By Bob Maddocks | CO
According to my limited (and undocumented) research, the prototype version of the Honda Z-Series of minicycles was originally produced as a children’s ride at a Japanese amusement park and later refined and put into production for the European market in 1967. You may remember these early models as the Honda “Monkey” or “Gorilla,” so-called because of the way adults looked riding the darn thing. The company’s official model designations for the early bikes included the Z50A, Z50J, Z50M, Z50R and the ZB50.
Since then, Honda has produced a wide range of 50cc Z-Series mini-bikes, and annual model updates remained in effect through 2008 and even later in some markets. In a somewhat off-handed tribute to Honda, cheaper replica versions of the Z50 are being manufactured in China under a variety of names today.
The stock Honda Z50 utilizes a 50cc four-stroke engine with a single overhead camshaft, centrifugal clutch and three speed manual tranny. Fuel delivery is provided by a Keihin PB12, 13mm piston-valve carburetor with a butterfly style manual choke. Maximum power is 2.6 hp, and the mini produces a whopping 3.5 lb-ft of torque. Maximum speed (according to Honda) is 31 mph. The advertized load capacity is an often violated 160 lbs. A 1.8 gallon gas tank with petcock is standard and includes a modest reserve.
This 1997 example, owned by the author, is called “The Z50R from Hell” by everyone in our family, primarily because virtually every adult and child in the Maddocks family has crashed the thing at least once. In one particularly memorable “wadding,” my 9-year old grandson, John, froze on the controls and ran the bike at full throttle into the side of an elementary school. Fortunately, he was ATGATT and uninjured. (It is rumored that most of the adult crashes have occurred during attempts to sustain long wheelies.)
Not once in all these years , however, has the mini incurred enough damage to keep it from
terrorizing the streets, parks and vacant lots of our neighborhood. The only real maintenance this thing has received in the ten years Mary Jane and I have owned it has been fresh Bridgestone 3.5 x 8.0 Trail Wing tires, new inner tubes, cursory wipe-downs and an occasional oil change. It also sports an after-market aluminum skid pan that is useful when hitting curbs.
Take it from us, no motorcycling family is complete without a durable mini-cycle like the Honda Z50R from Hell.
