Honda CG125 Review

Overall Rating

Cheap To Run
Bulletproof Realiability
Can hold its own on town and country roads
Easy to ride and control, the perfect first test to learn and test your test on.

Lacks the top end on dual carriageways, which you need to stay out of trouble.
Not for posers, or speed demons.
Basic with no fairings etc(not a BAD point to me, but it could be for some people)

The Honda Cg is my first bike, I own a Magna Red 2002 Honda CG which was the 1st version with the Electric Start(alongside the kickstart).

Its a great little bike, with unbelievable fuel economy, I do a 5-6 day a week at work(14 mile round trip) on about 5 quid worth of fuel, and more recently I filled up with £6.50's worth of fuel and travelled on a 137 mile trip from Herefordshire to Stratford Upon Avon and did a further 20 miles after that, this was 157 miles on £6.50 worth of fuel, and the tank was not even empty when I decided to fill up.

The bike will get to speeds of 60mph on the flat open road, but starts to drop going up hills to about 50mph, or if its a real steep hill down to about 40-45mph, I find it will merrily go at speeds of 55-60mph all day on the A roads etc, the term "bullet-proof" is thrown about a lot when you hear people talk about the CG125, but in this case I believe it to be true, the bike is tough as nails and will go and go, I rode the bike though the most horrendous conditions last winter, rain, fog, ice, snow, you name it I rode though it and the trusty old CG started every time and never let me down (ok sometimes I needed to use the choke, on the coldest of the icy days, but the bike had been left outside work for 12 hours, so cut her some slack)


Top end (as I know this is important to some) the fastest I have ever done on the bike is a clocked 71mph, on a strong wind down a hill, on the flat on a long straight I clocked 67mph after a long time, mind you I'm 14 odd stone and a lighter person could probably get a few more mph out of it.

The bad points about the bike I hear you ask?, well as a basic commuter bike you cannot fault it, its cheap to maintain, cheap on fuel, and will go on forever provided you do the basics like oil checks and looking after the chain etc, one gripe would be the top end on busy dual carriageways, the usual top end of 60-62 mph is not enough to over take things like lorries a lot of the time and you often find yourself stuck being such vehicles, because the bike lacks that overtaking power, if the bike could do say 70mph when you needed it to get out of trouble, it would be near enough a perfect bike.

In closing as a town and "country road" bike it's the perfect commuter bike, but on Dual Carriageways in my honest opinion it needs an extra bit of speed to keep you safe on them, its not for posers or speed freaks, but for no nonsense "bullet-proof" reliability and cheapness to run, it cannot be topped.

Hope You enjoyed Reading this review about the Honda Cg125

DaveP

Members' Comments onbiker4ever's Review

• bmw e30 on 12th Jun 2008

  I found this review helpful because...
  It was brilliantly straight forward and honest. Gives details on speeds and what it is capable of and is generally a really good all round review!
  I own a Honda Fireblade RR-S and am selling it to downgrade to something cheap to run like the Honda CG125. Most my travelling is early 5.30am mornings and 4pm afternoons along 30 and 40mph roads, my bike is now kept outside on my drive and the 'Blade is just hugely expensive to run at 36mpg, £200 for a rear tyre, £150 for a front that lasts around 2-2,500 miles. The CG is a blessing if I do get one. So thanks for a helpful review! Its nearly made up my mind on getting one. And I looked at a red W-reg one today at the bike shop and can confirm its not for posers or anyone worried about being seen on lesser vehicles! But look beyond the simple workings and i can see a lovely little bike there!