I get a lot of nasty comments, from both motorcyclists and cagers, about riding a Honda step-thru. For me it makes perfect sense as most of my daily journey is through the clogged streets of the capital. Even pushbikes are sometimes hemmed in. The C90 makes short shrift of dense traffic like little else. Even hardened DRs on huge fours have to give way to the little OHC single.
I soon realised that the Y reg machine had hardly any brakes. The front drum was particularly pathetic, the lever coming back to the bars with only a modicum of pressure. Stamping on the back brake lever was more effective, although judicious use of the throttle and three speed box knocked in some useful engine braking.
With marginal braking it was just as well that the C90 was narrow. Rather than brake I often found myself accelerating into small gaps. Once, a following plod BMW tried to follow suit, its rider not too amused at my 50mph flat out scampering through Central London. The ground seemed to shake when the two huge cylinders thudded into two different cars. I glanced over my shoulder (the mirrors are tiny, useless things) to see the cop shaking his fist at me.
I had to change my route and appearance for a while, but C90s are so ubiquitous that, with a mud encrusted numberplate, there was no way they could pin anything on me. Only the more perverted owners actually clean C90s. They are left to gradually rot away, taking ten to fifteen years before they finally fall apart from rust. The back frame/mudguard section is usually the first to corrode through.
Step-thrus don't have clutch levers as such. The C90 has a centrifugal clutch that comes in when the engine is revved. It's also possible to engage the clutch using the foot lever when taking off. Engage first gear keeping the lever pressed down, rev the engine a little and slowly let the lever up. The clutch comes in smoother this way, giving a faster take-off than just knocking into gear and revving the balls off the engine. Quite a lot of practice is needed to avoid locking up the rear wheel on downchanges.
In many ways the engine would benefit from a proper clutch, but the marketing men deemed this too complex for the car drivers who they hope to persuade on to the Cub's saddle. I often see some suited types crawling along in the gutter at about 15mph, apparently frightened out of their minds. Now that roads have begun to resemble one long car park, it's actually a lot safer than before because the cagers can't vent their frustration when they are tail to nose for hours on end.
After the first month of getting used to the Honda, I was quite happy to scream through traffic, most of the time flat out on the throttle. An accident looking for somewhere to happen? Not really, the C90 was light, flickable and fun. I was more worried by the potholes, the whole bike lurching around like the frame was breaking up. Also, the cheapo Japanese tyres reacted to wet, greasy roads quite violently. Often, I had to put a motorcycle boot down to keep the 200lbs of hot metal from sliding away.
With legshields and a screen, riding in the rain and cold was not the fear inducing trauma (tyres apart) of some larger bikes. Lightweight waterproofs gave sufficient protection even in the heaviest of rainstorms. I commuted right through the depths of winter without falling off even on icy roads. I had quite a few near misses, mostly down to the marginal braking. I would've thought that a commuter aimed at car drivers would have first class stability and braking, rather than scaring the shit out of first timers. I'm sure that commuters that are churned out as cheaply as possible put lots of people off motorcycling for life.
The Honda's got one of the toughest engines in the world. It's easy to service but hardly anyone bothers, except for oil changes, because it just runs and runs for the first 50,000 miles. Similarly, the fully enclosed chain just needs the odd bit of oil thrown at it once a year. Buying a used one it's worth pulling the bung out to check the chain, as some people don't realise that it needs some maintenance. A rusted, seized up chain will play havoc with the gearchange (which ain't brilliant to begin with), a useful bargaining point when buying off a cager who can't understand why it clangs every time he touches the lever: 'Main bearings on the way out, mate. Take it off your hands for fifty notes?'
Seasoned motorcyclists will be alarmed by the lack of a tank to grip with their knees. The seat is especially designed to tip you off under braking! After a while I developed some extra muscles in my backside that allowed me to cling on to the saddle. The bars are a touch too narrow and far too low to be comfortable. The trailing link forks work okay on smooth roads, but along with the rear shocks (watch out for shock studs that pull out of rusted frames), there's absolutely no damping. If you suffer from seasickness then this is one commuter to avoid. Strangely, after a couple of months I became used to the leaping about and I only really noticed it after coming back to the Honda after riding my summer bike (a CBR600). I'm a Honda man, through and through.
