Longest lasting 125 engine?

[pikey]

My pan euro before sold for spares engine still ran sweet it had full Honda service up to 160K was doing 1k a week having service once a month as a Roadwatch bike in Cornwall a mate did it up resprayed it for himself then I brought it .Original engine he re shimmed cams still in spec compression wise sounded like a sewing machine when I had it .Still started and ran after 5 years in shed and ticked over after a while with fresh petrol

[Data]

The water cooled Honda 125 engine is capable of very high mileages, even when used to the limit all the time, I have seen used ones for sale with 100,000+ miles on them, most of the Dylans and SH125's have a hard life in London and give good service.
My S-Wing is happy at 60mph and for overtakes can get upto 70, it gives about 110mpg and spares are cheap (belt £29 easy to fit and should last 16,000 miles)
When I had a Burgman 650 and the S-Wing 125 in the garage, my first choice of bike was the 125, I like being involved in the ride, and making progress on a light weight scoot is more interesting, ie high cornering speed.

I love riding these modern 125's. They go well and you are very involved in the ride as you say. It's better for your riding skill too. You have to plan the overtakes etc. I'm sure the engines today go 100,000 miles or thereabouts but are on the cusp of needing big work. It's a romantic idea to think they are not. That's why most are up for sale at that sort of mileage. My well serviced 50k C90, admittedly air cooled, was well beyond it's service life for the piston and rings and the crank tolerances on the big end were exceeded which explained the light knocking at idle. Often when talking to people about their bike they wax lyrical about the reliability and nothings been done to it other than normal servicing, but then later in the conversation they reveal it had new exhaust valves and camshaft, or a new piston, but don't regard it as a big thing. Almost a service item. The valves and seats on all my bikes that I've rebuilt needed either regrinding or replacing with new springs to of course. Camchain tensioners don't last very long on modern bikes either. One new cylinder head too on my CD175 as the cam ran in the cylinder head with no separate bearings. My GSX1400 had over 150,000 hard miles on it and the engine was fine but the gearbox bearings were suffering and that's a near £1800 job if you do it yourself, since you have it apart you may as well do the valves and springs, camchain and tensioner, piston rings and deglaze bores, new bearings for the gearbox and replace second gear (a weakness on that model). If the dealer does it, it's £3k. It's an easy job though just time consuming with all the TPS and throttle body setup etc. Not going there again! My own Burgman 400 engine has a service life of around 125k so I'm looking forward to not doing anything to it for a few years yet.

[richie the 1st]

And now for my import,1st Honda sh125 has done 40800 miles [sorned past 3 years 1 day]Still starts up,it ran lovely much faster then 2nd Honda sh125i.14700 Miles.
How long will it last .?? Who knows ? It seems to me that the more miles a engine does,the better it runs.As for 300,000 miles.>> Well lets see the prove..?
My mate was a Dispatch rider until April last year then he had a bad accident,lost lower right leg.He is ok now,but hes 1st Honda CB 500 did 98000 miles/
2nd 210,000 miles.3rd was crushed by the police did 187000 miles.All run great.
Miles that a 125 scoot engine will ????? 70000 miles.?? Look after it should do it.

[Dave Weller]

Good input Richie, nice to hear from you.

[Big Den]

I havent had a 125 for decades but now have a burger 125, only done 14k but after a few runs inc motorway i find i am using it at the top end of its range (60 mph) so i guess my point is that as opposed to bigger bikes like the Pan which i have seen many examples with 200k + and still going strong, the little 125's etc are put under severe stress most of the time as are 50cc scoots.
Back in the day my Fantic engined moped was full throttle for the whole year i had it, including a 260 mile run to Cornwall

[MrGrumpy]

I think many modern engines will run for large mileages, if properly serviced. In some ways doing a good regular ileage and getting thoroughly warm is actually good for an engine - doing lots of short runs is not so good. I remember I had an old Nissan Primera when I was commuting 40 miles each way each day, and the oil never ever turned black and sludgy, it always looked like brand new oil even after 10,000 miles. Obviously treating an engine with some sort of respect is obvious required as well, so I wonder if 125 under scooter engines will last so long as they are effectively thrashed full throttle 90% of the time. Also, I suspect that the average life expectancy of a scooter is probably not that long, mileage wise, so I guess they will be built down to a price.

[KEEFYBEE]

My previous scoot, a Piaggio Skipper st125 on a '53' was around 4.5 years old and had done just under 36000 miles, when some little shit tried thieving it from my garage and damaged it beyond economical repair so the insurance company wrote it off. It was serviced regularly and all in all was quite reliable, but towards the end , the electrics were starting to play up. My current is an Xevo 125 on an '08' just on 35900 miles at the minute, the motor's still sweet as a nut, and more importantly the electrics are fine, I think Ive got a good few thou left in this one

[Scootaboy]

We used to have a customer who had a CG 125 (not the Brazilian model) he traded his old one in for a new one it had over 200.000 miles on the clock,mechanically it was sound cosmetically it was a shed as it was used all weathers.He didn't want money for the trade in value he wanted it in Oil,he changed the Oil every 1,000 miles.I have always thought that is the least basic bit of maintenance,oil and filter (where necessary).Keep the Oil clean and it should never wear out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

Scootaboy...