Tuono 125 - any good?

Happy new year everyone!

We are considering another bike in the house. Needs to be CBT and ULEZ complaint. It will be mostly used for commuting.

Cbr125r and CB125R were front runners but I've seen a few Tuono 125 for sale and in paper they look like a decent bit of kit. 15bhp, big enough for a 125 and decent reviews online from journalists giving 1st impressions.

Has anyone on here any real life experience? The Honda were short listed as they are pretty much bulletproof.

Are there any known gremlins lurking in these machines?

Thanks

I can't really comment on the Tuono 125 itself, but if you're going to be using it for commuting day in,day out, having owned bigger bikes from both Honda and Aprilia, I'd probably say pick the Honda, it's less likely to throw up issues, not that Aprilias are particularly unreliable in my experience, what can be an issue is waiting for parts, which will be a complete non issue on a Honda.

That's basically my line of thinking. A honda will likely have fewer faults over an aprilia. I didn't think of difficulty sourcing parts. I don't think the aprilia will have many issues but dealer network and not being a hugely numerous bike might make things difficult or more expensive when things do go wrong.

Next trick it to see if the extra cost of the CB125R over the CBR125r is worth it.

I don’t think the Aprilia is unreliable or any more likely than any other bike to go wrong really, it’s just the waiting time for parts can be very long.

For example when I got knocked off my RSV4, drive admitted fault pretty much straight away, damage to bike wasn’t that much but was waiting nearly 4 months for the bike to be fixed because of parts!.

I know this is an old thread but for reference in case anyone else has the same question I have both bikes sat here my partner has the cb125r 2021 model we bought them mainly to save a few quid commuting and stuff

My honest opinion is this "I wish I had waited for another Honda" 

I wouldn't say the Tuono is worse but id say its a definitely different level of build quality , plastics are plastic and the controls not really the same finish , wobbly buttons sharp edges ,wobbly contact points on a new bike , for example footpegs , the linkages and stuff rattle and wobble about from new on their mountings etc where as the Honda just seems softer and more nicely finished, its quiet the bits are solid and don't rattle about , very very minor things that you could fix but if its a step up bike or a starter bike your not going to waste time doing 

The overall look is more plastic on the Aprilia (daytime running lights look cool though) , the ride is definitely different you have to rev the Aprilia to make progress and whilst its a very free revving little engine it also needs to be ridden everywhere the Honda on the other hand is sleepy puppy dog handling wise ,and so much easier on absolutely every aspect to just jump on and go to the shops or caff or work , I tend to pick up the keys for her bike and sneak a ride on it rather than my own because its literlly fun rather than a chore to ride and that's how I feel sadly about the Aprilia 125, sure you can fiddle and tinker but out the box there's a big difference between them both

Oh and the 125 Aprilia whilst I shouldn't mention this as i don't feel its a quality issue thing at all and more of a "not used to this issue "  the gearbox is not as nice ,whines like a track car with a sequential straight cut gears, and im used to that , however a motorcycle, I was surprised so actually asked the dealer if it had a straight cut box or was there an issue, normally i have had to pay for the privelege of getting the whiny noise whilst slowing down ,so getting it for free from day one was new to me , Selecting gears is stiffer I have adjusted the gear lever to compensate but am still struggling (unlike the Honda which is slick and silent to be fair)

My mate brought his girlfriend a Honda CBR 125 a few years ago. Then after a year traded it for an RS4 125. He came to a similar conclusion.

But it was the constant little problems made him sell it, and get her to do her test.

I was talking to him the other day and he said the guy who brought it still loves it. But brought a Long list of parts for it since buying it.