THE 125cc LEARNER LIMIT
HAS BEEN A long time coming not that it's here yet, of course. The writing
went up on the wall in 1977 when a ruling that bikes up to 150cc should be
plated to indicate that capacity crept in with the infamous slowped law.
Near-as-dammit l00mph 250s like Suzuki's X7 were another excuse for Government
action of some kind.
No one seriously
pretended that yet another capacity restriction on learner machines would by
itself cut casualties but, when you're an Elected Representative of the People,
it matters less what you do than that you're seen to be doing something. Almost
anything.
Even by their own standards, however, the Governments which brought in the 250cc
learner limit and the slowped law didn't get it completely right. Quarter-liters
for beginners were OK in the days of BSA C15s but the law didn't forsee the days
of screaming Jap two-strokes like the RD250 whose makers extract getting on for
130bhp per litre from their motors.
The slowped law has been
seen, even by non-biking types, as an ill-conceived piece of legislation which
created as many, if not more, dangers for 16-year-olds as it was supposed to do
away with.
This time, they've tried
harder. Due at least in part to the efforts made by the bike trade organisations,
the BMF and others, the latest law affecting bikers is a bit more sophisticated.
Bike was predicting a 125cc limit back in 1978 but now the capacity limit is
backed up by a 12bhp power limit. No doubt some Government chappie reajised
there were screaming 125cc two-strokes like the RD125 whose makers were
extracting getting on for 130bhp per litre from their motors . . .
So here's Bike's Teeny
Giant test in which we pit two 125s which won't meet the new regs against the
Vespa scooter and the Kawasaki AR80 which will. The RD125 Yamaha is an obvious
candidate for the chop if you're a Whitehall person even though it's no more
highly tuned than the Government-approved AR80 and no less a competent little
bike with adequate handling and brakes for its performance. Not surprisingly, a
detuned RD125 would hardly be an adequate response to the 12bhp limit and it
looks like its successor will be the RD80LC first shown at the Paris Show in
October. Yamaha also have a watercooled 125 trail bike for 1982 but it puts out
I6V2 horses. The 1981 DT125's on-the-road performance is only a little faster
than the Kawasaki's but it, too, is over endowed with bhp for future learners.
The AR80 is definitely
of the new generation. Light, quick and snappily-styled, it's much more than
merely an overgrown moped. But it's hardly the easiest bike of the four to ride
and by no means all learners are midgets. Six volt electrics aren't the best
basis for an extra 30W drain imposed by proposed twin riding lights, while such
small machines are even more easily overlooked by yawning, preoccupied and plain
bad car drivers.
Which leaves the Vespa.
Its power output is comfortingly correct but does that alone make it safe? All
letters of complaint about Bike testing scooters should be addressed to The
Third Igloo on the Right, Bjornstallingvellyr, Greenland.
KAWASAKI AR80
THE BELLS, THE BELLS:
WHERE THE heck are they coming from?' I thought as I exited the tunnel running
under Aldwych and up into Kingsway, London WC2. A persistent ringing sound had
appeared, seemingly right around the back of my helmet, halfway through the
tunnel, but I'd been concentrating, at the time, on straight-lining the tunnel's
bends and only really noticed the noise when hitting the open air again.
Then I spotted that the
innocent and thoroughly suburban blue Hillman Hunter car behind contained two
large, blue jacketed gents with flat caps and, no they weren't chasing me to
read the gas meter.
The same car had been
right behind me seconds earlier on the south side of Waterloo Bridge so I knew
what the next step was going to be:
'You're lucky to be alive, ain't yer sonny?' said number one. 'Don't you know
you're vulnerable on these things? Do you want to live to 20?' said number two.
I removed my full face helmet and the life expectancy estimate was raised to 30
but they were right I had been lucky to get away with an incident that had all
the chances to become an accident.
