Japanese 125 Bike ranges.

[Spongefinger]

I was just wondering. Regardless of peoples opinions of the quality of Chinese 125 bikes ( that's not what this thread is about) there are some great looking Chinese 125's out there , loads of retros, scramblers, flat trackers....but as far as I can see there are virtually none or actually no kinds of these bikes made by the big Japanese companies ? They seem to be popular so I wonder why ?

[Gerontious]

125s are a very small market, 150cc is a much bigger deal for the Japanese, worldwide outside of Europe. even within Europe 125s are a very small market as every country aside from the UK demands a full license to ride one. its a restricted license, but still requires the owner to do the full test. because of all these factors the Japanese keep the model ranges fairly small and concentrate their efforts on larger bikes that are where the earnings come from. The Chinese have none of these worries.. they can churn out bikes like nobody else and are quick to latch on to trends and can react almost instantly. They also have no worries about copyright or licensing. so they can make smaller copies of bigger, very popular Japanese and European bikes and flood the market with impunity.

 

The Japanese steer a steady course producing (small capacity/learner) bikes aimed at the key markets. road bikes. race bikes. cruisers and off-road adventure style. aimed at the UK and EU knowing full well that for the vast majority of buyers these are purely a stepping stone.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Gerontious

[Spongefinger]

Cheers, thanks for the information , I had no idea that rest of Europe need full license to ridec125....i thought we had the toughest bike licencing laws here in the UK!

Edited August 12, 2021 by Spongefinger

[S-Westerly]

I didn't know that either. Probably explains why so many European kids are rattling around on 50cc mopeds.