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Driving report Honda Dream 50
Guys, your 50s
Not only the connoisseurs over forty are delighted, but also the young audience is amazed when Honda’s beautiful pint struts on his narrow hoop to the showdown.
“Please follow.” The instruction on the ladle is clear, as is the hand sign of the man in green on his rubber cow. It doesn’t matter, it couldn’t have been too fast, the cute Dream 50 already turns the valves out of its body when you exceed the speed in a town. “Papers, please.” “Forgot? Well, think about it next time. “But something completely different: What kind of nice thing is that there?” Oh, that’s what it’s all about, the little Honda Dream. After that everyone turns around. Although there is actually not much to it, the 88 kilogram lightweight Rennerle. Except for the fact that the thing actually looks like it was kidnapped straight from the Technical Museum.
The elongated tank ends at the knotty, classic seat hump, red steel tubes wrap around the compact engine, which, due to its silhouette, suggests significantly more than just 49 cubic centimeters of displacement. Even if the alleged 5.6 PS power of the tiny, designed for the Japanese market, does not tear anyone off their feet, let alone knock them off their humps, the small four-stroke engine shows off lots of filigree technology. Four tiny valves share the space in the 40 millimeter combustion chamber with a spindly ten millimeter spark plug. The left side of the engine demonstrates the most classic, albeit visually cheeky, engine construction. Two camshafts rotate behind the valve covers and are driven by a combination of chain and spur gears. A lot of effort for the 5.6 HP power and a top speed of comparatively tame 14,000 / min. But the issue of performance is secondary with the Dream 50, mainly about the design borrowed from the legendary racing machines (see box on page 32). And Honda’s design strategists have implemented them perfectly. Even if the disc brakes make classic enthusiasts desperate, many details have been kept to the original: fine D.I.D. high-shoulder rims made of polished aluminum or the stylish mudguards over the narrow 2.50 x 18 inch wheels, for example. And when was the last time you saw the classic Honda Motors wing so accurately on a tank as on the Dream 50?
So bring the little Honda and let’s go to the old Solitude racetrack, where everything that carries an engine between two wheels gathers then and now. Somewhere in the MOTORRAD archive there are certainly plenty of old racing programs from the 1960s. And there they are immortalized, our heroes: In 1962, works driver Luigi Taveri chased around the street circuit just outside Stuttgart in around five and a half minutes in his seven-hp Honda CR 110. Well then: flattened it and put on your ears. But whoops, something has jammed. The engine hangs on the gas like chewing gum and keeps turning with the same reluctance. Choke in? Brake tight? No, a small 15 millimeter cuts off the engine’s air. The real crisis overcomes the rider in a hurry at almost 65 km / h when the electronic throttle, which slows the fifties to the Japanese entry-level speed, interferes mercilessly and prevents any further increase in speed. Just under 80 km / h should be easy in the »open» version.
A.The term handling takes on a new dimension on the narrow tires of the Dream 50. There is not a road in the world that is winding enough to cause the Honda any problems. And today’s tires are classes better than they were then. As a result, you let it stand at full throttle until it scratches and scrapes and the dainty tires pretend to jump off the rim. But they don’t do it, just stay on it and we accelerate. But it doesn’t help. After exactly 9.32 minutes, the Dream crosses the finish line in front of the venerable start and finish tower. That went completely wrong. But don’t panic, the first tuning kits for the little dream are already being sold in Japan. Perhaps the importer Dieter Konemann will have such a box shipped across the ocean. Then we’ll try it again. 5.30 minutes – my God, it must be crackable.
Honda CR 110 racer from 1961 – a long time ago
Even when he entered the schnapps glass class in 1961, company boss Soichiro Honda remained true to his engine philosophy. While Suzuki and Kreidler took the laurels with high-performance two-stroke engines, the Honda team relied on the four-stroke CR 110 racing car. In the years that followed, works driver Luigi Taveri scored several victories, but only managed to finish third in the world championship. The CR 110 lacked speed and thus power. Despite four-valve technology and an eight-speed gearbox, the works drivers did not make it to the two-stroke elite even towards the end of the season. Honda’s conclusion: The RC 112, whose two-cylinder four-stroke engine could easily cope with a maximum speed of 22,000 rpm and was thus able to compensate for the performance disadvantage. In 1965, Ralph Bryans won the first and only world title in the 50cc class for Honda with the small twin.
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