It was a normal enough
London scene: cars parked illegally and inconsiderately by a bus-stop, bus
double-parked to let off passengers, taxi hugging the nearside looking for a
fare and then without looking, of course pulling out to pass the stationary
bus and causing the white Cortina in front of me to brake sharply and swerve to
the offside directly into my path. As the coppers said, it was easy to see the
whole scenario developing right in front of you and as an experienced rider
who's had one or two, er, three or four, er . . . falls,
I should've known to
hang back and wait for the road to clear. Why hadn't I? Well, my only reasoning
is that I'd become so wound up, so tense and aggressive in my riding on the
little Kawasaki AR80 that normal, rational thinking went sideways along with the
back of the bike as I panic-braked.
Fortunately, I managed
to convince them that it wasn't my normal road behaviour and it isn't, I've
long since given up trying to be a road racer in London traffic but the
point was made. I rode back to the office, parked the AR80 and refused to ride
it again.
It's difficult to
criticise Kawasaki for producing the AR80 in such a pure street racing role for
it's the fulfilment of every young tyro's fantasy. It's low, sleek, light and
has radical styling that leaves no doubt as to your personality. It's certainly
no utility hack bike dressed up in plastic add-ons being passed off as this
year's special. It is special from the neat aerofoiled flyscreen, the unusual
clip-ons mounted onto an extension of the top fork yoke, the dog-leg shaped
levers, tacho and speedo sunk into a matt-blacked console, the matt-blacked
motor and expansion chamber slung underneath and looking purposeful, right to
its trick Uni-Trak rear suspension which leaves the seat and tail unit clear
above the rear wheel, uncluttered by twin shock absorbers.
How can you complain
about a bike which pulls strongly and briskly through six gears to a maximum
speed of 65mpn and which'll cruise happily at 55-60mph, all the while sounding
not a great deal noisier than a Honda step-thru?
And this from a simple
piston-port controlled reed valve 78cc, automatic tubed, motor that fires up
first kick every time.
What you can legitimately complain about is the narrow power band that requires
constant swapping of those six ratios to keep the bike buzzing along. It's just
not possible to cruise at a steady 30mph along a busy central London or
any big city street in the same gear: as you're planning your line through the
traffic, negotiating potholes, manhole covers and pedestrians you need instant
power response.
The lObhp @ 8,000rpm
AR80's effective rev band is so narrow that 20-35mph requires third, fourth and
fifth gears. Imagine that handicap to skilful riding (and no, I'm not preaching
safety, just skill) to a rider with ten years' experience and then imagine the
same to a novice, perhaps encountering rain and greasy streets for the first
time.
Out of town, it's a different deal: the AR80 is fun for precisely all the things
that make it a poor city hack.
The steering is very
quick in response and precise once you've learnt that it requires no effort
beyond a gentle nudge to initiate a turn. To begin with, I found that I started
cornering far too soon; I'd clip right hand corners on the wrong side of the
road and have to swerve quickly on lefts. That only took a day to get used too,
however, and was as much to do with not being used to such a light weight
machine.
Unlike many small bikes
of this capacity range, the AR80 has a proper tubular full cradle frame
gussetted at the steering head for rigidity. The forks are hydraulically damped
and have 130mm of travel; the rear Uni-Trak suspension works on the rising rate
principle where a light spring is used to cope with soft ripples and small road
imperfections but with an overhead lever system to progressively increase the
effective spring poundage (ie: stiffness) to prevent bottoming out. There's the
normal spring pre-load cam at the bottom of the Uni-Trak single shock absorber
which can be set for heavier weight riders but it's the very devil to reach. The
ride is firm and can be skittish over some surfaces but with a dry weight of
only 75kg (1651b) that's to be expected perhaps. Certainly it's better than most
small bikes.
Braking is by a single
182mm diameter disc up front, operated by a hydraulic caliper, and 110mm
diameter drum at the rear. Both are extremely good, wet or dry, with bags of
feel and that's a major point on such a light machine with skinny tyres. Not so
good is the choice of six volt electrics for I wouldn't trust even another biker
to notice the feeble indicators flashing for an intended right turn, let alone a
cabbie. Switchgear is all as on big bikes with easily reached dipswitch and
horn.
