1999 Kymco 125 Custom
Summary:
Not the best, but comfortable, economical and so very reliable
Faults:
Bought it dirt cheap, and the ad implied near MOT ready to get it OTR. But it wasn't!
Needed front tyre, £29 fitted myself. I wanted new brake fluid in the system due to it being SORNed for awhile. During replacing the fluid, the caliper seized and wouldn't budge! New pistons fitted and new fluid tank as the old one would pressurize... £40.
Loose steering head - tightened up. Steering head bolt was snapped down in its hole! A good drill bit and a hardened M8 long bolt solved that.
Headlight lens had a rusty edge - MOT fail. £12 Chinese version worked OK, better beam!
Indicators worked well, but screws totally rusted, so removed all 4 and replaced with a 4 set of LED type for £10 including the LED compatible relay... they worked quite well and were 50% brighter!
When finally OTR, chain kept tightening, proper adjusting by dealer or myself... yes, I know how to, would last a few days a chain was tight again! Adjusted to loose and it would tighten again but not so bad. Dealer later found the whole rear of frame was loose! Not obvious to me.
General Comments:
Kymco had a fair few years of making stuff for the likes of Suzuki etc, so they knew what they were doing.
A custom style copy of Honda's CG125. it looked quite good and after the problems it was OTR and my way of getting work after 2 years off ill. BANG! A job within a week and this poor little bike had the arduous task of getting me to work 6 days a week, 120 miles weekly. Job started in December 16 and I rode the poor thing in the worst of wet weathers, ice and cold down to -7C and it never once complained!!!
This 20 year old bike just kept going and it was me who gave up 1st! Fed up with frozen hands etc after 4 months, I bought 4 wheels on a whim for £260 and got very lucky with that one too!
I only mark handling as 5 because I never got to ride it on a dry road... not even a mile of dry road, the weather was always that bad!
Made a decent sale of the bike, recovering bike cost, repairs & MOT cost plus about £80 on top!
Would you buy another motorcycle from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 11th March, 2018