Shipping Delays

[ReadingRambo]

So Honda has been pushing my shipping back ever since early January. Has anyone else had this issue? Know what the cause is? I am starting to get a little irritated at this point. Just pushed shipping to the end of March.....

 

[AZ7000']

Ummmm, a war and worldwide supply and transportation issues???

just a guess…. Sorry for your irritation

#firstworldproblems

 

[ReadingRambo]

Ummmm, a war and worldwide supply and transportation issues???

just a guess…. Sorry for your irritation

#firstworldproblems

ummmm. that would make more sense if it wasn't shipping to other locations and I doubt any of these parts are made in Russia or Ukraine. I could be wrong though. And it's more than first world problems, you don't know my life and what I have going on and the intended use for the bike. So I would appreciate if you weren't so condescending for no reason, but just to be rude. #shouldknowbetter

 

[dmonkey]

It doesn't matter much that the bike is made in Thailand because big freight transport companies like Maersk and MSC have hundreds of vessels stuck at ports due to the war and sanctions, which is impacting container shipping around the world on top of the impact COVID-19 already had on supply chains. I never had a delivery estimate on my CT125, I just put a deposit down at a dealership to get on their wait list, and they called me when my bike came in. If Honda are telling you an estimate it seems fair that you could ask them the reason for the delay, I wouldn't expect any answer they give to really provide comfort since it's still delayed though. If you're in a pinch for it the C125 is much easier to get a hold of, cheaper, and of similar capability.

 

[ReadingRambo]

It doesn't matter much that the bike is made in Thailand because big freight transport companies like Maersk and MSC have hundreds of vessels stuck at ports due to the war and sanctions, which is impacting container shipping around the world on top of the impact COVID-19 already had on supply chains. I never had a delivery estimate on my CT125, I just put a deposit down at a dealership to get on their wait list, and they called me when my bike came in. If Honda are telling you an estimate it seems fair that you could ask them the reason for the delay, I wouldn't expect any answer they give to really provide comfort since it's still delayed though. If you're in a pinch for it the C125 is much easier to get a hold of, cheaper, and of similar capability.

That makes more sense. Yeah, they told my dealer it would ship March 1st. (he was originally supposed to get it before the recall and they just haven’t sent him the bike or sent that one elsewhere). He was given March 1st the second week of Feb, so I made plans and needed to get an extra small garage space for it and they didn’t tell him it was delayed until today lol. I don’t have the problem waiting, it’s buying a garage based off of their shipping and I called them and they can’t give me a reason. I asked if it’s shipping, a part, or anything short of a recall. Nothing. So I have an empty space to drink beer in for now ha. Thanks for the info!

 

[m in sc]

yeah if its shipped by plane less than a week. overseas on a boat? lol we are out 25-30 weeks on some stuff at work. Its getting better for sure though.

 

[dmonkey]

Depending on your living situation and comfort level with the bike being outside, some of us park the CT125 outside. There are measures you can take to reduce theft risk (brake lock, wheel lock, throttle lock, a motorcycle cover, gun club stickers, GPS tracker, parking it next to a bicycle that costs more than it does, etc.) and it doesn't take up much room in a yard, alley, or next to a bike rack - just make sure you're not blocking access to anything. Something to consider if you haven't already.

With what Honda *actually* charge for freight based on their website it's a safe bet that it's not moving by air.

 

[m in sc]

some people use bikes as a primary mode of transportation. I did when I worked my way thru college (went back to it actually in my mid to late 20s), came out owing nothing, parents paying nothing, and have 2 engineering degrees to show for it & a very good paying easy job for the past 22 yrs. Drop the judgement please.

 

[dmonkey]

That's one of my least favorite parts of American motorcycle culture, people classifying them as toys or luxury purchases. They might be for some, but they're also essential transportation. I know plenty of people who don't own cars but do own a motorcycle or scooter. For some it's even part of their job, couriers and folks working food delivery gigs. Practical, economical, and fun transportation. Mine gets me to work, Drs appointments, errands, saves me the cost of about 2 gallons of gas when getting groceries compared to taking my truck, and it puts a smile on my face which is an important part of mental and physical health. Some people have been cooped up and under a lot of extra stress with everything going on in the world and their own lives, that can reduce the abilities of your immune system and is also rough on your body and health in general. Let's not criticize others for wanting the same things we enjoy in life.

