{"id":77,"date":"2023-07-09T17:13:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T17:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/domkabas.com\/?p=77"},"modified":"2023-07-13T10:13:04","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T10:13:04","slug":"i-test-drove-five-different-125cc-motorcycles-and-bought-one-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/domkabas.com\/?p=77","title":{"rendered":"I test drove five different 125cc motorcycles and bought one of them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mutt Hilts 125 cc motorcycle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The time has come for me to add two wheel motoring option to my garage. I\u2019ve been going in circles discussing with myself the idea of entering into motorcycling back and forth well for over ten years. For the record, I did own a motorcycle for a brief moment of time, the beautiful Triumph America, however was too scared to start driving and talked myself out of that journey into something more crazy however with four wheel stability. Lotus is now gone and so is my failed attempt to persuade myself that it was a substitute. I still like cars and probably always will, but they\u2019re simply less engaging and the ones which are, end up being less usable. So the void had to be filled and considering myself to now be quite a mature person, I decided to go for it. Admittedly being at the start line two of us with my close friend did help with the encouragement part too. Decided to start off with the small capacity 125 cc as commuting was my main goal, plus its light, not too powerful to kill an amateur, relatively cheap test of motorcycling experience and doesn\u2019t require full motorcycle driver\u2019s license which I yet do not have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I test drove 5 bikes, all in the price range of 3500-5000 EUR new with 2 year manufacturer\u2019s warranty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yamaha XSR125 and MT-125<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two 125 cc Yamahas. MT-125 on the left and XSR125 on the righ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Had the privilege to test drive them back to back and God knows how different they are. XSR is a bit sporty and modern take on the heritage style whereas MT being more of the street bike feels like a hooligan in comparison, inspires to turn sharper, accelerate harder. Engine differences are only mapping related, but very noticeable. Seating position was comfortable on both, not too aggressive on MT. Both liquid cooled 15 AG (max permitted power for the license), nice looking and well-built Japanese bikes from an established manufacturer. Has ABS as a safety feature, LEDs, nice dash. It comes as a no surprise that these Yamahas score in top places in many bike comparison reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yamaha XSR125 side view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mutt Razorback and Akita<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mutt Akita 125 cc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before I began my search for a bike, I hadn\u2018t heard of Mutt. Apparently they are an established motorcycle customizing industry player in Britain who decided to bring something cool at more accessible end of the market. Hence they found a bullet proof platform based around Suzuki GN single cylinder air cooled engine and dressed it up in various stylistic capsules to form their model range. Majority of models indeed only differ in styling details with the only exception being Razorback which is taller and more aggressive looking. Overall, nice looking China made classic style bike built on twenty years old (time tested) technology with no modern features. Stock exhaust surprisingly sounds good too. Easy to ride with vertical seating position, full size but still a light bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mutt Akita’s vertical seating position with me being 185 cm on it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Husqvarna Svartpilen 125 cc<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Husqvarna Svartpilen 125 cc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looks wise this is something different and comes from a different galaxy in space. Some call it punk, some hipster, whichever association you put, it\u2019s open frame design looks interesting and captivating. When looking at some features it\u2019s hard to differentiate style from function, its designed to blend so seamlessly well. Perhaps sits somewhere in the street scrambler category, to me felt like a street bike when driving. Build quality is also noticeably good. Exhaust note sounded boring, however bike is up there with all the modern technology available in this class \u2013 liquid cooled engine, ABS, TFT display, LED lights. However, the immediate verdict was I just didn\u2019t like it, didn\u2019t click on me and couldn\u2019t rationalize why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a couple of other 125 cc bikes on the marked which didn\u2019t receive more of my attention for various reasons. There\u2019s a street bike looking 125 cc option from Kawasaki, which looks way too plasticky to my liking. Another one which potentially could have been very interesting is from Chinese manufacturer Keeway. RK V125C has a V-twin motor \u2013 the only two cylinder motor I was able to find at this capacity. Last bike I know which had 125 cc V-twin motor configuration was Suzuki Intruder and its production seized like 15 years ago. It\u2019s a cruiser styled bike and to me it\u2019s just pretentious \u2013 cruisers and bobbers are all about low end torque which, sorry, but 125 cc simply can\u2019t produce. Same story is with RS125 from Italian manufacturer Aprilia, sports bike it just isn\u2019t. Out of all manufacturers today, Honda probably has the widest choice of models in 125 cc category, but Monkey and Grom are not full size motorcycles. Super Cub is iconic and was in the list of my favorites (one can ride it with shoes, no need for motorcycle boots), but the dealer didn\u2019t have it in stock. There are options of CB125R or CB125F, both of which looks I found to be characterless. Fantic Caballero Scrambler may come across as the left field choice, and to my eyes this may be simply the most beautiful 125 cc motorbike out there. It is way more expensive and honestly wouldn\u2019t know where to get it from and where to service one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the takeaways I took for myself from this selection journey, was that there are no right or wrong choices. One simply cannot go wrong with either of these bikes. Choice could be defined as \u2018wrong\u2019 in case there was the \u2018best\u2019 125 cc motorbike out there and one ended up getting anything but the one. Thankfully this is not the case as they will all do the job and hence serve the purpose. Being 125 cc capacity bike they will all have noticeable performance compromises even at city speeds. So getting the bike you like<\/em> will greatly improve your emotional tolerance levels of those compromises. If you succeed there, the choice was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought Mutt Hilts 125 cc. It\u2019s obviously not the best motorcycle out there as liquid cooled bikes are objectively better than air cooled, manufactured is Europe is probably better than manufactured in China and anything with over 11 horsepower would be more powerful. Guess if I care about any of these, I simply like my bike. It\u2019s got the classic looks with those spoke wheels and chunky tires, makes decent noise and importantly is finished in matt green.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The time has come for me to add two wheel motoring option to my garage. I\u2019ve been going in circles discussing with myself the idea of entering into motorcycling back and forth well for over ten years. For the record, I did own a motorcycle for a brief moment of time, the beautiful Triumph America, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[8,27],"tags":[30,31,28,29],"yoast_head":"\nI test drove five different 125cc motorcycles and bought one of them - domkabas.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/domkabas.com\/?p=77\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I test drove five different 125cc motorcycles and bought one of them - domkabas.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The time has come for me to add two wheel motoring option to my garage. 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