Best Honda 125, the VT125 Shadow

03 Honda VT 125 Shadow discussion forum:


Best Honda 125, the VT125 Shadow

Best Honda 125, the VT125 Shadow 
1Bicker1 said 2010-07-20 23:36 
 
I have been riding bikes for over 35 years now & have stuck mostly to Hondas. I did try a few Brits & some YamKawaSukis along the way. I found the Hondas had a better build quality & were often more reliable too. Through the years I have owned: CB125S, CB125J, CB125T2,CG125,XL125S,Dylan 125 & the Shadow (used as a commuter by my wife).

The CB125S was a favourite of mine. I had one of the blue & white ones that topped out at 63mph. However it was the CB125J that was the most tuneable. The difference was the barrel & piston. The older S had a thin 122cc liner, but the J had a 124cc thicker liner. I managed to have it bored out to 172cc which meant that it could take a standard CB750 piston! I did this for a friend who owned one & he weighed in at a portly 18.5 stone. That tiny little bike used to keep up quite happily with my 400/4 & 550F2 when we went on ride-outs. It used to do about 70mph too!

The big difference in technology from the seventies to the noughties has been using water cooled engines and a better crank balancing. My current VT125 Shadow has got to be the smoothest, least vibration bike that I have ever owned. (& I have owned well over 60 bikes!) It´s as free-revving as the CB125T2, which used to rev to 12,000 rpm & produced roughly the same bhp too. But it is the way that the Shadow delivers big bike looks with really good performance that has surprised me. I much prefer riding the Shadow on short trips than my CBR1000F. It still draws nods from other big bikers when I pass them. What a great package!
Dave 
 
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