125cc of Fury!

[Süsser Tod]

So, this little fellow fell into my hands, and I'm in charge of finding her a new home. It belongs to a friend that moved to a different country, he gave the bike to me to sell it. Story is, he is a friend of mine that wanted to ride, and I advised him to start small, I even found the bike for him... And I even went and pick it up!





It's a Suzuki EN125-2A, manufactured under license from Suzuki Motor Corporation by Jiangmen Dachangjiang Group (China). So it is in fact a Chinese Suzuki. This is one of the new wave of low displacement China made Japanese bikes that are being sold in developing countries. Currently Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki have China made bikes on their lineups.

As for the bike itself, it's a cool little thing. 12HP 125cc thumper, SOHC with 2 valves, CV carburetor, alloy wheels with tubeless tires, disk front brake with a 2 piston caliper and little details/features sometimes missing on bigger bikes, for example:

- Tachometer
- Gas gauge
- Gear position indicator
- Centerstand
- Helmet holder

As for the riding? Well, 12HP is not really going to break any speed records... In fact, you won't be able to break the speed limit on some roads! I've seen an indicated 62.5mph (100km/h) on a long and flat straight road, but I'd say that the real, usable, top speed is around 50-55mph (80-88km/h), something you can expect to achieve under most conditions. But well, that is the top speed, what about acceleration? You'll be rowing gears as if you were drag racing, just to keep up with traffic, LOL! It kinda demands a lot of attention, and the slowest cars can beat you to 50mph if they try.

The frame is fine, it's strong enough for what the little girl is meant to do. But you can see how cheaply made it is, and, this will surprise you, it's heavier than the aluminum frame of a 600cc sportbike. The forks are as thick as my thumbs, and you can see them flexing under braking, and I guess the flex on them is tuned to work as part of the suspension!

Suspension? "Fine" Damper rod forks and God knows what kind of shock absorber in the rear, the forks are a bit undersprung if anything. You really don't need a high tech suspension for these kind of bikes, old school technology can handle the skinny light tires at those blazing fast 62.5mph speeds!

Weight?

LOL!



Feels like a fat bicycle!


All in all, I'm enjoying the little girl, she is kinda fun, and appeals to my inner engineering geek. It's efficient, "just enough to get the job done". I'm actually considering keeping her...


There is something else. I told him to buy a 125cc bike so he could find out if he truly liked riding and for him to start "safe" with a small bike he could learn with. Something new ish (it only had 1000 miles on it when we got it) so the whole experience woulnd't go sour because of a crappy bike.

It worked. I doubt he likes riding, he was in love with the idea of a bike, he just doesn't enjoy it. He, his family and his cousins put about 500 miles on it during a year and a half. Obviously the battery went dead and I'm surprised the carb didn't gum up worse than it did. He says he'll buy another bike in his new home country, I doubt it. In the end, he will have "lost" about $100 USD in depreciation and $100 that he paid for his helmet...

A lot less than if he had got a new sportbike that I would have had to rescue from rotting.

[Alawicious]

That's a cute little bike. I bet its great for running small errands and typical cruising around town.

Well done on the advice you gave your friend

[Süsser Tod]

I kinda wanted to make another point about this bike. I've seen a lot of people saying that the big 4 are focusing their efforts on small motorcycles and that because of that, they are neglecting the big, expensive bikes.

I don't think that's true, not at all.

Under that black paint, that's a 30 year old design...



Look at the frame, the hard points, like the muffler attachment, how the footpegs are attached to the frame, etc.



It's nothing more than a "facelifted" GS125, that according to what I've been able to find, made it's debut in 1982. I say "facelifted" because all the changes are cosmetic, save for one, the CV carb instead of a mechanical one. Suzuki didn't spend a lot to come up with the EN125, take a 30 year old bike, put new plastics on it, keep selling it for another 30 years?

I do understand why they want to sell as many of these as possible, R&D was paid off a while ago, and while margins might not be higher than on lower volume bikes that must be redesigned every 3 or 4 years, the lower profit combined with high sales makes for a good business proposition.

Here is another GS125, a 1999...

[Alawicious]

If it aint broke don't fix it, I guess?