James May Builds A 1970’s Honda Z50a Mini Motorcycle | The Reassembler | S2E03
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- James May Builds A 1970’s Honda Z50a Mini Motorcycle | The Reassembler | S2E03 | James May Top Gear | James May Grand Tour | James May Funniest Moments
James May is faced with reassembling a 1970’s Honda Z50a mini Motorcycle from all its 303 component parts. This exciting mini motorcycle was fun for all the family and got a whole generation of kids hooked on Motorcycles for the rest of their lives.
This film is under license from Hat Trick. All rights reserved
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#jamesmay #cars #automotive #motorbike
When the original Top Gear went away, the world lost a great thing. I am thankful for you doing content such as this. Cheers.
My first bike. Where I lived everyone had a red z50 and I had this yellow model. Great fun for a 6 yr old in 1980.
James May is the pedantic British Bob Ross and I’m here for it
This guy is one of those Dad/Grandad's we never had a kids. Much appreciation to those people
日本で誕生した小さなオートバイは必要な事柄では有るものの 交通状況・環境・安全を考慮されどんどん大きくなっています、そして「楽しい」「笑顔」がどんどんなくなりつつあります。
You should see my smile when I'm on my KTM 950 Supermoto
I agree, I miss the sport focused bikes from the 90's Honda's MC22 CBR250RR is a work of art
Fold the shoes with springs first to about 120 degree angle , then put them on and then straighten them to place.
Greetings from Finland 🎉
This is a lesson anyone working with drum brakes should learn. That was painful for us as well as James
The ending with you coming out of the shop is the best!
My current Bike is a 2018 honda monkey 125 with 74 thousand kilometres on the odometer.
I ride it all year around including Finnish winter.
Oh joy. ❤
Give the likes james earns to motivate him to never stop making great content like this 👍 👌
Millions of people love you james ❤ believe me
I’m so happy the trio are still doing shows even though they aren’t together anymore. They all hold a special place.
Thanks May!
I laughed very hard when he was assembling the breaks and it got stuck onto his shirt.🤣
i enjoy this video so much and just listening to his voice makes me feels calm because it's so soothing.
Gah! Love rewatching these! James May has such a baby face! If only we could get him to do a whole nother series, he could drink gin whilst imparting the knowledge of the world upon us (and reassembling)😊
Thank you James. I always enjoy watching!
this was the bike i wanted as a12 year old. i got a minibike with a 3.5hp b&s. no gears, centripital clutch and the foot break was a bit of steel plate that rubbed on the rear tire. good enough .
This hit the spot, I've been planning on reassembling my Z50r (I got for Christmas when I was 3, (Im 30 now)) for some time since my folks passed, and just got the rest of the parts to do it.
I just imagine Jeremy watching this, falling asleep. 😂
But amazing content, love James May!
I learned how to ride as a young teenager on one of these. Absolute blast
My absolutely favorite new thing
Wonderful episode, my favorite parts are always the assorted tidbits and musings.
James is just the best !! xD
キャプテンスローにはぴったりのバイク
I love that JM points out WHY British and American vehicles are so different. Our cars do tend to be bigger and seem silly to Europeans, but that is also usually when taken in a vacuum, totally divorced from the context that molded them.
Tools are made with a purpose in mind, cars and very nearly everything else are exactly the same. Take a screwdriver and try to use it as a hammer, you should hardly be surprised when it doesn't work as well as an actual hammer.
Tea vs. coffee is really a debate about the where's, when's, and how's. Coffee is great for the first hit of caffeine in the morning when you need to get going. Tea is great to sip on all day to keep the caffeine going, but at a slower rate. This only works if you want hot drinks during the day though.
Your ongoing commentary is worth the watch.
This is why I watch 12voltvids videos.
ohh great to have again a captain slow !! cheers!! 👍
I’ve seen an explanation of the middle versus the outside of the wheel. The essence of the question is how an object with a smaller circumference covers the same distance in one rotation as a larger one. It’s a bit above my head, but I seem to remember that the real world view of wheels differs from a mathematical view (which is that a wheel is more like an infinite number of straight lines between the axle and the ground).
And playing xylophone on tools is brilliant. Never thought of that.
