written by Desiree81 on 07/05/2018
I see the are one or two updates on bikes further into ownership, so I thought I'd chip in. I own a carb version of a 2006 Innova which is is fairly reasonable nick and 13,000 miles covered.
Having ridden bigger bikes over the years, wasn't sure how I'd fare on a smaller bike. Yes, the tank range can be limiting (80 miles) but I've been keeping a litre of fuel under the seat. I have had to use it. The little fuel guage started flashing on the last bar, so thought I'd better use it as I still had 15 miles to get home.
You've probably read this many times, but for a small air cooled engine with only 0.7 litre oil capacity, I have regularly changed the oil. 1,000/1,500 mile between oil changes. Very easy to do yourself. The other thing is if riding at night, the headlight is a bit weak. It's no sports bike, so speeds are not where you desperate for search light performance, but it is just adequate at best.
Couple of slightly negative points but if you're on a 40/50 mph road, the little thing keeps up well with traffic and seems to sit fine at 55. I've seen some say they've had 65/70 mph, but that would only be as a last resort I'd suggest. 4 speed semi automatic at the end of the day, but I do prefer have the choice of gears although I am not sure how it would stack up against twist & go.
The under seat storage I do not use for a helmet but is good for litre of fuel, fold up bag, tyre goop and cloth etc. The bike has prove extremely reliable, never let me down, cheap to run and been fun. I was talking to the guy at MOT station and he said some of the bigger stuff like a Blackbird, ZZR etc has been hanging around lately but these little things have been selling well. I loved riding the 1,000's around Europe but when you get to a point you just start using a bike infrequently like myself, this little thing has been great.
Great little thing for what it is.
As rated by our community of reviewers
Qpr26's Comment
Written on: 10/11/2019
Great review. Really refreshing to see a review giving a realistic MPG indication. I’ve seen reviews giving 100+ Miles to a tank!!?? It’s not realistic unless you’re doing 15 mph everywhere you go. I’m getting 80 miles per full tank. The older these bikes get and more mileage the lower mileage per tank you’ll get. However for £3.74p for 80 miles, it’s a complete no brainier!!!! Still a cracking bike and if you can find a decent one for under £1K certainly worth snapping it up as these hold their value well and as they are so cheap to run, reliable and fun machines they are hard to source.
J3Npp's Comment
Written on: 10/08/2021
My wife has recently inherited a 55 plate from her dad with only 1766 mile on the clock. I've just put it through an MOT and it passed with flying colours. It was left in a barn and still has a TAX disc running out in Aug 2013. We're going to use it for a cheap little run around :-)