DERBI CROSS CITY 125 (2007 - 2014) Review

The Derbi Cross City is an off-road influenced 125cc learner bike that manages the three-card trick of being stylish, novice-friendly AND affordable – but it’s not perfect.

What pricks the Derbi’s bubble most of all is the tall seat.

For people of 5’9” or more it’s not really an issue and to them I’d say buy and enjoy without a qualm.

For everyone else, however – and particularly women – it makes it a no go.

Dynamically, the Derbi Cross City has all the handling traits you’d expect of an upright, semi-dirt bike styled machine:  a novice-friendly, slim and lightweight upright riding position allied to wide bars which make steering light and easy.

Mix into that reasonable Pirelli Scorpion tyres and an effective front disc brake and you end up with a fairly idiot-proof handler that’s a joy to hustle round.

The Derbi Cross City’s air-cooled, 125 single is effective enough without particularly impressing in any way – but then that’s to be expected of a 12bhp-restricted 125 and is certainly no disaster. It’s novice-friendly, rugged enough and faithful. End of.

The Derbi Cross City has sweet touches and Honda-quality finish aplenty (eg the cast brake lever, fold up ‘MX-style’ gearlever and neatly integrated upswept exhaust) plus minimal but sweetly-styled bodywork.

But there are a few little details that annoy, such as the spring-loaded sidestand which is simply a disaster waiting to happen, a fuel tap that’s ridiculously fiddly and an old-fashioned choke knob that’s even worse. We can’t be conclusive about its resilience here but it seems pretty well put together, is a four-stroke after all and, besides, it’s so basic there’s not much that could go wrong, anyway.

The Derbi Cross City is impressively affordable, too. It’s not only good value for what it does, it makes a mockery of all preconceived notions of Latin-style ‘flair’ bikes being expensive and brittle.

Yet, despite that low-ish price, without, say, Honda’s reputation and residuals, it’s worth reminding that, any savings when bought new are likely to be gobbled up at resale time.

Credible rivals to this bike are the Suzuki VanVan 125 and Honda CBR125R. In fact, take a look at this video:

The Derbi Cross City  scores as an object of desire, too. It might not have much (no fairing, wire wheels, fairly basic spec) but the frame is a pukka (albeit steel) twin beam jobbie, matched by an equally mouth-watering tapered swing arm, there are twirlingly eye-catching brake discs front and rear plus better than average suspension.

While ancillaries include decent clocks (albeit with kph emphasised over mph) and switchgear.