The CBR always comes as a shock to the pocket after running the C90 through the winter. Fuel betters 100mpg and absolutely nothing else seems to wear out, although in reality tyres, chains and shoes need replacing every 20,000 miles or so. The bike had done 12000 miles when I bought it and now sports 49000 miles with no signs of blowing up or falling apart. I put this down to the thorough clean it receives every time I finish the winter commuting session!
50,000 miles is usually the most that you can reliably expect, with bores, big-ends and clutches the most likely items to fail. Don't know why mine's kept going so strongly, maybe it had a very easy early life. As the chassis is still passable, has maybe two or three years life left it in, I've bought a low mileage C90 engine for £75.
My C90 cost me £150 back then. These days, £200 to £300 is the going rate for one with a fair bit of life left in it, although there are lots of older ones around for as little as fifty quid. They pay for themselves many times over in money saved on fuel (compared to big bikes or cars) or on public transport. Another benefit, my CBR600 looks immaculate because it's never used in the really bad weather.
Using the C90 for out of town riding shows up the machine's limitations. When it doesn't drive me crazy with its lack of speed it sends me into heart attack mode by waltzing all over the road and having no braking for pulling me back from the brink of disaster. If I have to go long distances in winter, I ride the Honda to the train station and travel in comfort. I've been tempted to stick it in the guard's van a few times, though!
I'm a satisfied customer, the machines's limitations can be overcome with a bit of canny riding. It has to be the cheapest powered vehicle, both to buy used and to run, that still bears a passing resemblance to a motorcycle. Honda have made millions of the things, so there's a lot of choice out there.
H.D.L.
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People scorn the C90's staid looks, glacial performance and pogo-stick handling but no-one doubts that the little step-thru is reliable. Strange, then, that mine gave so much trouble.
I bought the bike, a D reg, 1986 model, for £499 from a dealer. It had just been serviced and MOT'd, sported a new clutch, exhaust and seat. My 70 mile ride home pushed the odometer up past 14000 miles. The very next day I began using the C90 to take me to and from work, a round trip of 30 miles.
The Honda's trademark semi-automatic gearchange took a few days to master. Up-shifts were sometimes impossible until I learnt not to let the revs drop too much before depressing the foot lever. It seemed a bit involved on such a utilitarian machine, but I am sure the problems were caused by the stiff new clutch. After a few thousand miles, the C90 could shift ratios whatever the revs. (Honda's "clutchless" gearbox comes with the option of a clutch lever in other countries but costs more! - Ed).
In normal circumstances, the Honda's top speed was a disappointing 48mph, so there was no hope of keeping up with the traffic on derestricted roads. I soon got used to riding in the gutter. Strangely, the C90 seemed to find extra reserves of speed on dual carriageways and could hold 50mph or even more. Perhaps the cumulative slipstream created by other vehicles sucked it along. Once, with a strong tail wind, I managed to get the speedometer needle right off the 62mph clock.
The Honda's front brake was so pathetic that any more speed would have been inadvisable. The real limiting factor was the design of the front forks, which actually rise under braking. But the rear drum was fine and engine braking so strong that the tyre would chirp if the throttle wasn't blipped on downchanges.
The C90's handling was adequate for a novice like me. The large wheels gave good stability at low speeds but, thanks to its crude suspension, the Honda didn't like mid-corner bumps and would try to throw me off if I attempted a bumpy country lane at speed.
Only once did the C90 frighten me, and that when I had owned it for less than two weeks. I was powering out of a ninety degree left-hander on my way to work when without warning the back end stepped out. I instinctively steered into the skid but that left me on the wrong side of the road with a large Merc hurtling towards me. I saw its driver brake and steer for the hedge.
I frantically wrestled with the bars and, with an almighty wobble, the C90 made it back over the white lines. I pulled over, my hands literally shaking, and investigated... the back tyre was nearly flat. I rode it at 15mph to the nearest garage and had some air put in it before continuing my journey.
A dealer in the town where I work put in a new inner-tube during the day. The whole incident was seriously frightening for a newcomer to motorcycling. As a Christian, I trust God about safety and I certainly gave thanks that day.
The C90 ran well through the summer and early autumn. Its choke cable once jammed on, but this was hardly difficult to fix. And, although the Honda's performance was so limited, there were two occasions when it came close to turning into a literal ball of fire.
