Yamaha Teos 125

Beautiful quality scooter and trouble free. Good strong and balanced build with soft sounding engine and sharp first time start everytime compared to any Chinese bike of any engine size.I communte 26 miles daily and the bike is a econimical dream to own and very easy to service. I would recommend this bike to everyone as you cant go wrong.Tax £15 yearly, Insurance (3rd party only) £70 and fuel currently @ £9 every 2 weeks.Look after it and the bike will serve you forever.

Great littlew bike

if you do own one, please could u tell me how to release the seat to access the petrol cap lol

A nippy little bike plus very cheap

Many thanks

I bought this bike to avoid the bristol city traffic, a car journey would be 20 mins with this 5 minutes, its very nippy indeed, an average of 55mph, very reliable and doesn't look chavvy like most scooters do, also being a 4 stroke it's very quiet rather than sounding like a hairdryer, recommended.

I bought this Yamaha Teos 125 scooter at the end of summer 2006 to take to university with me. I was chuffed when I found a Y plate low mileage model with full service history locally and ended up paying £530 for it. The ride home was great, as would be expected with a new bike of any kind and I couldn't wait to get it up to uni with me. Initially, I couldn't fault the scooter, but as time has progressed I have grown a little less fond of her.

When cold, the scoot cannot idle and there is no choke (I believe it is automatic) to help it. Consequently, the bike cannot be left to warm up and it must be sat with. The rear shock that came with the bike turned out to be for a YP250 which gave a spine shattering ride to begin with. This was swapped for a Teos original shock but the damping is still too stiff for my liking. I own two Aprilia RS125s and the ride on them is smoother, which considering their racing tilt, is unacceptable. The scoot is fine on smooth roads, but they are few and far between in Sheffield.

The underseat storage bin would be great but there is a large protrusion thanks to the positioning of the carb that prohibits the stowage of a full face lid. The build quality is not what I expected from a Japanese manufacturer (granted MBK, a French company, do produce these scooters and they are simply rebadged for the UK). Panels do not clip together as they should, a bolt or screw together interface would be preferable.

The turning circle is tiny which is good for filtering round stationary cars and the steering lock is great - it does not interfere with your knees either. The brakes are fine but I would like more stopping power myself. The scoot has very limited weather protection, expect to get very cold and wet in the rain, particularly your knees and thighs.

Finally, though there is plenty of room to carry a pillion, performance suffers and up a hill, your speed will be less than 30mph. Take off speed will slow to a crawl.

On the plus side, this scoot is powerful enough for one passenger, take offs are relatively quick (you'd be beaten by a 2 stroke or a bike with a clutch without a bother though) and hill speed is around 35mph. I am quite fond of the looks personally, its no vespa but looks a lot more interesting than a Honda Dylan for example. I cannot say how the weather protection would improve with the fitting of a screen, I still feel that your knees would be over exposed (though I am quite tall at 6'2). Still, the bike is small enough to filter, but not small enough that someone of my size is cramped when riding (even with pillion). Fuel economy is also pretty good (though I did used to own a 150mpg Aprilia SR Ditech) I've probably ridden 200 miles on about £15 of petrol. Tax is £15 and the bike is NU Group 4 I believe. In the summer, this bike will be great for cruising, and I think it does what it was intended to do well.

If you live in an area with silky smooth roads, never plan on going above 40mph and it is never cold or rainy then this scoot would suit your needs quite well. For me, the wheels could do with being a little larger to improve handling characteristics, the suspension could do with being a bit softer, the carb should be repositioned so that you can put a full face lid under the seat, the handlebars should be raised slightly to give better knee protection and the bodywork screwed or bolted together rather than clipped.

There are very few performance mods available at a reasonable price for this bike, so don't expect to improve it too much. It does depend what you want out of your scoot, as I said I can recommend this bike, but if you have intentions of shopping trips or motorway use etc, consider a Honda Dylan/Pantheon or the Piaggio engined 125s (X8, X9, Gilera Runners, Vespa GTs) as the 4 valve motor gives a better top end.