ULEZ expansion – what London motorcyclists need to know and what are the best bikes to buy...

Introduced in April 2019, ULEZ originally applied to the Congestion Charge area of Central London and, in a bid to improve air quality, charged vehicles which didn’t qualify as low emissions, £12.50 a day to enter. For motorcycles, this generally meant older, pre-2007 machines which didn’t pass Euro3, although there were some exceptions.
In October 2021 this the ULEZ area was extended by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to cover the area within the North and South Circular. Now, from August 29, 2023, the zone is being extended again to cover all of Greater London. So, if you’re in London and have a bike registered before 2007 you could be set for a £12.50 daily charge which, if you used it every day, could add up to £4550 a year. For our full run down of ULEZ and what it means for bikes see here. But it’s not all bad news. Here’s what you can do.

Not all pre-2007 machines fail to meet the ULEZ requirement. Transport for London has an Links are like: online vehicle checker here where you simply input your registration number to find out if it complies.

A significant number of pre-2007 motorcycle are exempt from ULEZ charges. This is because, even though older, they produce less than the 0.15 g/Km of NOx emissions ULEZ and Euro3 was configured to prevent. Some common examples of these are Honda’s CBR1100RRXX Super Blackbird, the Ducati Monster 600 and BMW’s R1150GS. A number of guides and lists are available online which indicate which models are affected. However, if you suspect your bike is exempt in order for it to qualify as such you must get it checked and certified by an approved NOx testing centre. There are currently five approved testing centres in the London area as detailed here. The test takes 30 minutes and costs £175 and, if it passes, your bike will be exempt from the next working day.
In addition, ‘classic’ motorcycles over 40 years old are exempt, too.

If your bike is eligible and you’re happy to pay the charge, perhaps because you only ride for a few days a year, make sure you don’t miss a payment (and thus be liable for a penalty charge which can be £160 per use) by taking out an Auto Pay account here.
If your bike is eligible for the ULEZ charge and you use it a lot in London, perhaps to commute, you may want to change it – and there are still things you can do.

To support drivers in making the switch to a ULEZ compliant vehicle, TfL have also announced that the London Scrappage Scheme will be expanded and that scrappage grants of up to £2,000 will be available to every single Londoner with a non-compliant car or £1,000 for a non-compliant motorcycle. Autotrader has gone into full details of the updated scrappage scheme here.
With that £1000 you could then buy a ULEZ-compliant bike from the dozens available on Autotrader, we pick out some of the best below. Or, if your pre-2007 bike is worth significantly more than £1000, you could sell your bike yourself (ideally outside London where it will now have more value) and use the proceeds, or add to them, to upgrade to a better, ULEZ compliant bike, again we pick out some of the best over different price bands below. Regarding the implementation of the new scheme, Auto Trader CEO Nathan Coe said: “This is great news for Londoners who have found it difficult to transition to less polluting vehicles. “We previously called for an extension of the scrappage scheme’s terms and this announcement from Transport for London is a really encouraging move to show the positive impact that incentives and support can have on people who are keen to make sustainable decisions but who just can’t afford to. “Further support, in the shape of a scrappage scheme for all Londoners, shows that prioritising clean air doesn’t have to be a decision of pocket over planet. “Some drivers may find that selling is still a better option rather than scrapping if their car is desirable in the broader national market – it’s important drivers do their research before deciding what’s best for them.”

If you’ve got just £1000 to spend on an ULEZ-compliant, post 2007 motorcycle, you’d be forgiven for thinking you might not have much choice – after all, few brand-new machines of even 50 or 125cc can be bought for less than £2000 so what hope have you got for anything bigger?
In reality, however, the choice is far broader and more exciting than you might expect. Here’s our pick of the current best, in a variety of styles.

Super Soco is the UK’s leading electric scooter brand and the Chinese-built bikes and scooters are proving hugely popular. Its current cheapest and most affordable model is the CU Mini which, thanks to a range of discounts, is now widely being offered for just £999 brand new – down from its usual price of £1699. Admittedly it’s only 50cc-equivilent so is capable of only 30mph and its spec is fairly basic, too, but if you want a ULEZ compliant, short-hop commuter it’s currently the best-value, brand new, electric option available.
Find a Super Soco CU Mini here.

Scooter brands don’t get any more stylish, fashionable or desirable than Vespa and, although pricey new, the Italian brand’s retro style LX and GTS models can be had used for around £1000 – if you look hard enough. For that you get a proven, easy to ride, stylish commuter you can ride on an A1 motorcycle licence with just a CBT certificate (as long as you are 17-plus)
Find a Vespa LX/GTS 125 here.

