a 70s/80s model.

By all accounts the CG125 is a good little bike and if you find a good one, well priced and local then go for it. However, 125s do get abused through neglect and naivety so best approach for a basic commuter is to have a list of appropriate models, a firm budget and buy the best example of whatever is available.

You are unlikely to have issues with an FI system and a carburetor isn't a panacea for bike reliability either. Writing off a whole generation of bikes because of the fuelling system seems unwarranted.

[BusterGonads]

[Pjay]

[m1tch]

[m1tch]

[Fizzoid]

[m1tch]

[DrDonnyBrago]

[BusterGonads]

[quote="DrDonnyBrago"]

[Riejufixing]

[Teflon-Mike]

Hmmm first posts 3 years ago, asking about Chinky 125's, and threatening CBT then.... a year later, query on building a GXR Go-Kart.... there DO appear to be tendencies of the serial fantasist here.

Oh-Kay.... presuming you will do anything THIS time around.... the BIKE is the last thing on the list you need to get a bike on the road.

Top of the list is that CBT you haven't bothered to get round to doing in the last three years..... CBT is the FIRST LESSON... Compulsory-Basic-Training... it is NOT a test, nor is it a licence... it's the very basics the mere essentials to get you started, and any-one that wants a bike on the public road in the UK has to do one.... so that should be at the top of the list.

For CBT, you dont need very much, just some common sense, some warm sensible clothing and probably a packed lunch. Go do, go learn, almost ALL your questions will be answered... only thing you might want to buy before-hand is your own crash-hat and gloves.

Assuming you were 16 and not old enough to get any bike when you first started asking about Sinis offerings, and tuning GSXR engines with nitreouse and turbo's to put in a go-kart.... you would now be at least 20 ish, probably older, this gives some choices over what licence you might test fror.

At 17, you can only take tests for an A1, 125cc only, licence.
At 19, you can take tests for an A2, any cc 45bhp, licence
At 24, you can take tests for a Ride-what-you-like, unrestricted 'A' licence.

CBT, in the UK, legally allows you to wobble out on your own before passing tests on 'L' plates, notional;ly so you can go 'learn', not so you can dodge tests. A1 tests on your own 125 can be self-booked for under £150, and can be a launch-pad for higher licences.

A2 and A licences beg a DAS course, typically around £1000 and five days of training to test standard, usually with tests included; the training and test bike provided by the school in course fees.

IF you are old enough to test for either A2 or A, then the one-stop-shop 'package' to a licence offered by a school is probably the easiest and most economical way to a licence.

Going it alone on CBT and L's on a 125, is the school of hard knocks. CBT gives you teh scantest of know-how to get started and you probabloy wont remember half of it the next morning; you then go it alone and learn by doing, or more likely NOT doing, which on a bike is falling off... which hurts and can get rather expensive, and doesn't teach you much but falling off hurts.... you have to figure out why you fell off and what to do different not to do it again! And then! Work out what an examiner wants to see you doing..... to get a licence.

Being taught what to do right, right at the start, then can save a lot of hurt, and a lot of money, and IF a higher licence is something you aspire to anyway, that training to get that licence will probably have to be paid for at some point, so may as well get it sooner rather than later.

UNTIL THEN.... what bike questions are pretty academic...

There's 60 million people in the UK. Over half of them have a car licence, and there are actually more cars for them to drive than there are folk with licences to drive them, around 30million cars. There are only about 1million motorcycles of all capacities and styles in the UK. Half of them are under 125cc. Two thirds of them are twist-and-go scooters. That means that there are only about 150,000 125cc motorcycles in the length and bredth of the country...

The average 125cc motorcycle has an anticipated service life of around 50,ooo miles, or 7 years, and in the hands of the learners and commuters that tend to buy them they tend not to survive well.

The Honda CG125 has not been sold in this country for over a decade, whilst Euro-4 emmissions regs for C&U have significantly 'killed' both air-cooled and carburated motorcycles in the last decade...

The CG is held in inflated high regard as a 'cult' bike, like a Volts-waggen beetle, and prices tend to be disporportionally high, whilst the standard of bikes tends to be about as low as you would expect any 125cc learner-legal that has spent a decade or two past its sell by date being thrashed and crashed and bodged to oblivion by owners who believe that 'low' maintenance is 'no' maintenence, and likely are as inept at maintaining them as they are at riding them, and buying a 'cheap' 125 to start with are loath to spend any money on the thing that dont make it shinier.

Or ideas of 'tuning for speed'... which is rather laughable; CG makes about 2/3 the legal limit for an A1 licence, you could chuck huge amounts of time money and engineering know-how at one, even adding those turbo's and nitreouse oxide kits you are fond of, and STILL barely breach learner limits, and IF power is that important, REALLY you picked the wrong bike! A CG just aint it, and pigging about with pipes and carbs and stuff, really will NOT do a lot to make it any faster.... less reliable probably, but not a lot else.

BUT... there are barely 150,ooo 125's of any type in the country. Of them, there might be 1ooo that come up for sale in any month, and of them, the majority will be newer machines, under 10 years old, not CG's. If there are ever more than perhaps 50 CG's on sale in any one month I would be surprised.... and even more surprised if many were convenientll local, and if they were still there by the time you got a chance to look, and utterly astounded, if they were taxed, tested and ready to ride.... and absolutely dumfounded, if they were also in a state likely to keep running for a whole year without major work... and I would probably feint if they had a price tag that could in any way be construed a 'bargain'...

Whether the thing had discs of drums, whether it was a kick-start or duel-start, whether it was 6v or 12v, THIS sort of thing would be of very very little concern compared to whether the thing was actually for sale, at sensible mony, and did indeed have an MOT and di in fact work!

In the list of chit to fret about, it REALLY is not something to put even on the list, let alone at the top.

First, you need to learn to ride......

I'll leave that as a stand alone sentence for you to ponder. But, then after you have sorted your first lesson, a 125 MIGHT not even be worth considering further if you do a course for a higher licence, that would allow a bigger bike.

Either way, bedfore that bike, you need somewhere to store it, you need some way of securing it; then to be able to ride it you need that licence, more you need tax and insurance, THEN you need a crash helmet, and riding gear..... THEN a bike might be worth thinking a bit more about....

OR you can wast another four years or so, looking for your ideal CG125, and THEN worrying about the other stuff to find out that actually, 'something' was amis with your 'plan'.

Stop pigging about... GO DO A CBT... get some price lists for lessons and training, and do SOMETHING..... STOP THINKING - START RIDING!!!
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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?'

[stevo as b4]

It did read a bit daft that OP was wanting a 125 but that it had to be a Honda why?

What he should have said in his post is " I want a CG 125 and I'm fixated on one, and wanting to do the usual café or tasteless mods to it. Convince me it's the right thing to do"

I've had a CG as a runabout, but that was 15years ago when they were more prolific. It was good at its job but Yamaha hadn't released a YBR back then. To be honest it wouldn't have mattered at the time what brand of four stroke 125 I got, as it was a tool.

I will say with some certainty that in the 00's Chinese bikes were largely junk though and it was early days for them and they have needed time to improve and make credible machines like they largely are today.

Only reason I'd buy a CG today is if I had history and nostalgia for them, unfinished business or a stack of CG left over parts in my shed etc. I have KMX bits instead so it'd be pointless me buying a Honda for a project.

OP probably will never buy this CG he's convinced himself is the bike to have, and I doubt that he'll do these tuning modifications that he thinks he knows all about. EFI will always make more power than a carb ultimately anyway, if not at peak then the area under the curve.

[Riejufixing]

[BusterGonads]

[m1tch]

[DrDonnyBrago]