Honda C50

This is my first posting & it is about the Honda C50 motorbike, my first motor vehicle. The Honda C50 was buried in the hedge of our next door’s garden. I paid £1 to become its new owner. It was a non-starter, soon brought to life with the help of my Dad, a new spark plug, a new set of points (this is how engines worked in the old days lol!) & a 1/2 gallon of 4 Star Leaded Petrol. To finally watch the engine burst into life was very satisfying after much use of the kickstarter.

This initial tinkering with an engine & riding the motorbike (off-road) for many pleasurable hours started my interest in the mechanical aspects of a working vehicle. At the time  didn’t follow the normal route into buying a Moped. It’s interesting to note that such mopeds, for example the Honda SS50 & Yamaha FS1E  are now very collectable & worth many £1,000’s.

I never once fell off this bike, which considering the majority of the riding was on grass seems pretty impressive looking back. I once loaned the bike to a schoolfriend who proceeded, you guessed right, to fall off at quite some speed. All I remember is he had a very curly bushy kind-off  hairstyle, much like Jeremy Clarkson’s hair was when he started working on Top-Gear on TV. Mmmm maybe there was some ‘powerrrr’ genes at work there.

The images shown are very realistic computer model renderings of the Honda C50 which I chose because they show the purity & functionality of this quite outstanding design. The Honda C50 is the most produced Motor Vehicle ever, with over 100 Million units manufactured worldwide. Wow!

With its charismatic 49.5 cc 4 Stroke Engine, 4.8 bhp power output & 0.66 gallon fuel tank, under the seat it started my journey on the petrolhead road. Sadly I have no photo’s of my actual C50, it was sold to a guy for £5 who promptly stripped the engine down completely & then probably its next journey was to the scrap yard.