125cc Touring
 

Hello from forces Germany . I am noticing more and more people taking interest in touring 125s. I have had many bikes over the years but my favorite has to be my cbf 125. i have toured on this bike for for two years whilst back home in Scotland whilst on leave. I got a very good deal for £500 due to cosmetic damage and with a cbt costing £90 its definitely not the most expensive sport to get into. I have created a face book page for like minded Learner Legal Adventurer Touring enthusiasts . So feel free to join the page i would love to have a place to plan trips and meet people.
Paul.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Learn...26481124082037

:scooter:

Excellent idea. Liked your FB page. :D

Great it would be great to have more publicity for the concept and maybe one day an small bore adventure touring meet somewhere nice
:Beach:

CBT Is only valdid in the UK. I've got my Full license, but I was wondering about fuel consumption.

And other issues like tax. But since I live in Germany too, I'll have to see a insurance agency about that.

the bikes will all be different iv never seen mpg like my cbf 125 i done 250 miles on a tank this might give you a better idea Honda CBF125 first ride - Telegraph
cbt is limited to the uk iv only ever toured Scotland with mine but my insurance covers me abroad for 90 days. To get a German bike license. I would have to give up my British one and take a first aid course so not worth the hassle. Also you dont need a license for a 50 cc in Germany although they are slower than the ones in the uk

That range figure just ticked a box for me :thumbup1:

What are the service intervals? Official ones different to what is actually required?

Cheers

Andy

some people claim 300 miles on the tank :)

While the CBT might be restricted to the UK alone there are a number of countries which allow you to ride up to 125cc on your full car licence. The problem comes that there is no database of which do and which don't. As far as I can see the simplest way is to try and find scooter hire companies in the country you're interested in and then to see if they will went to people with car licences only. This is pretty hit and miss though as not all operators work to their national regulations, they may instead rent according to their insurance company's policies. Or it may be that they're more interested in your money and will say yes to anything. It's one of my "never quite got there" projects to get a full database going that has accurate licencing regulations.

They'll be the same as UK scooters, they're all governed by a standardized EU policy these days. 50cc touring would be a different matter again, but there's people like Wan Lee who rode all the way round the US, and I recently found the travel blog of someone who toured France on one. Perhaps that's more akin to bicycle touring than motorbike touring though.

I'm sure we would all love to see a list of places around Europe

You need a car license to drive one 30mph. I did straight up my German license. Since you're forces, how easy is it to get a german bike BFG'ed.

bfg is a pain in tha a** but free so worth the wait

anyone ever thought of taking part in the mongol rally looks like a real challenge :funmeteryes:

I've been touring in SE Asia on a Yamaha YBR125G. Works fine even 2 up.
Gets around 400km on a tank. One up and keeping speed below 80 km/h would probably see over 450 km per tank.
Even works well offroad.

That's about right. I've tried 50cc touring twice, both times on Honda stepthroughs - A C100 solo to the Elephant rally and then two up on a C50 and that's been enough, it was just too slow. On the "two up on a C50" trip we had to get off and walk alongside it on some hills as it just ground to a halt.

I am a fully paid up member of the 125cc touring club though (with book coming out shortly to prove it :laugh:) and that's much more practical. I'm probably going to putter my way down to the Alps next month on my 70's 125 smoker Suzuki. Recently I've been alternating between the 125 and a 400/4 Honda and there's far less difference between them than you'd imagine by the time you've allowed for speed limits, other traffic etc.

The CBF does seem to be gaining a bit of a following recently and with 120mpg seemingly possible I can understand why - I only get about half that but I suppose that's old skool two strokes for you.

Go on then whats the book called? :)

Only half way through Amazon's labyrinthine publishing system with it yet but it's the story of my Elephant rally trip this year on my 70's Suzuki Bloop. I'm not rushing as I don't expect anyone to buy it but I just wanted to see how the system works for when I try to get another (nothing to do with biking) book that I wrote last year through it.

There's a 1/3 page article about the trip in this month's Classic Mechanics mag if you happen to be passing Smiths.

