Today I received a call from my local dealer (2 mi from my house!) that a CT125 had found its way into his dealership. This guy is a straight shooter but I suspect he'd be really tough to cut me a decent break on prices right now.
"You can't buy it, but I know you haven't been able to sit on one so you can figure out if it fits you or not if you come in before we close." Zipped down there and finally, FINALLY answered a burning question in my mind: Why doesn't the CT125 have an oil window to check the oil while the C125 does? Well, they had two side by side at the dealership and I realized they repurposed the kickstarter outlet on the C125 into a window. Smart.
I rocked up in the gear I'd expect to wear while riding to get a really good idea on sizing. Definitely felt the heel shifter being inconveniently placed with my size US-12 shoes. The bike fit better than I expected. The tires were skinnier than I remember and reinforces to me that if you think of this as a non-high end MTB bicycle in terms of capabilities you will have a good time. We had a discussion about a CRF250 as a possible alternative; "you'll have a lot of fun with one of these" was guaranteed, but "my skills are more in the realm of a TW200" also applied.
At this point, I'm pretty much just mapping out every nice dealer to swing by and thank them in person. These guys are closest to my home so I'll probably be booking a service with them at some point in the distant future. You really do meet the nicest people on a Honda.
Something that the dealer mentioned was come January 1, 2022, all bikes are going to be slightly more expensive ($100 more) due to pandemic distribution networking issues. I also asked what the "out the door" price on the CT125 was before i left - $5299, inclusive of all fees and taxes, in Seattle, WA which has ~10.5% sales tax. That's fairly consistent with the fees and charges from the Portland dealer, only their sales tax valuation was different.