The Honda Motocompo is (still) the coolest urban mobility scooter
Forget your Bird, bro. Your Limes are lame, cuz. All the fly kids want a Honda Motocompo as their urban mobility solution.
But actually, this vintage Honda is way, way cooler than any newfangled electric scooter. The Motocompo is a tiny folding scooter produced by Honda from 1981 to 1983. When doing it’s best impersonation of a guitar amp, it stood less than three feet tall and less than four feet long.
The little buzzbox is powered by a tiny, 49-cc two-stroke engine that produced just 2.5 horsepower. That’s not much, but with a 99-pound wet curb weight, there isn’t a lot there to get moving. Top speed on a Motocompo is more or less dependent on how many helpings of bacon you scarfed down for breakfast.
The Motocompo got the nickname “Trunk Bike” because it was specifically engineered to be transported in the luggage compartment of the Honda Today and the Honda City.
Yes, the Honda Motocompo had its own purpose-built transport vehicle.
The first-generation Honda City’s luggage compartment was specifically designed to accommodate a folded Motocompo. It was a heavenly pairing, like air and fuel. Or raw fish and rice.
But more importantly, it was another example of a simple, brilliantly engineered solution to problems of urban mobility in a dense metropolis like Tokyo or Osaka. In other words, it’s the type of thinking that on which Honda built its brand for the last seven decades.
The car-scooter combo has developed quite a cult following here in America, as well. With the first-generation cars being eligible under the 25-year import rule window, JDM fanatics have been hunting down good examples and bringing them stateside for a few years now.
The most desireable examples include the City and the Motocompo together, and clean ones are fetching serious cash.
And as a bonus, it’s the subject of one of the greatest automotive commercials of all time, available for your viewing pleasure below. You’re gonna want to throw on those headphones, by the way.
