I got the scooter bug the day I joined GOVECS back in 2011. Within a week of working there, I somehow managed to get a company-issued scooter for research and development testing. Back then, GOVECS GO! line of scooters was just entering the market and the scooter itself was evolving almost every month. The best part of riding a scooter was getting through the city traffic and at that time I had around 18km of nothing but city gridlock to get through. Over time I managed to buy my very own GOVECS scooter, with all of the top model bells and whistles but eventually sold it once I left the company.
This brings us to today.
Riding my Transalpt to work kept me longing for something smaller, narrower, with a more kick-back feel to it, that I would use only for the city commute. And at whopping 2,700pln ($700 bucks), I found it.
Enter the 1992 Honda Spacy 125.
Also known as Honda CH125, or Honda Elite 125. Made in Japan and sold all over Europe, the United States, and Canada.
I must admit, it was love at first sight. I mean sure the design lines take some getting used to. I’ll even concede that it’s a bit ugly. But doesn’t it remind you of an ugly duckling just a bit? It’s so ugly…it’s beautiful!
This particular scooter came to Poland from Switzerland where someone took really good care of it. The paint is original, there seems to be no actual wear on body panels, no scratches, no dings, at twenty-seven years old! The only visible sign of age is the rubber foot pad that keeps bunching up in a weird way on both sides of the scooter. It even came with an original set of tools still hidden under the seat.
The scooter had some 24,000km on it (15k miles) so that’s about 900km per every year give or take a few kilometers. Normally I wouldn’t trust an odometer because these can be easily set back, especially in Poland. But in this case, the actual wear and tear of the scooter is a screaming proof of this low mileage, and really, who would go through the trouble of tinkering with an odometer on something of this low value.
I did perform some maintenance work in a form of new air filter, new drive belt, new fluids, and a couple of new bearings, but that’s routine stuff that’s required with every purchase of a used vehicle. I found that most parts can still be purchased almost 30 years later straight from Honda, but also started noticing overlapping models which allowed some savings. For instance, an original Honda drive belt for a 1992 Honda Spacy was 200pln ($52usd), but through some research, I found that the same belt is used on a Kymco scooter, and that belt was exactly half the cost (Honda tax?). With these parts installed all that’s left to do is ride.
I’m fairly sure I’ll pass that original 900km/year mark rather quickly. I’ve done over 400km in the past month alone, and with this baby handling work commute like a charm, I predict at least 3 to 4 more months of scootering this year. I’ve also managed to get around 3.0 liters/100kms (80mpg!!!) on this beast. At 125cc this Honda is not a powerhouse, and while I did top it out at 100km/h it wasn’t the safest nor the smartest thing to do on this small scooter. 80km/h (50miles) is the sweet spot, and just right for my home city of Wroclaw.
In case you haven’t noticed as much, I’m lovin’ it. Funny how little goes such a long way!
Some Honda Spacy material I found online:
- Cool history of the original Honda Spacy model
- Some photos of the Honda Spacy model
