My neighborhood is nearly as big as your commute! I’d just get an ebike (or cargo ebike!), it’s completely transformed the city for me. We’ve unintentionally gone on 72km trips as the bike makes it easy to do. I fill the gaps with buses and rail using an app called Transit, which is made by a small dev team out of Montreal.

On a bike there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. Get good breathable gear (with armour) and good gloves.

You can layer up in winter as well. I used put on extra layers under and over my gear.

Having a scooter is very freeing. You can pass traffic. Park almost everywhere and have safe storage for anything you need to carry.

I enjoyed having a 50cc scooter in a city because you could just twist the throttle fully but never speed.

I prefer the look of a motorbike these days but always enjoyed time in my scooter.

“Costs more to repair than it’s worth” is a useless distinction. You’re not buying your car again, so that number doesn’t mean anything. The only metric for how much a car costs is how much it would cost to repair versus the cost of a new car. Almost always, a new car is more expensive than continuing to repair an old car.

Do you have a car payment? If so, don’t buy anything until it’s paid off. Are repairs costing you more than a new car’s payment? If so, look into replacing it.

You definitely shouldn’t consider switching to a completely new mode of transportation to replace your car without first trying it out and keeping the car as a backup. Make a list of all your transport needs, where have you gone in the past year? Is there a viable car alternative for all of those things?

Fat tire ebike. I do almost 50km a day, winters too with studded tires. I do also have a small yamaha dual sport I take some days.

I bought a dual ABS Honda Grom just over a year ago and I ride it just about daily except for heavy rain and snow deeper than a couple of centimeters - unless the roads have been plowed.

I commute about double that distance and depending on which way I go, the fastest I need to go is about 85-90 km/h, which is near the maximum.

I installed a brighter tail light and added extra lights around the bike that all turn red when I brake. I work until 2am and I want the extra visibility on the ride home.

Many drivers are idiots so my head is always moving to see what’s going on around me.

When I was studying to a commercial driving license, the instructor told us that the key to defensive driving is to assume that everyone else on the road is going to the dumbest thing at the worst possible moment.

That bit of instruction has kept me out of several accidents.

Buy good gear and get a bike that’s fun. For me, that bike was the Grom. Quick acceleration and stopping, agile, great on fuel, and just fun.

Living in a large European city and being a bike rider I can only recommend a lot of training if you are switching. You’d be in one of the two main risk groups.

As others said, play it safe. Riding in winter might not be possible although I did that a few years with a touring suit.

In general I love the ease of getting around and just parking anywhere (reasonably of course). Even though we have public transport it is unreliable, expensive and slow.

Just be sure you’re in condition to ride. Many people drive cars in conditions they shouldn’t and everyone pays for that but on two wheels you’ll likely pay the most.

By the way heated handles are the best thing you can do against the cold but although it works there can be other issues, it can feel as if you’re holding on to glowing steel or if the hands are in limbo between feeling and not it can get very painful.

The touring suit alone was 1500 euros used 10 years back or so.

I never got rid of my pickup truck, but I have owned a few small displacement two-wheelers that I used for commuting year-round for several years in my 20s. Mind you I live in North Carolina, so A. I’m going to use miles per hour and miles per gallon, B. the climate here is warmer year round than almost all of Europe, and C. when I talk about any legalities like licensing, that’s what I’m talking about.

I owned a Yamaha Razz (an ancient 50cc 2 stroke scooter), a modified Aprilia RS50 (rare bike to find in the US, by the time I got it this is a 75cc 2 stroke motorcycle, 6-speed manual transmission) and a Kawasaki Ninja 250F (250cc 4 stroke 2 cylinder, 6 speed manual). The scooter I mostly stuck to roads with speed limits of 45mph or under, and still that was pretty sketchy as in most cases I could not keep up with traffic. The other two bikes I’ve driven all over creation on every kind of highway we have.

Performance

The Aprilias 75cc two-stroke was just barely capable of pushing the bike to about 80 mph; it is my understanding that the RS50 is often limited to 30mph in the UK, and wide open it could do about 50. A two-stroke engine with nearly no torque isn’t great for stop and go traffic; this bike was best on the backroads where you would stay at 45 to 55 mph. It made around 60 miles to the gallon, it did consume oil, wasn’t that easy to start in the winter, etc. Cruising on divided highways and interstates was asking a lot of an engine that size. I did occasionally carry a passenger, which was a LOT to ask of that bike.

The Ninja 250 is a perfectly adequate machine for highway use. The chassis wasn’t quite as sporty as the Aprilia, with a more upright riding posture, which just made it more comfortable. It was easily capable of over 100mph, it held nearly 5 gallons of gas and made 70 mpg, so it had tremendous range. I still haven’t found a motorcycle that can do what that bike did. It was easy to handle in traffic and quite capable on the freeway. Carrying a passenger on this bike could be a challenge with any cargo; it was kind of a choice between saddlebags or a passenger, not for weight but for space.