The closer you inspect
the £499 AR80, the more you wonder at its good design points: the oil tank
supplying the auto lube system fits snugly between the top two frame tubes and
its cap lies under a locking flap just ahead of the petrol cap. It'll run
happily on two-star fuel, swizzling the stuff down at anything from 65mpg up to
a more reasonable 85mpg. Oil consumption is difficult to measure precisely
unless you're really clocking the miles but there's a low oil level warning
light in the tacho dial to warn you that a fill-up is necessary now.
Exhaust is
rubber-mounted at its sole frame support which vibrated loose and sweeps up
neatly to melt a pillion rider's high heel hanging down from the footrests
mounted to a sub-frame (which is a lot better than being mounted on the swing
arm as are many). The dual seat is comfortable and easily long enough for two
and "there's a grab rail. Extras include a helmet lock (steering lock is under
the bottom fork yoke) and twin mirrors which are too small to be of much use. No
centre stand is fitted, just a long throw prop.
When I first collected
the AR801 thought that this was going to be the definitive lightweight street
racer for 17-18 year olds but now I'm not so sure. Out of town or in less busy
suburbs it would be fun though occasionally a pain to ride. It isn't fun at all
in the wet anywhere because of the necessity to pamper the throttle and
gear-leaver. For learner riders or anyone attracted by its styling and first
rate chassis the AR would be a much better machine if Kawasaki exploited
the British capacity changes with a softer tuned 125cc motor with fewer gear
ratios. It wouldn't have to go any faster than the AR80 but it'd be much
easier to ride. ■
Dave Calderwood
VESPA P135X
A SCOOTER . . . YOU'RE
NOT seriously intending to park that here, are you?' Appearance of the Vespa 125
in the office motorcycle rank met with no little scorn from the other riders in
our building. And I was a h!tle peeved myself at landing the PX to test as
office junior that's the way it has to be for the moment, I'm told . . . Still,
the Vespa did prove, in the next couple of weeks, to have certain advantages as
an everyday means of transport in this Great Metrop in which we're based.
It's 35 years since
Corradino d'Ascanio laid down his design for the original scooter and "-here's
been no fundamental change in the three features which make such a device so
distinctive. First, an open frame with a flat footboard does ave good weather
protection which would be complete if a windscreen is added. Together with the
fact that's a step-thru means it isn't necessary to be togged up in full dress
motorcycle gear in winter an important point for travellers desiring an
appearance slightly more appealing than a tired and emotional Michelin Man (or
Ms).
However, there's one
major problem with all this area of pressed steel: it has the aerodynamics of a
large paper bag. Side winds from gaps in buildings, tail winds, head winds or
just plain turbulence from a passing lorry can whisk you into a weave needing a
touch on the brakes to steady. I'd advise also against wearing loose clothing
one puff up yer parka can have you going sideways if not up.
Another original feature
is the enclosed engine, tucked under the right removeable 'bubble'. It's a
single cylinder two-stroke motor which still uses that ancient rite known as
'Mixing the oil with the petrol'. It's rare these days to find a proper petroil
fuel pump and I constantly carried a supply of two-stroke oil since you can't
even guarantee a service station having this in stock. That's a pity for
otherwise the full enclosure makes the Vespa a thoroughly 'clean' machine.
Accessibility to the engine is good under the bubble but the only reason you're
ever likely to go under there is to maybe check the plug; it's possible to oil a
plug if you don't remember to switch off the tap when putting in the required
50:1 dollop.
Transmission is direct
to the rear wheel through gears so no chains need adjusting. Starting from cold
often required several prods at the right side kickstarter (which isn't really
possible while sitting astride the bike) but it quickly warms up. Operation of
the clutch lever/twistgrip gearchange takes a bit of getting used to but it is
light in feel and I had no problems with missing gears or selecting the wrong
one.
Third point of
d'Ascanio's design is that the front and rear wheels are mounted on short stub
axles making wheel changing a simple affair. The wheels are interchangeable and
there's a spare mounted under the left bubble. Changing a tyre or inner tube is
also easy: the rims can be split by deflating the tyre (if it isn't already) and
undoing two nuts.
On the road, the trouble
with these small (lOin diameter) wheels is their dramatic reaction to
imperfections in the road surface and encountering a series of small potholes at
over 40mph can be very hairy. Still, that experience isn't all that wonderful on
a bike either. Both front and
rear suspensions have a light spring and hydraulic dampers which do little to
control pitching fore and aft, though small bumps and ripples are absorbed
nicely.
