bikerMetric custom metric bobbers, choppers, and cafe racers by honda, yamaha, kawaski, and suzuki
whilst clicking through pix of the acme trump below that’s on ebay, i discovered this bike:
it took me a minute to find out more. it was built by a gentleman named jon hughes. there are more pix and info about the build on lowbrow’s facebook page.
the hondamatic was a two speed transmission honda manufactured for motorcycles from 1975 until 1983. the transmission first appeared on a 1975 cb750
first gear took you to about 45 miles an hour and second gear took you, um, faster.
the history behind the hondamatic began in 1964 when a manager at honda r&d wanted to develop an automatic transmission for a mini car. on october 18, 1967, the n360-at was unveiled at the london auto show. 360 is how many cubic centimeters the motor possessed and five months later, the first mini car in the world with an automatic transmission was sold.
then honda used the technology on motorbikes and now you have jon’s chop.
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Trent
Thought you might like to know a little more about this bike. It is named Juan, and is John’s first build. It can also be seen in the Jan, and Feb issues of The Horse magazine. Juan is also the latest gallery bike at hondachopper.com.
John is currently building another Hondamatic chopper named Lester. You can follow this build on hondachopper.com
TOOLS1
thanks tools! i found it in the january horse and laughed. good to see he’s going to do more. thanks for the info.
Great meeting ya at the Dime City Grand Opening……….Juan and I are always up for a ride. Still working on Lester, hope to be done in two more months. Then, Juan gets a much needed engine refreshing….seems Hondamatic should not try to keep up with buddies riding R1s.
it was a pleasure to meet you as well. i knew i’d posted your bike before, jon. congratulations on your award! i’ll throw up a few more pix in the coming days. email me build info!
what is the sale price?