 

[AZ7000']

I ride my 1975 trail 90 to work 90% of the time and bicycle 9.9% off the other time. I rode my bike to college always. Grew up in Phoenix on first a Honda passport then a Vespa p200e. Lived in Tucson for 8 years with just a Vespa. I drive car 5 times a month and pick up the kid from school and drop him off at the bus stop on the trail 90.
Can get ttr 125/230’s used all day for $2k. I’ve seen families of 5 on a Vespa in Taiwan, for them a necessity I get it.
Absolutely no one NEEDS a ct-125. No one. This $4800+ bike is a niche toy bike imo, won’t change my mind. If you NEED a bike get through your day for transportation many many other more cost effective, in stock at the dealerships.

 

[ReadingRambo]

That's one of my least favorite parts of American motorcycle culture, people classifying them as toys or luxury purchases. They might be for some, but they're also essential transportation. I know plenty of people who don't own cars but do own a motorcycle or scooter. For some it's even part of their job, couriers and folks working food delivery gigs. Practical, economical, and fun transportation. Mine gets me to work, Drs appointments, errands, saves me the cost of about 2 gallons of gas when getting groceries compared to taking my truck, and it puts a smile on my face which is an important part of mental and physical health. Some people have been cooped up and under a lot of extra stress with everything going on in the world and their own lives, that can reduce the abilities of your immune system and is also rough on your body and health in general. Let's not criticize others for wanting the same things we enjoy in life.

View attachment 2104

Exactly, my commuter right now gets 15 mpg on a good day in perfect conditions and minimal red lights. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to deal with obnoxious people, really makes me question my service and why I did it for those selfish individuals. I intend on saving some gas money on this to make other aspects of my life easier. That and I can't wait to take it camping/fishing. I like the storage, I am actually looking for something similar to that.

 

[ReadingRambo]

Depending on your living situation and comfort level with the bike being outside, some of us park the CT125 outside. There are measures you can take to reduce theft risk (brake lock, wheel lock, throttle lock, a motorcycle cover, gun club stickers, GPS tracker, parking it next to a bicycle that costs more than it does, etc.) and it doesn't take up much room in a yard, alley, or next to a bike rack - just make sure you're not blocking access to anything. Something to consider if you haven't already.

With what Honda *actually* charge for freight based on their website it's a safe bet that it's not moving by air.

Yeah, I looked into those things, but with the random weather we get where I live, it can be 80s one day and snowing the next. Actually happening this week and that can last all the way into late April. So it makes it tricky, plus I could pick that thing up and load it in a truck by myself. I am concerned with how hard they are to get, that parking it outside my residence is not an option. Or I could sell some tools in my garage to make space... No not an option haha

 

[ReadingRambo]

I ride my 1975 trail 90 to work 90% of the time and bicycle 9.9% off the other time. I rode my bike to college always. Grew up in Phoenix on first a Honda passport then a Vespa p200e. Lived in Tucson for 8 years with just a Vespa. I drive car 5 times a month and pick up the kid from school and drop him off at the bus stop on the trail 90.
Can get ttr 125/230’s used all day for $2k. I’ve seen families of 5 on a Vespa in Taiwan, for them a necessity I get it.
Absolutely no one NEEDS a ct-125. No one. This $4800+ bike is a niche toy bike imo, won’t change my mind. If you NEED a bike get through your day for transportation many many other more cost effective, in stock at the dealerships.

All those words and not one smart thing was said. If anything you just proved it possible for a daily commuter. Pick a lane and stay in it. See what you fail to understand is the world does not revolve around you or your opinions, so I don't care about your life story. I've seen people ride horses out of necessity, doesn't mean I am going to get a horse.

