The MB50 is a
Honda motorcycle known as the MB5 in the US, produced from 1979 into the late 1980s. The MB was the road oriented version of the
Honda MT50
The Honda MT50 is an off-road styled moped, common in Scandinavia and the Netherlands but also sold in other countries including the United Kingdom and United States, that is more commonly known as the Honda MT5. Some countries had restricted ver ...
. Sales ended in 1981 in the UK and 1982 in the US (the only year imported), but sales continued in other European countries until 1988.
The MB5 was a very light motorcycle, filling a similar transportation role to a
motorscooter
A scooter (motor scooter) is a motorcycle with an underbone or step-through frame, a seat, and a platform for the rider's feet, emphasizing comfort and fuel economy. Elements of scooter design were present in some of the earliest motorcycles ...
, though styled like a
sport bike, with a {{convert, 49, cc, abbr=on
two-stroke single-cylinder engine, and a 5-speed
manual transmission. The MB5 also had a
speedometer
A speedometer or speed meter is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the early 20th century, and as standard equipment f ...
, a
tachometer (with a
redline
Redline refers to the maximum engine speed at which an internal combustion engine or traction motor and its components are designed to operate without causing damage to the components themselves or other parts of the engine. The redline of an en ...
of 10,500 rpm), front
disc brake
A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...
, and Honda's
comstar wheels
The Comstar wheel, sometimes referred to as Com-stars or stylised as ComStar, was a composite motorcycle wheel that Honda fitted to many of its motorcycles from 1977 to the mid 1980s. Its design allowed it the option of being fitted with tubeles ...
.
The MB-5 was short-lived in the US; Honda only imported it in 1982, it was more popular in Europe (see
MB/T/X series).
Mb50
Motorcycles introduced in 1979
Two-stroke motorcycles