Honda Wave 125i vs Wave 125s

Most motorcycle manufacturers now turn to fuel injection or already don this in the newer models not because they wanted to, but because they needed to, and for one reason: emissions.

We seen this happen a few years back for big bike and now see the same trend happening in the small motorcycles, the new Honda Wave 125i and others now all come with fuel injection systems. In Europe, America and Japan there are though emissions regulations. And it's not secret that similar standards are to be increasingly adopted worldwide.

In short, if Thai motorcycle manufacturers don't clean there bikes up they could soon, quite conceivable, not having any clean enough motorcycle to sell. As Honda motorcycles did with the Honda Wave 125, which is now available with carburettor and fuel injection system.

We decided to look what fuel injection means to smaller bikes, we arranged two bikes, the first a Honda Wave 125i, which has a electronic fuel injection system, and the second motorcycle was a Honda Wave 125s which comes with a regular carburettor. We made sure that both bikes where not modified or had engine changes.

Conversion from carburettor to fuel injection is for most bikes not a big issue, as most motorcycles in Thailand are already equip with CDI or other digital ignition that takes care of the spark. By adding more functions to the digital ignition we can get sensors for barometric pressure, engine temperature and ambient air temperature which all help to ensure that the combustion of the fuel is always perfect and emissions stay low.

Driving a electronic fuel injection bike on the road throttle response, particularly at the bottom of the range, is certainly improved with a slightly lighter action and none of the carburettor motorcycles hesitancy around 3000rpm.

Better still is the improved fuel economy of the Honda Wave 125i. Side-by-side with his conventionally carburettor twin the Honda Wave 125S, which uses a regular standard carburettor, the Honda Wave 125i was regularly giving 3.3 kilometers more per 1 liter gasoline. Any improvements in performance, however, was slight. There really was nothing between the two in either midrange or top end, but the performance gain of the Honda Wave 125i in the low range is highly appreciated in Bangkok traffic where top speeds don't really matter.