The first was entirely my fault. I forgot to replace the filler cap after refuelling and ended up riding 30 miles with the petrol sloshing over the hot crankcases. When I got back to the filling station the next day, I found that the cap had been run over by a car. A replacement from a breaker cost £1.
Not long after, petrol began to leak out whenever the fuel tap was on, unless the engine was being revved. I found that a screw had fallen out of the carb, allowing it to pivot on its remaining fixing and send a stream of petrol over the engine.
I needed the bike the next day and the chances of my having an identical screw were small. Then inspiration struck me. I shone a torch on the cylinder head, which is almost horizontal...sure enough, the original screw was nestling between two cooling fins. I popped it back in and the problem never recurred.
At the end of September, I began attending evening classes at a distant college. This meant that I was doing 1000 miles a month, most of them flat out. Covering such large distances on a C90 required patience but the Honda was surprisingly comfortable. Its seat was well padded and vibration was noticeable only at extreme revs, when the mirrors would actually go out of adjustment. Very useful!
I continued to use the bike hard through winter, the coldest in living memory. The leg-shields gave welcome protection to my lower body and proved surprisingly tough when I fell off on black ice at 5mph. Much of my riding was done on unlit roads where the C90's headlamp proved to be better than expected. The Honda even made a fairly good snow-mobile. It was great fun to sail past stuck cars on ice covered hills.
But all this use began to take its toll. By 20,000 miles the C90 was losing oil - through its breather pipe - so fast that I was in danger of single-handedly causing an energy crisis. Since it would empty its sump in a week I gave up doing 1000 mile oil changes and treated the bike as a two-stroke. Inevitably, it ran dry a few times. This seemed to do no harm.
But there was a worse problem. As winter approached, the C90 had begun to display the first signs of a fault which would almost drive me to distraction. On frequent occasions, it would make a stuttering noise on the overrun; when revs dropped to idling speed the engine cut out completely. At least it was easy to restart.
On a really bad days, the C90 would misfire the whole time and proceed along the road in a series of kangaroo hops. At certain revs, the motor would go completely dead. If I carried on riding, the misfire would eventually go away. Sometimes it could be cured by pulling over and switching off for a couple of minutes.
A mechanic cleaned out the carb and fitted a new spark plug. I thought this had banished the problem but, after a few days, it was back. So I had the dubious looking rubber plug cap replaced with an NGK item. This made no difference and neither did a new plug lead.
The really infuriating thing was that the misfire was intermittent. The C90 ran perfectly whenever my mechanic was anywhere near it. However, the symptoms often struck at the same point of my journey to work, about ten miles from home. Both factors suggested an electrical fault.
My mechanic reckoned the HT coil was the source of the problem and replaced it with an £18 used one. The very next time I used the bike, the misfire returned. My mechanic admitted defeat. By now I was getting desperate. I had booked my test and it was less than a month away. If the C90 played up on the day, I knew that the examiner would either abort the test or fail me.
Although the misfire occurred in both wet and dry weather, I took to carrying a can of WD40 and spraying the plug cap whenever it hit. I also tried fitting a hotter grade plug and even running on leaded fuel, but to no avail. Cleaning the breather hole on the fuel cap didn't help.
On the test day I was so tense that my movements were clumsy and uncoordinated. I could barely hear the directions which were being shouted through the radio... luckily the Honda ran perfectly and I passed the test!
Flushed with success, I threw caution to the wind, ignored the UMG's warnings and paid top money for a knackered Honda RS250 from a dodgy back street dealer. Its engine seized solid after 135 miles. I got most of my money back but in the meantime it was back to the C90 for a few thousand miles.
I never did find the cause of the misfire. As the weather became warmer, it simply struck less and less frequently; finally disappeared. When I eventually sold the C90, at 24,126 miles, I told the buyer about its faults but she was still happy to hand over £325.
If I hadn't spent so much on oil and the misfire, the Honda would have been very cheap to run. It needed two rear tyres and one front tyre during my eleven months and 10,000 miles of ownership. The valve clearances were checked once - they needed no adjustment - and the front suspension seized up and was repaired just before the sale.
You can forgive a bike a lot when it gets you through your test first time, and I would have been quite sad to see the C90 go, had I not just bought a Morini 350!
John Young