Aprilia Habana Custom 125

I've had this bike about 4 months now and am very pleased with it. It's not the cheapest 125cc scooter you can buy, but the extra cash is well worth the extra size and sheer good looks the Habana provides. The retro styling was the first thing that attracted me to the bike, that and the fact that my knees didn't feel like they were around my ears when I was riding, like some scooters! I tried scooters like the Yamaha Aerox 100 and Peugeot Speedfight 100 which get rave reviews and look very sporty, but they are still quite small physically and although they'd have been fine for the wife to ride, I was just not comfortable on them. Anyways, back to the Habana; Personally I love the wide handlebars and 'harley' type riding position, some would say that the extra width is a hindrance in traffic - I disagree, and do plenty of runs through traffic without any problems on my 40 mile work round-trip that I do if the weather is good enough ;-)

The bike provides plenty of space, both riding and storage, although the under seat storage compartment, whilst big, is not big enough for a uk full face helmet. Although the 125 features rear passenger foot rests, I would personally have problems carrying a pillion as I sit about midway on the seat whilst riding, not leaving much room! (I'm about 6ft tall).

As for performance; The 4-stroke 125 engine will zip you up to 60 mph on the flat and will then get up to 65 mph with a little encouragement, 70 being about flat out, depending on the wind conditions. Fuel consumption is excellent, I've been getting a steady 85 mpg running on supermarket petrol. The bike takes 8 litres from completely empty, so you're looking at £5 to fill it up, it'll then do about 130 miles on that. Now couple these running costs with only £15 annual road tax and £100 TPFT insurance and you have a very economical vehicle! The brakes are excellent too - the rear cable drum brake actually feels every bit as powerful as the front hydraulic disk brake, and they work well together.

The bike is put together well, with some good thinking thrown in - things like inspection hatches in all the right places so that you don't have to remove too many screws to check oil levels, tweak the tick-over speed etc.

About the only downside to the bike is that the chrome is not real, just plastic, so although it looks nice, it's gonna take some careful looking after to keep it that way!

the brochure picture here with a few accessories; full size windscreen rear carrier there's also a side-stand available.

and in the other colour option; jet black