Travel with a 125 cc bike

Hello Amir,

So many have taken very long rides on 50cc and up. I prefer a 200 to 225 for my fat ass but to each his own.
Only safety issue is having enough power to get out of the way and I have rode very small bikes on major freeways in Cal.In work traffic that Zumo would be OK but when everyone is doing 70, very SCARY. Balls like a bull moose. Best thing about small bike is when I am on one, time must not be a big factor, that is the whole idea, to go slow and enjoy. Now you can go just as slow on big bike but it is different, as most, including me, when you get tired or bored instead of getting off the beaten path just speed up to get going. It is great to get 70 to 85 mpg also. I painted over the 125 on a Honda to say 175 so I could ride to the Colorado River. Just kept riding on freeways.
SoCal to Eugene Oregon on 1967 Honda s90, was 15 yrs old. No license yet. 1968
SoCal to 4 corners of US 13,548 miles on 1967 Yamaha 350. 17 yrs old 1970
SoCal to Yellowstone Park on a 1965 trail 90 Honda. $3.08 in gas 19 yrs old 1972
SoCal to Seattle on 1972 250 Yamaha in 1974
SoCal to Eagle Idaho on 2007 xt225, 2500 miles 2010
Eagle Idaho to Yellowstone and Tetons on 1991 TW200 1800 miles 2011
SoCal to Eagle Idaho 2009 dr650
Have had many BMWs inc 2 r100GSPD, R100GS, 1150GS, 2007 f650gs Dakar. and about 15 other BMWs, mostly weekends and commuting to work.
These are very small trips compared to thousands who ride small bikes all over the GLOBE!!
Small bikes are great, get one and travel light.

Heirhead

it would be a dream to get my ZX7 overseas and tour england... :)

You are very lucky if you live in a place where you can tour on a small bike. If it were like that here, I would still have my '06 Kawasaki Eliminator 125, by far the most comfortable small bike I have ever owned, much more so than the cramped Rebel 250. I have an XT225, but it is set up more for off road riding. (in AZ, USA, riding anywhere but private property or a state OHV park requires a street legal bike) I am seriously considering trading my Zuma 125 for a DR200 or a TW200. I don't want to ride on freeways, but sometimes you have no choice. I have much larger bikes, and have ridden all over the country on freeways, and have gotten bored with it. I now want to slow down and explore the back roads, but they are often connected by sections of freeway, called "restricted access" roadways, because you have to have a certain size vehicle to drive on them. And a 200cc dual sport would also have some off road and dirt road capability, so I could explore a few trails along the way, and get back off the road to camp.

If backroads means pavement you might want to look at the 2011+ CBR250R of CFR250L. Brilliant bikes IMO, or if you want to spend less money a ninja 250.

I own a 2007 Kawasaki ZZ-R 250 (EX250-H) ... which is essentially a European/Asian spec Ninja 250 that was sold in Canada and only has the engine in common with the U.S. spec EX250-F ... it is a very capable little Bike and was in fact marketed here as a "mini Sport Tourer" ... '07 was the last year for this model before the introduction of the '08 Next-Gen Ninja 250R, so that makes her kinda cool too!

IMHO Iranian, if you are looking for a lite Bike to tour Europe on, then a Ninja 250 would be just the ticket!

Since your in Europe consider Some of the 125 to 250 cc maxi scooters they make over there . Most of them will do between 100 to 130 K flat out which could get you around on the older byways . There s loads of people whom have taken the old honda CT110 outfitted it and going form London to India. It's all about how much time to you want to take. How fast do you want to go? Most 125 to 250 cc bikes and scooters get 70 to 90 MPG. The old honda cb125 got 100 mpg . here a good place to start to look at what is what over there . The honda c90 isnot fast but can and has been out fit to tour with a second gas tank, rear racks etc . http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ Suzuki GN125

Honda CG125


Honda C90

Honda PCX125

Yamaha XMAX 250

Amigo I am Mexican and live in Mexico so here is what I lived with a 125

In 2004 I bought my first bike a 125 cc honda bros, and it was for learning to ride, but I just had too much love and fun with it so I keep it for 10,000 km until some one crash into me. I live in Baja so I did a couple of dirt single track days (very slow since I was new to bikes and dirt) some hwy in Mexico in both the toll and free road (two lane and much slower road) I went to school (I am a teacher) and even went to the USA on it and did 2 miles of interstate (I-5) and was scare to death! so I went back to city streets.

The good,
70-75 mpg or like 32 km/liter
light weigh
simple maintenance
cruising speed 90-100 km/hr top speed 115 km/hr
seat height was around 30" so for a beginner was great.
some good tires available (19 front and 17 rear)
range on the 3.2 gallon tank close to 200 miles
carb (for better or worse)

The bad
light and could get blow away on hwys
speed was not enough for the US (ok for Mexico)
if had a 35 watt headlight that I never change...

It was capable of carrying a lot of stuff since it had a way of tieing stuff to the back so you could easily have your camping gear plus some stuff and the gas tank was metal so a magnetic tank bag was optional

Would I buy a 125 cc again? YES! for touring? Only for Latin America given my time frames. for the US I would buy the 150 cc version of the same bike...or the 250 just to be safer.

If I was in Europe I would go 125 cc all the way, I remember the expensive cost from there (I lived in Czech Rep. back in 1995)

My 2 cents

Damasovi