Honda Sh 125

I ran one of these through London for two years, covering maybe 12,000 kilometres, and the SH125 earned its reputation the hard way — by never letting you down. The engine is smooth, pulls cleanly from low revs, and settles into a relaxed cruise at 70–75 km/h without complaining; ask it for more and you'll get 90 km/h, but the wind blast reminds you this thing has no fairing to speak of. That underseat storage was genuinely useful day-to-day, though it swallows a half-face helmet and not much else, so forget panniers unless you bolt on luggage. The ride quality over broken urban tarmac is compliant enough, but the original brakes — drums front and rear on early models — feel nervous in the wet and you will learn to plan stopping distances accordingly.

I put about 8,000 km on a 2007 SH 125 commuting through city traffic, and the revised suspension over the first gen is genuinely noticeable — potholes that used to jar your fillings are now merely annoying. The fuel injection (on markets that got it) transformed cold starts from a morning ritual of coaxing to pure press-and-go reliability, which matters when you're running late every single day. That said, 95 km/h is a theoretical number — at 80 you're already asking the engine something it doesn't want to answer, and merging onto faster ring roads requires planning and optimism in equal measure. The bodywork update looks cleaner and more purposeful than the first gen, but the under-seat storage remains frustratingly shallow for anything larger than a thin document wallet.