Get as many miles as you can under your belt before you come over to Ireland. Lots of the WWA are narrow twisty roads where it will not be uncommon to meet drivers partially or fully on your side of the road so the more experience you get the better. I would even suggest you INVEST in some further training, its the best form of insurance you can buy.
And I'd recommend travelling though Rosslare instead of Dublin, unless you really want to see Dublin.

__________________
The electric monk always has faith.

Holy Crow, could that little 125 even get out of its own way with all that baggage piled up on it?

As much as I respect your opinion and your experience with your own 125, I sincerely believe that Sid would be better off with a 250.

It's possible to twist the throttle less aggressively on a 250 and it will behave exactly like a 125. It's not possible to twist the throttle on a 125 twice as hard and have it behave like a 250.

I think the gross weight difference and physical size difference between the average 125 and average 250 is negligible.

Michael

Got to say the whole 125 thing bemuses me. We are all wired differently and I respect everyone’s choices.

Genuine question for the 125 advocates - did you find you just never needed more so have only ridden 125s all your lives, or have you come back to 125s having got bigger bikes out your system and see 125 as sort of niche hobby/nice way to swim against the tide? How many of you only have a 125?

In terms of advice to the OP, let’s be honest, a 250 for most people is still a small modestly powered bike. Having test ridden the CRF250 Rally recently (OP - why not test ride one, lots of demonstrators around and a good option to explore) I can report that its attempts to rip my arms off with its overwhelming power was not such that i needed to resort to the physio

I have travelled extensively on a BMW 800 and with the glories of hindsight would have used something smaller for most of these trips, a bike in the 250-500cc range. After a couple of long tours by bicycle I tried a 125 for a trip to the Caucasus region and found it an excellent choice as with the bicycle it made me look for smaller roads and a generally slower pace which I think made for a nicer trip.
I have since travelled extensively in Pakistan, India and Nepal on a 150cc, some of the time with a passenger and would not want anything bigger there but have also made a couple of tours in North America on the BMW where the 125 would have been too slow.
In conclusion I would say for me it depends on where you are headed and from my limited experience of the country a 125cc bike will be fine in Ireland as it would be in many parts of the world.

I won’t give advice on bike size but I have been going over to Ireland, from the UK, on motorcycles since the mid 1980s.
The majority of roads on the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) are small and the views/photo stops are aplenty - a decent road cyclist would be nearly as quick as a slow 1200gs rider
In the early days I camped but it is wet so I don’t bother now. Having said that, camping has improved greatly over the last 10 years with lots of well run sites.
The Irish are well used to wet tourists and deal with them extremely well - but take good wet weather gear.
It’s a great place to tour alone as you’ll never be lonely. Just walk into any pub, restaurant or shop and people will talk to you. In the evening you’ll never be far from a pub with live music.
In my experience June and September are the driest months. Last year I went in August and again in September - September was lovely, August sunshine and showers.
If you like everything planned and booked before you go then that’s fine but even in August you won’t have to book - 2 places an exception, Killarney and Doolin - both worth going to - otherwise everyone knows everyone and someone will find you a bed, especially if you’re on your own. Even with 2 we never book.
We paid €30-70 a night for 2 last August - once you know roughly where you’ll be that evening look on air b&b and booking.com or just walk into a pub and ask
Food and drink are London prices in the tourist spots, a little cheaper elsewhere but the portions are big and the quality is generally excellent.
Seafood chowder and a pint of Guinness overlooking the Atlantic
PS. Once you’re on it, the WAW is well signposted.

Chill out folks. The point is made: Some of you can't cope with the idea of small bikes. So Ed March and Nathan Milward (to name but 2) had a miserable time travelling across the globe on their tiny underpowered Hondas?


Some people travel on bicycles, with no engine at all. Imagine?!

Think you are maybe missing the point. Suspect those of us advising ‘go a bit bigger’ have no issues with 125 bikes at all. I have cycle toured too and also ridden for a few days with a pal touring on a 125 in Uganda. I also rode a 50cc and then 100cc bike for 15 months at the start of my biking life as a learner. I get/respect the active ‘i prefer to travel more slowly’ thing.

But the aim of this thread is the help a newbie to think about which bike to buy (as a student I am assuming it will be his only bike). From the advice to date i think we could conclude that a 125 would be just fine for the west of ireland minor roads as traffic speeds are very low, but not so appropriate for the road to Fishguard to get the ferry.

If he is buying the bike for this trip only, happy days. If he is buying a first bike after passing his test that he wants to use more widely and this is just his first trip, something a bit bigger would give him more of an all rounder, with little downside.

In the long distance trials i ride a trend has developed to ride Honda C90s. If looks a laugh and i respect people who travel their own path. But it is still not what i would recommend as a first trail bike. I am sure it is not their first trail bike either, or their only bike I suspect.

