At 17 I can’t afford £4000 insurance for a 11 year old, 1l renault clio so i’m going for a bike and am on a 50cc at the moment but want a bigger bike. I’ll pass my bike test as soon as I can but what 125s are there that perform VERY well, i.e. pull away from traffic lights faster than the passing snail and when I come to a hill, don’t feel the need to pull to the side to give cars room to get past because they can actual accelerate up hill. Or, what are the options for restricting bigger bikes to 33bhp etc.?

Preferably enduro style bikes but I’m not that fussy

cheers

Even a little bike can be nippy- they weigh nowt. I had an embarassing Yamaha Virago 125cc and it was quicker than most cars at the lights, and went up hills just fine.

If you want 33bhp, then a resricted SV650 is always a good shout- lots of bikes don’t restrict well but the SV’s power delivery could be made for it. Also in its favour- they’re cheap, there’s a fair number of restricted ones out there, and they’re pretty much indestructible (narrow frame and engine means you need to properly crash them to damage the core components)

My learner bike was a Suzuki rg125f, from what I remember it pulled very nicely, in fact pulled even better when de-restricted (by disconnecting a single cable) which apparently upped it to 33bhp

For a small bike – get a scooter don’t bother with a 125 motorcycle – and have you checked insurance costs for various bikes – be worth doing as it can be very expensive

They dont restrict/limit young/inexperienced riders for nothing.

Get a 125cc, get some experience, then get your direct access.

Suzuki DRZ, gutless but can be restricted well.

Supermoto type bike are the way forward ime/imho.

I recently got myself a Honda PCX 125. Twist n go Scooter. Big, but a great honda 4stroke, pulls me a round at 60mph + and quickly, really quickly.

Costs me £100 pa on insurance. On a CBT still ATM, hopefully doing my test later this year.

I second the PCX125. 5000 miles on mine so far and its cost peanuts. Proper 120mpg even when run at 65 mph. Quick off the mark and easy to ride.

However, if I could afford it, a Varadero XL125 would be my bike of choice.

tbh Once you’ve something that will do 70mph you’re pretty ok to keep up with traffic, and any bike should out-accelerate most cars.

Probably a 125 Scooter is the best bet for economy vs speed – don’t be tempted by something old, it’ll probably be knackered.

The main problem with scooters, is scooter owners. But if you can find a good one then they are fantastic.

I’d agree with northwind, they are simply put, BRAINDEAD!

The PCX 125 is probably one of the best 125 scooters on the market, but it’s nothing like a big bike.

You twist the throttle on it, and it builds up steadily. You do the same on a 500, and it’s there in an instant.

Also, not sure what your budget is, but the PCX keeps its value well, so not sure how little you can pick one up for.

I’m looking to sell mine via a dealer probably (for part-ex), it’s under a year old, and I’m almost getting the price I paid for it new 🙂

PCX – anything below 40mph and it’s brilliant and nippy. Tops out at about 60-65mph too. I can’t really say anything bad about it, it’s just that im part way through my DAS course, and want a bigger bike for longer trips / motorways etc.

Hmmm, interesting thoughts on scooters, and I have to confess as to never having ridden one; but wouldn’t it be better to learn to ride a bike with gears if that is what you’ll get when you pass the test?

Unless of course you stick with scooters, obviously on a scooter you’ll learn the roadcraft which is a good thing.

You can take it on an auto, and go out and ride a geared bike.

If you pass on an auto and later decide you want a geared bike, you can do an optional geared conversion course to get the hang of gears/clutch etc – few hours will be about £50 or so – or you can just practise yourself, but it’s a bit dangerous on the road.

I found that my CBT instructors tried to push everyone through on scooters, because it’s easier, and they can get back to sipping tea earlier 🙂

If you want a geared bike, make sure they put the effort in. The quality of instructors at the CBT seems to vary a lot.

Aye. My experience was that the first thing you should do is ask around to see where all the kids went, and see if anyone recommends somewhere because everyone passes (*). Then, don’t go there. You want a school that’ll actually teach, rather than rubber stamping.

A mate of mine recommended one local school thusly: “They’re great, I went there because my CBT had expired after 2 years. I messed after about 20 minutes in the practice yard and crashed and broke my hand, so they gave me a new certificate anyway since I’d ridden it there and obviously must be OK to ride”. I didn’t want to be on the road if I wasn’t at least slightly competent, so I went to the school that his mates said sucked because they all got told to bugger off.

(*- someone will probably say “CBT isn’t a test, there’s no pass or fail. And then I’ll say “You do your day and then you either get a CBT certificate or you won’t. So in every way that counts, you pass or fail”)

my 17 yr old daughter recently did cbt got 58 plate yamaha 125 still cost 400ish for insurance. definitely agree with northwind guy she trained with wouldnt pass her till he was satisfied even brought her back for another few hrs the following day with no extra charge rather than just sign her certificate

Good points there northwind, and +1 to andyw’s instructors. I did my cbt (1995) on a bike with gears, only those competent were then taken out on the road, this was Wembley, some people didn’t get their certs. I’m a bit old school, although I did a three day DAS course this was after a year of riding the 125, my instructor said it was obvious I had been riding, personally I wouldn’t do it Amy other way.

These are cheap to buy and insure and have reasonable performance.
telegraph cbf125

Anything that performs VERY well will also have an insurance premium to suit. I enjoyed a furiously fast Cagiva Mito that was good fun but it didn’t work all the time and when it went wrong the parts took ages to come and overall it wasn’t as much fun as a CG125 that didn’t break down and could be thrashed mercilessly every day rain or shine. Looking back I miss the CG125 more than the Cagiva Mito.

I had a Aprilla RS125 a few year back 2 stroke is tweaked injection and once up to temp would do over 100. sounded like a bag of bolt on idle and then was stupidly noisy was on cam though.

Hey s4rpf, you do realise that 50’s and 125’s are notoriously optimistic speedos FACT!

Hey s4rpf, you do realise that 50’s and 125’s are notoriously optimistic speedos FACT!