So today while I waited for a chain/sprocket to be fitted on my little brother's 250 hornet, the kind fellows at Botany Honda let me take their CBR125 out for a spin despite me telling them I had no intention of buying it, but did want to have a blat due to the volume of new riders in the uni club asking about good learner bikes, so here's my review:
She's a 125cc fuel injected single, watercooled with 6 speed gearbox all up weighing about 130KG. Fully faired, single discs front and rear, standard suspension.
Basically it's a new FXR150 with smaller bore, injectors and another 10 kilo's. Having ridden the FXR quite a bit in the past and present, I'll largely compare the CBR150 to the FXR150. Honestly, arguing/comparing these to a 250 is just silly. For the record i'm a pretty skinny guy, about 60kg, around 6ft tall, riding since I was 12.
Initial impressions: farking light and nimble, not too bad for $5k even though they had a VTR250 going for the same price, comfortable, low power; perfect for a learner but no good for open road.
Set off out the door and onto the road. Damn light bike. Narrow seat but nowhere near as painful as the FXR seat. Brakes work well, 35km old stock tyres have plenty of grip. Horn sufficient to wake up driver who hasn't seen the lights change. The engine is smooth, dead quiet and the engine brake isn't anywhere near as ball-crushing as the FXR. Of course the first thing I do is weave around like a drunk and DAMN this is a light bike; it may weigh slightly more than an fxr but it's noticeably more nimble.
Went down the road initially to get some lunch, but soon ran into some mates. As at that stage I was officially "between bikes", I told them it was my new one. Either way they all thought it was a pretty cool looking number in black, and we found it "interesting" that one light did low beam, one did high, and only one was working at any given moment. I never found a pass light button, but never needed to look for it....
We then decided to go for a quick ride around Point View Drive and back around via suburbs to botany. Starting with the steep hill climb I lost speed pretty quickly to the point where I dropped well below 50kph before nearing the top. Once making the crest came the speed test and, well, despite the dealer telling me it's get some power above 9 grand, it redlines a bit past 11 without doing anything too stunning. Thanks to the fuel injection I didn't really notice a band, just a gradual increase in power.
Long story short; I never exceeded 92kph, even down a hill. There simply wasn't enough clear road to safely do it. While I'm sure this could do motorway speeds, it will take some time to get there and you'll be in trouble if it's an uphill onramp. Definitely less power than an FXR150.
At speed the cornering was fine, very responsive etc etc and ride was surprisingly smooth for such a light bike on a rough surface.
Had one hell of a fright to come around a right hand bend to meet a black car bang in the middle of the road and immediately behind it a silver one peeling off into a driveway (indicating, but obviously didn't even bother to look before entering oncoming traffic), effectively blocking the whole fucking road. Many words uttered into my helmet, brief consideration to turn around and ask exactly what the fuck they thought they were doing, but I digress.
Now back into the suburbs and this bike went back to what it was built to do. Being so narrow it could split through the narrowest of gaps, the mirrors were good and didn't just give views of my elbows, and at the lights it still had enough juice to get clear of cars, but I did have one worry when changing up into 6th it hit neutral while cruising through a nice left hander at approx 50kph....
Took her back to the dealer, thanked him and told him about the gear missing. Considering I'd just upped the bike from 35km to only 45(ish)km, perhaps there's a problem in there somewhere from a previous test pilot, or a genuine fault, or poor design as I while was pretty light on the stick it shouldn't be able to get lost like that. At least there wasn't a crunch when I got her into 6th.
Conclusion:
This is a very capable learner bike. More comfortable than an fxr, good "neutral" seating position, light, nimble, smooth power, no sharp edges and even has a fuel guage. It would make an excellent commuter, basically just a nicer, if a bit underpowered, version of the FXR150. But, of course, like the fxr this wouldn't be any good for high speed riding. I have taken the fxr150 on a few rides and it can do it, but the CBR150 just seems to have too little power in too short a rev range.
So if you've got $5k to spend on your first bike and want something reliable to pootle around on to get to school, the fuel injected CBR125 is a good way to go. If you want to hit the motorway, it will do it but isn't going to be great, and the FXR will do better but is much worse for comfort and mirrors. If you weigh more than 80kg you should be looking elsewhere.
Will I recommend it? Yes, to those who it would suit, who may as well go and buy a scooter but good on them for getting something with handling and brakes.
Otherwise I still firmly believe (in most cases) the VTR250 to be the best learner bike out there, followed by the classics like the GPX250 and then the heavyweight GSX250.
Learner bikes I'd still like to ride:
new ninja
honda jade
hyosung 250 - been up/down a driveway and wasn't impressed
GN125
honda cbf
yamaha zeal
Originally Posted by Squiggles: GN650 owner
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