Just because we haven't had any pictures yet, here's my Derbi Terra Adventure on a recent trip to France.

ah erotic fiction!
i see sounds exiting (the noob googles elephant rally ). That's a real nice bike im thinking of buying one reliable ?

jeez i got as far as German winter rally kudos to you and i hope you still have all your fingers :eek3:

Just to make your bike look even better Alex, here's a picture of mine -

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps226d4f2e.jpg

I believe one of the chonda challenge boys only has a cbt , hope it is valid in mongolia . More and more people are using small capacity bikes , it does make sense , you can go further on the same amount of fuel , pick them up on your own , they are easy to take off road , smaller cost if you have to crate for shipping , you can load the little beggers onto a canoe if you have too , down side people think is speed but who wants to rush past everything surely you are out there to enjoy it . If you have less time and need to travel fast , fly, and hire a small bike which of course will be less to hire.

Now where did i put that GS1300 adv brochure ....... ( need to light fire lol)

Loch Lubnaig last year i love that place.

This is Mo

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...75199448_n.jpg

Yo mo!

Hi,

Specialy for latin american countrys the 125cc bikes are perfect, scince the local people use them and therefore all the parts are easy to find if needet.

Buying a bike ther also saves the cost of shiping another bike there so i can anyone recomend to do so:

http://reisemotorrad.eu/?report=en_suedamerika

You can add most of SE Asia and probably China to that as well. I have a Chinese built Yamaha 125 that I have taken places where I'd be real nervous on a 650+ machine.
Most mileage has been 2-uo and often loaded.

And it's physically big enough for me (at 6'2) to feel comfortable, with a rated load capacity nearly as big as most 650 - 1200 machines.

No hassling with importing parts, lack of tires in the right size, lack of maintenance expertise and so on.
I've done 400 km on a 12l tank, again 2-up and loaded, running at 80+ km/h.
The new 150cc that has replaced it should get 460 - 500 km.

It's been far more reliable and lower maintenance than my Husky 610 or R11GS were, at the same or lower mileages.

$1700 in the Philippines will get you a fairly wide choice of new 125 to 200 cc Japanese and Chinese bikes, taxed, titled, insured and with a year of free maintenance (excluding consumables) thrown in.

Here is my Honda XR125L which I nominate as the best 125 travel bike. It has the engine from the CG125 in a trailbike chassis which weighs in unladen at 110KG. It does between 110-120 MPG but I have seen better and is taking me to Central Asia, currently in Istanbul.
Yesterday a few of us went trail riding near the Black sea and it easily went places my R80GS would have been a handful, with a relaxed cruising speed of 50 MPH it is quite fast enough off of motorways and has a comfortable seat and riding position for my 5' 8" frame, a great little bike.

http://tiffanystravels.smugmug.com/O.../0/M/034-M.jpg

You seem to be making good progress, Mark. How many miles do you ride a day?

How strong is the subframe on the XR?

My YBR doesn't have the best suspension, but the twin shocks are an inch longer than the old XR125 we can find used here.
Plus they are very progressively sprung so seem to cope well with loads.
Being built off a delivery/commercial bike frame, it's pretty strong, the biggest issues for me are the forks and front wheel.

Forks are a little spindly and low travel, and the wheel is a cast 18". One positive to that is it uses the same tire front and back....

I only get around 80 MPG, but that's traveling 2-up and running with or ahead of traffic.

I never get near the 100+ MPG others quote on the various Honda cub rip offs either.

Problem here is that the XR125s are all old, the XR200 is the closest replacement.

I try not to do more than 200 but the bike is comfortable and I am sure 300 is possible.

You are possibly confusing my bike with the old XR125 with the OHC engine which is not the same bike, the XR125L only came into production in 2003. The subframe looks reasonably strong, I have fitted pannier frames from a BMW R80GS which took little modification and seems quite solid although I try not to put too much weight in them. It is still a lightweight bike but a little more sturdy than the older twin shock models.
Where is here?

I am in the Philippines at the moment.

I realized your bike is very different, here they are still producing models that are 10 years out of date like the XR200, which is really an XRL.

I have an interest in subframe and so on, as that seems to be one of the first areas to be sacrificed in pursuit of light weight.

My YBR125 has a much more robust subframe than my Husky TE610E, for example.
The YBR gets loaded with passenger, saddlebags, and a 50l bag on the rack. Sometimes it is used in the business to ferry bundles of clothing as well a passenger,, I'd guess 200 lb of stuff and 2 people on top of that. The Husky would break in half...

Further east from where I am, they build 'skylabs' from the business 125 / 150 / 175 cc bikes. Two long plank platforms on either side bolted to the frame, 2 additional shocks added out back, and a roof. I've seen 9 people and their stuff running down a dirt road on one of these...