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It’s a 124cc four-stroke single cylinder motor which puts out around 14bhp so don’t expect a performance machine. It is more than powerful enough for the rest of the bike however and is shared among many of the rest of the Piaggio group in various Vespas and Aprilia scoots.

Look after the motor with regular servicing and it will give you years of happy and reliable miles as this has been in many other scooters and is well proven. Quality is as good as you would expect for this sort of money – it’s not up to the best Honda standards but way, way, way better than cheap Chinese stuff.

Boingy but good fun. The earlier versions had a single rear shock which was less able to cope with big bumps than the later twin shock scooters. Around town the GP-1 is more than able to handle carving through traffic. It can get a bit out of it’s depth on bumpy British back roads.

Compared to the Japanese scooters out there the Derbi looks like good value at £2495 except when you look at the bigger 250cc brother which is only £500 more. If you want a 125cc machine then this is good value. You get a good quality product for the money backed up by the massive Piaggio Group owning the Spanish Derbi arm. Secondhand prices are really good.

A fair bit of storage available with room for a helmet under the seat (not all lids fit so check yours does), a lockable glovebox with 12v charger outlet and two small cubbies by your knees which have rubber flaps to cover them and don’t lock. Later twin shock models had a little more room under the seat. Dash has a fuel gauge and usefully has a second mileage reader that starts up once the fuel level reaches reserve.

It’s a 244cc four-stroke single cylinder motor which puts out around 22bhp so don’t expect fireworks. It is more than powerful enough for the rest of the bike however and is shared among many of the rest of the Piaggio group in various Vespas and Aprilia scoots. Will still do around 80mph flat out.

Look after the motor with regular servicing and it will give you years of happy and reliable miles as this has been in many other scooters and is well proven. Quality is as good as you would expect for this sort of money – it’s not up to the best Honda standards but way, way, way better than cheap Chinese stuff.

Boingy but good fun. The earlier versions had a single rear shock which was less able to cope with big bumps than the later twin shock scooters. Around town the GP-1 is more than able to handle carving through traffic. It can get a bit out of it’s depth on bumpy British back roads. Early scoots had twin radial front calipers and discs which were powerful. Later models made do with a single disc.

Compared to the Japanese scooters out there the Derbi looks like good value at £2999 and you get a good quality product for the money backed up by the massive Piaggio Group owning the Spanish Derbi arm. Secondhand prices are really good.

A fair bit of storage available with room for a helmet under the seat (not all lids fit so check yours does), a lockable glovebox with 12v charger outlet and two small cubbies by your knees which have rubber flaps to cover them and don’t lock. Later twin shock models had a little more room under the seat. Dash has a fuel gauge and usefully has a second mileage reader that starts up once the fuel level reaches reserve.

The Derbi Cross City’s air-cooled, 125 single is effective enough without particularly impressing in any way – but then that’s to be expected of a 12bhp-restricted 125 and is certainly no disaster. It’s novice-friendly, rugged enough and faithful. End of.

Dynamically, the Derbi Cross City has all the handling traits you’d expect of an upright, semi-dirt bike styled machine:  a novice-friendly, slim and lightweight upright riding position allied to wide bars which make steering light and easy. Mix into that reasonable Pirelli Scorpion tyres and an effective front disc brake and you end up with a fairly idiot-proof handler that’s a joy to hustle round.

The Derbi Cross City has sweet touches and Honda-quality finish aplenty (eg the cast brake lever, fold up ‘MX-style’ gearlever and neatly integrated upswept exhaust) plus minimal but sweetly-styled bodywork. But there are a few little details that annoy, such as the spring-loaded sidestand which is simply a disaster waiting to happen, a fuel tap that’s ridiculously fiddly and an old-fashioned choke knob that’s even worse. We can’t be conclusive about its resilience here but it seems pretty well put together, is a four-stroke after all and, besides, it’s so basic there’s not much that could go wrong, anyway.

The Derbi Cross City is impressively affordable, too. It’s not only good value for what it does, it makes a mockery of all preconceived notions of Latin-style ‘flair’ bikes being expensive and brittle.  Yet, despite that low-ish price, without, say, Honda’s reputation and residuals, it’s worth reminding that, any savings when bought new are likely to be gobbled up at resale time.

The Derbi Cross City  scores as an object of desire, too. It might not have much (no fairing, wire wheels, fairly basic spec) but the frame is a pukka (albeit steel) twin beam jobbie, matched by an equally mouth-watering tapered swing arm, there are twirlingly eye-catching brake discs front and rear plus better than everage suspension. While ancilliaries include decent clocks (albeit with kph emphasised over mph) and switchgear.