It's around town that
the Vespa's usefulness comes over. The steering is nippy and light giving
excellent manoeuvrability in traffic and at 30-40mph cruising speeds the bike is
quite stable on decent surfaces. Above that maximum speed is between 45-50mph
depending on wind direction and slope and the bike tends to hop around a bit.
Its low centre of gravity helps the manoeuvring and when holding a steady line
through a turn. Careful though when riding in the wet: the bike's skittishness
over bumps can have you going sideways.
With the motor churning
out a lowly 8bhp and having to haul a scooter weight of 104kg (2291b) plus
rider, it doesn't come anywhere near the performance of the other 125s or even
the AR80. However, this soft tune means it's real easy to get along with, and
such actions as pulling away don't require rpm hysterics from the motor and/or
frantic clutch fanning. It hasn't got bundles of mid-rpm power, of course, and
two-up riding cut the performance down a lot.
It's just as well that it's no scorcher like the others since it hasn't got
brakes anywhere near as good.
The drum brakes front
and rear are quite hopeless and the rear foot brake is the more powerful,
probably because you can stamp harder than you can pull. This is a criticism
that only a bike rider would make probably since we're used to a good response
from the front stopper; the Vespa is aimed more at non-bike riders who often
feel trepidation at hauling on the handlebar lever for fear of going over the
top. They wrongly rely on the less effective and less safe foot brake
just as they would in a car. The rear brake's pedal is quite high off the board
so what tended to happen while I was riding the Vespa was that my right foot
would hover directly over the pedal clear of the footboard ready for
action. Pillion rider's feet share the rear of the footboard so there's a chance
of entanglement.
Don't put too much faith
in carrying luggage without fitting a rack. That useful looking 'glove
compartment' inside the legshields is an awkWard shape for most items and much
room is taken up by your supply of oil and the measuring jug. The tyre hand pump
and a basic toolkit also lives in that lockable box. It's a two key bike
though we were supplied with a third which didn't seem to apply to the test
machine with the ignition having its exclusive key.
T'other one also secured
the seat (hinged from the front for access to the fuel cap), and steering lock.
The little clip on the bulkhead just under the seat is an extra carrying device
and you can thread a case handle or helmet strap through. That's not lockable
however and there's no helmet lock.
Looking around our part
of the City, Vespas seem to be attracting two types of riders: old men who once
would have opted for a step-thru fifty and these kids calling themselves mods.
No doubt Douglas, the importers in Bristol, would like to create a chic image
and get long-legged fashion model types aboard just as Vespa have in Italy
(Italian mags we get in this office seem full of scooter and mofa ads draped
with clean, chic women and men). It could work for they're easy to ride, have
low maintenance requirements, good fuel consumption and they're better at
keeping your legs dry than bikes. At £619 I can't see many teenyboppers going
for it though. Enthusiasts will opt for the bikes and the model types will go
for a cheap, secondhand car. ■
Shelagh Webb
YAMAHA DT125MX
COMPROMISES ARE ALWAYS
ULTI-mately unsatisfactory but the £639 RD125MX trail bike gets by pretty well
as long as you don't test its road capabilities too extensively or go to
extremes on the dirt. It's well equipped for the street and well set-up for
knocking about on the rough, but you gotta remember that quite a few riders buy
trail bikes not as dual-purpose commuter/fun machines but because they're nearly
always bigger than road bikes of the same capacity and therefore big boys (and
big gurlies) feel less like dawks when tooling down to the shops of a Saturday
pm.
The DT is four or five
inches larger all round than its RD stablemate. The seat is two inches further
off the deck too, making it a real stretch for short-arses. Fuel capacity is
only 1.5 gallons but consumption can work out at a frugal 70mpg if you're
careful though it'll plummet to below 35mpg under serious off-roading. Claimed
maximum power from the 123cc motor (in snazzy matt black with nifty radially-finned
head) is a meaty 14bhp at 6500rpm which is good for a flat-out, flat-on-the-tank
top end of about 68mph but bad for future learners.
