Honda 90s memories
Reading the article in the January/February 2024 issue by Dain Gingerelli () regarding his experiences with the Honda Super 90 motor-cycle brought back many memories of my early two-wheel experiences. My buddy, Karl, received a new Super 90 for Christmas, I believe in 1965. Of course, he was the envy of all of us still puttering around on homemade mini bikes with worn out Clinton lawn mower engines. Naturally, after all of us having a crack at it, it was collectively decided that as great as it was, we could make it better. Having predominately agrarian backgrounds, and parents largely ignorant of our intents, we budding shade tree mechanics and would-be engineers undertook modifications, both internal and external to the machine. There were a limited number of aftermarket performance parts, such as a straight exhaust pipe with no muffler, dual (racing) valveof the piston skirt off the piston leaving just enough to secure the wrist pin. No effort was made to lighten the crank shaft, probably because we didn’t think of it. To the degree that we could advance the timing by fiddling with points gap and mounting plate modification, the timing was advanced somewhat. By how much was anybody’s guess, but we could still start it without too much trouble.
