Honda CBR125R

I have been riding my CBR 125R for over a year now and its been excellent. I wanted a learner legal bike that was reliable, economical and fun and this bike ticks them all.

The bike looks excellent for a 125, real sports bike look with the fairing. For a 125 it’s nippy so its performance backs up the looks! The engine has been fantastic, no problems even with starting and running in winter it has been flawless. Mine is a 2005 model, so had its first MOT recently and it passed no problem with no advisories.

The handling is excellent, with the right tyres it will cope with any cornering you throw at it. Its not the fastest bike on the road obviously, but it will keep pace or beat the average car all the way up to 60 whilst still easily doing more than 50mpg even when thrashing it! Tank can hold about 5 litres of petrol and with some frugal riding you can get more than 200 miles out of it, which is amazing.

Downsides that keep it from getting 5 stars are the grommits that fix the fairing to the engine are really cheap and break easily, leaving the fairing a bit loose. In addition to this the exhaust pipe work is quite susceptible to rusting so keep it washed! The bike is quite small, so tall riders might feel a little exposed on it. I am nearly 6ft and it fits me just fine but taller people may have problems.

Overall an excellent learner bike for people who want a bit more pep from their first bike.