in this video we are going to review this honda monkey 1 to 5 and for very
good reason and that is that my first bike when I was 7 years of age in the 70s was a
honda st 70 which is a kind of monkey by a little bit different but pretty much
the same I've always had a soft spot for these so the Honda monkey is a 1
to 5 cc four-stroke and it costs three thousand six hundred ninety nine pounds
this monkey produces 9.25 brake horsepower X 7000 rpm and 11 Newton meters of torque at
5250 RPM and what that means in the real world being such a lightweight bike it feels quite
sprightly to ride and it feels like it's more powerful than a lot of the other ones who fires
room riding lately so yeah it certainly doesn't feel underpowered so it's got a seat height of
30 and a half inches and considering how small it is it's not actually that bad of a whining
position it feels comfortable to ride now the monkeys such a nice bike to ride the turning
circle is minut and i don't think there's a motorcycle in the world that can turn round
in such a short space so a lot of bikes you've got a shunt around and do a three-point turn but
instead of maneuvering it in the gara with this one it just goes straight round so if
you're going the wrong direction on a road you just stop look behind you turn around
in one go and it's that's phenomenal this bike will probably be about five foot five to five
foot ten but if you're shorter than that or taller than that you'd probably still be okay
the riding position is actually quite nice and it's very comfortable obviously it's a
small bike and I'm a big guy but even so I'm still enjoying riding it around and it's perfectly fine
it's got a five point six liter tank and at this point in time that would only cost you
six pounds 20 to fill up so that's remarkable and that would give you a range of 375 miles which to
put in perspective if you filled up in London you could drive this to LeMond theoretically
and do that all on one tank and that's with a miles per gallon of 189 so that is incredible
so to put the miles per gallon in another term you could do it's 67 kilometres a litre and if
you were using this for commuting which would be perfect for you probably last two weeks on
one tank of fuel so that is brilliant so it's equipped with disc brakes and also it
has ABS which means if you do slam the brakes on you're not going to go over the front which is
something that can happen on a short wheelbase bike but that Factory is eliminated in this
my old honda st 17 years back had three gears and it was semi automatics who
had no clutch this has got a clutch and four gears the quality and styling on this bike is
second to none it's extremely good and as you would expect from a Honda very very well made
so there's three different color options for this bike there's yellow and white which I'm
on obviously there's black and white and red and white I think it looks really nice in red
and white personally and it also has chrome on the fenders and around various parts of the bike
which looks really nice underneath the petrol tank here you've got a large plastic box which
is basically housing the air filter now something we like about this you've got a helmet lock here
you put your key in to open it and put the home in and flick it over and you've got your helmet
locked away so no one's going to take it it only works with a helmet with a metal d-ring there so
if you've got a different sort of strap it won't work underneath this very comfortable seat you've
got a little side panel here which unlocks and you can take it off inside here you've got a toolkit
and you've got all the electrics hidden behind it it weighs only 107 kilos which means it's
extremely easy to maneuver about or shunt about put it in a shed or the garage because of how
light it is and it's got a very good turning cycle so that means that you can maneuver it very easily
now the ride on this bike is very good - you got upside down forks at the front with about 10
centimetres of travel and they soak up the road bumps quite well and about 10 points something
about ten and a half at the rear and again it soaks up the bumps pretty well obviously
massive bumps you're going to bottom out with a heavy ride like myself but a normal sized
person your suspension is actually really good now this bike is so agile and so maneuverable
it's the perfect city commuter I can't think of a better bike in the world you could get in between
and round cars and Lane split because it's so narrow and so small it's absolutely perfect
for that but in the countryside around here as well it's just so much fun you go up the country
lanes and in and out and it's just phenomenal to ride it it's so much fun I can't tell you
the honda monkey corners ever so well and within a few minutes of riding it you feel you can take it
around the bends ever so fast and the lean angle on it is incredible as well as you can see the
monkey will do 60 miles per hour I headed up to 58 miles per hour but I'm quite heavy so I think
with a normal-sized rider you will find 60 is its top speed but to be quite honest you wouldn't want
it to go any faster than 60 because it's a short wheelbase and it's got a steep rate and it's very
nimble at higher speeds that could be dangerous so sticks these plenty and and sixty feels fire off
now the brakes on this a phenomenal you've got disc brakes front and rear with ABS but
the fact it's such a light bike you pull them on and this stops in no space whatsoever now
the big thing about this bike is the money saving the fuel economy is just out of this
world hundred and eighty nine miles per gallon as my son said and that is phenomenal so why
are you sitting on trains getting coronavirus why are you sitting and commuting in the dirt
and the filth sitting in traffic jams and cars when you could be riding one of these and in no
time you'd get your money back just on the simple fuel saving for me really with the visibility in
the mirrors isn't brilliant but it's not on any motorbike to be honest there's only a couple of
bikes where I can actually see behind me so you have to move out the way like that but that's
because I'm sort of quite a tauren quite wide so I think if you are a normal sized person it
would be a hell of a lot better now obviously I said about being perfect in the city and the
countryside and country lanes but this is one other thing that this bike is actually very
good for and it's green laning because it's very lightweight and very maneuverable and
the tires are quite knobbly they've got quite a good grip on them you could take this bike
down a country lane down a farm track across a field perfectly easily obviously not a great
speakers you've only got a short amount of suspension travel it's not a motocross bike
but as a general trail bike and that's what I used to do as a kid I used to ride around farm
tracks on my wanderer sd70 this is exactly the same so it's extremely versatile and a good fun
now I think this is actually quite a safe way to write because at one point I was
turning right and it's a fairly blind Bend and I was just gonna make the maneuver and the car
suddenly came the other way but because of its maneuverability I could easily get out of the
way and not make the turn so from a safety point of view the maneuverability is a good
point now one thing you will have to live with because the mudguards are quite small or the
fenders if you're from America that you will get a splash back onto the engine so you're gonna get
stone chips down here and mud and what have you you just have to live with that I'm afraid the
rear mudguard protects you very well from the wet and the dirt on the roads no issues there
if you were thinking of getting this bike as your first bike away you're going to buy it for your
son or daughter and they're 17 or 18 I would say I would highly recommend it because it's a very
easy bike to ride it's not too powerful it's very safe the handling is very good the brakes
are phenomenal and you couldn't get a better bike for it to be honest so 100% recommend this
the question is then who would buy the Honda monkey now from a personal point of view I
think it would make a great second bike if you just wanted to zip up the road to the
shops get a pint of milk or whatever or just go out for a bit of fun it's perfect for that
as a city commuter bike it's the best bike on the planet just for a fun ride it's an
amazing bike so I think it will appeal to all ages tell us what you think but I don't think
there's an age group that wouldn't like it it'd be great for girls and guys and
teenagers as your first bike and at the age of 17 in the UK you can get your compulsory
basic training done your CBT put L plates on it and here it is that's a bike you can
ride around and you would save so much money the fact is that because of the fuel economy
on this bike you're going to be going around for weeks on end on six pounds 22 fill it out
so our verdict on this bike is it's an absolutely fantastic
bike and it's probably the best city bike that money can buy and even just
to have a bit of fun on the country lanes it's fantastic for that too
so let us know what you think of the honda monkey and don't
forget to subscribe and leave a like on the video it really helps