Honda Wave 125 vs Yamaha 135

[KZ]

It's time to look for a replacement of my trusty 7-year-old Wave 110, it's got almost 60K km, never a problem! Can't beat those little things for everyday duty around town.
The Wave 125 would be the obvious choice, but I've discovered a Yamaha X1R - 135cc, watercooled (!), front and rear discs, E-start, for 49K THB. The shop doesn't have any information of any kind, so I'm wondering if anybody out there has this Yamaha, and what their opinion is. It seems to be available with FI, too. Also the model I saw had a clutch, but I want a semi-automatic, don't know if that's available.
Will check with a dealer in a bigger town soon, if anybody has any information, it's very welcome!

 

[johngooding]

Hi Kz,
I had one of these last year, it was fuel injected and it had a clutch, you cannot get one with an automatic or semi auto box. Mine had been fitted with a load of alloy and carbon fibre bits for the showroom. so was changed to a standard 1 down, 3 up change ,from the rocker type.
It was kickstart, not sure if electric available.
Must say it looked prettier and sportier than it behaved, its probably really a bike for the youngsters who want pretensions to a sports bike.
It has very little luggage carrying capacity.The 135 is a good engine which Yamaha seem to be spreading to most of their bikes, but our Automatic Nouvo elegance 135, actually is a better ride than the X1R was, and seemed to accelerate and reach travelling speed as well as the X1R.
Cheers, John

 

[KZ]

Thanks, John, your info saves me a trip to Petchaburi! I definitely want a semi-automatic, kind of a shame that there's only clutch or full automatic to choose from. I though the 135cc watercooled engine may be a good reason to switch to Yamaha, the futuristic body work doesn't do anything for me - one more reason to stay with the Honda Wave. I need storage space since this is my utility bike for shopping, laundry, school/work runs aso. And the Wave 125 FI is even a bit cheaper.

 

[johngooding]

Hi, I think the Wave Fi is a good well proven bike, and now runs on E10 or E20 with no problems. Its more fuel efficient than the automatics
I still think Yamaha the edge on the fully automatics. Cheers John

 

[johngooding]

Most of the Honda and Yamaha fuel injected models in the small bike showrooms now have stickers saying they will run on E20. It is quite possible the Phantom does, may be worth checking, although it does not seem to be much cheaper than E10.

 

[KZ]

I was thinking to get the carbed 125 Wave, why spend 5 grand more on FI, that'll buy me a lot of gas for a small engine like that. Actually a friend of mine says his FI Wave takes as much gas as his old 125...

 

[johngooding]

Older carbed bikes have trouble coping with the Gasohol fuels. So one has to find 91 benzene, no alcohol. getting more difficult to find in some areas and supposedly will be withdrawn completely one day.
It may be that Honda has had the sense to use alcohol resistant seals in the carburettor, and elsewhere in the fuel system.then it could use either fuel. Guess the brochue or the showroom would answer that one.

 

[monsterman]

I am also looking for a replacement for my 4 year old wave 125 which to be honest has been very poor quality it has rusted badly , vibrates like hell and is not a well made as our other 12 year old wave 100.It has been serviced regularly and cleaned bu the finish and quality of construction is aweful

So no more Honda waves , I like the new Yamaha Nuovo and the Honda airblade but The Yamaha seems better quality of finish.

jerry

 

[KZ]

I've had a used Wave 125, low mileage, and it sometimes missed, like an electrical cut out, sometimes once a week, then twice a day, kind of weird. Had it fixed at the Honda shop, they showed me a small gizmo with a spring that had contact with the cam - never saw somethig like it and didn't understand what it might be for - they installed a new cam and gizmo, cost me over 1000 THB. ran fine for some time, then it happened again, sold it.
When I was at the dealer, there were three other 125s with open engine being worked on. Also a thai friend who runs a dealership told me that the 125s had "not so good engines". She never sold them but bought up all the new 110s from other dealers.
Just a fluke or are there more complaints?
I checked with the local dealer, a disc brake 125 with E-start is 46K plus 1.3 for insurance and registering; the same bike with FI is 48K - guess it's worth to spring for the FI version...
They also got a fancy-looking 110 FI model for 38K, it's kinda like the Yamaha 135, all style and no storage space.