 

[dmonkey]

Gatekeeping motorcycling doesn't do anyone any good. You could both be more courteous and review https://hondatrail125.com/index.php?help/terms/
TTRs aren't street legal, but it also seems like it isn't anyone's business how someone else chooses to spend their money
The top case is a Givi if you're interested, you can search these forums for details on it and the many different crate setups people are using on the CT125. The Milwaukee tote crate is another really nice one.
There are full covers and "seat saver" covers available that hold up in almost all weather conditions. I run a seat saver cover and park outside in the snow, maybe outside the comfort zone for others though and that's fine, I also ride in the snow plenty and my bike gets filthy and rusty - not for everyone.


What did Twinkie the Kid ever do to you? lol

 

[SneakyDingo]

So Honda has been pushing my shipping back ever since early January. Has anyone else had this issue? Know what the cause is? I am starting to get a little irritated at this point. Just pushed shipping to the end of March.....

Honda should not have given you a delivery estimate. Several dealers I spoke to specifically and very clearly stated they could not promise a delivery timeline for their bikes, and that was a month ago before the latest world calamities. "We get bikes when we get bikes" was basically what they said. Whoever gave you a prospective timeline should have added a very large "estimated" stamp all over that.

To give you an idea of how difficult it is to get a bike where I am, I live in Seattle and my local dealer has been refusing to take deposits for 10 months now. He only put me on his waitlist because I physically turned up in person the day he was going to start rejecting people using a templated email. He said to my face that he wouldn't be surprised if people currently on the waitlist got their bikes in 2024 and I believe him.

I've covered this elsewhere on the forum: the distribution by Honda is uneven in continental USA, heavily favoring the Florida end of the country.

I know plenty of people who don't own cars but do own a motorcycle or scooter.

That's me. Bicycle #1 is used for transport and errands. Bicycle #2 (eCargo bike) is used for hauling up to 500 lb of cargo at a time. I don't have a car (yet?) and I use bus and bike to get around everywhere normally. I rent pickups and trucks as needed to haul stuff, and rental cars to do long distance trips (my gf's sister lives a 200 mi round trip).

Do I need the CT125? Need is a very strong word in my world. There are necessary places that are very difficult to get to by bicycle. There are also places I regularly go that are so costly to visit by Lyft or rental car. The ROI is around 35 trips under current pricing (which have been steadily increasing), or 18 months to break even, including gear.

RE: shelter, I use a motorcycle shelter for my bike. I don't know if I'd recommend it yet, it's still too early to say. It was expensive. If it breaks, I have other options I am willing to try that I've already designed out that will probably work better but they just take time to build (based off a design by April Wilkerson).

Also sweet keyboard @dmonkey. I've got a Drop keyboard as my first build. Might have to build a new one if they force us back to the office, this one's too heavy to lug back and forth on a bicycle.

 

[AlaskanTrail]

I've covered this elsewhere on the forum: the distribution by Honda is uneven in continental USA, heavily favoring the Florida end of the country.

Cries in Alaska

 

[dmonkey]

I am very interested in the motorcycle shelter idea. Is it like a framed tent, a small shed, or something else?

Thanks. Keyboard is a Ducky DK9087G2 with MX browns going on about 8 years(?). It's heavy as sin for a plastic case TKL. Keycaps are "Matt3o MT3 /dev/tty" off Drop. At a previous job with an open plan office I was politely asked to not use a mechanical keyboard anymore For work I've gone along with whatever Apple keyboard I'm issued with butterfly or scissor switches since then.

