Spec me a 50/125cc motorbike

-westy-

-westy-

-westy-

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Hi,

My girlfriend wants to learn to ride a motorbike - and as it's her birthday soon, I want to get her a bike - nothing massive, just something basic for her to learn on.

Now I don't have a massive budget, and luckily I'm handy with a spanner, so a fixer-upper is also an option.

What should I be going for/looking for? A Honda CG125 or similar?

Many thanks :)
 
-westy- said:
Hi,

My girlfriend wants to learn to ride a motorbike - and as it's her birthday soon, I want to get her a bike - nothing massive, just something basic for her to learn on.

Now I don't have a massive budget, and luckily I'm handy with a spanner, so a fixer-upper is also an option.

What should I be going for/looking for? A Honda CG125 or similar?

Many thanks :)
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Can't beat a CG125 for reliability / ease of learning tbh. would be my recommendation.

Without sounding forward.. what's her inside leg ? - if she's short she might struggle with some bikes!.
 
RiPz said:
Can't beat a CG125 for reliability / ease of learning tbh. would be my recommendation.

Without sounding forward.. what's her inside leg ? - if she's short she might struggle with some bikes!.
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She's 5'7", so I don't think there'll be too much of a problem :)

How much should I be budgeting for a reasonable example? Should I pay a bit more for a decent one, or get a cheaper one to fix/refurb myself?
 
Don't quote me on this but..

Half decent runners with tax and mot (around 2000) can be had for 500-to 600 if you look on owners boards and such, a little more going through the usual routes.

newer (2008) models go up to about £2k, which isn't much lower than the brand new price tbh.

a 10 year old one is going to be pretty reliable, if you get a non runner for 2-300 quid piston kits for the CG are ten a penny and shouldn't be too much work if you are ok with a set of spanners
 
a while back i had a honda cbf125 (replacement for the cg) as a practise bike, couldnt fault it used to do 100+ mpg so used to ride round all the time and cost nothing. If i lived in london or major city i would still have it now. Served its purpose well and passed first time.
 
CG125

/thread

Seriously. Huge mpg, comfy, great commuter, cheap to buy, run and insure and simply will not die. You could nuke one from orbit and you still couldn't be sure.
 
I did my CBT on a CG125 which was ok but very basic (ie no fuel gauge even).

When I came to buy a bike I got a CBR125R which (as far as I know) is pretty much the same mechanically but looks 10x better and has stuff like a fuel gauge so no need to mess around with changing over to the reserve tank etc.

Mine was on the red line this morning so I filled it up and it cost me £7.26 I'd expect to get another 200 miles or so from that too. My insurance is £80 per year (TPFT) and tax is £15 so you can run them for pennies, literally.
 
Yeah I have to say as crap as CG125's look they are so simple to ride are amazingly easy bikes to maintain. If she's not worried about how it looks then you've found your answer.
CG125.JPG


If you think she'd like something a little more sporty then look at RS125's and Derbi GPR's, cracking looking bikes for their size but cost more.
Aprilia%20RS%20125%20Lorenzo%20Rep%2007.jpg


gpr125%204v%20.jpg
 
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Rich1988 said:
you would be suprised just how many bikes dont have fuel gauges! a lot of slightly older sports bikes dont have them either zxr's vfrs etc
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Maybe I'm old fashioned but I quite like the luxury of knowing when I'm about to run out of fuel! (without messing around with switching to the reserve tank)

The CBR wasn't that much more expensive than the CG so I went for it instead.
 
eidolon said:
Maybe I'm old fashioned but I quite like the luxury of knowing when I'm about to run out of fuel! (without messing around with switching to the reserve tank)

The CBR wasn't that much more expensive than the CG so I went for it instead.
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Thats why you reset the odo and 'know' roughly how many miles (or km on my old nc30) it'll do before reserve :p

Rich1988 said:
Its worse when you forget to turn it off reserve when you fill up! then your really screwed :D
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Or when the bike doesn't have a 'thing' on the fuel tap so you can't turn it without tools, and then you forget to fill up, and run out on the M4, oops :p

Didn't help that my housemate left his phone on silent in his bag until several hours later :( :p


And to actually answer the OP, if budget is a concern I'd go CG125, really nothing to go wrong, parts are really quite cheap and it's ridiculously easy to work on them (mainly as there isn't actually anything to them :p) :)
 
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