It’s a sports moped with street cred, and there’s no denying that the Derbi GPR50 looks superb – It also goes well too. Powered by a water cooled 50cc 2 stroke motor with a 6-speed gearbox, the little Derbi isn’t going to offer electrifying performance, but there’s more than enough go to make getting around town plenty of fun. Underneath that stylish race replica style bodywork is a substantial aluminium beam type frame fitted with inverted forks, 17″ cast wheels and disc brakes. Weighing less than 100Kg, the GPR50 handles great and is loads of fun to ride – in fact, this is a bike that feels like it could easily handle more power.
A used Derbi GPR50R can make a great buy, but check it out carefully. The little 2-stroke will likely have been worked hard and the target market is the youngest rider, so many will have had little maintenance. Crash damage is also quite common and new bodywork is not cheap so make sure that it’s all OK. A popular mod is a big bore kit which can offer significant performance increases, but will make the bike illegal for use by learner riders, and will invalidate your insurance if not declared.