Yamaha's 1982 range
includes a new watercooled DT125 but it's claimed to be 2.5bhp more powerful
than this one. There's also a new four-stroke 125 trail iron the XT125
which should be learner-legal.
The DT's gaitered front
forks provided plenty of travel while the monoshock rear suspension coped with
road bumps and potholes far better than the soggy shocks on the RD. You have to
unbolt the dualseat to get at the monoshock unit and lay a C-spanner on the
adjuster slots. Helps to have a ring spanner handy to undo the bolts if your
dealer's just done 'em up because the bike's own toolkit definitely isn't up to
the job.
The single 24mm Mikuni
carb has a pull-out choke lever which was fairly easy to locate on the move.
Once going, not much happens below 5000 revs but the DT was quite capable of
holding its own in fast city traffic if it was constantly booted around through
the five-speed gearbox to keep the revs up around the 6000-7000rpm mark. Right
down the bottom end of the rev scale, the 125 would amble around in first and
second with the speedo needle hardly registering.
Winging along on dry roads was almost a pleasure, but I never felt wholly
confident about the trials pattern tyres whose knobbles are hardly in the
bubonic class. Well, they're only a compromise after all.
The area of
Buckinghamshire in which I live is ideal terrain for on-off reading 'cos the
four or five miles of green lanes within easy reach of Quaddy Acres are all in
1,000-yard-long segments separated by miles of country highways. Armed with a
footpath map on which the Chilern Society had been honest enough to mark RUPPs
('precise status under review' added a gruff footnote in case trail riders
thought they were getting away with anything) I set off down a series of lanes
varying in surface from firm earth, through sloshy mud to rutted stones.
The tyre pressures need
to come down so that you can find some kind of grip in the mud, but the rims are
fitted with safety bolts so that was no problem.
I set the monoshock unit on medium preload, but this was proving rather too firm
on the flinty bits so I decided to drop it a couple of notches. Guess when I
found out the DT's toolkit couldn't get the seat off? Most of the time it didn't
matter because the going was softer and the trails so overgrown that it was more
a question of riding over the logs and stumps in the path and hoping the 'bars
wouldn't snag on trailing branches or brambles.
With the reed-valve
single pushing out adequate torque it's fairly easy to trickle throught the
tricky bits, though if the DT had fallen into a ditch its mere 2201b or so
shouldn't have presented any retrieval problems.
Unlike the RD 125 which
had excellent lights, the DT's 6V/35W headlamp was no more than average on
dipped beam and scattered its light badly on main beam; a case for more
attention to the lens and reflector.
The brakes, 5in single
leading shoe drums front and rear, shouldn't be asked to perform miracles but
they didn't overtax the tyre's limited on road adhesion. ■
Brecon Quaddy
YAMAHA RD125
TOO MUCH VICIOUS,
UNCONTROLlable horsepower means only one thing for Yamaha's RD125 The End.
16bhp at 9000rpm puts it about as far outside the coming 12bhp learner limit as
current roadgoing 125s will go, which is not only a shame but pretty daft
because anyone who can walk, crawl, shuffle or roll into the nearest road can
get themselves killed without having to buy even a bicycle.
And anyone with an
interest in logic could tell you there's no way you can possibly point to a
cubic capacity or bhp figure and say 'that's too high for safety' or 'that's low
enough", but then politicians readily admit there's little room for logic in
their profession. Still, the RD125 as we know it is done for and there's nowt we
can do about it except stick together and make sure Whitehall's Oxbridge mafia
are fully aware of bikers' views on future legislation.
Mind you, the L-plate loony's fave eighth-litre two-stroke twin is getting a bit
long in the tooth after six years in production.
The styling may have
been tarted up regularly to bring it roughly into line with changing fashion
the twin leading shoe front brake became a hydraulic disc and the inevitable
cast wheels appeared a couple of years ago but it looks more and more like a
refugee from the mid-seventies. Those disproportionately large indicators
sticking out either side of the 35/35W headlamp are a dead giveaway, but at
least they feature Yamaha's excellent self-cancelling system.
