Honda Motocompo

Bikes Culture

The bike for the boot – from Soichiro Honda's idea factory

Here’s something that was lost to my cultural memory. Until a few moments ago.

I was a madness obsessive. And the proud and illegal owner of a moped. When the two came together in the early eighties, I didn’t even notice it.

I should have done. The Motocompo and the Honda City were twin creations emanating from the ideas house that is Honda – and were flogged relentlessly by North London nutty boys Madness. Not sure whether they would have shouted about it on this side of the hemisphere – but as you can see in Japan they really gave it the requisite welly.

Honda introduced the Motocompo to fit inside subcompact cars like the Honda Today and the then new Honda City. The City’s baggage compartment was actually developed around the Motocompo. The handlebars, seat, and foot-pegs fold into the scooter’s rectangular plastic body to present a clean, box-shaped package. Beautiful madness.

And it remains a great concept. When the traffic gets too annoying, find a parking space. Pull out the ped.

Bob’s your uncle.



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