 

[Franz]

I used to have several HONDA-Waves and Dreams from 100cc to 125cc, even a 125FI, all were running smooth and no problems at all. Used to have also a YAMAHA SPARK 135, that was my favourite bike as in acceleration and comfort better than the Waves, also no problems with that one. Just now I use a SUZUKI Step 125, only advantage is the price with this one, all other values are lacking behind the favoured Spark and even the Waves. Cheers, Franz

 

[KZ]

The 125 I had used 2.4L per 100km, quite a bit up from my 110 which uses 1.9L, but then again the 125 has way more power. 3rd gear feels like 4th of the 110. The CBR150R used 2.9L, my VTR250 3.8L per 100km, which is a bit high, if I'd synch the carbs it would probably go down to 3.5L.
Didn't know they sell the Wave in the UK!

 

[monsterman]

Cost of Honda wave in UK is over 130,000 baht so a ripoff price.

 

[KZ]

1.8L is damn good mileage for a 125 - sure you did the right math? All this liter/US gallon/Imperial gallon/km/mile stuff can be confusing... when are they going to do away with it? And why do some spell it "litre"?
monsterman, how much did you pay for your 125? Maybe you got the "cheap" version? - At the local dealer they have two 125 Waves, the cheap version "Wave X" has lots of cheap parts, less chrome aso and goes for a few thou less than the Wave "S". Most obvious is the "chrome" on the rims, it doesn't eve look like chrome. The top of the line 125 FI electric start (the 125s seem to all have a front disc now) is 48K.
Funny enough in Cambodia I've seen ONLY E-start Waves, no kick start at all.

 

[monsterman]

Captain_Slash wrote: 2.4L per 100km, I would say thats about the same fuel consumption that I get out of my UK one. Its badged in the UK as the Innova but still the same bike, I found my FI Wave was using about 1.8L per 100km

Jerry I paid 1850 GBP for mine which at the current exchange rate is under 100000 Baht

Still a ripoff 250% more than Thai price , shipping , customs and VAT etc would only add £200 at most to the thai price so at £1850 its £1000 too expensive in UK.

 

[monsterman]

KZ wrote: 1.8L is damn good mileage for a 125 - sure you did the right math? All this liter/US gallon/Imperial gallon/km/mile stuff can be confusing... when are they going to do away with it? And why do some spell it "litre"?
monsterman, how much did you pay for your 125? Maybe you got the "cheap" version? - At the local dealer they have two 125 Waves, the cheap version "Wave X" has lots of cheap parts, less chrome aso and goes for a few thou less than the Wave "S". Most obvious is the "chrome" on the rims, it doesn't eve look like chrome. The top of the line 125 FI electric start (the 125s seem to all have a front disc now) is 48K.
Funny enough in Cambodia I've seen ONLY E-start Waves, no kick start at all.

it was a Wave S and its horrible but we have been offered 15,000 against a 1 year old Airblade at 39,000 baht (3900km) so only have to cough up 24,000 .

But I want to wait for the new EFI Nuovo..will decide on monday .

 

[roaddhist]

When I first saw the specs on the 135 Spark LC4V I was really impressed-135engine, 4 valve, liquid cooled, fuel injection, mono shock-everything but a rear disc brake in one package with optional electric start and auto clutch available. A year later I rented an X1R that came with the rear disc but was carbureted and rechecked the specs at the dealer to find only one model that was FI and don't remember if the auto clutch was still offered. The rental ran really good but, as commented in an earlier post, no storage space whatsoever. When I look around, It would appear that that 90% or better of the Thai motorbike market belongs to Honda. With the LC4V 135 Spark and X1R up against the 125 Wave, the LC4V 135 Nouvo against the 110 Air Blade and the 115 Fino up against the 110 Click, it looks like Yamaha is seriously out to steal some of Honda's thunder. But old habits are hard to change in Thailand and, except for the really popular Fino, the few Thai I can communicate with prefer Honda and Thaksin-oops, never mind the politics. I know, if a newbie like myself keeps blabbin' on the boards non-stop that I'm cruisin' for a slammin' so I'll try to give it a rest for a while.Later, M