Honda are the proven kings when it comes to affordable, durable, effective, geared 125cc commuters and its current CB125F, with around 10bhp, capable of 155mpg, 65mph and with easy manners remains a worthy best-seller. But with used values of even the earliest 2015 example still well over £1500, for this budget point we’d instead recommend its predecessor, the CBF125 which dates back to 2008 so is still ULEZ-compliant, in most respects the same bike and in one aspect arguably even better – it’s frame-mounted half-fairing making longer commutes more comfortable. It can also, relatively easily, be had for around £1000.
Find a Honda CBF125 here.

Yamaha’s popular and usually more affordable alternative to Honda’s CB125 was the now deleted YBR125 but it’s not generally known that it also, for a short period, had a larger capacity brother, the YBR250, which proved an even more versatile commuter and today can be had for a snip. It’s a straightforward, air-cooled, 250cc single capable of around 80mph; is very frugal, light and comfortable to ride and is also utterly bulletproof. There aren’t that many still around, but we spotted a decent 2010 (so ULEZ-compliant) example with 33,00 miles for just £999.
Find a Yamaha YBR250 here.

OK, we’re pushing the bounds of our budget here, but it can be done. BMW’s F800 belt-drive parallel twin has never been the German marque’s most-loved model due to a combination of odd-ball looks and mid-range performance, but that also plays into our hands in keeping residual values uncharactistically low while the bike itself is an excellent, overlooked all-rounder. With around 80bhp, belt drive and proven mechanicals it makes an excellent, year-round commuter; it’s ULEZ-compliant, comes as either the sports-tourer ST or sportier S variant and, if you ignore high mileages (which you can, as it’s a BMW) can be had for around £1000.
Find a BMW F800S/ST here.

…and if your budget for a used ULEZ-compliant bike is larger, and your taste in bikes is for something significantly larger than 125cc, there’s an even great choice to be had – as these picks up to £3000, in. a variety of styles, proves:

Kawasaki set the template for a new breed of c.600cc parallel twin roadster that remains so popular today when the Japanese giant launched its first ER-6n roadster, soon accompanied by the half-faired ER-6f, back in 2005. Both were updated into ULEZ-compliant form in 2009, produce around 72bhp, have light, entertaining and versatile chassis and live on today as the renamed Z650 and 650 Ninja but around £2000 should easily get you a decent, 2008-on version of either the n or f.
Find a Kawasaki ER-6n/f here.

Yamaha’s 599cc, four-cylinder, 78bhp XJS-F, latterly named the XJ6 Diversion was an immensely useful, middleweight, half-faired all-rounder that’s manageable, comfortable, utterly reliable and, although built down to a price in some areas, reasonably equipped. Later, post-2007 versions are ULEZ-compliant while we found plenty of c.2010 examples with around 20-30,000 miles under their wheels, yet still in good, usable condition examples to be had for between £2000-2500.
Find a Yamaha XJ6/600 here.

Honda’s junior, V-twin, shaft-drive tourer/all-rounder, the Deauville, has always had something of an unfashionable image but that overlooks what a great, versatile, comfortable and practical all-rounder it is. Originally launched way back in 1998 as a 650, it was updated and restyled into 700cc form in 2006, is fabulously comfortable, comes with built-in panniers as standard, post 2008-versions are ULEZ-compliant and can be had from £2600-upwards with absolutely no reliability concerns.
Find a Honda NT700 here.

Another often overlooked, now deleted but phenomenally practical Honda all-rounder. The CBF1000 was originally launched in 2006 as a more upright, affordable all-rounder based on detuned CBR1000RR Fireblade mechanicals. It worked, too, with plenty of comfortable practicality yet more than a whiff of ‘Blade excitement, too. That bike was uprated and facelifted in 2010, is ULEZ compliant, produces 106bhp and can be had for as little as £2500.
Find a Honda CBF1000 here.

Suzuki’s budget but brilliant Bandit, in both 600 and 1200cc forms, was one of motorcycling’s success stories of the late 1990s and early Noughties. Less well remembered, though, is the GSX1250F which ran from 2010 to 2016 and was essentially an updated, renamed, faired Bandit 1250. It’s ULEZ-compliant, produces 96bhp and an even more impressive amount of grunty torque, is comfortable, bulletproof, takes a pillion and luggage with ease and can be had from as little as £2700.
Find a Suzuki GSX1250F here.