8th May 2017

Kymco X-Town 125 & 300 reviewed | ROAD TEST

Like many manufacturers, Kymco has trimmed down its 2017 range thanks to the new Euro-4 regulations. It means some of their cheaper scooters (and bikes) have vanished completely but it also gave them a chance to reinvent the popular Downtown and bring it bang up to date.

In fact, Kymco have just taken delivery of not one but two new Euro-4 scooters. A third one – the long awaited AK 550 – will arrive in late July/early August. We’ll have to wait patiently for that one but we were given a chance to swing a leg over the new X-Town 125i and 300i ABS on a perfect early summers day in Shropshire.

Words: Iggy & Sticky

Photos: Sticky & Iggy, video edit Sticky

I was already a big fan of the old Downtown in learner-legal 125 and 300 capacities. Sharp styling, great quality and superb engines meant that they were worthy contenders in their respective classes, but would the new cleaner burning Euro 4 models be as good? There’s only one way to find out…

Quick learner

Having blasted the 85 miles down to Kymco’s countryside HQ on my Vespa GTS 300 it felt a little strange to begin with when I jumped on the X-Town 300. It may only be a mid-capacity machine in terms of engine capacity but it still has that maxi-scooter feel and presence, not that that’s a bad thing. It also carries a good few kilos more than my Vespa. Pulling away for the first time the scooter felt long and a little unfamiliar but within a couple of miles I adjusted my riding style from GTS ‘sports’, to ‘maxi fun’ and settled in to a little bit of spirited country lane riding. I was following Sticky (who was on the 125 X-Town) and you could tell he was enjoying himself; who says you can’t have fun on a 125?

Like the Downtown 125 that went before it, the scooter in its new guise can shift a bit. In fact it even crossed my mind to begin with that maybe they were both 300cc machines. Of course they weren’t, but the 125 wasn’t substantially outgunned by its bigger brother. Usually riding with two differing capacities like this would be like chalk and cheese, not so with these bad boys. Sticky was gobsmacked by the 125s performance. I’ll concentrate on the 300 though for now.

Heavyweight?

Performance wise, like most of the new Euro 4 scooters a little performance has been lost in the clean-up process and it didn’t feel quite as lively as my GTS. Even so, it goes well enough, especially when you consider it weighs 195kg, as opposed to the GTS at 148kg. That’s quite a bit of extra lard, but the Kymco carries it well and the scooter didn’t really feel much heavier, either manhandling it around or whilst on the road. Only in a drag-race did the weight show, with the lighter Vespa 300 gaining a few bike-lengths before finally being overhauled on top speed.

Well suspended

If ever there was a scooter with near-perfect suspension it has to be the X-Town with it’s composed twin rear shocks and beefy front forks. Getting this part right shouldn’t be too hard but most manufacturers seem to skimp on this all-important area; few dollars saved for the manufacturer at a cost to ride quality for the customer. Kymco certainly didn’t skimp in this department though. This scooter has the feel of a Rolls Royce gliding on polished marble. A quality feel, well worthy of acknowledgement.

Lean on me

Gliding around country lanes on a perfect day gave us a chance to test out the brakes, tyres and suspension. Not to mention the lean angle. I think it’s fair to say we were both mightily impressed on all counts. If you enjoy thrashing around the countryside and being perfectly under control at all times then these scooters should tick all of your boxes. They relish corners, willing you to push the Kenda tyres ever further without becoming fazed at all. The tyres work really well in the dry, helped no end by the fine chassis. Speed can be scrubbed off without fuss using the powerful three-piston front disc, or twin pot rear. Good controllable stopping power at both ends, aided and abetted by the Bosch ABS on the 300 version.

Styling & equipment

Although the silhouette is quite easy to recognise from the old Downtown there have been some significant changes. The Kymco designer sharpened his pencil to re-sculpture the bodywork; it’s fresh and modern but not too much of a shock to the system if you’re an existing Kymco fan. The wheels are new and very cool looking, multi-spoke chunky alloy rims shod with Kenda rubber; 13” at the rear and 14” up front. The brakes are single disc at each end, 260mm front/240mm rear and now boast ABS (Combined Braking on the 125).

The X-factor

There’s a new set of rear lights with a distinctive ‘X’ shaped LED pattern and integrated indicators. The front has twin headlights with an LED running light surround. The clocks feature a central digital dash with twin trip, temp, battery condition, clock, odometer and a fuel gauge. It’s flanked on either side by an analogue speedo – interestingly it’s just in mph for the UK, rather than having km’s taking priority and a teeny mph reading thrown in for good measure. Nice work Kymco. On the right hand side is a tacho, not really a necessity but it keeps the instrument cluster symmetrical. The brake levers are span adjustable, something you’ll probably only ever need to adjust once (or maybe when swapping between thin summer gloves and thicker winter ones), but handy for the perfect fit. The scooter also has hazard warning lights, a nice safety feature. There’s also a USB point in the left cubby hole and a security flap to cover the ignition switch to prevent tampering. One thing the scooter is missing is an immobiliser, which is a shame.

