Forza Diary

General Honda Forza 125 chat, questions about the Forza 125, or questions about riding.

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HondaForza125
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Forza Diary

Post by HondaForza125 »

Hello,

Not much going on in the Forza section!

It is a PCX forum after all, but I will up date my Forza experiences (125)

Had the bike now for four months, covered about 1,500 miles on it. Not as much as I would like but the weather has been extra poor in the UK so only going out for work purposes rather than fun.

I paid £2,200 for 2015 with 9.5k miles on it with heated grips and Honda top box.

Fuel economy, Im averaging around 105 MPG - a lot of this is short journeys to be fair and I can get over 120 MPG on a run.

I would say this is about 10 MPG worse than the PCX. I averaged 114 MPG on the PCX over the whole time I had it. I did record it all on a spreadsheet!

Lowest ever on PCX was 99 MPG and that was a motorway run.

I really like the extra stability and storage of the Forza over the PCX and am enjoying riding in the wet. Was always a bit nervous on the PCX, maybe this is tyre related, but the Forza has bigger wider tyres and I really can have some fun even in the wet.

Forza has Michelin City Grips, my PCX had IRC and then Dunlop Scoot Smart.

Storage is great, I can get my helmet under the seat and a ton of other stuff. I couldnt get my helmet under the PCX seat, (2014) model, but the 2nd Gen I think (with black forks)

Insurance and tax is the same

Performance:

Forza is good for 70mph, not sure mine will go as fast as the one I tested in 2015 so maybe it has roller wear or is sensitive to roller wear or something, but on the test bike I got an indicated 85mph (probably 75). No way mine will do that, I can get max 75mph indicated)

PCX would sometimes get to 65mph indicated so maybe we have an average 10mph on the Forza depending on condition?

Acceleration is worse off the line in the Forza than the PCX, but it has a nice mid range (relative of course)

I do miss the accleration off the line of the PCX, but the top end makes it up for me and I can go on a motorway now and anot get totally stuck if someone is at an awkward speed a head.

So, what are the problems:

Two so far:

The engine - is it weak? My bike had an engine rebuild at 9.5k miles (Not by me but by Honda who were selling it second hand).
They said it had a damaged crankshaft. I got the impression this was a common problem.
So I have doubts how long the rebuilt engine will last, but so far so good.

The mirrors - Oh my God, this could be a deal breaker for me. They are awful even by motorbike/scooter standards. I hate them and can see nothing behind me. It makes me very nervous not to know how close the car behind is, especially at junctions and roundabouts and is a safety issue for me. As experienced riders know, you can prevent an accident that is not your fault, by monitoring cars behind you and control them with your own actions so as to protect yourself.
You cant do this on the Forza as you cant see what is behind you. I have the mirror blindspot things on the bike and this helps a very little, but everything is microscopic in the mirror and still very hard to see, but at least you know for sure if someone is behind you. I guess this is a common problem as I have seen many Forzas with the mirror blindspot additions.
Not sure it there is a good solution to this, but if I had bought the bike brand new, I would have been very annoyed.
I might not keep the bike for this sole reason.

Quality - Same as PCX I would say certainly no better, but I was happy with the PCX quality personally and it never let me done, but then I did buy it new and look after it.

Is it worth the extra over the PCX? - Only if it had decent mirrors in my opinion. You do get extra stability and storage and a higher top speed making motorways a bit more feasible.

Filtering and traffic is easy on this it is great fun down a country road, you can really hammer it around the bends.

Will get some more pictures up soon - weather is set to improve

:lol:

Additional:

I dont think the Forza speedo is accurate. In fact I think it is deliberatly over optimistic to bump up the marketing hype when it is new. All speedos over read a bit, but I dont trust the speedo on the Forza much...
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by WhiteNoise »

Wow, I'm impressed! Thank you for sharing Your Scoot's Diary < funny how That word defines private/personal. You put it all out there. Cheers, We appreciate that!
Apologize for the lack of chat in the 125 platform there are not many on this forum that own the 125 Forza, most own/ride the 300. Add to that....The 125 was never brought to the U.S.A.

Hang in there, Go for a spin, come back....
Surely Someone will read and comment. I did :P
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by fish »

Don't know how the new Forza is fixed for mirrors - I had the 1st generation Forza 300 and I fixed the mirror problem quite nicely by installing Honda mirrors from a CB500X motorcycle. They were exactly the same design as the Forza's - but with a longer stem! (One day my son parked his CB500X next to my scooter --- and I had an epiphany!)
Perfect answer to my mirror problem.
Might be worth taking a walk through a Honda dealer and checking out the mirrors. I HATED those billet mirror extenders and blind-spot things!

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Re: Forza Diary

Post by HondaForza125 »

Thanks for the replies.

