Posted By gareth on Sep 3, 2015 | 6 comments

In the ‘olden-days’, as we would say it nowadays, the average 15 year old would sit in front of a bike shop window creating a puddle of drool on the floor that dripped from the edges of their chins. This was because they were staring at one of, at the time, their wet dream machines, a 50cc motorcycle. I bet most out there, and with the old license centre systems, had booked their learners tests for the day of their 16th birthday so no time was wasted to obtain their first bike.

In 1981, my father happened to be one of those kids sitting at the bike shop windows drooling over a certain, Honda MB5. The Honda MB5 was launched in South Africa in 1979 and sold at a whopping R699 brand new. This proved to be a little out of my father’s price range but, he managed to find a 1980 MB5, with 4,000km on the clock and bought it for R450. We have quite a famous surname that involves a certain cruiser brand and what makes this story even more special is that my father’s first ever bike crash happened in a street just off 14th Avenue in JHB, the streets name, Davidson Street.

I’ve heard many stories about this little bike and his journey on it, some not the kind of stories you should be telling your kids, and some really awesome. I was digging through a few of my father’s old photos a short while ago and came across an image of him pushing his MB5 out of a maids quarters. Why he was caught on camera pushing it in reverse out of a maids quarters? Well that is one long story that involves a really good time at a mates house, alcohol, chicks, passing out and having to hide it from the folks for the night. Hearing these stories make a lot of sense when I thought that I was being clever as a 16 year old, thinking that I could trick my folks, but in reality, they were the masters in the field as they too were 16 once, which kids so often forget.

I recently took my wife away for a quiet weekend, just the two of us, when I was browsing through a few bike ads on my phone and came across, what looked to be, a Honda MB5. I immediately contacted the owner of the bike having known him and the bike was very soon after, mine. Not sure if I was in over my head here, but my initial thought was to bring my father’s childhood memories back with a little father-son restoration project. I went to collect the bike and saw that it had an MB8 sticker on the tank which I was not very familiar with. Apparently the owners had put the sticker on to make it seem more rare? Anyway, it is a Honda MB5 and we plan to restore it to its former glory.

We have received quite a few emails of interest in our little project, so we will be printing the first installment of the series in our November issue of SuperBike Magazine. We would also like to welcome a few top notch guys who have offered their services with our build. Moto Art  who is a very talented painter and has been in the business for over a decade and customised many machines. We also have My50 who are a company that have loads of used 50cc spares, vintage 50cc bikes and source parts for you, so a lot of pain of searching is taken away by these awesome guys!

I think this little bike will be a head turner to those who appreciate it for what it is. And as we progress, I will upload images with a bit more information and funny stories. But until then, take it easy and cheers for now.