Three Honda Two-Wheelers

[AlanG]

In response to overwhelming public demand (i.e. motorcyclemodeler asked me) I shall post a few photographs of my versions of the rather delightful models recently made available on Akira O's web site. These models do not have a high level of detail, but capture quite nicely the feel of mostly rather idiosyncratic Honda machines. The given scale is 1:11, so I have reduced them by about 20% to fit my standard scale of 1:14.

First up is the model Z50A "Monkey". The Monkey was a tiny 50cc motor bike, originally designed for a children's ride at an amusement park. It was modified slightly to make it ridable (just) by adults, and released in 1967 as the Z50M. A new version with slightly more reasonable wheels - 8" (200mm) instead of 5" (125mm) - and a little more power came in 1969: the Z50A.

I made quite a few modifications while building this model, mainly because while redrawing the frame tubing to make it buildable for me I found that the proportions were a little awry. In particular the main spine tube was too long, so the distance between the steering head and the rear frame loops was too great. Fixing this had some knock-on effects, as the fuel tank now had to sit partially over the rear frame member, rather than entirely in front of it, and the seat and engine both had to be reduced in length to fit.

[whulsey]

Cool looking, remember people zooming around on those in the pits at the drag races.

[AlanG]

Next comes the Super Cub C100, known in the UK and the US simply as the Honda 50. This was brought out in 1958, as a general utility bike aimed at the global market, but is still available in recognisable form today, over 100 million sales later. The design is a fusion of the conventional small motor bike and the then very popular motor scooter. From scooters it took the low "step-through" frame and protective fairings, but it avoided the small wheels and rear-arm mounted engine which were considered unsuitable for poorly-surfaced roads.

My model is largely built as intended, and went together pretty well. The only major change was to provide thread-spoked and rather rounder wheels than the original model.

[AlanG]

Finally (for now) we have the Dio motor scooter. This was rather more recent than the other two, having been introduced in 1988. It was a smartly-styled but mainly quite conventional scooter, with a rear arm mounted 50cc engine. One innovation was to put the fuel tank under the floor instead of in the box under the seat. This gave a better storage capacity (enough for a full-face helmet) beneath the seat, but added the complication of a fuel pump instead of the usual simple gravity feed.

The model was quite straightforward to build despite the complex shapes. A couple of the parts were huge - the whole of the front and both sides of the body cladding is a single piece, as is the V-shaped underfloor frame. I split them at appropriate places to make them less vulnerable during assembly, and to allow the frame to be trued up. Otherwise it was the usual redraw of the inlet and exhaust pipes, and new rounder wheels.

[CaptainPersley]

I really appreciate the amount of detail that went into the wheels and the engines of the three bikes. The Super Cub C100's wheels must have bean a real headache, the body of the "Monkey" too. The Dio's wheels also look very detailed, but given it's more modern and rectangular look I guess that the body was a bit easier to assamble.

[solo67]

your spoked wheels make all the difference to the general look
thanks for the link.

[romanmodels]

nice bikes Alen

[birder]

Hi Alan, are these bike models still available? The cub is really cool

[AlanG]

Thank you Moshe and David. These were nice little models to build.

Originally Posted by birder

Hi Alan, are these bike models still available? The cub is really cool

Sad to say that only the Monkey (and the Harley-Davidson Hummer) is still available on Akira O's web site. He added a newer (green) version of the Super Cub in December, but when I discovered it three days later it had already been withdrawn. A couple of weeks afterwards it was pointed out to me that the older Cub and the Dio had also been withdrawn, with the same non-explanation. One can only speculate on the reason.

Alan

[peter taft]

Hey....Great to see you are still doing your stuff mate, and still to the excellent high standard we have come to expect from you. Great builds