Simply beautiful!
When he said "now let's do" I thought he was gonna say "the news"
its not a big motorcycle just a groovy little motorbike 🏍️💨
It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys, That two-wheeled bike
i need 5 seasons of this
James ride it like a Harley . that was some nice Lego set :D
Hey James, helicopter guy here, keep videos like this coming! By the way, we liked the cooking show too. In fact even the toy and models, hell just keep being you my friend!
My Summef Car!
Honda Monkey was my ride when i was young, Suzuki was much easier to get go faster so did have one of those too. Put 80cc Motocross bike motor in Suzuki and the front wheel didnt touch ground allmost ever😂😂Hi from FINLAND 🇫🇮
James may need to reassemble Legendary SUZUKI EPO MOPED.
Ого. Жги дальше, Джеймс.
Man, I fucking love James May.
As much as I love James reassembling things it horrifies me seeing him putting the dirty parts together without any care.
Guess that´s why it´s not called "the overhauler" or "the restorer" or something. But why not clean the parts with a pressure washer (and the old grease out of the bushings) before anyway?
Anyways...thanks for sharing this video series.
Because, as it was said in the video - it is not a restoration and renovation show, but reassemble one. There's a hint with the tittle of it for those keen-eyed viewers as well.
you just have ocd, get over it
Yeah, I've done this with 60s bicycles and watching him start the project by spending several minutes pointing at old, dull, rusty bearings is painful. I get what's being done and why, but it doesn't make the negative reaction less real. At least he's got new grease.
Stand back!
Genius at work....
Who remembers the original where he says "this calls for some sunglasses, dry ice and steppenwolf".
Something about the commentary at 41:45 is wonderful
What can't life do to us if it brings James May to UA-cam? 😢
Using a bunch of Arri Amiras seems somehow like both overkill and underkill(?), but I appreciate the quality. Lovely video, lovely series. I hope it escalates until James is tasked with reassembling democracy.
Dont think he cares enough about the US.
Am I the only one who wants (another, since I've owned one, but stupidly sold it decades ago) a Z50 in both stock format for puttering around, and more importantly, one with a CR80R 2t wedged in for a powerplant, or potentially, a CR500.... you know.... just cause 2t things and the Z50 is iconic? 😅
Would also kill for a CR125R powered EZ90 Cub....Shasta White please, Red White and Blue 🇺🇸🇯🇵
Did anyone else notice he turned the front fender around the correct way after he installed the engine? I'll admit I've done it before. I was just waiting for the moment he realized it.
i would go crazy not cleaning the parts. 😂
That’s a 1976. It was an anniversary year for Honda and the only year the Z50 was yellow. Quite rare.
On top of the bolt/screw debate.
I'm slowly convincing everyone around me that spring washers are not good. I believe NASA agrees...
Why is he counting the ball bearings like that? 😂Just split them into two piles
No torque wrench? What’s next? Hammer it like Clarkson? 😂
You and the fellas are my hero’s however I gotta say your shop is “dismal” James! 😂
Hello James, nice to see you 👋🏼
I also have a Z50 honda in original Rothmans colours sold only in Finland.
'And yes, tires are fascinating. Imagine a car driving at 100 km/h. Is the tire moving at the same speed? Well, not exactly. The part of the rubber that touches the road stays stationary, and the top of the tire has to move at 200 km/h to get ahead of the hub of the wheel moving at 100 km/h. Then, it stops again in the blink of an eye to hit the ground.
The way I like to talk about it. Rolling is really a collection of cicular motions and staright line motions of each point on the tyre. If youre going at 100 kmph, every bit of the tyre has a straight line speed of 100 kmph. But every bit is also doing its circular motions about the center, at the same time! (except the centre, the centre just moves forward, not spin) At the top, the spin and the straight line motion both happen in same direction, causing it to move with twice the speed and at the bottom they cancel out, making it momentarily at rest.
It sounds against our intuition, but every bit that touches the ground when a motorcycle is perfectly rolling is momentarily at rest.
