Whether you’re reentering the sport of motorcycling or trying it out for the first time, it’s hard to know where to start. Should you jump in with both feet and get yourself a powerful sport bike, or pony up for a laid-back cruiser? How about a scooter? Should you buy used? How much should you pay? What about riding gear?

In an attempt to address some of these questions, last year Honda introduced its Go program. Buyers could plunk down about $3,400 for a ready-to-go CBR125R, and if they came up with another $700 or so, they would get a riding jacket, boots, and gloves to go along with it.

The Go program was an instant success, according to Mike Bruce, general manager of Vancouver-based Carter Motorsports, which sold its entire allotment of CBR125Rs almost as soon as they arrived. “We’ve carried the program on into 2008,” says Bruce, “and we expect to get at least 300 bikes this year.”

It’s an interesting little squid, the CBR125R. Power is provided by a liquid-cooled, 124.7-cubic-centimetre single-cylinder engine with one overhead camshaft and a pair of valves. It also has fuel injection and is mated to a six-speed transmission with chain final drive. Power output is about 13.5 horsepower, and the engine redlines at 11,000 revolutions per minute, although the tach does display up to 14,000 revolutions per minute, and the speedometer actually reads a top end of 200 kilometres per hour.

I can’t see the bike reaching that speed even if you dropped it out of an airplane. I managed to get up to 140 kilometres per hour fairly easily, but past that it’s all noise and no action. You might touch 160 kilometres per hour going downhill with a tail wind, but this is not a high-speed motorcycle by any stretch of the imagination. Although it will reach highway speed, it isn’t well suited to the hurly-burly of freeway traffic, unless you have a death wish of some kind.

If you want to get the most out of the CBR125R, you have to pretty much wring its neck, and it doesn’t like shifting below 8,000 revolutions per minute. Although it starts to buzz like an enraged mosquito at the higher rpms, it’s actually quite happy at engine speeds above 8,000 revolutions per minute, and it’s kind of fun to ride a bike that you can run the daylights out of without worrying about breaking the speed limit or attracting the long arm of the law.

Below, oh, 4,000 revolutions per minute, there isn’t a lot of urge at your fingertips, but like all small-displacement Honda engines, this one thrives on abuse. I’m not saying it forced me off the seat, but even my 90-kilogram-plus weight didn’t seem to slow it down, and for novices it might be just about right. Having said that, you’ll probably outgrow this bike fairly quickly.

One good thing about having an engine this small is that it burns about 2.5 litres per 100 kilometres, and its 10-litre tank will take you around 300 kilometres before it runs dry. That’s scooter territory, and the CBR125R can match many larger-displacement scooters when it comes to thrift, while adding modest riding kicks to the bargain. It may be small and lightweight, but the CBR125R is fun to ride, in its own way. You can lean it over to a point, and it has excellent brakes—a dual-piston disc up front and a single disc in the back. You can also get aftermarket go-fast bits for it—exhaust, tires, and so on—that will give you just a little more snap.

The CBR125R has a seat height of 776 millimetres, but the bike is so narrow that even the most vertically challenged riders should be able to get both feet flat on the ground. There is also a little storage compartment under the passenger pillion with enough room for a cellphone or a small camera, and the CBR125R has a fairly comprehensive set of gauges: speedometer, rev counter, fuel gauge, and temperature gauge. Not many bikes in this market can say the same. A frame-mounted fairing and a small windscreen provide some protection from the wind, but not a lot, and the clutch action is the lightest I’ve ever experienced on any motorcycle—of any kind. I thought it was broken at first, but it’s just sprung like an expensive watch: very light to the touch.

At 127.3 kilograms, the CBR125R is light enough for even the smallest riders to manhandle. Honda is aiming the Go program at women, in particular, and I can think of no better way of getting the sport-bike–riding experience—without breaking the bank in the process, or getting in over your head.