Cagiva Mito or Direct access?

[Romanov]

Hi,
Well I passed the theory test, the clips test was utter rubbish I thought they said some were 'developeing problems' like a pedestrian crossing a side street which you had no intention at turning into???? utter rubbish that was

BUT what do you reckon I was looking in the bike shop the other day and I saw this little corker

http://www.cagivausa.com/mito125/700mattblack.html

and I was wondering whether to go to direct access now or maybe pickup a little 125 like this and go on the L plate for awhile, the bike looks ace albeit its small and quite pricey but Im a beginner so I wondered whether I should wait to get on a 600 and get one of these instead

Any oppinions - should I go Direct Access and get a sv650s or get this and buzz around for a year?
cheers
Romanov

[Shad]

I'd say start with the Cagiva. My mate's got a Mito in red/white, looks very nice until you notice how small the rear tyre is

But at least then you'll have the opportunity to move up the scale sensibly, instead of jumping on quite a big bike straight away.

[Tumble]

Rear tyre on a Cagiva?? Small?? jeeez... they've got a 130 on the back, and a 90 on the front iirc... My TZR had an 80 on the BACK.. and a 65 on the front... Now THEY'RE skinny tyres....

[Romanov]

Yeah Im tending to lean in the direction of a smaller bike I sat on larger 600's and Ive gotta admit it was a bit scary , the rears looked truly huge and frankly I thought I was out of my depth a bit. As much as Id like to be Rossi sense is starting to take over

130 is pretty large!!!

[Rave]

The trouble is that it's a two stroke, so it uses quite a lot of fuel and oil, and it won't be as reliable as a four stroke. Remember, if you pass your test on a 125 you'll have to wait two years before you can get a bigger bike, and although derestricted 125s feel pretty fast at first, you'll eventually get tired of having to thrash it everywhere to make decent progress. I still go with my original advice of doing the direct access test and then getting a four cylinder 400 like a VFR400R NC30 or an FZR400. How big are you? The Mito is pretty small and anyone 5'10 or over will find it a bit cramped I'd imagine. Still, that probably goes for the 400s too....

Rich :¬)

[Romanov]

Arghhhhh LOL gotta make up me mind soon otherwise Ill be 50 before I get a bike Im 32 and 5ft 11 bou pretty light framed so I might be ok. If I passed my CBT and Im over 21 can I derestrict the 125 when I buy it?

Its good advice Rave but the cost of Direct Access for me is £600 for 3 days thats a heck of alot of money but also insurance for a 400 is still £700 fully comp a 125 mito is only £350 fully comp.

The reason I looked at bikes (apart from pose value *ahem*) was to have a cheap source of transport as opposed to a car. Any 600 is looking like the same cost for 10 times the risk of riding a bike so at that point I may as well get a car? .............but I want a bike

[Rave]

Yeah, I guess direct access is expensive. Still if you can drive a car and you can actually ride a bike (as in accelerate, change gear, steer, brake), then I doubt a three day course would be necessary. The rules of the road as they apply to cars are basically the same as for bikes. The test is slightly different; you have to do the emergency stop the same, but you don't have to do a reverse park/reverse round a corner; instead you have to do a feet up u-turn which is a piece of cake. You have to learn to do 'lifesaver' looks, and that's about it really. I did my CBT at 16 and rode a moped around for a year and a half; I only did a one day course to check I was ready for the test and then passed first time.

As for bikes being cheap transport, well, that really does depend on the bike. No sports bike will be cheap to run, in fact most will be expensive. Bikes can get you a lot of speed for the money, but it's a bit like buying an early 90s 7-series BMW. You don't buy a 3.5 litre exectutive car for £1000 and then expect it to cost the same as a fiesta to run; similarly you don't buy a 160mph bike and then expect to run it on a budget. Sportsbikes eat tyres in 3-5000 miles, chains maybe every 10-15000 miles; brake pads/discs every 20-30,000 miles, and service intervals/oil changes are often every 3000 miles. These are highly tuned machines at the end of the day, they need looking after.

Something like a Honda CB500 on the other hand will be a fair bit better. The engine isn't as highly tuned, and it has less power so it can use harder tryes and shred them less. People can and do run 600s or even FireBlades/R1s as their everyday bikes but that's not really a cost saving option. Better to have a basic commuter bike for getting about (or a tourer if you cover longer distances) and a sportsbike as a weekend toy.

So, we're still no nearer to figuring out what you should buy. Try and get a quote for a Honda CB500 or a Kawasaki ER500. They're a bit faster than a derestricted Mito* but I wouldn't be surprised if they were cheaper to insure. They'll probably be easier to ride and running costs should be a bit lower simply because they're not two strokes. If you decide that you really can't justify stumping up for direct access, then you could always pass your test on an old CG125, sell it on for what you paid for it, and then ride a restricted ER5, CB500 or even SV650 for a couple of years. Hopefully after that time you'll have a couple of years NCB and you can buy what you like then.

Rich :¬)

* Theoretically you can derestrict the Mito when you pass your 125 test but as well as having a power limit there's also a power to weight ratio limit for 33hp bikes. I have heard in the past that a Mito or Aprilia RS125 is actually too light to have 30hp. Whether or not you'd actually ever get into trouble for that I don't know, but it seems unlikely.

Oh, and you moan that insuring a 400 would cost £350 more than the Mito. Maybe so, but a Mito cost the wrong side of £3000 last time I checked. A very nice condition VFR400R NC30 can be yours for less than £2000, and it will depreciate very little if you look after it. A Mito OTOH will probably lose at least £1k in depreciation in its first year. Overall, you'd come out ahead.

[Romanov]

LOL well I try not to moan m8 Thanks this is very informative I hadnt realised I can just do a test on a 125 and then restrict say the sv650s until Im ready to take DAS a much much cheaper option this about £150 all in Mitos are pricey but I think your suggestion about the 33bhp restriction albeit riding the sv650 is right, the insurance with a bhp limit is very low something I didnt know so thats the way Im going ..Ive booked me test and IM looking at the Sv this weekend wohoo!!

[ekundo]

If you get a mito, you better be a good mechanic, someone i worked with had one, was blowing itself apart every other week.

[Rave]

Cool, glad I could help. With the bike limited to 33hp it's not going to set the world on fire but it should still be at least as fast as a decent GTi and top out at 100ish. Once you've got a bit of confidence and/or a year's NCB you can pass your direct access, whip the restrictor out and be away!

Rich :¬)

[JP7152]

Not to put a damper on anything, but the DAS test is exactly the same as the restricted test.

[TeePee]

Run far, far away from a mito. In restricted form a CG125 is better than it in all but looks. In unrestricted form it's an excellent track bike, but it's so unreliable on the road that a sportsbike will be cheaper to run in the long term. You will enjoy riding a restricted sv650 far more than you would a mito.

[Rave]

Not to put a damper on anything, but the DAS test is exactly the same as the restricted test.

The test is the same, yes. However, you have to take it on a larger, heavier and more powerful bike which probably doesn't make the feet up u-turn any easier. Unless you do all your training on a 125 and then just hop on the big bike for your test (which probably won't do you any favours), then your training on the bike has to be accompanied by a qualified instructor at all times, which costs £££; you can pootle about on your own on a 125 practising and gaining confidence for the cost of your petrol.

Rich :¬)

[RVF500]

If you want a 2 stroke then get the Aprilia RS250, don't p*ss about with a 125. Though once again I find myself in agreement with Rave on this subject. You're better off (imho) with a 4 stroke.