Sym XS125-K

Mucky_Pup said:
My YZF-R125 gives between 80-100MPG depending on how and where I'm riding it.
Click to expand...

Really? How do you know this? There's no gauge to show mpg.....

Sagalout said:
Surely 300km for £11 works out at about 100mpg?
Click to expand...

I worked it out using:

367km = 228 miles (using 1mile - 1.609km)
Fuel was measured in Litres on refill = 20.7
1 gallon = 4.54609 litres, therefore 20.7 litres = 4.55 Gallons
228 miles on 4.55 gallons = 50.xx mpg.

How do you get to 100mpg?
 
Tattysnuc said:
Really? How do you know this? There's no gauge to show mpg.....
Click to expand...

The same way you always work out mpg: brim the tank, reset the trip meter, ride until nearly empty and then brim it again. Take note of fuel used and trip meter and perform simple arithmetic.

Tattysnuc said:
Fuel was measured in Litres on refill = 20.7
Click to expand...

That is blatantly wrong! Most 1litre sports bikes don't have tanks that big, let along a small 125cc commuter. The Sym website suggest you have either a 13 or 14.5 Litre tank, depending on which bit of text you read - I'd be inclined to believe 13L as that's the same as a YBR125.

That said, 20.7/1.40 = 14.7 Litres which is somewhat more realistic. Is it possible you confused the price display with the litres one on the pump?

Tattysnuc said:
Petrol, the bike used 20.7litres of fuel - I really was running on fumes by the time I got to Birkenhead, and cost me 15.11 to refill. I'd done 367 km round trip, including going to and from work (21km) on Friday.
Click to expand...

20.7 litres at £15.11 gives 73p/liter. Either you hit 85mph and jumped back to the late 90's or you made a mistake :p
 
Last edited:
Tattysnuc said:
Really? How do you know this? There's no gauge to show mpg.....



I worked it out using:

367km = 228 miles (using 1mile - 1.609km)
Fuel was measured in Litres on refill = 20.7
1 gallon = 4.54609 litres, therefore 20.7 litres = 4.55 Gallons
228 miles on 4.55 gallons = 50.xx mpg.

How do you get to 100mpg?
Click to expand...

£11 is roughly 2 gallons, 367km is roughly 200 miles

2 gallons for 200 miles is 100mpg

...can you let me know where you bought 20 litres for £11?!
 
Dogbreath said:
The same way you always work out mpg: brim the tank, reset the trip meter, ride until nearly empty and then brim it again. Take note of fuel used and trip meter and perform simple arithmetic.



That is blatantly wrong! Most 1litre sports bikes don't have tanks that big, let along a small 125cc commuter. The Sym website suggest you have either a 13 or 14.5 Litre tank, depending on which bit of text you read - I'd be inclined to believe 13L as that's the same as a YBR125.

That said, 20.7/1.40 = 14.7 Litres which is somewhat more realistic. Is it possible you confused the price display with the litres one on the pump?



20.7 litres at £15.11 gives 73p/liter. Either you hit 85mph and jumped back to the late 90's or you made a mistake :p
Click to expand...


mystery solved. Numpty at the healm.

I've checked the petrol receipt - I used 11.04litres of fuel not 20 odd.

I made a mistake when reconciling my spreadsheet - instead of dividing the amount by the price per litre, I'd multiplied. Doh!

This gives a revised calculation of:

367km = 228 miles (using 1mile - 1.609km)
Fuel was measured in Litres on refill = 11.04
1 gallon = 4.54609 litres, therefore 11.04 litres = 2.43 Gallons
228 miles on 2.43 gallons = 93.95 mpg.

.... and I'm DELIGHTED with that!

Thanks everyone for steering me back on the straight and narrow. Apologies to anyone I doubted...
 
Honestly, 70-100mpg is achievable on 125's. Just depends on average revs and speed.

I've gone about 250miles on 3.5 gallons at an average of 70mph / 11k revs constantly (aka 74mpg).
 
