The Honda Activa 125 has recently arrived in South Africa, and Honda S.A invited us to see just how far it could go on a full tank of fuel. We filled it to the brim and headed out onto the road.
By Deon VDL
“Deon, this is your new company bike” said the powers that be. “But you must not top it up at any stage!”
Alright then!
I rode the Activa to and from home for two days (25 KM round trip) before taking it from Kempton Park all the way to Honda Wing Centurion to pop in and say hello.
We took the long route and stuck to the back roads. The Activa handles traffic really well. It is compact enough to slip easily through queues of cars at intersections, while still being peppy enough to pull away safely ahead of traffic. It tops out at 95KPH but is happiest cruising along at around the 80KPH mark.
The seat is comfortable and the step through riding position is practical, sensibly scooterish.
The Activa has a neat underseat storage compartment, big enough for my camera bag and a Go-Pro Pouch. Honda gives you a little cubby on the dash – perfect for a thermal cup in winter…
The display is old-school analogue with digital detail.
From Centurion, we headed off to visit the friendly team at Honda Wing East Rand in Boksburg, once again taking the scenic route along the back roads. Dodging potholes and dicing with delivery riders became part of the adventure.
In all fairness, we probably should have ridden the scooter like sensible people, but it is far more entertaining to grab a handful of throttle and twist it wide open.
At one point, an incident forced me to grab a fistful of brakes, and let me tell you, the Activa has seriously impressive stopping power. Even with my 95 KG weight on board, it came to a halt very quickly and calmly.
As we turned back to base from Honda Wing East Rand, the fuel light finally came on… “Do NOT fill it up!” If you run out, we’ll come and get you!
That evening, I rode it home again, 12 and half kilometres and she still didn’t stop. By the way, the headlight cuts a nice swathe into the GP streets.
Gingerly back to the office the next morning and there’s the boss tapping his foot waiting for a result…
Sorry! No cigar, the little Honda has still not run dry…
More than 25kms with the fuel light on. Good to know.
At this point, we were determined to run the scooter completely dry. We filled a 2 litre bottle with fuel and – instead of doing real work, I was told not to come back until the little Activa 125 had ground to a complete halt.
I figured that perhaps a few laps up and down the road and round the block would finish the job.
I was wrong.
Eventually I grew bored and decided to explore the area instead, taking roads I had never ridden before. I even stopped to grab some lunch somewhere out near Bapetikosweti…
On the way home, there came a sudden jerk, a moment of hesitation here we go, finally out of fuel!
Except… no!
The Activa carried on. It gave me several moments where I thought it had finally given up, only to keep chugging along. It gave plenty of notice that things were about to end and finally, the inevitable happened.
The little scooter burned its last drop of fuel and rolled to a stop with 199.8 KM’s on the clock.
That’s on just 5.3 litres of fuel.
Genuine consumption figure – not an economy run.
199.8 km on just 5.3 litres of fuel.
In this day and age where we have no idea where the fuel price is headed, a bike like this makes a lot of sense. Do the maths. How far to work and back?
30 kilometres or so seems to be the average. You can either sit in your cage and scowl at the fuel guage, or you can zip through the traffic and arrive with a grin.
It’s a cool little scoot for sure and Honda offers it with the option of 4 options of sticker kits for you to select.
The new 125 honda Activa is making it’s way into Honda dealerships as we write this.
Go and have a chat, save yourself some monthly loot on the fuel bill…
