In the 80s, Honda offered what they called a “heavy duty” minibike called the Motra. Unlike the Z50 or original Monkey, the Motra was designed to be loaded up with gear and ridden just about anywhere you could imagine. A commonly-shared-but-unverified tale says that “Motra” is a combination of Motorcycle-Truck because the Japanese pronunciation for truck is “Torakku”.
1971 Rupp Black Widow
Rupp Industries was based in Mansfield, Ohio, and for nearly 20 years they were able to compete with Honda and other Japanese manufacturers for a share of the lucrative mini bike market. Their top-of-the-line competition bike was the Black Widow, which was based on the Roadster/2. The Black Widow is probably the best-known of Rupp’s creations. It paired a 4 …
1965 Honda C100 with Roadster Kit
While Honda found success with its small step-through models in most markets, the Japanese marque struggled to sell scooters in the same numbers in the US. Honda looked to change this with the introduction of what it called the “Custom Group”, consisting of four different add-on kits (the Roadster, Rally, Boss, and Student) designed to make little runners like the …
Teaching Project – 1990 Honda CB125T
For just one year, Honda made 2,000 examples of a 125cc twin specifically designed for US rider’s education schools. The bike itself isn’t really anything special, but there are some fascinating lights on the front and rear that should be explained.
Owned By The Petersen Museum – 1948 Famous James ML 125
Over at Iconic we’re helping the Petersen Museum sell some of their collection – one of the bikes that will be finding a new home is a Famous James that’s offered with no reserve! ML stands for Military Lightweight, as this bike was originally designed to be utilized by airborne British and Canadian troops in WW2. A civilian version was …
Buy My Bike With No Reserve – 1965 Honda CB160
Post Sale Update: My CB160 sold for $3,005 plus a $250 buyer’s fee after 25 bids on Iconic. The bike was bought for $3,250 so that was basically a wash and I lost a few hundred on the parts I ordered. Life moves on! As you may have seen over the last couple of weeks here on Bike-urious, I’m planning …
Street Legal – 2009 Aprilia RS125
American fans of Aprilia rejoiced when the Italian firm announced that they would export the RS125 to the US, though it wasn’t all good news – due to EPA emissions standards, the baby RS was exclusively for closed-course riding even though it came with lights, mirrors, a horn, and everything else you’d expect to see on a street-legal machine. With …
Pichler Fairing – 1982 Honda MB5
I’ve featured a few bikes with Pichler fairings in the past, but they’ve generally been large-displacement BMWs. Today I learned that Pichler also made a full fairing for something much smaller – a Honda MB5!
The First Ducati – 1948 Ducati 60
Post Sale Update: This Ducati 60 sold for $3,570 via Buy it Now on eBay. I’m sure I’ll get someone who wants to say that the Cucciolo was actually Ducati’s first motorcycle – but that was really just a bicycle with a mounted engine. The evolution of the Cucciolo (which translated to “little puppy”) was the Ducati 60, what the …
1964 Honda C110 Sport 50
The second generation of the C110 started in 1962, and it featured a 49cc single paired with a 3-speed transmission. Originally, the C110 was called the Sports Cub and it was like a regular motorcycle in that you sat over it rather than the step-through design of most Cubs.
CA Plated – 1989 Honda Gyro X
I’ve featured several examples of Honda’s quirky 3-wheeler called the GYRO (which is apparently an acronym for “Great Your Recreation Original.”) The US only got one of the versions, a “S” model that was focused on just carrying a rider around. But Japan got multiple variants include, the UP, the Canopy, and the X. The X was the original model, …
“Mega Monkey” – 2022 Honda Monkey Custom
Packing roughly $8,000 in cosmetic and performance modifications, this build is a “tribute to all the Japanese muscle bikes” of the seller’s past. Can you tell that he used to own a ZRX1200R?
No Reserve – 1981 Suzuki RB50 GAG
If you own a JDM 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 Limited Edition, then we’ve got the perfect complement over at Iconic Motorbikes! This is a Suzuki RB50 (also known as a GSX-R50 or a GAG50) that’s been custom painted to look like it’s bigger brother. On top of that, someone replaced the OEM single square headlight with some dual rounds to better …
CA Plated – 1997 Honda CB50V Dream
Honda has always been one of the world’s best at sub-100cc bikes, from commuter bikes for the people to full on works racers. Over the years, however, the company slowly moved towards bigger bikes in an effort to capture more of an American market that has always been obsessed with power. For a couple of years in the Japanese market …
Mid-Century Last-Miler: 1964 Centaur Folding Scooter
Right now, it’s all things minibike over at Iconic, so I’ll admit that my tastes have been trending towards small. As cool as it was to see my first Motocompo in person, though, this Centaur is truly a quaint piece of midcentury Americana.