APRILIA RS125 (2017 - on) Review

Suspension is surprisingly good for a 125. Also carried a pillion yesterday for the first time ever and it still felt solid, albeit with a much more gentle acceleration off the stand still. Both brakes have very decent stopping power (a bit too much in the front when you are not used to it!). Extremely light and nimble, and grips amazingly well when cornering. I have no trouble keeping up with much larger bikes in corners thanks to this and it gives a lot of confidence when filtering in London. The engine braking is a little intrusive compared to other bikes I tried, to the point where I thought my brake pads must be rubbing but they were not.

It’s got a characteristic howl when you open it up or give a quick twist, and gives you a bit of a giggle off the line. But it is by no means fast (it is a 125 after all ). Peak torque imo kicks in just below the mid rev range. Power delivery is smooth and very easy to control for beginners. That was the main notable thing when I first started riding compared to the 125F Hondas I rode in my CBT. And yes it can pull to 70 mph comfortably even before I did my break in service…

Paint coating feels premium for a 125. So does the chassis and swing arms. The design of the footpeg meant that you would struggle to get it down when wearing race boots and would look like an idiot when stopping. But this bike just cannot be dropped, like at all. Even the smallest of damages require a trip back to the dealer due to how it is designed and assembled together… Dropped on the side once and the mirror popped out (which is surprising given that they are bendable and shouldn’t have suffered enough impact to pop anyway). On a Japanese bike, it would be a quick fix. But here you would need to undo the entire windshield and front panel to pop it back in. Another drop at below 10mph within a week of getting it brand new cost me close to £800 to fix because the parts just snap off cleanly… After my third breakdown (gear rod bolt snapped whilst riding peacefully at 20mph in London…) at the start of this month I decided to move onto a Japanese big bike for ease of maintenance and reliability…

Have not done my break in service yet but would be around the £170 mark. Mpg is decent but definitely not near the acclaimed 210mile fuel range (clocked 460 miles atm and went for gas three times so far). The fuel indicator is also not accurate which can add to stress. Price wise it is costly for a 125, but it is a very dashing bike, especially once you get the L plates off after getting your full A…

Tyres are very decent for a 125 with excellent grip for leaning. ABS is included. It was difficult however to get a quadlock phone mount. None of the fork stems or handle bar mounts work and it was only when they launched the reservoir mounts that I finally found a solution. Also shame that phone and app connectivity is an extra you need to pay for (which I annoyingly did not know). Compared to other rivals, Yamaha and KTM have TFTs but hey we beat them on the looks. One thing I really struggled as a beginner on this bike, though, is the lack of a gear indicator. It only shows neutral but once you learn to throw gears out of the window and just listen to the engine/feel for vibrations it becomes second nature.

Really hard to ride and change gears it’s not nice to ride at all.

As 125’s go it’s decent but I’ve had faster farts.

Average