Mini Trail 50

MINI TRAIL 50

Twenty-six years later, the littlest Honda still delivers a smile

BACK IN 1968, THE FIRST FATHER on the block to buy a Honda Mini-Trail 50 purchased instant popularity. With its cute looks, small size and easy handling, the Mini attracted kids like free candy. In

the 26 years since, more than 400,000 Mini-Trails have been sold. It’s still in Honda’s catalog today, listed as the Z50R, equipped with plastic bodywork and swingarm rear suspension.

Those late-’60s youngsters who lined up to hop on the Hondas are now grown-ups (well, at least they’re several years older) scouring junkyards and garage sales for a piece of their past. The pint-size Honda has become a bigtime collectible.

Craig Watts is one of the thirty somethings who want a trip down Memory Lane via minibike. He remembers waiting hours for a ride on a neighbor’s Honda 50. “We thrashed it!” Watts recalls, though he admits to being a little easier on the all-chrome, all-original 1986 Mini-Trail (offered for only one year as a special Christmas promotion) he recently bought.

And no wonder. They may be cute, but they’re not cheap. Collectors often pay close to $700 for a bike that cost just a little over $200 when it was new.

Tom Shaw, a 39-year-old electrical contractor with several Mini-Trails tucked away in his garage and one displayed as a work of art on his bookcase, believes the tiny Trails are well worth their hefty price tag. “It’s one of those toys a kid’s got to have,” he says without apology.

“It’s an addiction,” adds Jim Nikitouplos, another MiniTrail enthusiast who lavishes a lot more than money on his collection of six. He spends most of his spare time trying to find correct parts, recently tracking down the right headlight in Ohio, a perfect taillight in Idaho, and several other bits and pieces in Japan. The finished bike was originally meant for his daughter, but by the time Nikitouplos finished the restoration project, she was too old for the Mini.

That’s just fine with the aircraft engineer, because he likes to keep his prized two-tone custom clean and running well for parking-lot races with the guys.

Next month, it may not be easy to beat his pal, Pete Aronson, who is working hard to squeeze a top speed of 80 mph from his 1970 Mini-Trail by boosting the engine to a “sizzling” I08cc.

When asked “Why?.” Aronson responded with a laugh, “Why not?”

Which must be exactly what the father who bought the first Mini-Trail on the block said. too. -Brenda Buttner