Let's have a look at the Suzuki Burgman 200, a maxi-scooter from
the 2000s. My particular model dates from 2010. It was kept in excellent
condition by its previous owner. I salute that man. As mentioned passim I
passed my motorcycle test back in 2024 and bought a proper, grown-up
motorcycle, a
Royal Enfield Himalayan. But I feel incredibly self-conscious riding to the shops on a chunky,
full-sized motorcycle, especially given that it doesn't have much room for luggage. Furthermore I spent a few weeks earlier in the year in Seoul, where
scooters were all the rage, and that lit a fire within me. A fire that could
only be quenched by a maxi-scooter.
Why a maxi-scooter, and not just a regular scooter? Britain's motorcycle
licence categories are frustrating. Learner motorcyclists are only allowed to
ride 125cc machines, which is annoying because 125cc scooters and motorcycles
are almost, but not quite, good enough. They're about 80% of the way there.
The best of them - the Honda PCX 125, or the Honda CB125R or Yamaha XSR125
motorcycles, for example - can maintain 60mph on the flat, but cruising at
that speed isn't much fun. And although the engines can cope with A-road
traffic, the suspension just isn't good enough. There's a lot to be said for
riding a slow bike quickly, but I don't miss the skittery suspension of my
Yamaha YS125, although to be fair a better set of tyres might have helped.
Despite being sixteen years old it still has the stickers.
The 125cc market also tends to be dominated by cheap imports from China,
because there's a general perception that 125cc machines are disposable
stepping-stones to a full-sized motorcycle. This puts the Japanese
manufacturers in an awkward position. If people were willing to spend money on
125cc motorcycles the breed might evolve into viable general-purpose
transport, but it's hard to persuade people to spend a lot of money on a
stepping-stone. I have no idea if rising oil prices and generally awful roads will
change that, but at least in the UK there's very little reason
to go back to 125 once you've passed your motorcycle test.
There's a bunch of 150cc, 175cc, and 200cc machines sur le continent. They would be pretty decent all-round transport in the UK, but they
aren't imported, because there's no market for them. If you have an A1 licence
you can't ride them. If you have an A or A2 licence you can ride a much more
powerful machine instead. As a consequence the UK market for
maxi-scooters is a niche within a niche. It's dominated by 350/400cc+ models
that cost a fortune. The Honda ADV and Piaggio Vespa GTS are no doubt
wonderful, but £6000 is a lot of money for a scooter, no matter how good it
is.
Incidentally the Burgman name dates back to the late 1990s. Throughout its
lifespan Suzuki has sold 150, 200, and 250cc Burgmans, plus an extraordinary
650cc, 58bhp model called the Burgman Executive, sadly discontinued:
The archetype, however, is the Burgman 400, which has been on sale continually
since 1999. As of 2026 Suzuki still sells the 400cc model in the UK, plus
a 125cc Burgman that feels slightly pointless. It has the same engine power as
Suzuki's other scooters, but the body is bigger and heavier. Unfortunately the
Burgman 400 is £7100. I may be made of money, but I'm not made of money.
There is hope, though. Back in the 2000s - from 2002 until around about 2013 -
Suzuki sold a mid-sized Burgman in the UK. Technically it's called the Suzuki
UH200, at least according to the manual, but it has Burgman 200 on
the bodywork so that's what I'm going to call it. It was launched in 2002 as a
150cc model, then upgraded to 200cc in 2007. The bodywork was restyled, adding
a distinctive wrap-around, see-through headlight:
Look, it has the stickers.
The Mark One Burgman 200 has an 18.1hp, fuel-injected, liquid-cooled engine,
with an automatic CVT and a combined braking system. It has a 13-inch front
wheel and a 12-inch wheel at the back, with disc brakes front and rear. The combination of fuel injection and disc brakes was pretty good for the early 2000s. I believe, but don't quote me, that
it's EURO3 compliant. Transport For London's ULEZ website recognises the model
and says that it doesn't trigger the congestion charge. Suzuki's press release
gives a figure of around 85 miles to the gallon.
Until 2013 the Burgman 200 was built in Spain, and only sold in European
markets. From 2013 onwards Suzuki moved production to Thailand, and the next
year they gave it a facelift, with a less fussy headlight arrangement and a
taller screen. The Mark Two, 2014 model was launched internationally.
As far as I can tell the 2014 model was EURO4 compliant. Alas Suzuki was
unwilling to upgrade it to EURO5, and so in 2021 they stopped selling the
Burgman 200 in Europe. As of this writing it still appears to be on sale in
the United States, for $4,999. I can't imagine it being very popular in the USA, but who perhaps it makes sense in New York or somewhere compact, flat, and without freeways.
The Department for Transport has a huge spreadsheet listing vehicle
registrations, which reveals that there were 49 of my particular model of
Burgman 200 on the road in Q3 2025. There are dozens of us! The small number
isn't surprising given the aforementioned licence criteria. With 18.1hp and a
200cc engine the Burgman 200 is over the limit for an A1 licence, but much, much lower than the A2 limit of 47hp. When it was on sale it was aimed
at people who had gone to the trouble of getting an A2 or A licence, who
wanted a scooter, but were only willing to pay £5000 instead of £7000.
