The last time I saw another mini-bike like this was in early '65 when my dad loaded this one up into our '58 Chevy pickup. That was at the old cement block building Bug Engineering was in back then. Bug is still in business, and I talked to the guy that built mine originally... He's still there too. I just finished rebuilding this thing for the 3rd time since I got it. Anyways anyone ever seen another one like it? The motor in mine is a Hodaka Ace 80 and there were some Hodaka Ace 55's built as well.
I had a Hodaka 125 as a kid. It was a great bike and looked nice with the chrome? tank. Yours is really cool.
Hey Mark, Yeah it was pretty fast in its day. A Honda S90, or a Yamaha 80 couldn't take it. I haven't ridden it since '72 when I took it to Juneau, Alaska to work for the summer. Its just an office ornament these days. Deuces, It's got a pretty long wheelbase that's for sure. I've thought about other motors, but never did anything. Now I'm glad I didn't this thing is pretty original as it came from Bug. '42 Chevy, I bought a 125 Hodaka in '86 for $75 and then gave it to some neighbor kids after a while. Kind of wished that I'd kept it. It had an aluminum gas tank from a Honda Elsinore on it... probably worth more than the whole bike, I imagine. Thanks for the compliment.
Here is a QA50 50cc 2 speed auto lots of fun. <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <woNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]-->[FONT="]It been in the family since new, we have the original title for it, yes it has a title.[/FONT]
Interesting piece. I have been a "Student" of things Hodaka for many years and love to see bikes related to them. The original true Hodaka's came out in late 1964 as the ACE 90 model. This was the only Hodaka until 1968 when market pressure forced them to bring out the ACE 100. this is when Hodaka also started to sell their motors to frame builders like Rickman and Steens to build their own bikes. Look for a 'E' in the motor number to know if it is one of those engines. In 69 came the motocross ready Super Rat (still a 100cc) and then followed by such other great names as the 125 Wombat, the Combat Wombat (race bike) Super Combat Wombat and the Thunder Dog and Road Toad. We also can't forget the 80cc and 100cc Dirt Squirt models. It was all over by 1978 when Shell, who owned PABATCO since 1965, the US company that controlled Hodaka, noticed how much money it was losing and shut it down. The motor tooling was sold to Korean company Daelim, who still makes little Honda based motorcycles for the home market. I have never seen or heard of an ACE 55, although there were Yamaguchi 55's imported by PABATCO before they started Hodaka, but these are NOT Hodaka motors.
I had 3 differnt Hodaka's when I was a much younger fella. The first was an Ace 90. I raced a Combat Wombat for about 6 months before replacing it with a Bultaco Pursang. The last one I had was a Road Toad, a perfect name for it!
had a ace 100 it was so fast that my brother passed me with a honda xl70 it would run 40 mph but it would do it quick, it would also mess up any tv in a second, dad hated that bike.
I've had 3 Dirt Squirts,a Wombat and Combat Wombat. One of the Dirt Squirts I bought new in 74 and put it through hell riding trails and places where there wasn't a trail. They are some tough little bikes. There is a good web site on them and parts are still availiable.
Yeah, I used to get in a lot of arguments about the existence of a Hodaka 80, and the 55. At one time I had the factory manual that came with it. And at one time an internet search brought up a '64 Hodaka road test from some old magazine. When I was going through the bike this time around I found a guy out in Azusa on eBay that had a shitload of Hodaka 80 parts. You're right about the letter code in the VIN, Bug Hodakas were just like the Rickman Hodakas in that repect. The Hodaka 55 motors Bug installed were ID'd with Hodaka plates the same as my 80. Thanks for your input