Back in the mists of time my first bike was a black MBX50, being 16 this bike was a revelation but being a restricted 50cc a somewhat limited revelation. When I turned 17 at the end of 88 I could trade up and ride up to a 125cc bike with a maximum power of 12hp, being young and short of funds my eye got turned by the Honda MBX80. This little Honda had liquid cooling, a bikini fairing, belly pan and twin front disc brakes, and even though it was down on cc's it produced a very healthy 11hp so ticked all the boxes without the costs of something like a NS125F.
I started to search for a used bike via Auto Trader, Free Adds and the local news paper classifieds and finally we found a bike in a dealers near Ringwood, my Dad managed to borrow a flat bed and off we went. The dealer was somewhat sketchy, it was more like a breakers yard down a very worn dirt track, but it didn't matter, there she was, B784 BFE in white with red graphics and I absolutely was not walking away without it.
The bike was in pretty good condition and its speed compared to the 50 it replaced was a revelation! With my newly found power and freedom I hatched a plan to ride it down to Devon for our summer holiday. Keeping in mind I couldn't at this point use a motorway and wanted to keep of very fast roads like the A38 past Exeter racecourse I planned the route at set of solo...
The ride was pretty good but it became apparent the little Honda was having running problems. A few days later my Dad joined me at our caravan and we booked the MBX in to the Honda Centre in Newton Abbot for a check over to see if they could work out what was wrong. As it turns out, not much, they de-coked the exhaust and the bike was transformed. I jumped on it to pull away from the shop and it shot off like a scolded cat, red lining in every gear it would fly along at an indicated 70mph, this was the business!
After my summer holiday a few of my friends got 125's including a nearly new TZR 125 which i was a little bit jealous off. But the little MBX could easily match the TZR in speed up to around 50-55mph then the TZR had the edge. I think what surprised everyone about the MBX was how free-revving it was and the way it could launch off the line, which caused a lot of bruised egos to people with far more expensive machines.
In the end I started to earn a little more money and I had my head turned by a blue TZR125 with a full fairing so the MBX was part exchanged against the Yamaha at Rob Willsher Motorcycles in Bursledon.
looking at the governments website the road tax ran out on B784 BFE back in July 1993 so the chances of it surviving are slim to none, however if this bike is sat in the corner of your shed or garage gathering dust I will buy it, and it doesn't matter what condition it is in, please message me.