Unless, youre doing a burnout. where your tyre is spinning faster than it is skidding, causing the wheel to spin but you dont go much further. Or, when youre hopelessly skidding on ice or slippery terrain, where the opposite happens. Youre skidding more than youre spinning. There is a critical balance between skidding the wheel and spinning the wheel, and when they both happen at same rate, at same time, youve got yourself a rolling wheel!
Back in the day some aristocrats would grind coffee into a thick paste and consume it to get huge amounts of caffeine. But yes, coffee and tea both served dual purpose; 1: to get people to drink more water that's actually safe to consume instead of beer and 2: get you all hopped up on caffeine so you work harder. Productivity went up so much that some companies even structured tea breaks into the day to keep people topped up and zinging along.
That grunt wasn't far off from a moan... 🤣
The bolt Vs screw debate is simple.
A bolt a fastened by applying a torque to the outside and around it, while a screw is fastened by a torque applied by screwing the middle of the head.
A screw has a thread all the way to the head. A bolt has a "shank" a section of the shaft with no thread. And screws can have a hex head. Cheers and happy new year
Well done May
and all those companies now dont make any more small cheap reliable cars. Buying a new car is now something you can do when you are 40+ years old.
i did this with my bike right after an accident. the only differents is that i replace/repair and or repaint my parts.
Kinda sen seeing May do stuff.
Tools on the bench ? For this project keeping the 10mm spanner to hand adds to efficiency. The surgeon argument doesn't really apply because they'll have a scrub nurse waiting to pass the next instrument. A good scrub nurse will know what he wants next before he does.
Me being a child and chortling at the brand of tools. King Dick.
Next up: Soviet mini mokick RMZ 2.130 :-)
Maybe not an "a" model. I had the pre-monkey called a Mini-Trail Z50a. It didn't have those gigantic fenders or fancy exhaust pipe.
Wouldn't the wheel be spinning faster and faster as you go towards the middle?
forever lasting talking super power
We also made Pepper Jack cheese 🦅
Brennan has a machina
It's a screw if you tighten it with a screwdriver. Otherwise it's a bolt.
Bolts they are screws nornally have round heads with a taper.
I don’t think people understand this show aired years ago, and James likely doesn’t give a fig about the (questionable) advice people have written (poorly) in the comments. Trying to patronise a television presenter is a fools errand.
Ya but….53?
62 now in Feb 2025, according to the Wikipedia.
25:51 you can absolutely become one with electricity. Just add yourself to an open circuit and see if that changes your mind or your state of oneness with electricity.
I am by no means an electrician. Don't take advice from me.
look, all he does all morning is put stuff out and put them where they're supposed to be
Unit 731. Look it up.
Front fender was wrong way around at the beginning.
But they didn't show him correcting his mistake, yet the fender was shown correctly positioned after engine was installed.... when they discovered the fender would have hit the engine in that position.
My dad drank BEER in his workshop.
No grease....😮
What lunatic disassembles a dirty motorbike and doesn't clean it before reassembly?! May, have you been kidnapped and are trying to send us a symbol?
This is a Z50, not a Z50a. These differ quite a lot...
Take the engine and the forks apart…then reassemble
Progressive springs on the rear suspension, on a 50cc mini bike from the 70s. C'mon modern bike manufacturers, you can do it.
Rotation and translation, two differrent moves.
Why are the parts not cleaned up before reassembly asks the rivet counter…
45 minutes of build and a couple of seconds of seeing it idle? Misguided.
Screws, bolts and scrolts... there just invent a new word for ones that are neither one or the other.. Patent please
Are there seriously 6 people in the crew for this?!! Those shots of them are a bit strange! These shows are crying out for a second person to bounce off, a guy who worked for Honda in the 70s for example...?
Agreed it is strange, they could've just used stationary cameras for this kind of video, easier to hide in tight spaces like this.
Cheese
It's shit. come up with something more interesting
Laziest episode, as the engine is not disassembled at all.
He did one in the lawnmower episode.
Bof …..😢
24:20 ... im very disapointed james... EV will kill our hobby
Oh boo hoo.
How? It hasn’t killed cycling, I doubt it will kill motorcycling either.
Eventually maybe, but we’ll all be dead by then.
@@MumrikDK go and drive EV , dont bother me with my petrol and diesel hobby.