Honda Sonic 125cc

[chavy]

Does anyone own one of the new Honda Sonic 125CC models? The wife is chomping at the bit for a new one so would like to know what sort of price & if worth the money etc etc

[dave_boo]

Does anyone own one of the new Honda Sonic 125CC models? The wife is chomping at the bit for a new one so would like to know what sort of price & if worth the money etc etc

Father in law has one. IIRC, right around 42 000 bhat. It's an ok bike for Thais, but even for me at 5' 9", there's not a lot of space. I.E., it's all to easy to hit my knees on the handle bars during a low speed, tight turn. Having said that, I'd like to point out that it's incredibly smooth, and very, very nimble. Riding down the pot hole infested road isn't as bad as on a Wave since it's so easy to salmon in between the ruts. The speedo is very optimistic at ~160 kph, in fact, compared to my CBR, there's a lot of revving going on at even 80 KPH from the 5 speed transmission.

[chavy]

Does anyone own one of the new Honda Sonic 125CC models? The wife is chomping at the bit for a new one so would like to know what sort of price & if worth the money etc etc

Father in law has one. IIRC, right around 42 000 bhat. It's an ok bike for Thais, but even for me at 5' 9", there's not a lot of space. I.E., it's all to easy to hit my knees on the handle bars during a low speed, tight turn. Having said that, I'd like to point out that it's incredibly smooth, and very, very nimble. Riding down the pot hole infested road isn't as bad as on a Wave since it's so easy to salmon in between the ruts. The speedo is very optimistic at ~160 kph, in fact, compared to my CBR, there's a lot of revving going on at even 80 KPH from the 5 speed transmission.

Cheers for that info dave. The price of 42,000 is that recent is it ?

What CBR model do you have?

[cm das]

I had a Sonic for 3 years before I bought my CBR last year. The Sonic was a great bike - good acceleration & brakes, very light & fun to ride. I think it's the perfect bike for the city (if you're not taller than about 180cm). The only problem I had was needing a new rear tube about every 2 months - no mechanical problems whatsoever. OK, after 3 years I wanted something a little bigger & more stable on the highway - I don't live in the city anymore. Now I'm totally happy with my CBR, but I have nothing bad to say about the Sonic.

[chavy]

I had a Sonic for 3 years before I bought my CBR last year. The Sonic was a great bike - good acceleration & brakes, very light & fun to ride. I think it's the perfect bike for the city (if you're not taller than about 180cm). The only problem I had was needing a new rear tube about every 2 months - no mechanical problems whatsoever. OK, after 3 years I wanted something a little bigger & more stable on the highway - I don't live in the city anymore. Now I'm totally happy with my CBR, but I have nothing bad to say about the Sonic.

Cheers "cm das" I'll probably bite the bullet & buy her one. From the couple of replies I've had & talking to people outside nobody has a bad word against the Sonic so sounds a good buy.

[chavy]

Well yesterday finally had to bite the bullet & buy her the Sonic. For an extra 1000BHT had the push button start fitted which I thought wasn't a bad price. The bike looks nice with spoke wheels instead of the thicker carbon wheels or whatever they're made of. So we'll just have to see how it performs over the coming weeks. Final price on the road, 48,660 BHT.

[smartecosse]

i thought the sonics had been discontinued?

I went into the Honda dealer to enquire about one and was told no longer available .........

[PeaceBlondie]

I suspect they are still available, at least until the production is sold. I think dealers say the model's out of production because the sales manager couldn't get one the last time he didn't really try.

I saw a really nice, late model Sonic today. Great little bike, if you're like the little girls who have to step through instead of throwing your hairy leg over the gas tank.

[smartecosse]

the trouble is that the bikes over here (proper 600 +) are a joke money wise. Had a good few back at home and resent paying ridiculous prices for them over here hence looking for a sonic just for a bit of fun.

then again perhaps a sensibly priced cbr might do the trick but "sensibly priced & farang" dont seem to go together that well

[PeaceBlondie]

the trouble is that the bikes over here (proper 600 +) are a joke money wise. Had a good few back at home and resent paying ridiculous prices for them over here hence looking for a sonic just for a bit of fun.

then again perhaps a sensibly priced cbr might do the trick but "sensibly priced & farang" dont seem to go together that well

Agreed. I had at least six bikes of 400 cc or larger back home, but when I got here (and had enough to buy a late model 1000), the CBR150 was my only choice. Can you find a CBR150 (presuming you're talking about the 150) below 50K easily enough?

[smartecosse]

the trouble is that they are 60k new yet people still seem to want 40 upwards for any in decent nick.

as its just for blatting about on and having a bit of fun i resent paying far more than its worth. Its not the 40k its what I am getting for it.

Just bought a sonic for a friend the other week. A year or so old in good nick and only 16500 baht. Had that much fun on it I know want a something a bit more fun than the Honda Dream that I have as I hate using the car in traffic and have been using the bikes recently for nipping about in town

[Richard-BKK]

Anybody ever think about the Yamaha Air Blade or the brand new Kawasaki Ninja 250R (2008 model) they perform well and the Kawasaki gives even most 400cc a hard time.

[jackcorbett]

Anybody ever think about the Yamaha Air Blade or the brand new Kawasaki Ninja 250R (2008 model) they perform well and the Kawasaki gives even most 400cc a hard time.

Yep. I was just reading a few days ago some road tests of the Ninja 250 R. Reason is a good friend of mine had a Ninja 500 or was it a 550? Anyway, this was years ago and I had a BMW R-65, a 650. The Ninja was a lot of fun to drive and much sportier than my BMW and I was doing some research and found it was such a good bike that it's not been changed very much through all these years. Then I started reading reviews on 250 cc. bikes, the Phantom which is a 200 cc. and found that most likely something like the Honda Rebel which is a 250 cc (actually it's just 234 cc's) twin probably has about identical performance to what the Phantom offers, the Phantom being a 200 cc. single. Then I came across the 250 Kawasaki and from what I've read it's a lot faster than the other 250 cc bikes I've been reading about.

Only problem is it's probably for all practical purposes unavailable in Thailand. And if it is it would probably be hard to get parts for it.

[PeaceBlondie]

Is Kawasaki saying the Ninja 250 will be sold in Thailand, from dealers, with warranty? Now you're talking....

[jackcorbett]

Is Kawasaki saying the Ninja 250 will be sold in Thailand, from dealers, with warranty? Now you're talking....

From what I have read about this machine it has about the same horsepower as the first bike I ever owned which was a Honda 350 which actually only had a 325 c.c. displacement. Both the Honda (I got it in about 1973) and the 250 Ninja are rated at about 100 miles an hour. But on the level without a tail wind the 350 Honda was good for about 90 on its speedometer, not 103 or whatever the specs said on it. But even if the Ninja 250 were good for just 90 miles an hour, none of the other 250's I read road tests on would go over 80 miles an hour.

I would be surprised, (pleasant surprised however) if the Ninja 250 will be offered in Thailand, brand new, with warranty, etc.