YarwoodUK said:
Honestly, 70-100mpg is achievable on 125's. Just depends on average revs and speed.

I've gone about 250miles on 3.5 gallons at an average of 70mph / 11k revs constantly (aka 74mpg).
Click to expand...

See my above rebuttal etc. :) You're absolutely right - my maths is what was at fault - I'd not calculated the correct amount of fuel that I'd used.
 
Dropped the bike in for it's first annual service last week. £75 all in to keep my service book stamped and updated.

2 advisories after 1 year:

- the main stand is showing signs of metal fatigue and now does not sit flush with the floor. Covered by warranty, so not fussed by that.
- The horn is starting to perish. Too much water etc has got in and the tone is starting to move. Martin@ Fazarkerley Garage said that next time I bring it in, he can switch out the existing horn for a car one.

The good news is there's nothing major wrong so I'm good for another year of biking - It's also reassuring to see that I'm still getting work covered under the manufacturers warranty.

approximately 3,400 km in the first year, but I can see me exceeding that this year - weather permitting!
 
Hmm, it's not costing you much but it would still put me off Chinese bikes! There are 25 year old Honda CG125's without metal fatigue and dodgy electrics!
 
Metal fatigue after 12 months is pretty shocking to be honest! And the horn, it should last longer than a year, as it's on a bike, so water getting in should be expected..
Hopefully it'll last you another year without any major problems hitting you.
 
Sagalout said:
Hmm, it's not costing you much but it would still put me off Chinese bikes! There are 25 year old Honda CG125's without metal fatigue and dodgy electrics!
Click to expand...

Ghosteh said:
Metal fatigue after 12 months is pretty shocking to be honest! And the horn, it should last longer than a year, as it's on a bike, so water getting in should be expected..
Hopefully it'll last you another year without any major problems hitting you.
Click to expand...

You're both absolutely right, but in the grand scheme of things, it's been a great bike to get me into biking, and neither of the advisories are show stoppers. Both were surprises, but I've not had any reliability problems - the Sym XS 125-K is a nice enough bike, which has it's idiosyncrasies, being:

1. It's a pig to start!
2. Pulling away in 1st then changing up to 2nd gear can result in it sticking in neutral -

Considering I wanted trouble free motoring, this is probably as near as I could get for the £1600 I spent on the bike, including helmet, tax, insurance and lock - when it's put in context, it's certainly not a risky purchase, which is how they were portrayed prior to my purchase. That said, I'm ready to move on, but it's not financially worth me doing so. 3400km a year, mostly on local roads does not warrant a 600CC which is what I'd like to get next (license pending)
 
That 2nd one even happens on my ybr, its a nuisance at times when it does happen, mine dos'nt necessarily stick as such, but for example i can think iv changed up to 2nd when in fact its in neutral, makes a god awful racket when u don't realize and your accelerating thinking your in gear lmao.

I tend to make sure my 1st to 2nd shift is more forcefull these days, so its rare now that it happens, but it still does sometimes.
But you can pull away in 2nd if you want though, i do it sometimes when i know first is just gonna be for a sec, all u have to do is just make sure you give it enough revs when your releasing the clutch.
 
Well, it's a slow Friday afternoon, so I thought I'd share an update.

The License:
I passed the Mod 1 at the second asking in May, then flew through my Mod 2 on a Phazer 600. Weather couldn;t have been worse for the test, but I had the right clothes on. It seems that my instructor was right after all - the mod 1 is the more difficult part to the test.

The Bike.
Since last updating, I've had several new parts to the bike.
I'm now on my 3rd chain. I DONT believe the replacement "2nd" chain was actually lubed up when I bought it and had it fitted by the garage, but it's too late to argue with them.
The chain was stretching and slipping off over the rear sprocket so I adjusted the wheel back - some part in the real wheel broke at this point and I had to drop it into the garage to get that and the chain fixed.

