After the very first assessment I undressing of the monkey has started. Let’s take of the fur to see how the bones are.
One of the things I already noted is the usage of whatever screws, bolts, nuts and whatever other fixtures no matter of length, head-size. Means, I have to get some more tools to access all of it.
The tools I used for undressing the monkey so far
Til now I was fine with my toolset I already used back in Germany on my Honda XLV 600 Transalp. The provided stuff by Hondy is mostly of very low quality so I pimped it a bit. And as it was much more than the original Honda tools I also decided to carry them in a bumbag.
my toolset … 
… wraped … 
… and velcroed in a bumbag
Sadly I lost the pair of pliers (No. 1 on the picture above) at the Munich airport as they didn’t allow me to have it in the cabin luggage. Anyway – that’s the easiest to replace. The spanners cover the mostly used 8 – 10 – 12 – 13 -14 and 17 size (No. 2). Plus the 24 (No. 9) for the Transalp rear axle, which I suppose isn’t of much help with the Monkey. No. 3 to 7 feature a very clever system of a ratched (6) which can be combined with the sockets (3), with the nuckle (4) and the extension (5) which also can be used as a screwdriver using the bits (7). Very space and weight saving. The spark plug puller (8) completes the set of tools.
The heart of the Monkey
This round of diving deeper into the assessment shed some light on the engine.
Surely. A bold 107 cc engine – remember the original one is 50 cc only – but with an automatic gearbox and no kick-starter. That’s too much of a lazy life. Automatic gear boxes are fine for kids starting their biking career. Or on scooters. Or with cars. But on a motorbike, even a small one like this … no way!
But at least this carving gave enough evidence to figure out which engine might have been used. And indeed this one looks quite similar:
Picture taken from: Happy Motorparts online store. The most interesting part of it is in their description:
… für ATV / Kinderquad / fahrende Bierkiste …
the last one, which translates into “beer crate mobile”, caught my attention.
But as I haven’t seen such plastic beer crates in Kenya so far, I wonder which might be a proper kenyan equivalent to make use of this engine. Because once taken apart from the bike it will surely not make it’s way back into it. Maybe a wheelbarrow :-D? That would be real monkey business.
But let’s first figure out which engine will find it’s way into the Honda Monkey. I’m still undecided between the original 50 cc, semi-automatic with kicker or going for a bit of more convienence having both kicker and electric starter? Or all the way up to this 190cc, 5 speed manual beast?
I’m sure just the price tag of 1.300 € (about 165.000 KES!) will prohibit this madness of owning a pocket rocket, though I’m very tempted.
Again: any ideas which way to go are appreciated. Just hit the comments below.