Not many people. My hunch is that it mostly sold to elderly riders who passed their motorcycle test aeons ago, and had a car, but fancied a scooter for the occasional trip to the shops, or perhaps to their narrowboat. I could try and tot the cumulative numbers on the DfT's
spreadsheet but the machine doesn't appear to have been a
best-seller. Which is a shame, because it's nice.
About the only design limitation is a lack of provision for extra luggage or a
mobile phone / GPS navigation holder. The 200cc Burgman predates the modern trend for hanging
things off a motorcycle. There are after-market saddlebags with straps that
run across the boot, with the seat clamping them in place, and SHAD makes a top
box holder, but it involves drilling a hole in the Burgman's bodywork. The
official Suzuki top box holder seems to be incredibly rare on the used market,
perhaps because no-one bothered with it, because the underseat storage is
already massive. The most popular, and seemingly only option for a mobile
phone holder is a bar that straddles the gap between the two brake fluid
reservoirs, mounting onto the inboard screws.
What's it like to drive? Smooooth. Smooth, and slightly disconcerting.
18.1hp isn't much, but the Burgman 200 only weighs about 160kg, so it has
almost exactly the same power-to-weight ratio as my Royal Enfield Himalayan
(which has 24hp and weighs 200kg). Furthermore it's lower to the ground, the
body is more streamlined, and the engine is much quieter. It's
in a
lower tax bracket than the Himalayan as well, so I saved £30. The fuel-injected engine starts with a chug-chug-vroom, then settles down to a quiet idle.
I find myself
struggling to keep at the 20mph limit. Judging by my mobile phone's GPS
receiver the speedo is reasonably correct. In a 20mph zone I find myself
jumping off the lights and immediately hitting 20mph, at which point I have to
let off the throttle a little bit. 30mph is, for want of a better word,
boring.
On a smooth, flat road the Burgman 200 easily and swiftly accelerates up to
50mph, at which point the engine noise seems to vanish. I have a hunch that it was specifically designed to cruise at 50mph all day long. I found 60mph easy enough on a
flat, smooth road. Out in the countryside the Burgman tends to go thud-thud
instead of rattle-rattle, and perhaps because of the low seat height it feels
planted on the road.
I have very briefly reached 70mph, although at
that point it dawned on me that wearing an open-faced helmet at 70mph was not
a good idea. There was a little bit left at that point.
This chap
got 84mph out of his Mark 2 Burgman 200, albeit that he was in the United
States, where they use a slightly shorter mile, and their hours have 61
minutes (fact). This is why US television programmes always appear sped-up
when they're shown on Britain television (fact).
The dashboard has a mobile phone compartment, plus a linear, lockable
enclosure that has a 12v socket. The enclosure is split in two, and it's about
deep enough for a McDonalds meal, if you don't mind squashing it in there.
Sadly there's no cup holder. And as with almost all maxi-scooters the petrol
tank is between the rider's feet, so it doesn't have a flat floor, which means
that you can't rest a shopping bag between your legs. The boot is, however,
massive. In the following photo it has a rain cover, with room for a helmet
and a chain as well. Alternatively a backpack full of shopping will fit
face-down.
There are two driving positions. Feet on the floor, and feet resting forwards. You know how men often lie about their height? Well I decided to measure myself, for the purpose of this blog post, and I am five feet ten inches tall. That's in my socks, without wearing a wig. I find that the feet resting forwards position is
almost, but not quite, comfortable. I can't stretch out my legs properly. The seat itself is fantastically chunky and comfortable. I have yet to persuade a lady to go for a ride on my Suzuki Burgman but it is only a matter of time.
Overall the Burgman 200 is neat. It feels smooth, acceleration is good, it
cruises easily at 50mph. Fuel consumption is noticeably higher than a 125cc - I have to refuel every two-and-a-bit weeks, instead of three - but a full tank still only costs around £12.
The suspension is bumpy, but the bike doesn't feel
skittish, and on country roads I had no problem whizzing along at 60mph. About
the only bad thing is the complete lack of provision for a mobile phone holder
- for navigation - and the brakes, which could do with a little more bite. As far as I can tell mechanical spares are shared with the Mark Two 200cc model, and drive belts are still widely available. The only major problem with the Burgman 200 is that it has a disposable aspect. In the event of a crash, it'll be a write-off, because the plastic bodywork panels are long out of production.
Almost twenty years after it was introduced the Mark One Burgman 200's nose
looks dated, but the rest of the design hasn't really aged. Perhaps because its natural market was
elderly motorcyclists who wanted to relax the few examples I've seen on the
used market in the UK have all been in really good condition, including mine. 125cc
scooters often end up thrashed, either because they were driven by delivery
drivers, or they were learner machines, but as mentioned passim you can't
drive a 200cc motorcycle on a learner licence.
Still, that's the Burgman 200.
