> Suzuki Burgman 125cc

It’s taken Suzuki a while, but they’ve finally released a learner-legal version of the popular Burgman. The all-new 125 shares the same big styling and top-notch quality as its 400 and 650cc brothers as you’d expect, but it’s lighter and more agile, which makes it perfect for a daily workhorse.

The Suzuki looks great, with nicely styled panels that share the family resemblance and it’s practical too. It has a decent sized and illuminated underseat space, (accessed by pushing and turning the ignition key) there’s also a handy lockable glovebox, large enough to put your waterproofs in and a useful cubby hole to the right of the handlebars, which will come in handy for putting a mobile in.

As you’d expect from a modern scooter built by the Japanese giants, the Burgman 125 is powered by a clean burning and economical fuel injected, single-cylinder engine. The catalysed exhaust helps to keep the scooter well within the stringent Euro 3 regulations and if it was any greener the exhaust gases would probably resemble a cloud of mushy peas. Twist and go transmission provides faultless power throughout the rev range and also makes it much easier for a novice rider to get to grips with riding a scooter.
The brakes on the Suzuki were fantastic and I got the chance to test them and the tyres to extremes in the wet while filtering past a line of cars. An impatient motorist in the queue decided to do a U-turn, without looking in his mirrors, I managed to brake hard and avoided the side of his Mondeo without losing traction, impressive.
Our test scooter was brand spanking new and felt slightly tight to begin with, as new machines often tend to do, but once I’d put a few miles on the clock it started to loosen up and became much more lively. The exhaust note is quite quiet, but has a pleasant sound, unlike many small capacity four-strokes that often resemble lawnmowers.

I wasn’t too convinced about the riding position. Although it was comfortable, the stepped part of the large dual seat was just a few inches too far forward and it rubbed a bit after a while. The actual seat height is quite low though, which is a bonus for shorter riders and there’s plenty of legroom for taller riders, so you can stretch out a bit if needed. One useful feature is the cutaway floorboards, which means you can keep your legs out of harms way while stopping and starting in traffic. The large screen keeps noise to a minimum and helps to keep you dry if you happen to ride into a tsunami, as I accidentally did…

I had to make an early morning 70-mile trip to Nottingham while I had the scooter and it was lashing it down. So after putting my fantastic Belstaffs on I set off over the Pennines and onto the Woodhead Pass, heading towards Sheffield. About six miles before the M1, traffic ground to a halt and I started to filter through, as you do and praised myself for using the scooter on such a miserable day. After a couple of miles a van driver coming the other way flagged me down and warned me that the road was flooded. Unperturbed I continued and the road started to disappear under a torrent of running water. I carried on and before long the water was lapping at the floorboards. It got deeper and deeper and the only thing to do was to keep the revs up and try to get through as quickly as possible. Flooded cars were stranded at the roadside, water lapping at their doors and within hours half of the residents of Sheffield were being airlifted to safety.

By now the murky water was over my mudguard and vehicles coming the other way were causing massive tidal waves that washed over the screen. The exhaust on the scooter was completely submerged and the engine sounded like a jet ski. As the oncoming waves hit the scooter the pressure was literally lifting the Burgman off its wheels and forcing me towards the unseen pavement. Thankfully, I managed to get to the end of the flooded road, much to the appreciation of the four council workers who stood filming me on their mobile phones! The Burgman never missed a beat and looked as good as new after a quick wash. I even managed to keep dry as well, thanks to my superb waterproofs.

After testing the scooter’s amphibious capabilities, I had a 40-mile motorway journey – which helped me to dry off a bit – and the Burgman handled the fast stretch quite easily. The speedo needle managed to hit 77mph at one stage and it would happily sit at just under 70 for most of the journey. Tank range was also quite impressive; 122 miles on the trip meter before getting into the red and there were still a few litres left in reserve, so expect 150 miles to the tank.
The Burgman 125 is a well thought out and nicely finished scooter. Like other Burgmans it’s still a big machine, so it tends to get a bit of respect from other road users and has a good road presence. It’s sure-footed, easy to flick around the bends and it can literally walk on water. Suzuki are also offering a free insurance deal on their 125s, so check out their offer at your nearest Suzuki dealer.

• End of review.

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