Possibly picking up a 1982 MB5. Any options?

[JustynCRX]

Soooooooo I'm possibly trading my HDTV for a 1982 Honda mb5 with a spare parts bike and 3 engines. All I know is this thing is rare but does anyone know of any performance parts available?

[patthesoundguy]

treatland.tv has everything beyond your wildest dreams, big bore kits, carbs intakes, reeds, pipes

[noiseguy]

Those things are awesome. If you're into 50cc bikes this is one to pick up if the price is right.

[JustynCRX]

The price is incredible. My 43" TV for one mb5, a spare parts mb5, and extra engine. I am beyond stoked.

[patthesoundguy]

The price is incredible. My 43" TV for one mb5, a spare parts mb5, and extra engine. I am beyond stoked.

that bike is gonna rock, Ive always wanted one real bad.

[motormike]

I was a member of the MB5 "searchers" for a few years.
Never came up with anything but some very sad examples that failed to be worthy.
My first ride on one came this year when GKinTN and I traded off for a lap around Warner park.
The MB5 was lacking any torque, but once rolling, and coaxed through the gears up to 9-10 k rpm, it did the job.
I weigh 200# making the MB5 work pretty hard.
Not long after, I forgot all about MB's when an NS50F showed up on Craig's.
I wasted no time getting that NS in my garage.
I've no longer any need to own MB5, but they are still a favorite.
Great find JustynCRX. Join us in our "Shifty Fiftys" discussions here..>>>> viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17330

[Ginj]

They're good wee bikes, I own a 1984 MT50 myself(the 'trail' version ) and I'm racing a 6 hour endurance event this weekend on it - I'll get back to you in regards to reliability in a few days time.

Performance wise, they're reasonably heavily restricted and it's not as simple as taking a collar out of the exhaust - however sites such as:

http://www.50cc.nl

stock a huge range of both OEM and performance parts for all kinds of 50cc bikes through the ages as the MB/MT series were quite popular over in Europe for the sixteen year olds. They're a Swedish firm and I've ordered off them before with no issues - the only minor problem was having to email your credit card details over (seems a little shifty but I've had nothing come back and bite me). They sorted me out with a number of gasket sets and hard to find spares when the national Honda chain didn't have any record of a Honda MT5 ever existing let alone having parts in New Zealand.

Another option is a four part series that Motorcycle Mechanics Fortnightly released to de-restrict them originating from Honda themselves.

http://www.mb5.co.uk/14.html

Good luck with them, I'm riding mine basically stock for this race, though I've redone the rings, taken off a few unncessary extra pounds and I've dropped the chain sprockets down to 13:52. Hoping to undertake some of the mods above depending on our results after the race; were hitting 60km at the moment but we are rev limited to ~7k whereas you'll rev out to 10500.

Should be an absolute pearler.

[motormike]

Hello again Ginj...
Time for the endurance once again ?...better luck this year...

[GKinTN]

I've owned my clean black Honda MB5 since 1996 or so...

I fully rebuilt the motor last winter, as finally one of the main seals blew which is really the first major old part failure I've had on it.
At the same time I pulled the oil injection pump, put on a CNC made block off plate and started running Castor 927 premix. I may put the pump
back on (if I can rebuild it with new seals) but I was getting doubtful to trust it though it is rare for them to fail on these. I swapped the battery for a totally sealed gel cell,
the last one I had lated 4-5 years which is WAY better than what you get with the stock lead acid ones. Don't run an MB5 with a bad or removed battery as the increased voltages
will blow the bulbs, and the headlight bulbs on these are discontinued... I also rebuilt the front brake master/slave cylinders and put in new pads.
I'm running "Dream 50" Bridgestone Battlax race tires (these bikes run 18" tires), 1 tooth larger than stock counter shaft sprocket, low bars/weighted bar ends/nice grips, and a small tank bag.
Top speed is in the upper 50s in 5th (will do 50 in 4th) with a little hill and/or wind support! One popular mod is to swap the gear set and shift drum assembly from an 1980-1982 CR80,
giving you then a 6 speed transmission. Both MB5s and NS50Fs have an internal counter balancer, pretty high tech for a 50cc motor and they run a little smoother than typical 50s in general.

