Honda Motocompo: Honda’s 80s Scooter That Fits in the Trunk

In the 1980s Honda sold their folding scooter, the Honda Motocompo. Introduced as a “trunk bike” to fit inside compact cars like the Honda City from the 1980s.

Going back in time, in the 1980s numerous quirky looking motorcycles rolled out of the production line. Aside from looking distinctive, some of the motorcycles were also designed and manufactured to fulfil a purpose. Talking about design and purpose from the 1980s, one of the craziest bikes from this era is the Honda Motocompo (NCZ50).

 

Honda Motocompo

The reason behind the development of the Honda Motocompo is the 80’s Honda City.  Back then the Honda City was a compact car, as the name suggests it was developed for city use. It was also bigger and wider and more powerful than Kei-cars. There have been numerous models in the Honda City lineup; City E, City R, City Turbo and City Turbo II. The car itself was very impressive and won numerous awards. However, the most unique factor about the City is that it had an option to come with a foldable Motocompo scooter in Japan. We think this is one of the unique factory options for a car in history. Don’t you want this Honda City Motocompo scooter in your life?

 

The Honda Motocompo and the City were designed for each other from the outset. Before we look into it further, you might be wondering what’s the point of having a compact car with a foldable scooter, correct? Well, a Japanese city is usually packed with traffic and also it’s hard to find parking spots at times, this is where the Motocompo comes into play.  You could simply park up wherever you can park your City, unload your mini scooter, and ride to your destination. Through this, Honda fulfilled the need for urban mobility.

 

Design

Designed to fit inside the trunk of the City, the Honda Motocompo’s handlebars, foot-pegs and seat fold into the scooter’s rectangular plastic body shell. Did you know, Motocompo’s components all fold into a clean box-shaped package of only 1,185 mm × 240 mm × 540 mm! Making Motocompo Honda’s smallest commercial scooter until today. Aside from the City, the dimension actually makes it good enough to fit inside most of the trunks! The Motocompo came in three colour variants;  Shetland White, Daisy Yellow and Caribbean Red variants.

Suspension and Brakes

Let’s start with the suspension, there are two shocks at the front and a single mono-shock at the rear scooter style single-sided swingarm.  In the case of the brakes, the Motocompo features drums at the front and rear because of simplicity. Thanks to the simplicity, the Compo only weighed 45kgs.

Engine

Since the bike had to be light as possible, Engineers at Honda dropped in a 49cc 2 stroke engine which was used in other Honda scooters also back then. The engine was coupled with a single-speed transmission with an automatic clutch, again, for the sake of simplicity. The engine was capable of producing 2.5 hp at 5,000 rpm and 3.72 Nm of torque at 4,500 rpm. Average top speed of the Motocompo is 30km/h, however, it all depends on the rider weight. Given the size of the Compo, even 30km/h top speed isn’t that bad. Combined with the small 49cc engine and the 2.2 L tank, the bike could actually go up to 130km!

 

Production

Honda produced the Motocompet from 1981-1983. The Motocompo was sold for 800,000 yen (US$ 750 | RM 3,230), which was actually 10% of the price of the City itself! Did you know the scooter and car were marketed in conjunction with the British Ska band Madness? Check out the funky retro commercial here!

 

 

Honda initially planned to sell 10,000 units monthly, however, just around 53,000 units were sold until 1985.  Is it a failure? the answer is NO! Motocomp currently maintains a cult status among collectors and compact bike enthusiasts. Motocompo goes up for sale and auction online but you have to be really fast to grab them before the collectors and JDM fans! In the US the Motocompo sells for $USD 4000-5000, however since we are closer to Japan, used Motocompo sells for Rm 7,000 and above in Malaysia. The next time you come across one, grab one because these would only go up in value! Believe it or now, there have been a few brand-new units sold online recently!

Did you know, Honda showed off their Motocompo electric scooter concept in 2011 at the Tokyo Motorshow? Come to think of it, if Honda wants to bring this combo back in an all-electric version, they could simply combine the electric Motocompo with the latest compact Honda e electric car.

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