Posts Tagged ‘Honda’

Crowe Customs

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

We came across Crowe Customs delightful document­ation of all things lathe-​​ish and metalspun while admiring Benji Wagner’s rather nice photoblog. Benji is a west coast photo­grapher and purveyor of fine outdoorsy type gear in the shape of the Poler brand, and he happens to be a mate of the Oregon custom bike builder.

Our favourite in his small collection of bikes is defin­itely the CB 750 with the Café treatment — we’re not sure if its derived from an original seventies 750 Four (the one with the four pipes all the way to the rear) or whether that lovely exhaust set up is a purely creative act.

Our growing crush on twin potted BMWs given scram­blerish makeovers continues too, though, with the work in progress documented here.

We have to admit that the online appeal of these passionate little outfits is bolstered by the relative quality of present­ation; both photo­graph­ically and in terms of the way their sites are built.

We think the talented Mr Wagner might have something to do with the former in the case of Crowe Customs.

Auto-hell #101

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Looking like a cross between a mobility scooter, a Sinclair C5 and a JD Bug, the Honda Zook (otherwise known as the MS50L) looked like a deathtrap, and must have ridden like one.

Released in 1990, it came with a fold-​​up steering column and seat post, presumably for parking in tiny Japanese city spaces. It was, we assume, aimed at students and the very naïve, with the rather loathsome candy-​​coloured marketing campaign featuring the Japanese prede­cessor of that annoying bloke from the Halifax ads.

It had a two litre fuel tank and could appar­ently top 33 MPH with a prevailing wind. Not a patch on the earlier, ruggedly cool Motra. But inter­esting nonetheless. Not surprising it was a bit of a dead end, and if you can find one we suggest you burn it. From an aesthetic point of view it makes the eyes hurt.

And we are Honda fans!

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Honda Trail 90

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Honda’s gazillion-​​selling small bike the C90, loved by the families of Ho Chi Minh city as much as London cabbies ‘doing the knowledge’ is of course, one the most popular motorised vehicles ever marketed.

We’ve got a soft spot for the Super Cub, as it’s also known occasionally. They’re easy to ride, fun and inexpensive — and now the design is glossed with the kind of cool that comes as a reaction to the ubiquity of full-​​fairinged scooters dreamt up in CAD studios.

But we’re digging the C90 lesser-​​selling, more windswept, rugged and inter­esting cousin the CT90.

The Trail 90 is basically a toughened up trailster version of the C90, with requisite knobblies, a sturdy, scrambler style raised exhaust and other bits and pieces that makes it perfect for the sort of light offroad duty that your average fisherman, hunter or gun-​​totting foxy female might require. Ah-​​hem.

We’re students, of course, of vehicle marketing. Not sure if there will ever be another campaign that inter­twines guns, little scooters and sexy chicks. Shame.

USA Civic Heritage

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

With 19 million cars produced sold and 39 years long-​​in-​​the-​​tooth,
in terms of family cars the Honda Civic is a true totem of the 20th century.

We are, of course dyed-​​in-​​the-​​wool Hondamentalists. And in the state’s with the 2012 Civic about to be launched, Honda have released this inter­esting piece of Civic love.

With music by Dirty Vegas, it’s a nice document for an amazing anniversary.

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Go Little Honda

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Of all the odes to bike culture that have ever emerged across the media platforms, the Beach Boy-​​penned sixties hit Little Honda by the Hondells is one of the least expected.

You might normally associate west coast petroliste cool with burbling ’55 gassers, hogs and T-​​Birds, but somewhere in the wake of the surf pop boom of the early sixties (just before the invasion of the Beatles) there was a blip.

Getting around as a teeny bopper could mean cheap, accessible fun every bit as much as the weighty machismo of 400 or so cubic inches.

Innocent times. And kind of cool with it.

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Cars are the Stars #33

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

If you’re not partic­u­larly into down tempo pop music of an R&B pursuasion you might want to watch this video with the sound turned down.

If like us however, you love the retro-​​futuristic cool of Honda’s NSX and are partial to a well-​​delivered vocal, we think it’s worth tuning in as well as turning on to the music as well as the nice flow of honda love.

There’s some inter­esting edit suite skullduggery from N’Orleans born artist Frank Ocean on this vid.

What we can’t work out is why Mr Ocean hasn’t used the innumerable pun oppor­tun­ities in the cars real moniker.

Acura Intergurl”? What’s all that about?

Friday Bike Crush #3

Friday, May 13th, 2011

We’ve been obsessed with this bike for months.

It’s basically , a stripped-​​down Honda Dominator with the street tracker treatment — that amounts to a a sliced off rear subframe, a big headlight, some nice little extras and loads of extraneous plastic stuff stripped off.

There’s something about this Street Tracker style that’s captured out imaginations.

The fellow who built this particular beauty has been kind enough to stick a brief ‘how-​​to’ story on his blog so that the fettlers amongst you can take inspir­ation and do one of these for yourselves.

The ‘Elsinore’ moniker for the unini­tiated refers to the mentalist off road Grand prix held in Elsinore California (not sure if it still a regular occur­rence) and that featured so beauti­fully in the contantly referrred-​​to documentary on American bike culture On Any Sunday (below).

Dreaming of a sunny weekend…

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