Let's have a look at the Peugeot Tweet 125, a 125cc scooter sold by Peugeot. Despite being on the market for almost fifteen years the Tweet is surprisingly obscure. The internet has one professional review, from Motorcycle News. I've only ever seen a handful in the wild, including this one in Turin, Italy:
Why did I buy a scooter? Two reasons. I've managed to avoid learning to
drive a motorised vehicle right up to middle age. Partially because I lived
in London for several years, and also because the places I like to visit -
Italy, for example - have great public transport. Or in the case of
Greenland the only roads are dirt tracks.
But knowing how to drive will be a useful skill at some point, and a 125cc
scooter is a handy way to learn the roads, so I booked a Compulsory Basic
Training course and bought a cheap scooter. Two years later I am now a
fully-licenced A-class motorcyclist, and perhaps at some point I'll learn
how to drive a car, just in time for them to be banned, or something.
The other reason is that I have a soft spot for Italy. I remember the first
time I went there. I was envious of the Italians buzzing around on their
scooters. I had nothing like that when I was a kid. Here in the UK scooters
are surprisingly unpopular - everybody gets a car instead, perhaps because
of the weather - but in Italy they're all over the place:
Now that I have a motorcycle licence I can in theory hire a scooter when I'm
abroad, but I really need a bit of practice before tackling Italy's roads.
In the UK scooters have taken off over the last few years for delivery
drivers, but they have to compete with bicycles and electric scooters, which
don't even require a training certificate. Hanging over them all is a
looming transition to electric motors, which will hit the scooter market
hard, because it's difficult to put a big battery into a small scooter and
sell it cheaply.
Peugeot has a modest range of scooters. The two most popular are the
hilariously-named Speedfight, a 50cc model that looks like a much bigger
scooter, and the Django, a good-looking Vespa clone. The Tweet is
Peugeot's budget model, seemingly inspired by the Honda SH125. As with the
SH125 it has 16" wheels at the front and back, vs 12" or 13" on most other
scooters. Peugeot even calls it "the big-wheel scooter". Larger wheels
cope better with potholes, which is useful in the UK.
Ye gods, it's filthy
The Tweet has the same GY6-style four-stroke engine as every other scooter
in the world. It makes a soft burble when it idles and the electronic
starter catches on the second beat. The engine is EURO 5 emissions
compliant, and according to TFL's website the Tweet doesn't trigger the
ULEZ charge. It has front and rear disc brakes with ABS, which actually
makes it more sophisticated than my Yamaha YS125 motorbike. Transmission
is automatic, with a CVT belt. Supercharger? No.
The internet gives varying figures for power, but the manual says 7.5kw,
which is just over 10bhp, four less than the legal maximum. It weighs
around 120kg with fuel. I have no trouble moving it around. There's also a
150cc model, not sold in the UK, that has one more horsepower. The 150cc
model exists because that's the legal minimum capacity for the Italian
autostrada.
I've driven my Tweet on a dual carriageway, and on the flat it will
sustain 65mph, although the experience is terrifying.
Back in July 2023 I visited Middle Wallop's
Wings and Wheels festival
on this very scooter.
The 2023-model Tweet doesn't have USB charging, or a navigation system, or
anything fancy. It's interesting to compare it with my YS125.
Instinctively I would expect the motorcycle to be faster, but the Tweet
actually feels more rapid off the line and up to 50mph, perhaps because
it's lighter, or perhaps the CVT is more efficient than my left foot, or
the technology is more modern. The suspension is softer, and the tyres
tend to bash over potholes and ruts rather than tramlining, so it actually
feels more stable.
The one problem is riding at dead-slow speeds. With a manual-clutch
motorcycle this isn't too hard, but the Tweet activates neutral below a
certain speed, so it has trouble crawling forwards at walking pace. I find
myself lurching forward, then gently coasting. This isn't really specific
to the Tweet, it's a consequence of CVTs in general.
125cc motorcycles and scooters are frustrating. They're just slightly too
little for general motoring in the UK, at least outside a city. It's not
so much the performance, which is van-like, but the fact that 125cc bikes
and scooters tend to have weak suspension and brakes. There's a market on
the continent for beefed-up 200-300cc scooters, but here in the UK the
licensing requirements are such that mid-sized maxi-scooters are very
rare. Above the age of 24 it makes sense to get a full A-class manual
licence, at which point why not buy a full-sized motorcycle, hmm? Only a
few riding schools in the UK even have an A or A2-compliant automatic
scooter on which to perform the necessary tests.
Still, back to the Tweet. The storage box isn't quite large enough for a full
helmet, doubly so once I stow away my padlock and chain, which means that the
rear top-box is almost mandatory. The storage compartment appears to be
airtight. If I leave a damp cloth inside it the compartment quickly starts to
smell musty.
The Tweet is compatible with E5 fuel. The manual says that the tank has a
capacity of five litres, but I find that after depleting the tank to a
flashing single bar on the meter the most I can put in, with the scooter on
the centre stand, is around four litres, which is around £5.60. The manual
also suggests a fuel consumption of around 84mpg, which seems reasonable
enough. A lot of petrol stations claim that they will only dispense a minimum
of five litres of fuel, so I always feel slightly guilty when I fill my Tweet.
I bought mine brand-new with a discount in February 2023 and have driven it
for just over 2000 miles, with a professional service at the 500-mile
change-the-manufacturer's-oil mark. For the first 500km the manual recommends
not sustaining more than half-throttle, and from 500-1000km not more than
three-quarters throttle.
During the time I've owned it the only trouble was on the hottest day of 2023,
when the temperature reached around 32c - and only then it was slightly slow
to start. During the winter, at temperatures of just below 0c, it starts, then
seems to bog a little bit, but quickly settles. Beyond that it starts with two
chugs of the motor every time. Tell a lie; shortly after getting it the motor
wouldn't start at all, but that's because I forgot to flick the yellow cutoff
switch (visible in the photo above) to the UNLOCK position. Whoops.
Any other problems? The left headlight stalk tends to trap water, perhaps
because the bike sits tilted to that side when it's at rest. I find that even
a day after it has rained the stalk continues to drip, which makes me wonder
if it'll rust out. But the stalk itself unscrews easily - you have to do that
to fit a mobile phone mount - and spares are readily available.
Do I have anything else to say about the Tweet? Over the course of a year it
hasn't let me down, and although I've passed my test I have no plans to sell
it, because it's handy. In the UK it tends to be overshadowed by the Honda
Vision 110, which has slightly less power but much better fuel consumption.
The Vision 110 is the same price, £2800, and it's a Honda. Everybody likes
Honda. "You meet the nicest people on a Honda."
Within Peugeot's own range the Django is much more striking, and as mentioned
the Tweet is essentially a SYM Symphony, so it's technically not a Peugeot. It
has to be said that Peugeot hasn't gone out of its way to sell the Tweet, and
I was wary of buying one because "what the heck is a Peugeot Tweet?". But I
like it, and I'll probably end up riding it until the exhaust rusts out and
petrol motors are banned, because it's incredibly easy to drive and keeps up
with traffic.