 

[ReadingRambo]

Gatekeeping motorcycling doesn't do anyone any good. You could both be more courteous and review https://hondatrail125.com/index.php?help/terms/
TTRs aren't street legal, but it also seems like it isn't anyone's business how someone else chooses to spend their money
The top case is a Givi if you're interested, you can search these forums for details on it and the many different crate setups people are using on the CT125. The Milwaukee tote crate is another really nice one.
There are full covers and "seat saver" covers available that hold up in almost all weather conditions. I run a seat saver cover and park outside in the snow, maybe outside the comfort zone for others though and that's fine, I also ride in the snow plenty and my bike gets filthy and rusty - not for everyone.
View attachment 2105

What did Twinkie the Kid ever do to you? lol
View attachment 2106

Yeah, I apologize for letting that get to me. bad day, bad mood, no excuse for it. Thank you for all the detailed information. Well we are currently in a complex, which is why the extra garage gives me peace of mind. Just moved down to the lower 48 from Alaska, so still house hunting. I will get a cover when we are moved though. Also that truck is sweet in the background, I have an '81 C10 as well and love it, besides the gas mileage haha.

Okay the twinkie made my day. I actually want one now.

 

[ReadingRambo]

Honda should not have given you a delivery estimate. Several dealers I spoke to specifically and very clearly stated they could not promise a delivery timeline for their bikes, and that was a month ago before the latest world calamities. "We get bikes when we get bikes" was basically what they said. Whoever gave you a prospective timeline should have added a very large "estimated" stamp all over that.

To give you an idea of how difficult it is to get a bike where I am, I live in Seattle and my local dealer has been refusing to take deposits for 10 months now. He only put me on his waitlist because I physically turned up in person the day he was going to start rejecting people using a templated email. He said to my face that he wouldn't be surprised if people currently on the waitlist got their bikes in 2024 and I believe him.

I've covered this elsewhere on the forum: the distribution by Honda is uneven in continental USA, heavily favoring the Florida end of the country.


That's me. Bicycle #1 is used for transport and errands. Bicycle #2 (eCargo bike) is used for hauling up to 500 lb of cargo at a time. I don't have a car (yet?) and I use bus and bike to get around everywhere normally. I rent pickups and trucks as needed to haul stuff, and rental cars to do long distance trips (my gf's sister lives a 200 mi round trip).

Do I need the CT125? Need is a very strong word in my world. There are necessary places that are very difficult to get to by bicycle. There are also places I regularly go that are so costly to visit by Lyft or rental car. The ROI is around 35 trips under current pricing (which have been steadily increasing), or 18 months to break even, including gear.

RE: shelter, I use a motorcycle shelter for my bike. I don't know if I'd recommend it yet, it's still too early to say. It was expensive. If it breaks, I have other options I am willing to try that I've already designed out that will probably work better but they just take time to build (based off a design by April Wilkerson).

Also sweet keyboard @dmonkey. I've got a Drop keyboard as my first build. Might have to build a new one if they force us back to the office, this one's too heavy to lug back and forth on a bicycle.

SneakyDingo,

That was how it started, they said anytime between Feb - May, then in 2nd week of Feb they gave the dealer a hard date and I checked in every week leading up to it and it stayed at March 1st, until the 1st came and I learned my lesson on expectations on receiving one. So whether it was my Honda Rep or the shipping idk, but I agree, they should just let me know when it gets in.

Wow, that is intense. I haven't heard of dealers refusing deposits until now. Also my dealer only things he will get one more after the one I have a deposit on and the other 3 within 300 miles think they will get 2 max and have like 9 people on waitlists, so thinking about it like that, it makes sense.

Ah, I hadn't found that yet, I did notice Florida and Tennessee had recently had a couple, but that was about it.

 

[SneakyDingo]

I am very interested in the motorcycle shelter idea. Is it like a framed tent, a small shed, or something else?

Thanks. Keyboard is a Ducky DK9087G2 with MX browns going on about 8 years(?). It's heavy as sin for a plastic case TKL. Keycaps are "Matt3o MT3 /dev/tty" off Drop. At a previous job with an open plan office I was politely asked to not use a mechanical keyboard anymore For work I've gone along with whatever Apple keyboard I'm issued with butterfly or scissor switches since then.