I would estimate that a 125cc four-stroke with a CVT would perform about like the Aprilia or worse, probably more torque but less horsepower, you’re probably locking yourself out of long distance commute by major divided highway.

Practicality

I only really started doing things like grocery shopping by bike when I got the Ninja. I had both a tank bag and saddle bags for that bike, which were frequently used. If I could do it again I would do permanently mounted and weatherproof saddle boxes. Some scooters come with trunk space under the seat but others are full of fuel tank since they often keep the space in front of the driver empty.

Weather

I rode bikes through 100 degree summers and in freezing rain. None of my bikes were really equipped for shielding the rider from the weather. The coldest I’ve ever been was in the saddle of that Ninja. If you don’t like being rained on, commuting by bike isn’t for you.

Riding gear is essential. I would budget about $1000 USD (about the same in euro) for a helmet, jacket, boots, pants, gloves and rain gear. I actually wore a jacket that was designed for summer weather, a nylon mesh jacket that breathed very easily, year round. IT had an internal rain liner I could put in which warmed it up a little, and I wore a fleece under that in winter, and still froze my ass off. For most of the year I didn’t bother with the armored pants I bought because they were cumbersome; for commuting you might look into “steel jeans” or similar. Your gear is there to keep you comfortable when moving at speed and to keep you in one piece while crashing. Which you WILL eventually do.

Maintenance

Bikes need more maintenance than cars. Tires don’t last as long, especially the tiny ones thy put on scooters. Those smaller, simpler engines are fussier. They might take less oil, but they often take expensive synthetic oil specifically designed for motorcycles, and it requires changing more frequently.

Everyone in cars is trying to kill you

No seriously everyone who drives a car including you and me are ignorant and malicious dipshits when it comes to the safety of those on two wheels. You will be pulled out in front of, you will be swerved in front of, you will be merged into. Much more so than in a car you will have to defend yourself. Keep your horn working, keep your eyes working, learn karate, install a Phalanx CWIS system if it’s within your budget.

If the commute is only 6km why get a vehicle at all? I would just cycle for that distance. 6000-6500 euros sounds like a lot for a 125, so you should be able to get something pretty good. I used to have one, in the UK you only need a CBT to ride it which is a 1 day course/test that is almost impossible to fail. But it only lasts 2 years, it expired and I didn’t replace it as I was just cycling everywhere instead.

I don’t ride a scooter, but I do ride a motorcycle. As you budget don’t forget about safety gear. A decent helmet can be expensive. A lot of people ride scooters in normal clothes, but certified riding gear is much safer. Everything adds up though - I probably spent $2000 on jeans, boots, helmet, jacket, gloves, Bluetooth kit for the helmet, phone mount for navigation, ear plugs, visors, etc.

Once you get to where ever you are going, if you do wear your gear, it’s definitely not as comfy as normal clothes. Weather can be rough too. Riding in rain is not fun, and cool weather is surprisingly cold when you’re moving 60km/h through it. And drivers of cars can be really, really clueless.

Good luck! As much as I love riding my motorcycle, it was more expensive than I would have guessed, and less convenient than I thought it would be.

I looks like you have most of the details worked out, I just want to ask, are you all-in on a new ride, or would you consider a lightly used model? What you’re looking for might be an exception, but generally there are good savings in going after a lightly used vehicle as little as 2 years old.

My only experience with this is that if the engine is over 50cc it’s no longer a moped and requires a motorcycle licence.

Have you considered an electric bike or scooter?

As for winter, I’ve cycled for a decade through Dutch winters and the only investment I required was a proper raincoat and pants to keep dry. More often than not I didn’t need any winter coat underneath it if I was wearing a jumper, but that was me as a teenager cycling. Not sure if that applies on an motorised bike.

How’s public transit in your area? If you had a plan b for bad weather days, that’ll make it a lot easier.

You could go for an electric brand like NIU or Silence and save more on fuel

My experience with a scooter was being a great driver myself, but nearly being killed on a daily basis by inattentive and/or highly aggressive car drivers.

I found that without basically a snow suit, you cannot ride a scooter when it’s 16 Celsius or cooler - you’ll just freeze your ass off.

No matter where you go you look like shit, your face is wind burned, your hair looks like garbage. Your clothes are rumpled and covered in the road grime or insects.

Edit: there is no such thing as going anywhere without meticulously researching the weather and checking radar. Even a very light sprinkle makes it so that you are a drowned rat, all of your clothes completely soaked after 90 seconds.

Scooter is an ok idea but don’t go into it thinking it’s going to be all happy. It’s miserable.

American driver here so YMMV. 125cc is just too slow to be safe. Motorcycles and scooter drivers often have to give it the gas to scoot out of a dangerous situation. If I ever got another ICE scooter, it would be 250cc.