Electronic ignition
passed the RD by contact breakers on the lefthand end of the crankshaft still
do the business for the 124cc piston-ported, reed-valve twin.
The squared-off tank holds a respectable 2.8 gallons and the lockable seat
hinges up to reveal the toolkit in a neat pouch in the tail and the filler cap
for the autolube oil reservoir. The cap has 'motor oil' written on it in huge
letters; presumably to deter novices from pouring in lemonade or marbles.
Starting the test bike
was easy. Flick the carb-mounted flick-up choke lever, prod the kickstart and
the RD will usually burble into life first go. Finding the choke lever while on
the move to turn it off wasn't quite so easy: more bloody infuriating really.
Once warmed up, the RD
will pull right round to the ten grand redline in all five gears, which gave it
an indicated top speed of 75mph in top even when I was sitting up, but low hills
or headwinds pushed the revcounter needle back to course, learners don't need
anything over 60mph from their bikes 'cos they can't use motorways, but that
view ignores the need for a speed reserve for overtaking.
The RD's acceleration
wasn't a lot to write home about, even in
could get past 5Smph artics fairly safely. Future learners will just have to
learn to love eating diesel fumes.
Pulling away from
traffic lights, the RD's acceleration is easily enough to leave 95 per cent
the 9000rpm power peak. Theoretically, of the 6500-90O0rpm action zone, but at
least it of Joe Average Road Users in a cloud of unburnt hydrocarbons, and by
keeping the power screwed on the whole time, my journey times for a 30-mile trip
to the office on the RD weren't substantially down on the 50 minutes I usually
reckon on when I'm on my 650. Constant screwing (sorry) is what the RD is all
about and it's well able to take it.
The test bike came to us
straight from MCN without time for the usual service at Mitsui but there were no
signs of trouble even though it had been through the obligatory timing-light
thrash at MIRA with only a few hundred miles on the clock.
Riding around at
65-70mph whenever possible didn't do much for fuel economy, however, and it
drqpped to 46mpg on the commuter trips, compared to around 51mpg for my 650.
Funnily enough, the RD doesn't have a tripmeter whereas the dual-purpose DT125
does.
In slow traffic, it could be ridden down to less than walking pace in bottom and
still pull away, but the wide 'bars (nearly 3ft wide overall including the
mirror) often meant missing chances of nipping through gaps in queues. Braking
from the disc was adequate and the rear drum wasn't too fierce A Good Thing in
view of the almost universal tendency for beginners to rely solely on their
bike's rear stoppers.
The riding position was
OK although I'd have preferred narrower 'bars while handling was about what I'd
expected given the mixture of a low, short wheelbase (48in) machine with a 5
foot 10 inch, 12 stone rider. Even on the firmest of their five spring preload
settings, the shocks gave me a bouncy ride and the forks dived abruptly under
braking, but maybe that's a legacy from its past.
Night-time riding was no
problem thanks to the RD's excellent headlamp which gave such good illumination
on main beam that I even took the bulb out to make sure it was only a 35W job.
Dip beam wasn't quite so impressivve but it was nicely conspicuous in daylight
and I once again failed to see how the twin 15W day riding lights proposed by HM
Government's tame boffins at the Transport and Road Research
Laboratory are going to make much difference. This is a good time of year to
spot 15W bulbs by the way they're most commonly used for jobs like lighting up
corporation Christmas trees.
At the time of writing it still wasn't clear whether the Government was going to
stick to its original plan of introducing the new test next month and the
125cc/12bhp limit next October or vice versa, but assuming it does the former,
there are still 10 months left in which learners can legally ride bikes like the
RD. You've then got to decide whether you want to buy one and face possible
problems selling it when the learner market for secondhand RD125$ dries up, or
whether you want to go for one of the new generation of sports tiddlers like the
Kawasaki AE80 or Yamaha's own up-to-the-eighties RD80LC, both of which will be
learner-legal when the new law comes into effect.
The £689 RD has the
advantages of greater size and extra power right now, even if it is destined to
join the late lamented FS1E moped in the hall of fame reserved for bikes
sidelined because somebody suddenly decided they were too much for your average
beginner, whatever that means. ■