Full Review of the 125CC Viper Changes for 2012
Looking forward to the scooters mopeds will be available in 2012, we bring you three brand-new reviews of 125 cc scooters available for delivery in the UK.
Starting with the Viper, we present three reviews today and follow that with a roundup of the 50 cc changes that we can expect in the coming months.
Don’t forget to look at the full reviews of the existing range in the menu bar to the right of this, or click the link below this article to look at the technical specifications of each vehicle.
Okay, on with a review. If you’re prepared to pay a little bit more for your moped or scooter, then 125 cc machines make a sensible choice for most people. Legally viable with just Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) and a minimum age requirement of 17, these represent a real alternative to cars for many solo commuters.
The 125 cc Cruiser Scooter is an absolute top mark machine at a price which is frankly, so low it’s hard to understand how they can do it.
The review model in this case was black. Though I’m informed that light silver and maroon are also possible colours.
As usual I gave the bike and run around Throckmorton airfield. This allows me to mess around with a machine to my hearts content. It’s private land, so the option to de-restrict the vehicles is also there.
Out of the box, this machine carrying my not inconsiderable weight managed 58.5 mph on the flat. Although it doesn’t say anywhere that these machines are restricted to 60 mph, I consider that they probably are. Every scooter at 125 cc that I test manages 60 mph maximum, and every 50 cc machine a tiny bit under 30 mph. That’s far too consistent given the variety of this range for this to be mere coincidence. Anyway, we’ll come to that later.
We are going 50 miles an hour in under 12 seconds, and there is a gradual build up to 60 mph mark. The airfield were used to test these machines as a landing strip of about three quarters of a mile, so I actually start in one of the “pull off” areas which gives me a mile in total of which the last three quarters is straight run. About a third of the way down the straight and we had just touching the 60 mph mark, It’s just around 33 seconds to reach that speed.
A 125 cc machine has quite a bit of pull at the low end. The Viper scooter manages to reach 40 or 50 mph very quickly, which is what you want if you need to get out of trouble quickly and steer clear of the traffic. It is also an ideal speed for keeping up with the traffic and avoid being a nuisance on most other road users There is nothing worse than being overtaken every few hundred yards – so having this little bit of extra speed is a real bonus.
Aesthetically this machine is stunning. And although we don’t have time to give it a full endurance test, a good fiddle with the panels and housings and cowls proves that they are very well secure another decent manufacturing standard. Steering is smooth, and the engine itself seems somewhat quieter than this machines “ big-name” counterparts.
The seat is comfortable, and steering is uncomplicated as it should be. The rear brake offers a very solid resistance force, along with the rest of this range it’s probably one of the best braking systems of any scooter currently being manufactured.
There is very little throw forward after breaking, and the balance between front and rear brakes seems adequately set from the manufacturer.
James, my mechanic was with us for this test, So we decided to have a little look inside, and soon had the cover off the main drive section and had made a mess necessary changes Did you restrict the machine.
The results weren’t particularly dramatic, the speed went up from 58.5 mph to around 62 mph. Given the extra stress put on the engine, this increase of around 5% doesn’t seem particularly worth it. All in all, at 125 cc you should be happy enough going at around 60 mph and understand this problem be not a great deal left.
The looks, acceleration, steering and comfort the 125 cc scooter is clearly A+ in all departments. And the price, well, while being more expensive than its 50 cc counterparts, it is still about 40% less than any of the big-name bikes that you will find queued up outside your local dealership, and as far as build quality goes we can’t really understand why that is.
Let’s hope the rest of these new 2012 scooters is as attractive a proposition as this stunning machine.