Best quality small 125cc scooter?

I bought a Yamaha CygnusX 125cc scooter a couple of years ago thinking that it would be possible for my wife and I to share it but it is proving too large and unwieldy for my wife. The Yamaha Cygnus and GTR series bikes seem to have large back-ends designed to have more room under the seat but they end up being quite wide.

Can anyone recommend a thinner but good quality scooter we can buy?

Sym has released the new Attila and Duke series which look fairly thin compared to Yamaha offerings.

Would people recommend staying with Yamaha at all costs?

Money is not so much of an object but we really need to make the right choice for her.

We use the scooter to ferry our kids short distances so it would need to work for that.

Thanks in advance

I hate to be the Gogoro poster boy of the forums, but have you considered the Gogoro 2?

With the information you’ve provided, the first question I would ask is if your route to and from the kid’s schools/destination has any battery stations.

There’s other pros and cons, but I think this is a deal breaker. If you live a little more country side and need to go over 10km out of your way to go to a battery station, not worth even thinking of a Gogoro.

Other than that, with government incentives (and if you have an old 2-stroke to swap in) you can get the Gogoro price down to 38k. If you’re in Taipei (and New Taipei), with incentives, the final price comes down roughly 60k.

For the Gogoro 2, there’s plenty of space in the seat compartment and the wife won’t be too overwhelmed by its size and width. However, it is a bit long. It’s really not as heavy and wide as a Cygnus, nonetheless, the batteries are a bit heavy.

I’ve seen girls that are no more than 170cm height ride it and not look like they’re tiny on it and some foreigner guys at 190cm on an FB group that @rk1951 admins, says he’s quite comfortable on it.

Also, motohead @Yang_Gui_Zi can help if you have trouble deciding on a gas scoots.

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Get a 90 or 100cc scooter for the wife and keep the 125 for yourself? Two is more useful than one for sure and a 100cc while be fine for pottering around on.

If you want to sell the Yamaha, drop me a note.

I honestly haven’t been following the scooter buzz recently, especially the <125cc categories. I’ve had my eye on the Yamaha Force, but will wait for my Racing 150 to kick the bucket as it’s been in a couple of accidents.

Thanks for the replies. We really don’t plan on getting an electric scooter. We live in Taichung and its just not practical here.

We went scooter shopping yesterday and here is the problem…

Yamaha has discontinued the Ray and the GTR. As a result, there is really nothing in the Yamaha 125cc range (we don’t want anything less) that is a shorter scooter. When I mean ‘shorter’ I’m referring to how tall the bike is. And, is my wife able to be fairly flat footed on the cement when at a stop light.

We tried the new Yamaha Axis and she thinks its too tall.

We then went over to Kymco and tried the GP 125cc. It was a short bike and my wife was flat-footed on it. Which was good. Its a fairly uninspiring bike but it would do. She tried the G6 125cc and it was too tall.

A lot of these new generation bikes have a kind of slanted-upward seat (including the Cygnus) which makes it a problem for anyone who is under 5’7. I actually don’t really find the Cygnus that great to ride for that exact reason. I might try to find a flatter seat.

Next we checked out the Sym shop. Sym seems to have lots of bikes that are shorter. We checked out the Attila S 125cc which we liked the most. It is a pretty stylish bike and has a thin profile. We also checked out the GT Super 2 125cc which was about the same. The new DUKE 125cc was out of stock.

I’m going to check out the Suzuki store today to see if they have anything in the same category.

As I thought, this is already on-going in the FB group that @rk1951 (Robby) admins. You’ll get good advice in that group. As he mentioned in there, any scooter you get new and take care of will be fairly reliable. It doesn’t sound like you will be hot-rodding it or anything.

Gogoro charge stations are actually pretty common in Taichung. I know you aren’t considering it, but test rides are free at the Gogoro stores, so it might be worth giving it a try? Doesn’t hurt to expand your options.

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Unless you live in the north west area of Beitun District.

As long as she’s not on her tippy toes I think if the wife can have at least half of her foot on the cement, it should be ok? I was a bit concerned about this when I was looking at the New Cygnus awhile back, but just got used to it. Tipping the scoots a bit to get flat footed can’t be that hard, unless the kids are a bit on the heavy side.

However, if you get something that small, will it hinder your comfort on the vehicle?

Part of the issue I think is how scooter design has changed over the last twenty years. My first scooter in Taiwan was a Kymco Freeway. Subsequently, I’ve owned SYM Duke scooters and a Yamaha Fuzzy. These scooters from the 90’s are typically quite ‘beefy’ in their construction and are also quite low. When they still had good engine compression, it was always easy to drive around the city with another person on the back and still feel pretty comfortable.

New scooter design seems to have sloping seats which -perhaps an engineer can explain this- provides some advantage that I don’t understand. Have a look at the new Yamaha Force 150cc sometime with a passenger on the back. They look outrageously high-up in my opinion. I guess the larger 125cc -150cc scooters also use a slightly larger wheel size as well which I imagine contributes to the height of this new generation of scooters.

Another issue is …‘hauling’. That is to say…getting your scooter in an out of parking spaces by pulling and pushing it with your arms. I consider myself to have good upper-body strength but at 5’7, the Cygnus (for example) is pretty hard to haul around. Its tough to push through small openings, to back-up and is generally unwieldy. I still really like my Cygnus. Its a great quality scooter and its got good power and although its a bit on the wide side (unnecessary girth to accommodate more under-seat room in my opinion) the larger tires ensures a good ride. For my wife however, its brutal.

In the end, I reckon we’re going to go with a Kymco GP 125cc (although I’d like the VJR)

But, thanks for mentioning that Gogoro allows free test drives. Might be fun to go try one.

Unfortunately, we don’t have an old scooter to trade in to get the maximum Gogoro subsidy - which I’ve heard is substantial.

Yes…big difference:

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Nonetheless, 62k for a 125cc (grade) scoots isn’t a bad deal.

Do the scooter shops not have new scooters that are old models sitting around? I haven’t ridden a VJR or Rays, but often see them on the road and it seems like they fit your criteria.

I’m going to try and find a YSP shop today that has an AXIS in stock. According to the stats sheet, it should be running 10 inch tires (as oppose to the Cygnus which runs 12 inch) so I’m thinking that it should be shorter.

If that still proves to be too tall, I’ll check out the Suzuki store but will likely settle on a Kymco GP.

Thanks for all the good advice :slight_smile:

Does it have to be 125cc? I was surprised by how much power the Kymco 得意100 has, and you can pick up a used one for a song. They’re designed for female riders, but I had no trouble carrying an adult passenger on one, and the ride was surprisingly good.