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Alex Schenck's Honda MB5: Bike or Scooter, it's Still Legit
NEIRAD enilno editionStudents have some pretty unique ways of getting around. From the humble folding bicycle and scooter to the private jet, they prove that there are more interesting ways to get from point A to point B then the automobile and longboard.
These aforementioned ones, though, have something very important in common: We know what to call them.
Now take what junior Alex Schenck calls daily transport. Admittedly, he is getting ready to garage it for the winter, but these past few warm weeks have extended his riding season.
His 1982 Honda MB5 is definitely unique, but after that the facts get a little fuzzy. What is it...a vegetable, a mineral, other? Is it bigger than a breadbox? Does it bring joy to people? Well, according to the government, the MB5 is technically not a motorcycle, but don’t you dare call it a scooter in front of Alex.
Alex gained possession of this–err, bike–through his family. Originally purchased by his uncle in 1982, the only year the bike was sold in America, it was passed on to his grandfather to his father to his basement to himself.
Emphasis on the basement part. Alex’s MB5 was stored away for 10 years, as he explained, “not even in the garage, but underground.” If you’re guessing that over that period of time the bike grew in need of repair, you’d sort of be right.
“It had things living in it...my God it was awful,” Alex reminisces. At the beginning of the summer, Alex and his dad were looking for a good-’old father-son project. Restoring the MB5 sounded like a reasonable idea.
Besides having to resuscitate the bike from a state of zombie-like disrepair, the Shenks also had to contend with a small rodent nest lodged in the bike’s lunchbox of a trunk. The list of repairs goes on and on...the drive chain, the paint, the vinyl, the breaks, the lights, the wheels, the transmission, etc. I won’t even bother naming the engine components that needed work, but suffice to say Alex and his father basically took the whole thing apart to put it back together in serviceable condition.
The result is a bike that not only looks like it’s in tip-top shape (honestly, looking at its shiny red paint and you’d have no idea it is approaching the big 3-0)–but runs like it too.
The MB5 may be small, but it certainly is not weak. Its top speed is 54 mph, which is 19 mph higher than the classification scooter allows. Alex claims he to have brought it up as high as 48 mph going down a hill. While he won’t be doing any highway driving on it, he insists it’s perfect for back roads, proudly saying, “it could break any speed limit in town” (not that it ever has or ever will!).
Another advantage Alex describes he has over the standard automobile driver is economy. Like most motorcycles, the MB5 gets around 65 mpg. Compare this with even the most efficient hybrids–not to mention the ever popular Darien Jeeps and Suburbans–and the difference is striking. “Once a week,” says Alex, “I top off the (2.5 gallon) tank with about .8 gallons of three-dollar gas, which is enough to get me everywhere I need to go for the next seven days.”
That’s a good 50+ miles a week, which is an impressive amount for a 16-year old. Alex’s ability to log so much mileage solo, and at an age where most kids are still stuck ferrying their parents on a permit, stems from a certain useful loophole in the DMV’s system.
This goes back to the motorcycle vs scooter dilemma. Legit or not legit? To drive the former, you need a license. To drive the latter, you need two eyes and a brain. For a vehicle to be officially classified as a motorcycle, the general rule of thumb is that it must have an engine upwards of 50 cc (50 cubic centimeters or milliliters, for those who haven’t gone over conversion factors in chem yet), whereas the MB5’s engine is exactly 49 cc. While that’s only about the size of a sugar cube smaller, it makes all the difference in the world for Alex. It means that technically, in the eyes of the DMV, his vehicle belongs to the class Motor-Driven Cycles as opposed to Motorcycles.
Motor-Driven Cycles include just about everything larger than a pocket bike (or breadbox), which includes the scooter. Confusion over what to call the MB5 stems from the fact that while the MB5 doesn’t legally qualify as a motorcycle, it doesn’t qualify as one of these either. Scooters have step-through seating–think a moped, where your legs rest in an open, forward-facing cavity. You straddle the MB5 like a Harley, minus the La-Z-Boyreclining. Scooters don’t typically have manual transmissions, unlike the MB5‘s manual five speed. And as already established, scooters are limited to 35 mph, which is not the case with the MB5. And, in my opinion, there is very little visual resemblance between the MB5 and archetypal motorized Razor anyways–what I think of as a true scooter. So as Alex would say, the MB5 is truly a de facto motorcycle in everything but name.
Anyway, even if anyone on the road has had doubts about the legality of Alex’s bike, no one has questioned that of the man riding it. In full road attire–leather jacket, black helmet, wind visor down–no one can tell he’s a high school student. Alas, so far no cop has stopped Alex asking who gave a small fry (sarcastic language) like him a pair of wheels.
If you’re wondering how a teenager got his hands on a junior Nighthawk in the first place, you may be surprised to hear that the encouragement came from his parents. I’m sure most of you have heard some concerned mother saying something along the lines of you’re never in a million years allowed to ride a two-wheeler. The Schenck family can proudly call itself the antithesis of this kind of panicked logic.
“My father has been riding two wheels since he was 10...he himself proposed I start riding the MB5,” Alex said. Since Alex started regularly riding his bike at the beginning of this junior year, all has gone well. So well, actually, that he is thinking of upgrading in the near future.
Alex told me about his plans to get a Kawasaki Ninja 250R for senior year. To perform this feat, he will have to get his motorcycle license, and more so exercise some serious caution. Remember that these motorbikes are manuals.
Alex brought up the important point that when people learn manuals, they have a tendency to stop and go. In a car, you only get a disruptively bumpy ride. On a bike, it’s a little different, as Alex said, “When you jerk you fall.” The jump from a 50cc to 250cc engine will certainly come with some learning curve, but as soon as he gets used to it, Alex assures me he will be able to beat all his friends in a 0-60. No, A-Rod, momma’s Subaru just ain’t gonna cut it. Watch your back too, junior Justin Lee!
It may be a while before Alex gets to the point where he can handle his father’s 1000cc sport bikes. Until then, he’ll keep on zipping around town on his MB5. Provided it’s not a rainy day, you can see it from the B-Building Stairwell by the gyms. Decide for yourself what in the world you think it is.
