We thought we’d take a small break from the Hakosuka-only programming that we’ve been having for the past 2wks! When I was in Japan, I saw quite a few of these things, and you can see why they’re popular.
Powered by a 50cc injected single, the Honda Zoomer is dirt cheap in Japan and retails for about $2000.
Designed with lots of space for storage, the Zoomer is capable of only 70km/h, so it’s perfect for Japan and its short-hop journeys.
The Zoomer is sold in the UK and the USA as well, so our friends from over there may have seen these in person, but in Japan, the big news about the Zoomer is that it’s stark utilitarian design makes it so customiseable.
The low entry price means that almost anyone has enough money leftover for mods, and some of them are pretty wild. Check out the selection at TokyoParts. It’s a veritable Aladdins cave of cool bits for your 50cc econocycle.
A few of the bikes in that Youtube sported this wild long wheelbase, fat tyre conversion that TokyoParts offers:
A few weeks ago when we featured the Japan Big Scooter scene, the appeal of those things are easy to understand because they’re beefy and quite fast. But modifying a much smaller commuter scooter like the Zoomer that isn’t fast…..well that’s pure Japan, pure Tokyo. At two grand, it’s not that much more expensive than a mountain bike!
i saw heaps of these last year, another craze at the time was small capacity naked bikes with fat dirt tyres.
however my fav would have to be the fully registered monkeybike i saw in kofu city
I see quite a few of those here in Gainesville, Florida. It’s popular here at college. I always thought it was a nice scooter, with its simple design. Cool seeing custom ones.