A loud booming voice can be heard for miles and miles…window pains shatter, plates fall from shelves and older buildings crack and disintegrate. The booming voice comes from the Aprilia factory, and the words are clear as day ‘MORE PLASTIC…workers scurry in fear as a huge foreman thunders his way around the design office. He grabs a helpless designer and throws him though a plate glass window. The man sits up for a brief second unsure of what just happened then slumps unconscious to the ground. The only thing that will abate his anger is plastic…lots of plastic. ‘Give me plastic’ he yells as he lifts a small designer from the floor and prepares to rip him in two. Just as the foreman begins to strain and his powerful muscles bulge a designer jumps in front of him and yells for him to stop. The designer slowly lifts a sketch of his new scooter then proclaims in a loud voice…I give you the Mojito Custom…‘plastic like the world has never seen’. The foreman lowers the frightened designer and eyes the scooter design before him; tears begin to roll down his cheek…the foreman weeps. He has his plastic…more than enough for any man.

That’s how the Aprilia Mojito Custom 125 came about…really it’s a true story. I wouldn’t believe anything else anyway. How does a 125cc scooter possibly become as massive as the Mojito Custom? The short answer…TERROR. Only by threat of death would anybody try and turn a scooter into a 1950s American car. That was the inspiration behind the Mojito design, 1950s American automobiles. Now just to get something straight here my Aprilia friends…it’s a scooter, not a car. Using a two ton automobile for design inspiration is like using an electric blender to tie your shoes…it could work but why on earth would you even try.

So after all that…I did slowly came around, I can see where they were coming from. The Mojito is and always was designed to be something different. Everything about riding this scooter is different to the average 125. The view ahead is dominated by the vast expanse of chrome; the amazing custom bars and large chrome headlight are enough to almost convince you you’re riding some sort of mini Harley Davidson. The wide bars and unusual seating position also give you the feeling you’re on some sort of touring bike. If only the designers had lowered the seat a little further and added the angled feet positions we see on Maxi scooters…then it would all work. As it is the bars are a little low and your feet end up straight down. It certainly wouldn’t work for taller riders.

You’re also going to suffer a wee bit in the ease of use department, the under seat storage area won’t fit a full face helmet and there’s no remote seat release. The lockable front glove box is also a bit of an illusion, see it looks large…then you open it. The only storage area is to the right and will hold well…not much. Why on earth they have a full size door I can only guess, I imagine Aprilia just went to the parts bin and grabbed what was already there. Finally you’ll also have a bit of a hard time putting the bike on the center stand as it’s an older design and somewhat hard for smaller people. You certainly notice it as there’s no side stand.

Handling and performance are also on the slow side due to the unusual riding position and rather hefty weight. The Mojito certainly isn’t the fastest 125cc bike, its 50-80kph time of 18.1 seconds is nearly double that of say the Suzuki UZ125. That being said the Mojito is still fun to cruise around on if you’re not in any kind of hurry, it’s laid back style tends to make you take in more of the surroundings as you cruise by in all your chromeness. The front disc does an adequate job of stopping while the rear drum on the back wheel is like most drum brakes…worthless. Drum brakes are about as useful as a one legged centipede; which, if you can imagine is not much use at all, unless staying in the same place and wriggling like an idiot is your idea of usefulness.

So with all this negative stuff are there any positive aspects? Well yes there are. First off this bike does incredible gas mileage, we returned 2.7L/100kms or 87MPG on our test ride. Now remember our test ride is not some stupid MPG test that only uses part throttle on a downward sloping road, WE ACTUALLY RIDE the bikes just like you will, fast, slow, in traffic, on hills with pillions, everything, 87MPG on our test cycle is incredible. This is the best result we’ve had on any bike we’ve tested so far…it may be slow but you certainly won’t be using much gas.

The bikes real strong point is its looks. Only the crazy three wheeled Piaggio MP3 gets more attention than this bike. Virtually everybody who saw me riding this bike had to tell me how cool it looked. After a while I got so used to it I actually began to think I WAS COOL…turns out I was wrong, as I stepped away from the bike I quickly morphed back into my usual average self and some passer by spat on me. Life at the top.

Summing up the Aprilia. If you were buying a bike off a table of specifications or even the results of a review like this you simply wouldn’t pick the Mojito Custom. However if you're looking for the most shiny chrome pimp mobile…well the Mojito is your ticket. So the question is simple…are you cool or do you need a helping hand? The Mojito Custom could be that helping hand you’ve always needed…you nerd.

Price US $3299 UK £2399.00 NZ $6500

0-50km/h	7.1 Seconds
0-80km/h	23.8 Seconds
50-80km/h	18.1 Seconds
Fuel Economy	2.7L/100kms - 87MPG
Speedo Accuracy	50kph displayed = 39kph actual
Pros:	Amazing gas mileage, very cool styling, great build quality.
Cons:	Slow, strange riding position, expensive, speedometer is inaccurate.
Handling
Performance
Fuel Consumption
Value for money
Ease of use
Styling
Build quality
Overall Score	67%

 

Comments (2)

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written by Davor , September 17, 2009

I have this scooter for one year right now.It is fabulous,great looking,rides well,fuel consumption is not suprizeble,like other 125cc scooters.But the performances are so poor that is not thruth.I had before bikes and scooters from 1200 to 200cc and every day I am saying,ok this is 125cc but realy,horor.Plus the handling is strange.I have spand two weeks to start overtaking normaly rush hour traffic.Somethime I had feeling that I had beter handling in traffic with my previous Yamaha Majesty 400 wich is double size and weight.But at the end if Aprilia made little bigger, with 250cc Moyito, I will be first man in the line at front bike shop.In fact that is only bad thing that is conected with this ride.So if enybody from Aprilia chairmans reading this,please make something.

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written by Alwin , August 07, 2009

Well written, accurate and funny review..Thanks! As a current owner of the bike (one year now in the UK, 12000 miles) I can add it's better than you think for taller riders. I'm 6'7 and the leg room is excellent - very rare on learner bikes. Can't recommend it for touring though. Most I've done is 280 miles in a day, but I did a John Wayne walk for days after. Further positives: it runs smoothly despite the small wheels, looks cool and it's so frugal I spend the same money on petrol in 2 weeks as I do on a bus in 2 days.
Negatives: like any other scooter it's never a surprise to lose a few screws under way, to find the rear light switch is temperamental, or to have to remove layer after layer of plastic to get a wrench in for a simple fix. It can be annoying.
The biggest criticism though of the Mojito Custom is its head light. Stupidly, the 'chrome' cap is actually plastic, and a bracket less than 1mm thick attaches it to the scooter. Road vibration has its naughty way with every screw on the bike, but tightening this particular one it's very easy to snap the plastic bracket. The only solution is to replace the entire head light assembly. A massive design flaw if you ask me - and with parts being slow to arrive, one that could keep you off road for weeks. Beauty over brains?

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