I'm looking for a bike club in the Everett, Washington, area with like-minded guys who ride the Honda 125. I plan to purchase a bike but wanted to hear from owners first and thought this would be the best way to hear what I believe is the best bike for me.
Honda Trail 125 Forum
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SneakyDingo
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You're pretty close to me, I'm close to Lake Forest Park Starbucks and I zip up and down to Montlake Terrace all the time. I haven't seen a bike club, and I've only seen like 2-3 CT125's running around, all red JA55 pre-2023 models.
Easiest way to answer your question is that this bike is pretty underpowered. 9hp, on a good day with a well tuned machine in perfect working order. You can reliably get to 38 mph on most gentle inclines, and with luck, ambition and hopes and dreams, a max speed of around 54 mph. Measured by GPS, not by the speedometer which is a little off. Hills by far are the biggest problem around here; you kind of get to choose between the OEM gearing which is good for max speed, or the -1T countersprocket conversion which is good for acceleration and puts more usable power to the tires... but at the end of the day, you've got a 9hp machine. Power to weight isn't affected so substantially by gearing that it negates the problem of speed on hills.
On a 10% hill with a full load, you're gonna be limited to 35'ish mph if you're a 200 lb rider + gear. Less if you're fatter or you're carrying a lot on the back. So the question becomes - can you get around with an ACTUAL speed limit of 35 mph? So as an example, from Lake Forest Park to Redmond, there's 3 ways to get there - I-5 + SR520 bridge, SR405 + SR522, and through Inglewood Hill and Totem Lake. Of those, only the Inglewood Hill/Totem Lake route is 35 mph zoned/40mph actual, BUT if it's congested peak hour traffic, 405 and SR522 is a perfectly viable way to get around. But like a bicyclist might think twice about riding up that street, if you see a street with "hill" in the name, you better be prepared to gear and slow down.
That's the bad news out of the way. The rest is good news. I'm at 11,600 mi + change on mine, most of the riding done in Seattle, Redmond, Montlake Terrace, etc. This bike is a great commuter bike and runabout, getting 100 mpg under commute conditions. Apart from the dickhead drivers whenever the weather changes (IYKYK) the biggest problem I have is old men coming up to me asking if I restored the bike when I'm in a hurry.
I'm guessing you're waitlisted at Everett Powersports? They had a loooooooooong waitlist when I was trying to buy mine.
Easiest way to answer your question is that this bike is pretty underpowered. 9hp, on a good day with a well tuned machine in perfect working order. You can reliably get to 38 mph on most gentle inclines, and with luck, ambition and hopes and dreams, a max speed of around 54 mph. Measured by GPS, not by the speedometer which is a little off. Hills by far are the biggest problem around here; you kind of get to choose between the OEM gearing which is good for max speed, or the -1T countersprocket conversion which is good for acceleration and puts more usable power to the tires... but at the end of the day, you've got a 9hp machine. Power to weight isn't affected so substantially by gearing that it negates the problem of speed on hills.
On a 10% hill with a full load, you're gonna be limited to 35'ish mph if you're a 200 lb rider + gear. Less if you're fatter or you're carrying a lot on the back. So the question becomes - can you get around with an ACTUAL speed limit of 35 mph? So as an example, from Lake Forest Park to Redmond, there's 3 ways to get there - I-5 + SR520 bridge, SR405 + SR522, and through Inglewood Hill and Totem Lake. Of those, only the Inglewood Hill/Totem Lake route is 35 mph zoned/40mph actual, BUT if it's congested peak hour traffic, 405 and SR522 is a perfectly viable way to get around. But like a bicyclist might think twice about riding up that street, if you see a street with "hill" in the name, you better be prepared to gear and slow down.
That's the bad news out of the way. The rest is good news. I'm at 11,600 mi + change on mine, most of the riding done in Seattle, Redmond, Montlake Terrace, etc. This bike is a great commuter bike and runabout, getting 100 mpg under commute conditions. Apart from the dickhead drivers whenever the weather changes (IYKYK) the biggest problem I have is old men coming up to me asking if I restored the bike when I'm in a hurry.
I'm guessing you're waitlisted at Everett Powersports? They had a loooooooooong waitlist when I was trying to buy mine.