2015 Honda Forza 125
£TBC | 14bhp@ 8750rpm | 8.9lb-ft @ 8250rpm | Liquid-cooled fourstroke four-valve sohc single cylinder 124.9cc
In the development of the new machine, Honda’s aim was to blend the luxury and space of a Grand Touring (GT) scooter, with the agility and sportiness of smaller and lighter machines – no mean feat, but one they’ve nailed with the new Forza 125.
Tellmeabout the engine
Powering the outfit is a liquid-cooled, four-stroke, four-valve, sohc single cylinder – one that Honda fans may recognise from the PCX and SH models, however, over 60% of the parts are different. It produces 14bhp @ 8750rpm – which makes it A1 licence compliant – and 8.9lb-ft of torque@ 8250rpm.
It features Enhanced Smart Power (ESP) lowfriction technology to boost the economy of the machine – including idling mode – known to some as ‘start, stop’.
A switch on the right handlebar allows you to turn it from ‘idling’ to ‘idling stop’. Having it on the latter option means that the engine stops automatically after three seconds at idle when the scooter has stopped and the brakes are applied – it starts up instantly once the throttle grip is twisted. It can take some getting used to and can feel strange at first, but once you do get used to it happening then it just becomes normal.
The focus on fuel efficiency has worked. Honda quotes 123mpg; I got 113mpg but certainly wasn’t riding with economy in mind. On this basis, the 11.5 litre fuel tank will give a range of around 300 miles – your local petrol station will start to miss you…
What’s the chassis like?
It’s been treated to an all-new steel frame and Honda has done lots of wind tunnel development to manage the way the air travels into and around the scooter. This emphasis on highway stability and protecting the rider from the elements, lead to the inclusion of a six-way adjustable windscreen, which importantly can be done on the move – with gloves on – and covers a range of 120mm so different rider heights are catered for.
Suspension is provided by 33mm front forks and five-stage pre-load adjustable twin rear shocks. It’s an agile machine, helped by the 15in wheel on the front and 14in on the rear. ABS comes as standard – as you’d expect from Honda – and is ready to work with the 256mm front disc and 240mm disc on the rear should you need it. For new riders, this is a great addition and means that there is added peace of mind.
For its size and presence on the road, it’s a lightweight, with a kerb weight of 159kg. The overall dimensions make it a breeze for darting in between traffic – judge your gap by the width of the mirrors and you knowyou can get the 750mm wide machine through.
There’s plenty of space for a pillion with grab rails and foldaway pillion footpegs.
There are LEDlights throughout – tail lights, dual-headlight and indicators. The indicators aren’t plonked on the main body, but are instead integrated onto the mirrors to further emphasise the smooth sleek lines that so much effort has been put into.
Pop the seat using a button at the side of the ignition and you’ll see the whopping 48 litres of storage hidden under the seat, big enough to swallow up two-full face helmets. There’s a plastic divider too so that you can pick and choose howyou’d like to organise your belongings – clever. There’s an additional glovebox too which is great for smaller items such as a bottle of water or your phone.
There’s a comprehensive ‘cockpit’ style instrument panel, which is packed with information but organised so it’s easy to see at a glance. It includes: a clock, fuel gauge, coolant temperature gauge, oil change indicator, odometer, Trip A and B and fuel consumption – both average and current. Simply switch between them using two small buttons underneath.
Should I buy one?
Whether it’s your first foray onto two wheels or you’re a seasoned commuter, the Forza 125 is worth taking a look at.
The slow speed agility and the high speed stability make it a great riding companion – not to mention the bags of underseat storage and weather protection from that lovely adjustable windscreen. Often when manufacturers make ‘commuters’, they assume that everyone lives in the city and don’t often account for the motorway section before the jampacked streets – Honda has.
It had the same stylist as the Vultus – angular lines, a ‘mass-forward’ look reminiscent of that Integra, aggressive front headlines and a high level of finish mean that the Forza makes a real statement.
