Description
H&H Classic Auction @ National Motorcycle Museum | Solihull, West Midlands
30th Oct, 2024 11:00
1969 Honda Z50A K1
Legendary 'Monkey' bike
Estimate
£2, 500 - £3, 000
Registration No: KJC 255G
Frame No: Z50A224456
MOT: None
Late 1960s classic Z50 'Monkey' bike
Used as a race team paddock bike
Supplied with a dating letter and a V5C
The Honda Motor Company was founded by Soichiro Honda in 1937, initially producing piston rings for Toyota. They made their first motorcycle in 1949 and within 10 years had become the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world and have gone on to produce over 400 million two-wheelers as well as millions of other power products. One of their most distinctive and best loved designs is the Z series of small wheeled minibikes that came to be known as Monkey bikes because those riding them "looked like Monkeys". The first version of the Honda Z-series was the 1961 prototype Honda Z100, originally produced as a children's ride at the Tama Tech Japanese amusement park and was eventually refined and put into mass production in 1964. By the late 1960s the bike now sported front suspension but still with a hard tail rear with fold down handlebars so it could be carried in the boot of a car.
This Z50 has spent most of its life as a paddock bike for a couple of car race teams. Once he retired from racing, the vendor restored this iconic little bike including a refresh of the paintwork, re-chromed mudguards and chainguard, new tyres and tubes, new handlebars, new piston rings and valves and a new carb. With the help of a dating letter from the Honda Owners Club is is now registered on an age related number with a current V5C. Whilst probably Honda's smallest and simplest models it remains one of their more collectible bikes, ideal for use in motorhomes or even the boot of a family car.
