Scooter – Honda Forza 125 Test: Max Attack! – Honda launches its new GT 125 scooter

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Honda Forza 125 test: Max Attack !

Scooter - Honda Forza 125 Test: Max Attack! - Honda launches its new GT 125 scooter

Faced with the persistent hegemony of the Yamaha X-Max on the GT 125 cc scooter segment, Honda had to react … And that’s what it is finally doing with the Forza 125! A seed of champion tried by MNC on the occasion of its European presentation in Nice.

Honda launches its new GT 125 scooter

Unveiled and then exhibited in Cologne and Milan – and manufactured at the Honda plant in Atessa, Italy – the Honda Forza 125 clearly displayed the color and its ambitions: to try to dethrone the current leader of the category or, at the very least , allow Honda to regain a foothold in the very competitive market segment for GT 125 scooters.

Forza 125: availability, colors and prices

  • Availability: April 2, 2015 in the

  • Colors: white, gray, white / blue, silver / gray or black / brown

  • Price: € 4,599 until the end of July, then € 4,899

A market in which it has struggled to maintain itself since the end of 2006, admittedly replaced by a plush and innovative Swing, but not sufficiently efficient on expressways and moreover confronted from its launch with a particularly sharp and well installed !

The Japanese giant will therefore have taken its time to design its new spearhead, obviously drawing inspiration from what makes the success of its rival, both aesthetically and in terms of technical characteristics. A little too much, some will say … as it is true that the newcomer strongly resembles his model !

Asked on this point, Tomokatsu Suda, responsible for the development of this scooter, denies any hint of copying: the Forza would in fact be born out of a vast consultation carried out at the initiative of Honda Motor Europe with European scooter users and dealers (like the S-Wing in its day).

"With the Forza 125, we sought to create the ultimate scooter, in all areas", assures Nagura San, responsible for the Forza 125 project."It offers both excellent performance on expressways in order to facilitate travel, but also first-rate acceleration to circulate within the city walls. All under premium lines that give pride of place to practical advantages and comfort".

By detailing the scooters lined up in front of the hotel, "Forza" is to recognize that the result obtained is most convincing. The styling is modern, with a front face with double headlight and LED position lights, integrated turn signals in the mirrors, a protective windshield manually adjustable in height (120 mm) in six positions, a trim with sharp lines, a wide two-seater two-level saddle and a slender rear end finished with LED lights, sidelights and license plate lighting.

An aggressive and rewarding scooter

In detail, the Forza offers a little more than its rival, with running boards allowing driving with legs forward or folded up, a saddle slightly lower (780 mm against 792) and thin at the crotch, or even passenger support wider, higher and back.

Its level of equipment is equivalent, with a left storage compartment equipped with a 12-volt outlet and accepting a small bottle of water, a spacious 48-liter trunk under the saddle capable of easily accommodating two full-face helmets (with a movable divider that allows you to adjust the storage space as needed).

The Forza is distinguished, however, by a Neiman ignition lock with mechanical shielding, as well as by its "stop and start" system of automatic engine cut-off at idle, which can be deactivated if desired via a dedicated button on the right hand..

The on-board instrumentation is not 100% digital, as on the X-Max, which does not spoil anything, quite the contrary: tachometer and analog tachometer are perfectly readable, framing a small digital screen (watch, gauges of fuel level and water temperature, mileage totalizers, average and instantaneous consumption indicator on partial totalizers), as well as a battery of various warning lights and maintenance warning light. However, the indication change is not done on the handlebars, but via small buttons integrated into the console..

On the chassis side, the Forza has a new tubular steel frame. It takes more or less the fundamentals of its rival with 15 "(front) and 14" (rear) wheels fitted with IRC brand tires specially developed for it..

The suspension is entrusted to a conventional 33 mm fork and an aluminum oscillating rear single-arm, associated with a combined shock absorber adjustable in spring preload (5 positions). The braking of this new Honda model is of course assisted by an ABS, but not combined.

In the end, the Forza claims a full weight of only 159 kg (see the technical sheet on page 3), lower than the 173 kg of an X-Max ABS – equipped it is true with a larger tank (13, 2 l against 11.5 l for the Honda). And dynamically, what is the Honda worth? Ready? On the way !

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