Derbi GPR 125 Review

Overall Rating

Great mature looks, very quick, good handling.

Mirrors are useless, gear and rear brake pedals are too high, needs a lot of choke when cold.

The first thing you think of when you see the Derbi GPR125, is the look of it. It looks a lot bigger than it should do for a 125, I nearly walked past it in the show room thinking it was a Triumph Daytona! I think the overall length, seat height and width is a few cm bigger than the RS for example. The kind of style of the fairings is strinking, modern and very sexy, that gives it a bigger bike look, (from a distance!) Of course when you get up close you see that the bike is not bulging from the fairings, like a Suzuki Hayabusa. The size of the tryes, the size of the exhuast and a few other smaller components show the real size of the bike. The next thing you notice about it is when you sit on it. My last bike was a Derbi Senda 50 2 years ago, which is totally different. Ive never been on any other race bike, but it does feel very low on the handle bars, wrist ache please!!! Also the gear and rear brake pedals are too high, it is especially hard to change down a gear with your toe, without taking your entire foot off the foot rest. But to be honest I think a lot of the supersports can be like that, and it can be adjusted reasonably easyily. Simply by taking off that side fairing, using an allen (hex) key to undo part of the rod that connects the lever to the small crank that goes inside the gearbox. It can be removed and placed back in a slightly different position meaning that the pedal has moved down. The rear brake pedal cannot be adjusted. I have yet to contact my dealer to see if there are any other variants that you can buy. The mirrors dont work! They dont move up enough to see anything other than the number plate of the car that is 3 feet away from you ! And even if they could move enough, your elbows are in the way! A quick body shift to the left and a glance in the right mirror, you can see enough of the road behind to know whats going on. But as long as your a keen believer in the right shoulder look before you change lane or something, you'll be fine anyway. The seat is also quite hard.., actually, sometimes crunchingly hard when braking! Apart from that, its so far a great race 125 bike. (Ive only had it 2 days!) Very pleased with the move from a crosser to a sports bike, cant wait to go to a few bike meets in lincolnshire, and also cant wait to get it de-restricted. At the present im still running it in. Currently about 95 miles on the clock. Ive had it up to 55, in 6th, at 6000rpm (10,000bhp max before the red, 13,000bhp in total) at 14bhp. by replacing the fuse to 15amp, it goes up to 22bhp, witch is an increase in power of more than 50%, plus then you have to replace the rear sprocket to go with the increased power, which will make you go even more faster, then you can change the exhaust that will apparently increase the power by another 30%, and then, you can rag the tits off it to 10,000revs in every one of its 6 gears after it first service at 650 miles! I dont think im gonna have any trouble getting it up to at least 90, maybe more, but dont get your hopes up at more, because its not as fast as the RS125, but who needs an extra 5-10mph at the cost of destroying your bike!

Anyway, sorry for rambling, was never any good at writing essays! But if your into the 125 scene, and want supersports styling for the younger generation, i think this is the bike to go for. It will get you used to having your head down in a sports positon, and the speed of a bigger bike, not to mention all your mates will want to be you, coz it looks the nuts!

Have fun...