Bravo, Benly!

Scoop resamples Honda’s seminal micro-sports twin: the CB92 Benly.

As a highly-valued reader of CMM, you should have every expectation that the copy you read is accurate, fresh and unbiased. Apologies, as while I can comply with the first two I’m going to struggle with the last. I sampled a Honda CB92 more than a decade ago, coming away utterly captivated. And today I’ve another chance to ride the legendary CB92 Benly Super Sport. I’m like a dog with two tails; these little guys really float my boat and I’m not the only one thus besotted. You see, in the very late 1970s (when old Japanese bikes were generally perceived as just so much junk) a small but dedicated group of oddballs began restoring oriental motorcycles. From this small cadre of fans for all motorcycles Japanese was born the American arm of the VJMC (Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club). Even that far back one of the must-have machines was the Honda CB92, aka the Benly Super Sport. Despite the bike’s odd styling and apparently frankly perverse colours offered on some machines, the little 125cc OHC twin had garnered a small legion of fans. In the Benly’s heyday if you wanted a four-stroke then Honda was your only option and, fortuitously, the company then had the largest number of dealers Stateside which meant better customer support. Also many didn’t trust two-strokes at that point in time and this played right into Honda’s hands. Factor in overtly positive press reports on the small Honda twins and it wasn’t long before the Benly became the bike that people with aspired to. So it’s rather fortunate that we have access to CMM supporter Karl Chadwick’s exquisite example. When we rock up at his garage and I start slavering over the CB92 he pops the following question: “Do you want it with the black seat on or shall I get the red one down and fitted?” Benly devotees know that the red bikes normally came with a black perch while the dark blue ones arrived with an outrageously bright red one. This, incidentally, was an artefact of the very earliest Hondas