Watch Captain Slow reassemble the oddly charming Honda Monkey Z50

17 January, 2017

 

He may be an old bloke from the UK, but James May is a much-loved former automotive presenter of Top Gear, and current presenter of Grand Tour, characterized by doing loud things with powerful cars.

Although often found inside something luxuriously European, ‘Captain Slow’ — as he is referred to by his long-time co-stars Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond — has an unwavering love for Honda motorbikes. Who would have guessed?

This is brought out on The Reassembler, where May trades fast cars and crazy adventures for a backyard shed-esque workspace and the slow slog of putting back together a series of components. 

In the episode below, the vehicle in question is a Honda Z50 Monkey — oddly satisfying to watch if you ask us. There’s something rather charming about watching May transform 303 pieces of Honda engineering to form a well-rounded machine.

Originally created as a kids ride at Honda’s Tama Tech amusement park near Tokyo, it quickly became an unexpected hit with adults, too. The name Monkey stemmed from the resemblance to circus monkeys when perched atop the small bike.

Honda utilized the sales opportunity and developed them for public use. From then on, the Monkey has always had a surprisingly strong following in the UK, and with a host that is equally as fond of such creations, this odd little piece of internet video is pure viewing goodness.

A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.