Storage for two lids

Pop open the seat by turning the ignition key to the left, it opens on a hydraulic gas strut and the light comes on automatically. Rather than an ordinary switch, the Kymco uses a photocell to sense the seat has been opened. Interestingly the scooter has a redesigned underseat storage space capable of storing two full-faced helmets. That’s quite a novelty, many manufacturers claim their scooters will swallow your helmets but in practice not many actually do. It was a bit of a puzzle to work out the best way to get ours stored but we managed it with one facing forward and one back. Having said that though, the space is limited as to what can be carried due to its shape. Sticky’s camera bag wouldn’t fit under there comfortably for instance.

Sticky gives a giant’s verdict on the 125

As a big lad I tend to like a roomy scooter, but what happens when you put a little engine in a big scooter? To be honest, I was expecting the 125cc version of the X-Town to be a disappointment. A bit like getting Suzan Boyle as a partner in a 3-legged race.

Here is a machine with exactly the same level of comfort as the 300, identical two-helmet storage capacity and very nearly as good brakes; the 125 has Combined Brake System (CBS) whereas the 300 has full ABS.

I was expecting it to barely move when powered by a learner-legal motor hamstrung by the new Euro-4 emissions regulations. But move it does, and very respectably too. Acceleration is not in the league of the 300, particularly taking longer to build speed when joining a hill. However, the mere fact that it accelerated up hills, and showed over 70mph down inclines puts the water-cooled 4-valve a million miles ahead of the air-cooled 2-valve rubbish fitted to many cheap-and-cheerful Chinese scooters. And some expensive ones too, come to that.

Admittedly, the speedo proved to read at least 10% high (most vehicles do these days which helps keep your licence), but I was seriously shocked at how well the 125 ran; easily exceeding a true 60mph on the flat and surprisingly eager to climb hills. I was gobsmacked when I looked up the ready-to-ride weight of 183kg.

X-Town Traffic

The 125 sharing its chassis with a ‘bigger brother’ is a mix of pros and cons. On the positive side you get suspension, handling and comfort that have been set-up, very well I might add, for a bigger, faster scooter. The twin-shock, telescopic fork suspension layout is entirely conventional, but like the rest of the scooter, the quality feels, dare I say it, Japanese. On the flipside, here’s a machine that carries almost double the weight of a bargain basement Chinese 125 scooter, and despite having an average seat height, the wide seat can make it trickier to manoeuvre at walking pace for those of limited leg length.

For me, the X-Town’s luxurious ride quality easily off-set the fact that it may not be the nimblest of scooters in busy city traffic. What you lose on one hand you gain on the fact that this is a 125 that I’d happily jump on for a long tour that avoided motorways. It may not have the high-tech stop-start features of city specialists like the Piaggio Medley or Honda PCX, but I enjoyed riding it much more. It’s the best 125cc scooter I’ve ridden in ages…

First impressions

A 125 and 300 shouldn’t really be capable of living side by side but with this pair it’s possible to have a day out riding without feeling like your underpowered mate is struggling to keep up. The 125 will do a comfortable and easily reached 65-70mph, whilst the bigger X-Town will reach 75mph quite quickly and top out at 80 (more like 90mph on the speedo). Sticky was like a kid at Christmas after realising I’d not completely stictched him up by stealing the keys to the 300 before he got to Kymco (he should have arrived on time really, the early bird catches the worm). You don’t generally see this level of excitement when he’s forced on to a learner legal scooter for the day. Testament to its prowess, quality and performance.

I mentioned earlier that although the X-Town 300 was nippy enough it felt like it had a little less acceleration than my Vespa GTS. Before we handed them back at the end of the day we drag raced the Vespa and Kymco 300 to see if that feeling was right or not. It turned out that the Vespa was slightly quicker off the mark but the Kymco was able to slowly reel it in and steadily overtake it before reaching the top end. The GTS may win the traffic light grand prix but on a longer journey the Kymco would probably have the edge, not by a huge margin but an edge nontheless.

Back to basics

It’s also worth mentioning that after dropping the scooters back at base and jumping on my Vespa to ride home it felt very basic in comparison. Riding over speed humps showed the Vespa suspension to be much less comfortable, it goes over bumps with a clunk (the front suspension on 2015 models can be a bit agricultural) as opposed to actually ironing road imperfections out.

Would I take one home?

Hooning around fantastic roads on a pair of fine scooters on a beautiful day is a great way to gain a useful first impresssion into how a scooter rides, how it looks and how it performs on the road. It’s not a comprehensive way to test a scooter but sometimes with a new scooter, (in demand by various publications) it’s all the time we can get. We can’t bring you an accurate MPG, or tell you about any niggles that become apparent when you live with a scooter but in the same breath I couldn’t tell you that the Vespa GTS would have an annoying clunk after I rode it on the press launch. What I can tell you is that from what we saw and what we felt both the 125 and 300 X-Towns are very capable, scooters that impressed both of us in equal measure. Would I buy one? Yes.