The NH series of

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

scooters was sold worldwide beginning in 1983, in 50, 80, 90, 100 and 125cc versions. All models have an

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

engine with CDI ignition. All models except the Lead 50 have leading link front suspension, electric and kick start, and a

fuel gauge In automotive and aerospace engineering, a fuel gauge is an instrument used to indicate the amount of fuel in a fuel tank. In electrical engineering, the term is used for ICs determining the current State of Charge of accumulators. Motor vehi ...

. The Lead 50 has a traditional

telescopic fork A telescopic fork is a form of motorcycle front suspension whose use is so common that it is virtually universal. The telescopic fork uses fork tubes and sliders which contain the springs and dampers. The main advantages of the telescopic for ...

front suspension and only electric start. All models have drum brakes and CVT transmission.

Models

*Aero (USA, 1983–85) *Lead (Outside USA, 1983–87) *Vision (Outside USA, 1987–94) *Mascot (Canada) American regulations in 1986 required any motorcycle over 50cc to be four stroke to combat air pollution. * Kinetic (DX, ZX, Y2K Etc..) (India, 1984–2007) * Dio (India, 2001-present)

Engine sizes

*NH 50 (49cc) *NH 80 (79cc) *NH 90 (89cc) *NH 100 (96cc) *NH 125 (124cc) *NH 150 (149cc) There is also a more modern Lead in 100cc, 110cc and 125cc versions.

Regional variations

There were other regional variations as well as going by a different name in the USA. Most notably, the headlights were different on the early European models. The front handlebar moulding was later changed to be common across all models, allowing the same headlights to be used. Although the specific light arrangements still vary because of the regulations in different countries. Stickers, badges and mirrors are also different across regional versions.

Honda Dio

Manufactured by

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, Private Limited (HMSI) is the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of Honda Motor Company, Limited, Japan.HMSI --> About Us Founded in 1999, it was the fourth Honda automotive venture in India, after Kinetic Honda ...

, Honda Dio is a 110cc scooter introduced in 2001 in India and exported with the same brand name to 11 countries including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mexico and Columbia. It has a 110cc, 4 stroke, air cooled engine and has both electric start and kick start. It's tank can hold 6 Litres of Petrol with 1 litre in reserve.

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new o ...

magazine named Honda Dio as the 4th most selling Scooter in June 2021. Honda India introduced Dio Repsol, a sporty looking scooter introduced to celebrate 800 victories in MotoGP.

Other manufacturers

During the 1980s,

invested in non-Japanese motorcycle manufacturing – most notably they bought a large percentage of French company

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

, which resulted in

Peugeot Motocycles Peugeot is a French manufacturer of scooters and small motorcycles. History Peugeot built their first motorcycle in 1898 with a De Dion-Bouton engine mounted on the rear wheel. This model was shown at the 1898 Paris Exhibition but was not put ...

. Elsewhere, the Kinetic Motor Company from India, which resulted in

Kinetic Honda Kinetic Honda was a joint venture between Kinetic Engineering Limited, India and Honda Motor Company, Japan. Kinetic was the first company to have a joint venture with HMSI. The partnership operated from 1984 to 1998, manufacturing two-stroke ...

. Both of these joint ventures saw the NH series given various degrees of cosmetic overhaul and released as a number of different models. Peugeot released the SC 50, SC 50L, SC 80L and SX 80L whilst Kinetic Honda released the EX, DX, ZX (100cc, 2-stroke), the ZX Zoom (110cc, 2-stroke) and the 4S model (113.5cc, 4-stroke).

References

;Sources * * * *

External links

* {{Honda NH series Motor scooters Two-stroke motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in 1983