It appears VMoto spent all of their money on gizmos and none on the engine. Okay that’s a bit harsh; the Monaco gets along just fine and will even work on the motorway provided you don’t go near the fast lane. It’s just that in direct comparison to other 125cc bikes it’s definitely on the slow side. To give you an idea, we got 8.9 seconds to 50kph on our test bike which is only a second quicker than a 50cc 1988 Yamaha Jog …ouch. Given the sporty looks I was expecting similar performance to the Suzuki Address 125. Hopefully VMoto will up-spec the motor on future models as a 125cc bike really needs to run around 11hp to be competitive nowadays and given the way the Monaco looks it should be much quicker. Stopping wise I was expecting a lot as the Monaco has a rather large front caliper, sadly it didn’t seem to bite very well so the braking was a little on the weak side. Our test bike was brand new so I imagine as the pads bed in this would improve. The rear drum brake was to put it politely…really just an imitation of a brake. Not much use at all.

Handling wise the Monaco is about middle of the road, it’s got fairly firm suspension to match its sporty looks, however it is negatively affected by a very poor seat design. If you’re of normal height and sit on the Monaco’s normal forward seating position your knees will be under the handle bars, this you can imagine is not conducive to comfortable riding in anyway. If you sit further back to get a normal riding position you end up on the crease separating the rear pillion section of the seat, this is even more uncomfortable, finally you can always try sitting way back on the rear section if all else fails. Put simply the Monaco’s forward sloping seat needs to be angled back and better yet moved further back in general. On inspection it’s clear they’ve opted to have the fuel filler exposed which is great except it means the seat is way too far forward. How about a separate rear pillion seat section which opens off a button to expose the fuel filler, wouldn’t that be a better option? With that small modification the Monaco would immediately be a far superior bike.