Good idea on other models, will go and have a look and see if anything else would work

Couple of pictures - everyone likes a picture :D
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by Limey »

Ah, from your photos I see that the mirrors must be on the back of the indicator pods, right?

We have a 2016 Forza 300 and, as you can see, it is totally different in that area (indicators are built into the front fairing):
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by HondaForza125 »

Limey wrote:Ah, from your photos I see that the mirrors must be on the back of the indicator pods, right?

We have a 2016 Forza 300 and, as you can see, it is totally different in that area (indicators are built into the front fairing):
Yes, that is right, they are really bodywork items with mirrors and indicators which might make things a bit more difficult to solve.

It probably seemed a good idea from an asthetics viewpoint, but of course that doesnt always work in reality.

We cant get the 300 Forza you have in the US anymore and it has been replaced with a 300 version of the 125 I have.

So the current 300 is the same as the 125 apart from engine etc.

It really is a different bike to the 300 you have, but am surprised it hasnt come your way as yet as they are both very practical capable machines.

PS Like the red colour of yours, not many bright colours around these days, most seem to be grey/black/white and there is also the trend towards matt finishes (presumably because of cost), but I would much rather have something you can polish...
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by Limey »

Honda stopped selling the Forza in the US back in 2016 - poor sales.

Ours was 'New Old Stock' and is a 2016 but still brand new.

(The only colour available here was Red!)
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by HondaForza125 »

fish wrote: Might be worth taking a walk through a Honda dealer and checking out the mirrors.
Fish
So, I went to the local Honda dealer to look around at other models and mirrors etc. I noticed the new Forza has different mirrors, so had a close look at them.

They are slightly further out and a bit wider so I guess Honda have had more than one complaint and modified the mirrors for the later models.

I wondered if they would fit my exisiting scooter, and asked if they had any newer 125s I could try out,

He said unfortunately not, and after he realises I have a full motorbike licence, he said they had a 300 available for a test ride which he said is the same so I could see if the mirrors were any better.

So I decide to go out for a ride on it and see if the new mirrors are improved.

What a revelation!

Not the mirrors but the 300, wow, I was impressed, (BTW the mirrors are better and you can see behind you, not perfect but much better)

The 300 though, lovely lovely, so smooth and effortless. Just the right amount of power goes very well up to 50mph and the top speed I dont know, but people reckon it is 85mph so more than enough there.

Brilliant bike, same as mine, but goes. Range is slightly less but they reckon it does 85mpg (UK Mpg) not sure what that is for our American friends, but a little worse than the 125 so range down a little, but running costs not much more.

So should I be thanking Fish or not, I have one on order get it early next week! :)

Will be a sad day for the short time I have had the 125, but I would literally be cutting my nose off to spite my face if anyone goes for the 125 if they have the licence to get the 300...

So it will be :oops:

At what point did you guess the ending?!
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by gn2 »

Service interval for the 300 is 8000 miles or 1 year, so half as many services if you do big mileages.
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by HondaForza125 »

gn2 wrote:Service interval for the 300 is 8000 miles or 1 year, so half as many services if you do big mileages.

That is good too, I am doing approx 5k miles on the scooter a year, maybe a bit less, but have done 1500 in four months on the 125 and it has been winter!

Cheers
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by fish »

Went in to the parts counter to buy a brake bulb for my navy blue '71 Beetle - drove home in a new green '73 Super Beetle.
While I was using the WC the wife came home from neighbor's apt. and tried to go to the store.
She came back, knocking, "where'd you park the car?!"
She loved the leaf green, the tan interior - and that big curved wind shield - so all was OK.

Pictures please of the new 300.
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Re: Forza Diary

Post by HondaForza125 »

Love the story Fish, it is great when that happens.

The only fear is from her in doors!

My wife has given up complaining about the bikes now :)

Will put some pictures up when I get it

Despite my earlier posts I went for the grey one... (Matt paint too!)

My theory was:

Gloss Blue - wasnt keen on the shade and my other bike is blue
Gloss Black - too hard to keep nice and I need to use the bike all weathers
Matt White - nice when new but again hard to keep looking good.

So I ordered

Matt (Metallic?) Grey - Havent even seen this colour yet, but apparantly it has a flake in it so hopefully will be a little interesting - we will see

Also, scouted around to upcoming things that the dealer dont tell you about or dont know about and found this:

https://scooterlab.uk/2020-honda-forza- ... tion-news/

A special edition, but wasnt too keen on this gloss grey either so hopefully will be happy with my choice.

Have ordered with standard top box and heated grips.

BTW - if you want the smart key 45 litre top box it is nearly £900 extra!

Went for the standard 35? litre manual box which suits me better anyway
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