30K... AND STILL GOING AT IT (Honda CG125)

Member Name: stefangelo

Product:	Honda CG125
Date:	26/04/02 (3744 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, economical, reliable most of the time

Disadvantages: drum brakes, no electrical start, soft stand

Courier despatching for a year on a J reg CG 125. When I bought it I paid £360 with 9900 miles on board. It has 30000 on board now. Unless you have accidents, it is pretty cheap to run.
Continental tyre: £30 fitted (Essential Rubber, Downham Road, London N1)
Pirelli tyre: £30 fitted
Chain & sprockets: £35 fitted(Essential Rubber)
Brake shoes: £15 fitted
115miles per gallon. Fit a fuel filter (2.50pounds) on the conduit from the tank to the carburetor and change it every 5000 miles. It will save you having to clean the carburetor too often.
70 miles per hour on a traffic-less road. Expect to burn a bit of oil at high speed on long distances.
40-45-50 miles per hour in town
cheap oil: £5/5l at Sainsbury's
No tuning really.
No balancing for the wheels
£15 road tax for a year
Cheap insurance. If you get yourself a bike at let's say 500 pounds, you can get insurance third party only and if anything happens, you are still better off rather than getting even TPFT, not to mention Fully COMP.
Drum brakes are not very reliable when worn out and at very high speed. They also get sticky by wearing. When that happens you are better off selling the wheels and getting new ones.
Good up-right riding position. I'm riding more than 12 hours a day and I'm still alive, so... It's good for your wrists, handling and... just in case of accidents, your injuries will be reduced.
The electrical system is not very briliant. If you ride all day long with the lights on, the battery will eventually go flat.
There is no electric start on many models. The kickstart pedal bends or simply snaps in time.
For spares, the garages will try to rip you off, so the best bet is to shop around, go to the scrapers and dismantlers, buy the parts and do it yourself.
The security is not up to scratch. The steering lock will damage your handlebars if it is forced or will simply bend itself, in which case you will have t

o give up using it.
Funny or not, even a battered old bike like mine can be taken for a joyride, so use as many locks, padlocks and alarms when living it unattended.
Otherwise very good bike. Best in town.
Surely YOU have to decide if you want the perfectly reliable bike that will be expensive to buy, insure, tempting to steal, etc. or the battered old-fashioned, cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to insure ... you guessed ... even fun to ride... Honda CG 125.
Since last time editing my opinion, I had an accident, broke my knee and 've been forced to sell the motorbike. The insurance also coughed up. In total 800 pounds. Much better than the 360 that I've bought it for, innit?

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