Nathan Millward did his RTW with a 105cc bike. Good on him. No one is suggesting a 125cc would not work, just whether it is right as a first post-test do it all bike for the OP. As i understand it, Nathan currently rides a 401cc Royal Enfield.

Good post

Not at all. Swimming against any sort of tide as some kind of protest isn't something I can be bothered with. So I'm not going to be ranting on about how all of you riding anything bigger than a 125 are ruining the planet and you should be wearing sackcloth and ashes, just like Greta. When I take the 125 it's out of choice governed by what I want out of a trip - and yes, there are times when less of everything is just perfect. Less speed but also less weight, less 'presence' (sometimes good, sometimes bad), less 'effort' and a whole load of other 'lesses' - and 'mores' that I can't be bothered to list. In short though riding the 125 is more 'interesting' than riding something bigger. And that conclusion comes from directly comparing it with my other available bikes:


These are also in the garage at the moment -















Plus four or five others from 250 to 800cc that I can't find pictures of.

I think Nathan has just brought himself a Guzzi V85TT , but he still has a “fleet” of the old 105cc postie bikes he does trips on

I have been touring on a Honda CB125. It is possible but on longer trips with the bike loaded with luggage you don't have any extra horsepower left.
I know that you don't plan to ride motorways but if you do ride on a motorway someday, it feels very unsafe because you can not keep up with the other traffic.
A 250 cc bike is very easy to ride too, and it rides much safer on motorways. In my opinion, it will be easier to ride a 250 cc bike loaded with luggage then riding a 125 cc bike with the same load.

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a BMW R1200GS

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Hi Mossproof:

No, it's not that at all. What we have here is a person new to motorcycles, and new to motorcycle touring, asking for opinions about both his choice of motorcycle to purchase and the viability of doing a tour around Ireland.

Certainly, the tour could be accomplished on a 125cc bike, same as it could be accomplished on a bicycle or on a Gold Wing.

Those of us who are advocating that the original poster consider getting a 250cc bike are not making that recommendation based solely on his plans for this particular Ireland trip. In my case, I'm concerned that this new motorcycle rider might find that after doing the trip, he will find that he has "outgrown" the 125, and wants something with a little bit more get up and go. If that comes to pass, then it's going to cost him a whole whack of money and time and trouble to sell the 125 he just bought and get a larger bike.

Hence, I think it would be in his all-around best interest to purchase a 250 cc bike as his first bike.

Another concern I have is that the 125 cc class of bikes are primarily city bikes. I've been riding Honda PanEuropeans for 20 years, and I would feel competent (though perhaps not happy) to ride a 125 cc bike around Ireland - but I'm not so sure that a new rider on his very first bike would be well-served by using such a small bike for a long tour.

Michael

No, some of you are making the same point over and over again, which is not only boring, but suggests a certain "singlemindedness". Make the point and move on.



I'm in a foul mood, which is the only reason I've even bothered to comment further. I'm not suggesting the OP might want a bigger bike, or not. Merely that it can be done on a 125 so don't sweat it. Buy a 125. Don't like it, buy a 250. Don't like it, buy a Pan European.

PS

Mr Milward has numerous bikes, as has been pointed out, but he had a blast on his little Postie which was my point.


Very rarely do I have a Tremens moment on this forum, but Jeeze...

My advice is following (Take it if you want to. Leave the rest)

Do not make a huge trip the first thing you do.
1. Start with riding the bike without luggage until you feel it natural
2. Put on luggage. Ride and learn the difference.
3. Make a weekend trip. 2 Knights. Sleep in the same place. On day riding to that place. Next day. Leave all the luggage in the room. Drive around. Day 3: Load up and drive home again.
4. Make a one week trip. So you get some use of "living on the road". Learn what to bring and not.

And about luggage, food and accommodation.
Good riding gear is a must. Rest can be compensated with a credit card with good balance. Sleeping in hotels. Eating and drinking in the hotel's restaurant. Does not require luggage. And you where not camper.
And if you are travelling i Ireland, you can buy things that you realize that you need but did not bring.

=
Many of us started with bad riding gear, cheap tent, cheap sleeping bag and thin foam as madras. Using a Trangia to prepare food. But when we get old and the bodies are not so strong any more, several of us has gone to Airbnb and restaurants
=

When I was 13-14 I used to cycle all over the UK using Youth Hostels and had a dream of cycling solo to the alps in the school holidays. I mentioned it to a few people and nobody said, "Well why not do it," so I didn't. I've always regretted it.

You'll do just fine in Ireland with a 125cc. Google for 'Independent Hostels' to find less expensive type accommodation.

Please let us know how you get on. I've been to many exotic places but never Ireland!!

__________________
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)