James May of former Top Gear and current Grand Tour fame is mostly known for doing loud things with powerful cars. However, Captain Slow, as he’s often called by his more basic colleagues, also has a well documented love for Honda motorcycles, tinkering, and pedantry. All of this comes to life in The Reassembler, a show that trades in exotic locales for a dim shed and whose motorized vehicles are not tearing across a race track but betting slowly put back together from its component pieces. In this case, that vehicle is a Honda Z50 Monkey, and the process is oddly satisfying.
While his day job hosting gig would never air retentiveness this anal, there is something actually charming about seeing 303 pieces become one well-engineered machine. All the while, May inserts little bits of about Honda trivia, how it humbly came to dominate the motorcycle industry, and cheese.
Of course, the Monkey itself is charming as well, having originally been created as a kids’ ride at Honda’s Tama Tech amusement park near Tokyo. It became an unexpected hit with adults too, and the name Monkey stemmed from how grown-ups resembled circus gorillas when perched atop the small bike. Honda saw a sales opportunity and began selling them to the public. They have always had an unusually strong following in the UK, and paried with an entertaining host already fond of SuperCubs, this video is a match made in heaven. Or a shed.
Let’s see him do a Motocompo next.
Watched this the other night, as I really enjoy this series. Wasn’t disappointed. Makes for quite relaxing TV.
I think the BBC has underestimated what we like about this series though if it thinks we didn’t want to see May building *another* single-cylinder, four-stroke engine.
Agreed!
Agreed about the engine. Those are nice pieces of engineering, with some very smart details inside (like the semi auto clutch). I know them by heart, but would love to see him put one together.
Enjoyed the video on this great little bike.
Love it!
Watching James May make a sandwich would be enjoyable!