I have a set of INVYR Holy Panda switches in mine, but we all know this is personal preference. Metal body keyboard that could be used in a nerd bar fight with ease. I instantly recognized the keycaps as one that I shortlisted; I ultimately went with the MiTo SA Pulse TKL Keycap Set instead for aesthetics. Decided to go this route after my last keyboard was completely impossible to service myself despite having all the tools; a single switch went out & I had to replace the whole keyboard because there was no way to get to the underlying hardware. What a waste.

Regarding the shelter, the specific one I have is this model: The Bike Shield Tourer (Large) Motorcycle Cover Shelter Storage Tent Garage. I did not pay that price, I paid way lower than that, that's utterly ridiculous.

I bought this because I was given 2 days notice my bike was arriving, and we had a forecast for some really nasty weather coming in. It's an articulating tent, a metal frame holding a fabric cover (aka a dirigible). I have a lot of dislikes with this but it will be forgiven if the shelter holds up well enough. I got the idea from Sammy Marques who stores her much more expensive bike under a similar shelter. I have two big concerns and a few small concerns.

• I am not convinced the tent will hold up well over time. It may be possible to buy extra covers. The construction relies on the fabric holding the frame together so compromising the fabric compromises the structural integrity. Fabric is not infallible.
• IMO it has to be screwed into the ground and should be placed against a wall, or a corner if possible, especially if it's windy where you live. The instructions say something similar like you need to anchor it but don't require you to screw it into the ground. If you have a really heavy motorcycle like a Goldwing, you can probably screw it to a platform and use the weight of the bike to hold everything down. IMO the low weight of a CT125 + the frame will not be sufficient to keep it from lifting off in moderate to high wind even if you do that. Ground anchors are needed.
• Assembling it was finicky, kind of annoying and really difficult for one person to do on their own. You have to take liberties with interpretation with the manual and as someone who works in user experience and writes instructional documents, there are a lot of areas that are lacking. Attention to detail is a must when looking at the images. The manual is also required and the assembly is only partially intuitive. This is an overall industry wide issue but I'm gonna gripe about it because it would have been pretty easy for someone to do a better job IMO.
• You half assemble it, and while it's all floppy mount the fabric, before adding the final struts. You also have to hit it with a mallet to do this and it's friction "fit" (deforms the plugs to fit), so you either have to do this twice, or hit the fabric with your mallet, which I don't like doing. I elected to do it twice which added time.
• Adding the soft cover at the end was a tiresome activity and the instructions were not very clear or good at this. Considering by this point I was tired, cold and hungry it was extra annoying. Good enough? yes. Good? Fuck no.
• My kit also was busted open and not in good shape when it got delivered. Good enough. It also needed some additional tools to do the job, and would have cost them pennies to include a shit version of those tools, but they didn't. Like two 10mm sockets. F**k me mate, most people can't even find ONE of their 10mm sockets.
• My kit was missing parts. This isn't related to it being busted open; the part that was missing should have been screwed into a different component. It was purely quality control. I was able to resolve this with my 3D printer in a few minutes without leaving my house because I'm an engineer but not everyone's like that. Your average person would have to run to Home Depot to get replacement bits if they were in a hurry.
• When you open the cover if you didn't wipe down the cover first all the water that was on the cover will drop onto the bike. This is solvable by wiping the cover down before opening it if it's wet, or giving it a love tap and then wiping it down.
• If you don't park the motorcycle on the cross brace, and you don't secure it to the ground on one end like you should, then when you close the tent the front will lift up before slamming back down again in a slinky type motion. This will also cause it to shift, so you might end up knocking your mirrors in the process of opening the cover next time.

I elected to mostly assemble it, move it into place, then finish assembling it, because the space it is in is only 4" wider than the tent itself. It's pretty heavy but actually not that bad to move into place this way.

Given 3+ months lead time, I would have built a variation of April Wilkerson's DIY Tool Chest. I say a variation because I'd have to dimension it to suit my needs and space, such as changing the way the doors open and adding a few features to sneak my way around local county permitting building codes. I'd generally keep a lot of the cool features on the inside the same such as the pegboard (3D printer + pegboard = easy custom attachment system for anything you can imagine).