It’s a funny thing being 17. Just as life is teaching you that looks are everything, mother nature chucks acne at you.
The rapidly increasing value of independence is not to be ignored either. Our eldest boy (boy number one) is of this critical age. Despite being surrounded by bikes all his life, he hasn’t really shown much interest and I’ve been cool with that. There’s nothing worse than pushy parents is there?
But now he’s seventeen, the idea of riding a bike is much more appealing. The fact that any modern 125 can be filled up for less than a tenner maybe just once a week is a big attraction.
Also, the fact that you can insure a 125 for a third of the cost of a car’s premiums, is a big attraction to me, the paying parent. Lexham insurance were a massive help here – seventy quid a month for fully comp is a drop in the ocean compared to what we were being asked to pay for even the crappiest car.
What better place to learn the ropes than Honda’s new CBR125? Jumping off a Fireblade onto the little four stroke 125 is a bit of a shock but to boy number one, it’s perfect. Light clutch, manageable power delivery and great brakes. The styling and paint scheme gets a massive thumbs up, too.
For the past three weekends we’ve been riding together and clocked up a couple of hundred miles of dual carriageways, back lanes and busy trunk roads. The CBR125 still has half a tank of gas left, my Blade has been filled once already and there’s only half a tank left.
Boy number one was going to drive a Golf Caddy pick up that I bought (you can fit a drum kit in the back) until we got some insurance quotes. Two grand third party fire and theft convinced me to sell it.
As part of this 125 voyage of discovery I got the chance to ride Rieju’s (pronounced Ree-ay-hoo) new RS3125 the other day.
On looks alone the RS3 wins hands down over the Honda. The angular, race-focussed styling is stunning as are the design details like the LED rear light, LED dashboard and upside down front forks. The alloy swingarm is a thing of beauty, too.
The riding position is much more radical than the Honda. Narrow, low handlebars and a high seat pitch most of the rider’s weight over the front end.
The engine in the Spanish-built Rieju is sourced from Italian manufacturer Minarelli. It’s exactly the same powerplant as Yamaha’s successful YZF125R – a four-valve, water-cooled 125 four-stroke. But, unlike the Yamaha the Rieju relies on a carburettor for fuelling unlike Yamaha’s tamper-proof EFI. Can’t remember the last time I used a choke lever…
This old-school tech’ means that tuning the 15bhp engine to deliver a tad more is far easier and far cheaper as there are no electronics to hold you back. This maybe a neat way of increasing the life-span of the bike once the test has been passed. A Power Commander for a YZF125 is £320. When I was seventeen , these sorts of life-improving details were the most important thing around.
Trick styling, tune-ability and Yamaha engine aside, the Rieju RS3’s biggest advantage though, is price. The 2011 Honda CBR125R costs £3,170, the 2011 Yamaha YZF125R costs £4,249. The Rieju RS3 retails for £3.399 OTR. In the best-selling Yamaha's defence, however, lurking in that initially frightening price tag is the option of either free Third Party insurance or 0% finance that (for a £99 deposit) can be had for £175.83 a month over two years.