Last month the exhaust fell off - it cracked around the engine mount - thankfully without shearing off the mounting point. I took it to Fazakerley Garage to get it fixed once more, only to be turned away because their solitary bike mechanic was once again on holiday. Grustrated I went to Revolution Cycles who, not only saw me the same day, but took the bike in, fitted a new exhaust which they had lying around (it was still wrapped up, just not fitted to another bike) for which they charged me the princely sum of £46. Brand new shiny exhaust supplied and fitted same day - take my £50 and keep the change! I skipped out of there I can tell you.

The bike's still going strong - the rusting that I originally observed has subsided so the bike looks as good now as it did after about 6 months of ownership. I'm itching to upgrade to a Fazer 600 but without the necessary pennies I'm going to leave it and stick with the Sym.

I've got the MOT due in December so I'll drop it in for a full service ahead of that and then stick with it for another year - after all what's the point in buying a newer/bigger bike if I'm not going to get the use out of it.....

....Except that I REALLY want one. :(

Oh Camelot, please answer my prayers...... :D
 
Bike came out of storage and is still very much alive.

On Sunday 13th March, my "new" pride and joy my mk 1 1998 model Yamaha FZS 600 was stolen :(

The thieving little ******** climbed over our 8" back wall, opened the gates from the inside and then took my baby - which had the cover chained to the front and rear wheel.

I am absolutely disgusted as I'd just had a load of work done on the bike in readiness for the MOT and a full summer of riding. :(
Gutted.

So I dug my Sym out and tried starting - dead battery :(

I then took half a day off work and pushed the bike the mile or so to the bike shop. £280 later (including buying a new helmet for £150), and one MOT +service and "Melvin" is back on the road.
Only thing is, I hate riding it having owned and riding an FZS daily for 9 months :S

The bike feels underpowered and slow. It's REALLY light by comparison and runs off fumes so it'll get me where I need to go when the weather's bad.

I'll put some pictures up of how the bike's faired, now that it's approaching 5 years old. Can't find many of them to judge how well mine's doing.

I've also had my bicycle serviced and that's going great, so when the weather's nice I'm cycling to/from work, falling back on the Sym when the weather is against me.

One bad thing about the Sym - the side stand is well bad - if the road is uneven then the bike is prone to blow over - in Liverpool the wind off the river gets quite high. The FZS never struggled to stay upright but the Sym seems to struggle. I've spoken with the supplier of the bike and they say that "it's a common fault" and others have reported that!!!!

They don't tell you that before they buy it, do they......?
 
Sorry to hear about your 600 :(

Did you have the bike chained to a ground anchor, or just the cover chained through the wheels? Did they cut the chain? If so, what make was it?

Having had one bike stolen, I'm super paranoid about it happening again. I tend to chain it up with an almax IV through the frame at home, and an almax 3 when out + albus granit sledg disclocks. They're going to have to work for my bike :p.
 
I didn't have a ground anchor fitted so the bike was just chained to the "security" cover at the front and rear wheels, the front via a D-clamp,the rear via the chain.

The front and rear wheels couldn't have turned due to the locks so the beggers must have lifted the bike up with the cover on and carried it off, I'm guessing into a van. The back gates are ply-board and were barricaded shut so they must have been watching me come and go, then waited till we were in bed, climbed over the back wall (which is 8ft high!) and then opened up the back gates from the inside, then lifted the bike out.

I've bought some pad lockable shed door type locks with alarms on them for the rear and side gates so that now as soon as anyone tries to tamper with the locks, they go make some noise.
I've now fitted a ground anchor and bought an Oxford screamer disk-loc alarm so, as long as someone's in the house, anyone meddling will be alerted. I've also bought some security cameras and plan on building a brick shed to keep my next bike purchase in.
 
That sucks :(.

My current bike (which I've just sold) had a datatool tracker on it. It gave piece of mind in that I'd get a text alert if it detected movement.

I'm going to fit one to my new bike too. It's a pita to pay a subscription though.

That spy 5000m looks interesting, not heard of it before!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom