VF3i got a lot of people complain about fuel pump. Want to get below 5.5k also a bit hard unless you're looking at bikes that have illegal status marks on them (lari kedai, piang owner, etc)

For that money your choices are:

KTM Duke 200
Modenas Pulsar NS200
Yamaha FZ150
GPX 150cc bikes (Not recommended due to spare parts issue)
Early Keeway cruisers (Check whether your area has service center or not first)
KTNS rebadged Zongshen trash
Benelli RFS150, 150s (150s not recommended, underpowered engine carrying 150kg lmao)
Older LC135s

You're mostly looking at single cylinder bikes so vibrations will definitely be a thing. Wear gloves or install rubber grips to buff them out. Top up around 2 to 2.5k can get older Kawasaki Z250 or Ninja 250. Parallel twin engine means less vibrations, engine has been in Malaysian market for a long time already so spare parts is not going to be an issue.

This post has been edited by iambryan1234: Dec 2 2022, 07:52 AM

Naked bike with two cylinder is your friend, seating position upright deswai i recommend go topup and get a z250 if you focus on vibration and want second hand bike. Any bike will be heavy to maneuver from standstill, even my two stroke Dinamik (98kg!) was heavy before it got going. You'd certainly be familiar with that feeling if you drove a Datsun or pre E100 series Toyota Corollas. Once the bike has some momentum you will not feel the weight that much unless you're riding 170-180kg or more.

Every cub bike is going to have vibration because they're all single cylinder engines. KTM and Modenas 200s have engineering that sort of cancels out the vibrations at certain rev point but you're still going to feel them, just not as bad as on a typical cub bike (having a full bike frame also helps).

The Modenas Pulsar 200 is heavier because of poorer quality materials used but that does make it more stable on highway, SYM VF3i is not exactly that light either compared to KTM's Duke 200



For your comparison, left side is VF3i specs, right side is an article released by MotoMalaya for 2014 Duke 200.



This is what the actual seating position looks like. As with any bike (including cubs), shifting your weight further back down the seat puts you at a lean angle since you would be sitting on the curve at that point. But otherwise, your position will still be upright if you are sitting on the bike normally. You can also consider a used Modenas V15. Spare parts are still easily found as long as you are within Klang Valley.

If you don't mind buying brand new can consider Keeway 250 or WMOTO V16. Both are heavy, yes. But it doesn't matter that much because they're low height cruisers with laid back seating position. GPX Legend 250 also might be good (not a cruiser, but follows classic standard motorcycle design of having upright position) but again, spare parts availability may be an issue. I see KTNS also just released a new slew of rebadged Zongshen cruiser bikes, haven't tried those before so can't comment on them but as with anything from Zongshen, chances are electronics are going to fail pretty quickly. All you need to do is look at the amount of new Modenas Kriss that have faulty signal indicators.

Or just stick to your current SM 110 and wear thicker gloves, install rubber grips. Or you can consider earlier Honda RS150 or Yamaha LC135.

Maybe go try sitting on some of the bikes first, see whether you like the ergonomics or not.

This post has been edited by iambryan1234: Dec 2 2022, 07:49 PM

How long you sit varies, focus on trying to see whether the distance of the handlebar and yourself and the lean angle fits you or not. Also check whether the stock cushion comes with sufficient padding for your use case. KTMs may be fine for shorter commutes but if you're commuting to KL from Seremban, you might want to consider Pulsar instead for more relaxed ergonomics and better padding.

Demaks and lower end SYMs are not as refined so vibrations will definitely be more pronounced. Then again, with your budget you're mainly looking at single cylinder (big internal explosion, much low end torque) bikes so you will still need to deal with vibrations as opposed to bikes with multiple cylinders (Smaller explosions spread between two or more cylinders so vibrations not as pronounced, smoother power delivery,)

Air/Oil cooled bikes tend to run hotter, but you should never feel scorching heat at your feet, or anywhere at all. At most it should feel like warm water steam.

If it gets hot that it becomes somewhat unbearable, you might have a heat management issue.

I have not tried using steering dampers before so not sure whether those work at sorting out vibrations.

This post has been edited by iambryan1234: Dec 3 2022, 08:51 PM