Thursday, February 21, 2013

yes, niimie is back...


meet the hondas!
our #80 teammate niimie arrived from japan for the first time since the cannonball. he was so excited to meet his hondas that he found here while he was in japan(by remotely controlled us). i guess he was too excited that he forgot to put down his backpack :D

キャノンボール振りのN美氏が登場です。日本に居る間に見つけてチャボに置いてあったご自分のホンダと初のご対面。バックを下ろすのも忘れてニンマリ。

 CT90

CB77


 hurried away for a quick test ride.

早速近所を乗り回しに。にやけているのが分かります。
 
and of course we all went for a canyon ride to celebrate the reunion.

そしてもちろん、山へ。CB77の乗り味が思っていた以上に楽しいものだったようですよ。
 



came back from the canyon and it's time for the CT90 :)

山から戻ってきたら今度はCT90の出番です。心底楽しそうです。にやけっぱなし。





4 comments:

matthias said...

Great picture of your canyon ride with the 3 bikes - love it...

emil said...

The Honda CT90 was a small step-through motorcycle manufactured by Honda from 1966 to 1979. It was offered in two models - "Trail" or "X" with the main variations being gear ratios and tyre style. Perhaps one of Honda's hidden success stories, this bike sold well worldwide and has a faithful following to this day and has become collectable.

Honda targeted hunters, fishermen, commuters and outdoorsmen with the Trail 90. Early ads often featured these bikes in wilderness settings, and they were very well suited for narrow trails, being small, lightweight (around 188 pounds) and with a forgiving suspension. It was ideal for climbing and carrying packs. The four-stroke engine was quiet and almost all models were equipped with spark-arrestor exhausts.

While targeted at off-road uses, this was not a dirt bike in the conventional sense. They could be registered for road use, and had a top speed in hi-ratio road gear of around 55 mph (89 km/h). Fuel economy was excellent, often around and above 100mpg. In local commuter traffic, they were extremely maneuverable, though they were poorly-suited for highway travel due to limited power, off-road-biased tires, and top speed.

The CT90 in its classic form was an 89cc 4-stroke air-cooled single with a four-speed transmission and an automatic clutch, coupled with a 1.867:1 ratio reduction box switched into operation using a small lever under the transmission case. The cylinder was nearly horizontal in the step-through tube/stamping frame. The fork was originally a leading link suspension, replaced in 1969 with conventional telescoping-tube suspension.

Greetings from Stuttgart, Germany

Matthias

My Puch MS50V has a similar style > this HONDA ist great, love it...

emil said...

"The Honda CB77, or Super Hawk, was a 305 cc (18.6 cu in) vertical twin motorcycle produced from 1961 until 1967. It is remembered today as Honda's first sportbike. It is a landmark model in Honda's advances in Western motorcycle markets of the 1960s,for its speed and power as well as its reliability, and is regarded as one of the bikes that set the paradigm for modern motorcycles.

The CB77 had, at only 305cc, a relatively big engine in comparison to other Japanese bikes, though it was small compared to other (British) bikes. It quickly built a reputation for reliability, and was equipped with luxuries such as an electric starter.

The CB77 was built on the experience Honda had gained in Grand Prix racing, and differed greatly from previous models. It had a steel-tube frame instead of the pressed frames of earlier Hondas,and a telescopic front fork. The parallel twin engine (the biggest then available in a Honda) was an integral element of the bike's structure, providing stiffness in a frame that had no downtube, and was capable of 9,000 rpm. It could propel the bike at over 100 mph; as fast as British parallel twins with higher displacements, and with great reliability. It is now regarded as "the first modern Japanese motorcycle", which established "the motorcycle paradigm that we still operate under now, more than forty years later."

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Robert M. Pirsig rode a CB77 Super Hawk on the trip he made with his son and their friends in 1968 on a two month round trip from their home in St. Paul, Minnesota to Petaluma, California, which became the basis for the novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.The novel never mentions the make or model of Pirsig's motorcycle,but Pirsig was, as of 2007, still the owner of his Super Hawk."

from WIKIPEDIA, February 2013

Greetings from Stuttgart, Germany

Matthias

> this bike is great, I am born in 1971, therefore I can not the Honda Super Hawk in the streets - but nevertheless or therefore, who knows, I love this great japanese motorcycle!

menacing ayu said...

emil: thanks, emil!!