I recently bought a 1990 Honda NS50F which really beats the MB5 in just about all departments, except that it has a cable front drum brake where the MB5 has a hydraulic disc.
Still even the front drum the NS50F will stop just about as well, you just need to grab it just a little harder. The NS50F is water cooled, has a 6 speed transmission stock,
and will do a little over 60mph with 1 tooth higher counter shaft sprocket and perhaps into the mid 60s on a good downhill. The NS a bit more low and mid power
and will more easily handle hills. They run 17" tires and I'm running Pirelli M75s on mine. Currently my MB5 shown below and the NS50F in my profile pic are the only street bikes I own.

50s rule!

[Ginj]

Cheers Mike,

I've been a bit lazy recently, I've sold the Spree - we had a good run racing/winning the last two but wanted to move up into the realm of the big boys; should be interesting haha. I lost (read broke) my external hard drive with all the GoPro footage so no race day movie, maybe this time.

That's a bloody nice example you've got yourself there GKinTN - have you ever considered modding it or are you happy with it as is?

Anyways; as for mods for these bikes, after this race I'm probably going to go about trying to sort out this ignition issue, maybe a new carb and some gentle porting and a reworked exhaust(the header pipe is as thin as tissue paper according to my welder). Since the engines are the same I'll get back to you over the coming months with some sort of progress all going well

[GKinTN]

Thanks! I had considered building it out to 70cc with an aftermarket kit, but while I was searching for parts for the rebuild I ran across an original NOS Honda cylinder for $150. At that point (though it really didn't need a new cylinder) I thought it would be very cool to do a complete top to bottom rebuild with all original Honda parts. The only part I had to go aftermarket was the center case gasket, though I had to get the rings from the UK, and a NOS piston off ebay. I have another parts motor, so that one might be a good candidate for a 70cc build. The above pic was taken in the late 90s when it had about 2500 miles on it, below are recent pics with about 5,000 miles. Back in the late 90s I replaced the chrome side rails and the front and rear fenders with NOS parts when you could still get them from Honda. The bike hasn't ever been repainted except for the pipe which I redid last winter. The original tank is totally rust free, and one of my reasons to convert it to premix was to continue to keep it rust free! I think premix helps to preserve it. During the rebuild I attempted to swap the transmission with a gear set I got from a guy on the Moped Army site. It didn't go well as the gears didn't quite clear the engine cases, so I think they were from the wrong year CR80 though they were supposed to be correct. Oh well, I only paid about $25 for the gears so no big loss. I've riden the True Grits 50cc fun run three times on my MB5, in 2001, 2002, and 2011. I've also riden it on the parade laps (on the road race track) at two different years at the "Mid Ohio" Vintage Motorcycle days.

[Ginj]

That first pic didn't do the bike justice - I'm drooling down here lol. The fact that it's so clean only makes it better.

Our endurance race has been postponed till February so I've had a slight change of plans regarding mods, now looking at trying to fit a disc brake to the MT off a Honda XR250 parts bike I managed to pick up cheap. Then try and focus on the ignition issue - I'll leave the porting for later on after I've run the 6-hour enduro and decide what I want to do then.

[patthesoundguy]

That is a sexy little bike, super great score

Sent from my LG-C800G using Tapatalk 2

[z50r-ghost]

I've said it once... But need to say it again: BEAUTIFUL JOB with your MB5, GKinTN!!
(big applause sound) You have done an amazing job, bro... Simply amazing. It's like seeing your MB the day you brought it home from the Honda dealer...

THEN there's your showroom-condition NS50F!

Later man, j

[JustynCRX]

Finally! After 8 hours of driving my new mb5's are at my place. I'm so pumped to start working on them. The parts bike looks pretty d*** good for a parts bike. All the expensive bits are still there so I'm gonna restore both of these at the same time. Definitely worth the drive!