Some will say it’s no Motocompo, but you gotta admit the Honda Motra has style. Hardcore military style, that is. Welcome to a new episode of “cool gadget things from the past”. This is a bike I just spotted the other day in front of the Shibuya Underpass Cafe.

The Motra is a 49cc bike that was built in the 80’s (started in 1982), weighs 76kg, and comes in two colors: dark yellow and military green. The total length is 1665mm, width is 740mm, and total height 975mm. I’m not sure if it was ever used in actual army operations, I doubt it has, but owners of these little squary machines are free to believe and pretend what they want. What makes this 3 gears bike special, apart from the embossed “Honda” logo on the side, is that it can climb a hill up to 23 degrees. If you feel you need a SUV to commute to work, you probably need one of those to get your groceries from the convenient store too. In case you find one on eBay, remember the original price was 165,000 yen (1650 US$).

For more info and great photos, more cool links are available here (really cool photos at the bottom of the page), here (Motra Owner’s Club, in Japanese), and here (great pics, parts, remodeling manual etc). Anyway, get one now, before I found yet another gem from the past and I post it here…

The other day I was going to Globe (which will be featured in the Restaurants section of 3Yen no doubt, as soon as it is created), and I saw this little wonder parked on the sidewalk, among other bicyles and bikes. Ok, it is not really a “new” gadget as such, but who said everything here should be new? Besides, even though the Motocompo was born in the 80’s, it is still so much ahead of its time, we still have a few minutes to talk about it. If you are tired about mp3 players, here is a sci-fi thingy from the past.

The Honda Motocompo is a little toy for adults who were too old when Transformer robot toys first appeared. It is a motorbike, but it is also a toy. It is a statement. People who bought a Honda Motocompo at the time were cool, those who still have one are even cooler. Think 1960’s VW Beetle…

Designed as a companion to the Honda City series (aka Jazz in Europe), this minibike folds up and fits in the trunk of your minicar. When you live in Tokyo and you understand the value of space, both in the street, in your home, and everywhere you spend some time, you really value the designers at Honda who came up with this little guy. The City car spawn many babies worldwide, such as the Polo, the Smart and so on. Yet, the Motocompo died and got forgotten. Sure, half of the bicycles you see in the street of Tokyo are foldable, but in the times of portable music, portable computing, portable gaming, and portable video, where is the portable bike??

Sometimes, you can even buy some on eBay and the prices don’t even look like it’s a collector’s item. And if you don’t want to burn money yet be a hipster, you can always build your own in folded paper (Japanese style all the way), or just steal the favicon from the Honda MOTOCOMPO Comminuty (sic) Website and use it on your homepage (if you spend enough time on this page, you will even see the funky logo get animated).

And if you think pictures are worth a thousand words, scroll down and feel the real coolness of the Motocompo.

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(Don’t you want one already?)