Road Test Daelim S1 125cc If you liken the 125cc market to some kind of dog fight, each distributor armed with their fiercest dog ready to do battle. Daelim have just entered the fray armed with a hungry 6m salt water crocodile...... Brendon The Daelim S1 Neo Forte is here. The products we have sampled from Daelim so far have been superb, well thought out designs manufactured to the highest levels of quality. Having a Research & Development Centre is immediately apparent when you look into the S1, this scooter is not just one of those get this frame, that engine, a new set of panels and BOOM there's a new model. This is a well designed & executed scooter & it's gong to make its presence felt in the $3,990 price bracket.
The S1 look sharp, literally. The sleek angular lines give the S1 a stealth like look, the front nose panel holds the stacked front headlight, the rear cowl tappers up to the tail light, indicators front & rear are integrated into the panel work keeping the lines clean.
The ergonomics are superb, all the switches are well placed & have a solid feel. Nice finishing touches are everywhere from the remote release to open the underseat compartment which will take one helmet, it's quite large. A small lockable glovebox, luggage hook & standard rear rack completes the storage package. The seat is well sculpted & while it initially feels a little firm the Daelim seats need a few hours to break in, once thats occurrs they become one of the most comfortable in the business, it also has a passenger backrest & integrated pillion foot pegs flip out out when needed.
A combined digital/analogue dash gives the rider all the information they need at a quick glance. Speedometer is analogue while the rest is digital. On the Digital display are the obligatory fuel & odometer readings plus you get a clock & trip meter which are two featuers all 125cc scooters should have but don't.
The 125cc 4 valve 4 stroke engine Daelim engine is one of our favourites. Technically very good, a 4 valve 4 stroke fitted with a proper oil filter keeping the oil clean while oil is pumped to a remote oil radiator located at the front of scoot for cold air flow keeping the oil temperature down, this is prolongs engine life & enables longer distances between oil changes. The Daelim engine produces good power & torque for a 125 but the thing we really like about them is we've never had one apart.
For the S1 the engine a few updates with fuel injection, new camshaft profile & exhaust which enables the S1 to meet new emmission standards, less fuel consumption & less pollution than before. The re tuning of the engine has produced amazing results while peak power is down a little compared to the carburetted NS there is more of it over most of the rev range , torque (turning force) is up & the S1's power deliver feels more linear.
NS 125 owners out there will be wanting to know which is quicker, as we had a NS125 here with only 750K's on the clock we thought it would be appropriate to line the two up against each other (We couldn't help ourselves either). From a standing start the S1 gets the jump with the NS closely behind & closing the gap ever so slowly but never does, then the extra torque of the S1 comes into play & the S1 slowly pulls away from 75km/h onwards which is great news for the S1 as from 75 onwards the NS leaves most other 125's & 150's behind. Rolling starts beginning from 10 to 20km/h the NS would gain the initial advantage & the S1 immediately hauls it back catching the NS by 60 & pulling away by 80km/h. This is an incredible result as the S1's engine was still tight, not run in having less than 100k's on the odometer plus a 15kg heavier rider when we did this, with the engine run the S1 is going to be one of the quickest 125's on the market.
Having done quite a few K's on the previous engine what I really noticed about the new EFI version is the feedback it provides. Open the throttle, you feel the power delivery which encourages you to only use as much throttle as you need, on the S1 you really connect with the engine, while I haven't done enough K's to give a real world account on fuel economy I can tell from the feel of it those who ride for economy are going to like it. I expect it to break all my ecomony records
The S1 is a totally new design, one key component was locating the 9.5ltr fuel tank to under the floorboard placing the fuel weight forward & low providing much better weight distribution, wheels are now 13" alloys. Braking duties are done by a disc front with a twin opposing piston caliper, the rear also disc with single piston caliper. Interestingly Daelim use a combined braking system. The tyres fitted to Daelims have always surprised us in that they have been surprisingly good, the S1 is no exception this time Daelim have used a high end Swallow in 120/70/13 front & 130/60/13 rear.
Out on the road is where the S1 really shines the 13" wheels provide a very high level of stability, this is absolutely rock solid as stable as it gets for a flat floor 125. S1 weighs in at 127kg, that weight is low & well distributed. Suspension is telescopic front fork with a single rear shock with adjustable progressive rate spring. All this adds up to a brilliant chassis package, it is so easy to ride with cornering ability & grip superb, it gives you so much confidence in the scoot. Riding isn't just easy it's fun, the S1 is easy to throw around as there is no weight up high, I was amazed at the speed the S1 can maintain through a corner, I found myself looking for roundabouts & going up every twisty piece of road I could find. Braking is also great with the big brake package pulling up the S1 time after time, the scoot feels unphased even on really heavy applications, the feedback from the levers is also very good.
Our engine is not yet run in so we know it's not producing full power yet & have to be a bit gentle for a while, even so the performance is amazing, on the M1 at 3/4 throttle the S1 sat at an amazing 100 to 110km/h, it felt like it was doing 80. I expect with the engine run in that 110 km/h cruise & up to 125km/h top speed will be possible I'll let you know.
There is only one thing I didn't like about the S1 & that is the indicator lights on the dash are hard to see in the sunlight, but are audible so it's no big deal. This scooter deserves a better warranty than the 12 month unlimited K's it comes with, On the up side service intervals are at 1,000km then 4,000km then every 4,000 there after.
I tend to get excited when a good scooter comes along, the NS125 was one of my favourites I had high expectations having done a lot of K's on the NS, The S1 met & exceeded them all. It's the latest technology it's a scoot suitable for such a wide range of riders, leaners will like how easy it is to ride & won't "Out grow" it , For those who have owner other 125's this scooter is simply in another league, the commute is going to be even more fun on one of these..
There are a lot of scooters around or below the $3,990 mark, if you liken the 125cc market to some kind of dog fight, each distributor armed with their fiercest dog ready to do battle. Daelim have just entered the fray armed with a hungry 6m salt water crocodile...... published 19/07/2008 |