Beginner Off-Road Riders! This 125cc ADV Might Be What You Are Looking For

When you are a rider, you are constantly dreaming about getting to experience different kinds of motorcycles and buying them, if you can afford them. As a beginner rider, you might be hooked on to someone like Kirian Mirabet sliding around in a Honda Africa Twin in his videos and getting the constant itch to get into adventure riding, right? But after watching the videos, you look around for adventure bikes and find out that either they are very expensive or the big engine capacity is a bit scary for you to handle right off the bat. 

Hmm…..well, there is another option for you. But it is not available in India. But since we are talking about dreams anyway, what the heck. Enter: the Rieju Aventura 125. But wait, who is Rieju and also, an adventure bike with a 125cc engine? 

Reiju is a Spanish motorcycle manufacturer and has been around since the 1930s. They are not very well-known outside Spain; they didn’t start selling their bikes internationally until the early 1990s. They have a storied history in tarmac and enduro racing. Marc Marquez started his racing career in a Rieju during his formative years. 

Coming back to the bike, it gets the robust ADV styling that we all love with the tank extensions, the high windscreen, spoked wheels, bash plate, scooped seat, upswept exhaust and luggage carrier at the back giving it the true-blue ADV look. And those vertically stacked headlights just tie it all together. Phew! But does it just look like an ADV or it has the mettle to behave like one? 

Well, it gets an 18-inch front and 17-inch rear tyre setup with spoked wheels along with a 260mm dual-piston front disc brake and a 240mm rear disc brake with dual-channel ABS. To really tackle off-road territories, it gets long travel suspension in the form of an upside-down (USD) fork and a monoshock, but the seat height of 780mm and a dry weight of 138kg makes it accessible for new riders. And lastly, to power the Aventura 125 through the rough surfaces, it gets a 125cc, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine producing 14.7PS and 11.6Nm. 

Taking the only other 125cc liquid-cooled motorcycle in India into consideration, the KTM 125 Duke is 21kg heavier than the Aventura 125 and is less powerful despite being a naked motorcycle. And also, a 125cc sporty motorcycle that actually offers thrilling performance, the TVS Raider 125, produces 3.32PS less than the Rieju. The Aventura 125 is 15kg heavier than the Raider 125, but that is expected because of the ADV styling and the bigger wheels. So, a 125cc ADV that produces more power and torque than naked 125cc sporty motorcycles and is lighter than the 125 Duke seems very exciting, right? This can even be a good option for experienced trail riders as a farm commuter. 

Over the years, we have seen the impact of performance bikes with small-capacity engines helping beginner riders in India fulfil their desire to enjoy good performance without burning a big hole in their pockets. Like how the Bajaj Pulsars introduced Indians to performance motorcycles and the Yamaha R15 made the thrilling experience of a litre-class supersport accessible to the masses.

The affordable adventure biking segment in India has seen a massive boost in the last few years thanks to some motorcycles like the Royal Enfield Himalayan and the KTM 390 Adventure. But those are still 300-400cc motorcycles that can be a bit much when you haven’t done any adventure biking before. So a motorcycle like the Rieju Aventura 125 can be a really great option in that case. Maybe this is the next phase of ADVs becoming more accessible when motorcycles like the Aventura 125 start coming to India. Wouldn’t you like to see one on our roads?