There will be three colour options in the UK – blue and white, brown and two-tone grey. While the price hasn’t officially been confirmed yet and is still ‘TBC’, we believe it will be around £4000 – in which case, this will be a competitively priced machine. It will be available from May onwards
As with all Hondas there are a range of accessories available – five stage heated grips (the same ones as on the larger bikes), wheel stickers, floor panels, colour-matched instrument surround and handlebar panel, rear carrier, two-tone seat, 35 litre top box, inner bag, alarmkit, U-lock, cover, Akrapovic exhaust, smart phone cradle – and there’s a pillion backrest in the making.
So what’s it like to ride?
It’s hard not to look at the Forza and expect the performance of a larger capacity machine – after all, its striking looks and GT style presence gave me high expectations. I asked the project leader, Tomokatsu Suda, if they were planning on developing a larger capacity one – having ridden it, I don’t think they necessarily need it.
Acceleration is strong throughout the range, even at high speeds – it kept on pulling. Our route through Nice and Monaco allowed us to try out the Forza on mountainous roads, with sharp hairpin bends and climbing inclines and also motorways to test out that top speed.
Nothing was too much for the Forza, it chomped up the motorway miles at 70mph with ease and I wasn’t battered around thanks to the windscreen. Up the picturesque mountain roads of Monaco, rolling back the throttle, there was always drive there to ‘hussle’ you round the bends.
It’s the attention to detail of the design which really stands out for me, the underseat storage is a big winner – I know of some maxi-scooters with less storage space. It’s not just under the seat which is roomy, the riding position is comfortable and there’s the option to put your legs out straight like on larger scooters.
The 780mm seat height makes it easy to put your feet down but to be honest, that will be rare because of the balance at slower speeds and it picks straight back up when you pull back the throttle, as a result slowriding is easy.
Honda’s aim was to make a scooter with a GT spec but maintain the sport ability of a 125, they can pat themselves on the back – they’ve done it and still managed to produce a cool looking machine.
Five minutes with the Honda Forza 125 project leader: Tomokatsu Suda
When you set out to design the new Forza, what were the three most important features that you based it around? The top three features follow on from the design concept of the Forza – that it’s a scooter not just for in city use but for getting to the city on relatively high speed roads, so the three most important things follow from that concept.
To satisfy those various demands, importance was placed on the overall handling and running performance, this was one of the things I wanted to stress. Agility and manoeuvrability in the city and stability at high speed was important too.
Given that there is a wide range of people we’re aiming to reach, another important thing was that the bike had to look appealing to a lot of people – we put a lot of thought into that. It has a new design line, a new face of Honda scooters, to give people a sense of pride of ownership and so it has a strong identity to it.
To recap, the three would be: design, in town ability and highway stability.
The machine had always been planned and purposefully designed as a 125 – are any plans for a larger capacity version? That’s a difficult one to answer. At the moment we don’t have any plans but it has been interesting to hear some comments over the week of the launch. Because a lot of the concept is related to France – being the biggest market for the scooter by far.
The licensing system in France is that you could ride a scooter on a car licence (depending when you got one) and even if it’s a new licence, you can complete seven hours of training and then you can ride a 125cc machine.
With that being the main target, the Forza 125 fits into that requirement. If we were going to look again and ask ourselves whether we should make a 300, we would have to start with the customer needs, think again and then go back to the drawing board.
During your career, you’ve worked on a number of smaller capacity machines, why do you enjoy working on smaller capacity machines rather than the larger ones? When it comes to the bigger bikes, like a super sport bike, it’s for people that like to ride and nail a corner and get the thrill of being in charge of such a powerful machine. With scooter and commuters, there are different nuances in the market.
Largely speaking, people are more interested in them as a utility tool to get them to A and B but then there are people who are also interested in the scooter as a lifestyle accessory and as a fashion accessory.
It’s because of these different nuances in the market, when you start working on a new scooter it’s a challenging project to make sure it meets all the requirements. It’s the complex user requirement which is the challenge and the enjoyment in it for me. You had the role as project leader on the Forza, but how many projects do you work on at once and are there any you can tell us about? I don’t just work on one, but I can’t really tell you exactly how many I work on at a time! As you suggested, I can’t tell you any of the new models that I am working on, but at the moment I am working on scooters not only for Europe but for the different regions of emerging markets to share the joy of scooters as a mode of transport – which is something I like to do myself and something I do in Japan. There’s always something in the pipeline…