 

[KZ]

Saw a nice looking Kawasaki 130 yesterday, gotta get some information and price on that. Lately I'm a Kawa fan, I like their sales politics, offering three 250s for a decent price, the ER6N coming soon, hopefully...
Weird that they have such a small market share here even though they've built lots of good bikes and have much bigger shares in Europe and the US.
Sometimes the underdog tries harder...

 

[monsterman]

Honda have over 60%of the markets Yamaha about 25% the others share the rest but Honda are not making bike to the same quality of finish anymore, reliablity may be OK but paint ,chrome and blackening are rub bish now on Hondas ..yamaha have the edge now.

Suzuki hayate looks as good as the airblade and Nuovo but has a glaring fault.... poor underseat storage compared to the others .

 

[Pikey]

I don't really want to get into a discussion on the merits of commuter bikes but we have one Hayate on our rent fleet (18 months old) and it's underseat storage is about the same as my personal Nuovo Elegance - a round, deep bucket as opposed to the ABs longer but shallower storage area.

Also, our Hayate and another I know of, suffer from powerloss after about an hour of constant running, probably due to them being aircooler rather than watercooled like the AB and Nuovo.

Also, Honda came around to our shop with the new 110cc Honda CZ-i. 4 speed/auto clutch. 38K baht, nice looking and a brief test ride impressed me with a zippy engine and a great front brake.

Right, that's it from me. ;-)

Cheers,

Pikey.

 

[KZ]

My buddy has a Hayate and is very happy with it, maybe because he never rides it longer than ten minutes.
Saw the CZ1 or what it's called, not a bad bike, 110cc and FI for 38K - but it seems to me it's aimed at the young crowd like the Yamaha 135, more looks than practcality. I need to store groceries, laptop and have my daughter with a school bag, sometimes taking a raincoat with me causes a problem since my old Wave 110 doesn't have any underseat space.
What I need is a 250cc scooter. Checked out a used Honda 400 scooter yesterday, twin cyl engine, it's huge, lots of storage and a big windscreen. (15K km, tabien, 180K THB). Too much for every day city traffic. But a smaller, lighter 250 may just be the ticket. We went on a 450km trip last weekend on the VTR250, but comfort sucks, our butts hurt since we couldn't move around much, carrying our rucksacks on our backs.
With the bags under the seat or on the rack, the big wide seats and floorboards instead of pegs, a scooter has a lot going for it. Just why do they have to look so weird?

 

[KZ]

Just had a look at the Kawa Kaze 130 - to me it's the best looking bike, seems to have a decent engine, 4-gear auto, disc brake, E-start and lots of underseat storage. It even has a tachometer! Love it. Price: 35.900 THB. But license and insurance is 2310 THB. When I pointed out that insurance is only something like 650 THB, the sales girl just shrugged. Has anybody bought a city-scoot lately? How much was license and insurance?

 

[KZ25]

Interesting to read a three year old thread...

Captain Slash, you were right in post #17 - just sold my Wave 125i and it got 1,9L/100km, quite impressive.

Got me a six month old Yamaha Nouvo Elegance 135 with only 3,200km on the clock for 39,000 THB. Great bike, my first automatic, it blows the Wave away! More comfort, it handles better (even though it has 16* wheels), more storage and it really goes. Twist the throttle and it's up to 80km/h in no time. It also feels a bit heavier but that's good at this size. I'm very impressed!
First 100km took 2,5L, more than the FI Wave, but therefore it performs better.
I've always been a Yamaha guy, only here in TH Honda rules.