Hi All,
As some of you know, I’ve been looking at getting my first bike and yesterday I moved from internet / magazine research to actually getting out to a few bike shops (went to Bat Motorcycles and Greyhound & Maverick in Croydon).
Firstly, despite having had thoughts about DAS and big bikes, yesterday I found out that ain’t gonna happen straight away - I need to get me used to the weight of a 125 first! That might sound strange to those of you riding bigger bikes, but as a true novice, a 125 is still a heavy machine if you ain’t used to it!
The second thing was that all of my internet research had led me towards either a CG125 or an XR125.
When I actually sat on the CG, I didn’t like it in the slightest! I found the bars were too narrow and slightly too low for me, making me feel top heavy on the bike. Naturally, this is a very personal thing - I’m not slagging off the excellent CG, just saying it ain’t right for me.
I also looked at the CBR125, but it felt like a toy rather than a bike… I think that’s because I associate that style of bike with a chunky machine and in reality, the 125 version is quite dinky
I quite liked something similar - the Suzuki GX125, but the most important thing I found out was that I’m much more comfortable sitting on a supermoto-stylee trail bike - sat on the XR125, DT125 and DR125 - I loved the riding height and position, so I’ll be investigating them further.
So, the point of my post? Well, just to illustrate that you can find out as much as you like about fuel economy, top speed, cost, etc… from the web and from magazine, but if it don’t feel right when you’re on it, none of that matters
Cheers,
Steve