SYM, one of the top motorcycle brands to come out of Taiwan and sold in 90 plus countries worldwide found its way to South African shores back in 1990. The brand is imported by KMSA, the same guys who do Kawasaki, Kayo and a variety of accessories like Pirelli and Motul.
Sym has a wide variety of smaller capacity motorcycles from Adventure, Naked, Commercial and Scooters. this time, we got to take their little ADV styled bike for a week or so.
One of their newest arrivals is the SYM NHT 200 Adventure Bike. It’s a cost effective adventure styled machine that is actually very capable both on and off road.
We passed it around the office and gave it to one or two of the more energetic team members to give it a proper testing in the veld and farm roads behind our offices.
Deon says:
I got to use the SYM NHT 200 for a week, running chores, doing my rounds to customers and commuting home and back with a few after hours forays into the local farm lands and bush veld paths between the office and home. All in, I’ve probably done 150KM’s or so.
I do like the looks and styling of the NHT 200 quite a lot. Modern and rugged.
I like the fact that they stuck to the off road look and kept the wheels spoked.
The dash display is uncluttered and uncomplicated, an easy to read digital setup. The LED headlights and tail lights are easy on the eyes and the tinted screen matches the whole look. The chrome bits and pieces take a bit of getting used to. A nice touch is the USB port that comes in handy when you need to use your phone for the GPS navigation or just to give it a bit of a charge.
Riding the bike I found it very easy and comfortable to ride over most terrain especially for people with shorter legs.
It’s a great entry level bike for beginners, a great everyday bike with a low centre of gravity, easy manoeuvrability and light handling.
The fuel consumption is really good, I started with a full tank and a week and a bit later with all my running around and testing it still has around half a tank and this all from an 11L capacity should give you 3.2L/100km.
Commuting on this bike is as easy as can be, whipping through traffic on a bike weighing only 152 kg is no problem at all even with my Mrs on the back. With both of us on the bike we easily got over 100km/h from its single cylinder, 13.5KW and 15.7NM engine.
The brakes are good on this motorcycle, easily and safely scrubbing off speed with both front and rear ABS brakes giving you good feel and feedback even in emergency situations.
I felt that the gear lever is a bit long and is tucked in too close to the frame for my liking. The little plastic belly pan is a nice touch, you won’t be doing hardcore stuff on this bike, but she was really good on the gravel roads that we rode.
Acceleration up to 100KPH is quite nippy and she tops out at the 120KPH mark.
We gave it to a brand new rider, Jen Venter and aimed her at a wide open field.
For the first time, I got to ride the SYM 200cc bike, with only knowing where to start the bike Deon taught me the rest. 1 down and 5 up with a lever on the left handlebar that I had to pull at the same time…
My mind started over thinking.
Well, it came easy, this bike is really easy to manage, and hold up (being short and all), it is very comfortable and my feet reached the ground with ease. The throttle is not harsh, very predictable with smooth power delivery.
This all put my mind at ease and I just kicked in naturally to motorcycle riding mode. The clutch is easy to manage (once you get used to it) and the gears are nice and soft on the foot. From only riding in first gear for the first couple of minutes, I went all the way up to 5th.
Very cool!
It is a great bike for a first timer, not intimidating and, I think that it looks nice too!.
Then we gave the SYM NHT 200 to young Kyle Foley, an experienced off-road rider whose usual steed is a KTM 250 EXC 4 banger that he peddles hard.
Kyle says:
I was expecting to be a bit bored on this little bike, but it is actually quite a bit of fun. We did some tar riding, and to be honest it is not really that fast on the open, straight tar, but I did get it over 115 kays per hour. When we got to the corners I started having a good time.
We got to our favourite sweeping corner and I kept going faster and faster each time, trying to get it a bit lower with each pass because it feels stable and balanced through the corner.
Where I really started having fun was once we got onto the farm roads and into the veld, I even managed a few small jumps without bottoming out the shocks. The tyres aren’t the best for serious off-roading, but they look quite wide and they did the job well enough.
The bike isn’t wildly fast nor does it have crazy acceleration, so the tyres aren’t put under any huge demand anyway and I managed to keep a smooth speed along the dirt tracks and through the corners with the suspension soaking up all the bumps easily, with my 75kg weight on it.
I think the part I really found amazing was how good the brakes are. They really are very good and work exceptionally well in the dirt and on the tar.
Honestly – I was really expecting not to like this bike, but I ended up liking it a lot.
The NHT boasts 160 mm of ground clearance.
It’s sprung on 140mm Non-Adjustable Telescopic Front forks and 42mm Adjustable rear monoshock, which by the way, took quite a beating and kept on going…. Pretty impressive.
Another thing that we really like is the little price R39 995.
SA needs more bikes priced like this.
www.sym.co.za for your dealer.
