The debate of Yamaha 100 versus Honda 70 in Pakistan is probably as old as the date of Aug 14, 1947.
While I belong to the Yamaha club, I have to admit that Honda crowd is steadily increasing in number. Therefore today I will offer an olive branch to all the Honda 70 community out there. You should also appreciate that it has taken me 20 years since I rode my first Yamaha to come around and write following lines in praise of a Honda.
Honda 70’s Amphibian Qualities
This is a true story guys. The year was 1992. Karachi got hit by one of its famous monsoon rains where mother nature dumped the whole year’s rain quota within few hours – and got done with it. After few hours of rain, nothing moved in the city because the whole city had became a large pool of stagnant water and stranded humanity.
I was in the University that day. As I left for home, my Yamaha’s engine died just after sailing for 2 feet. I was still inside the NED’s Main Gate. After that I had to drag the motorcycle in knee deep water for 9 kilometers to reach my home. andaaza karo dosto! (imagine that friends!). While I was going through all this hardship and after 30 minutes had barely reached Safari Park, I heard a distinct ‘pat pat pattar…pattar pattar gheN gheN’ sound coming from the North. At first I thought Civil Defense guys from Malir Cantt had brought out motor-boats to rescue stranded Pakistanis like me. I quickly turned my neck in anticipation and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my friend Raees-ul-Haq riding his Honda 70 in deep waters. He had covered his engine in grease which insulated the spark plug and his Honda 70 sailed through Monsoon rains like a hot knife cuts through frozen butter. Raees also had a cute little smile on his face as he passed by me.
mujhe sab hai yaad zara zara, tumhe yaad ho ke na yaad ho
Raees! if you read these lines then please write your reply in the comments section below – kuch nahi kaha jaaye ga – aur meri tabiat bilkul theek hai
Amphibian Honda and Nadeem in movie aina
Readers, please also look at this Pakistani movie ‘aina’ song to see the amphibian qualities of both Honda and Nadeem.
Now that you’ve watched above video, I have doubts whether the motorcycle shown in the song is Honda or Kawasaki. Regardless, you got the message i.e. Honda runs well on both land and sea.
A Community Gets Built Around Honda 70
Honda 70 is a community vehicle in Pakistan. In many mohallas (neighborhoods) I’ve seen an old Honda 70 shared by many house holds. Our neighbors also had a Honda 70 from the times of ‘baawa Adam’ (Adam). It used to be permanently parked in the street for anyboady’s and everybody’s use. It was a‘dhakka’ start so who ever needed to run any errand used to take this Honda 70. An amicable toss of coin was made in case two people wanted to use it at the same time. For example, Heads meant Javed ke abba (Javed’s father) will use it and Tails meant Chunoo miaNwill take it for a wheelie.
Over the years, this Honda 70 grew old with its shared owners. As the owners started missing their teeth, the Honda 70 also started missing its parts.
In the year 1985, Annoo bhai lost his front tooth and Honda 70 lost its front light bulb.
In 1987, Salloo Uncle became ganja (bald) and Honda 70 lost its seat cover.
The arrival of 1988 saw departure of its chain cover. By the year 1990 this Honda 70 had reduced to Honda 35 but kamal hai bhuee (non-Urdu readers, kamal is not the brother of Jamal – it means ‘bravo’ here) this motorcyle kept running until one day it finally broke apart into two pieces.
It was then sold as scrap to a ‘teen dabbay wala’ (recycling guy) and money earned was shared to buy a cricket bat for the street team.
Honda 70s = 70 km/litre
Honda 70 is also famous in Pakistan to have broken all records of traveling the longest distance per liter of petrol. I’ve known people who claim to have run Honda 70 more than 90 km in one litre of petrol. Following text will teach you how to do it.
The Tilt and Invert of Honda 70
See all you have to do is to first tilt and then invert your Honda 70 and you will get 90 km per litre out of it. So here is what you do.
Fill one litre of petrol in your Honda 70. When the petrol pump operator teases you by saying sirf ek litre? (just one litre?), you shake your hair backwards with an adaa (style) and reply ek bhi buhat hai (one is more than enough). Then you kick start your Honda and drive on. Don’t wait to hear Petrol Pump operator saying to the camera ‘mein te Honda hi le saaN’ (I will only buy Honda)
Now drive your Honda for 70 km. At exact 70th km, the motorcycle will stop because the petrol gets finished here. Now you get off its Royal seat and tilt the motorcycle to 30 degrees from horizontal and voila! you are good to get 10 more kilometers out of your empty petrol tank. So now drive on until at exact 80th km the motorcycle will stop again.
Do you think this is the end of it? naa mere bhai naa – a Tariq Aziz dialog which in English means ‘No, No and No.’
abhi to aatish jawaaN hai. Now get another person to help you lift the motorcycle and two of you together invert the motorcycle at 270 degrees from horizontal. Imagine this for a second. It means the wheels will be facing towards the sun or moon (depending on time) and seat will be facing towards the ground. This action will bring the equal and opposite reaction of getting the last few remaining droplets of petrol to the engine and there you go again. Your Honda 70 will run for 10 more kilometers. Now you can drive on till exact 90th kilometer. Then your Honda will come to a final STOP.
So do you have anymore interesting Honda 70 anecdotes to share with us? Feel free to use comments section to let us know.
ATPs other Two-Wheeler Posts
1. Of Mad Dogs and Yamaha 50s
2. Journeys to Remember: Motorcycle Safari to Goth Alla-Bino
3. When “Bicycle Dogs Fail†in Pakistan
4. The Loads We Carry on Bicycles!
5. Sohrab Cycle and Manufacturing in Pakistan
My elder cousin used to have a Honda 70 and when we were young, it was a great treat for him to take us out on a ride on it. 5 people. Him and 4 of us kids!
@owais….lol…ok u r old enough
we bought a honda 70 for our office use….stolen in a day…so we bought again. the clerk offered to make it stolen proof…i think he took 2000 to make the new honda look like a pretty old rag….it was not stolen……i understand there were special shope whose main job was to make new hondas look old
Ridden many a Honda 70 and Yamaha 100 in my time but owned a Kawasaki 100 and then a Yamaha 200 (double cylinder, two stroke). Man oh man, did the Yamaha go!
With due apologies to the Honda 175 crowd; the Yamaha 200 left them all in the dust! Didn’t ride a bike that fast until the States and a Yamaha 550 Seca–but by that time was too old for bikes….
@Nihari. I think remember Honda 50. Wasn’t it the one with a tokri (basket) infront of it?
@Watan Aziz – Thx for your comments and recalling your own Honda memories. I enjoyed reading them
@Razi – yes triple sawari was quite a norm in those days. Honda 70 used to be the work horse of Cricket teams hauling team members at 3 or even 4 at a time to matches – that was ofcourse before the dreaded double sawari bans of 1990s became a norm in the city.
@Adil bhai. Thx.
…’watan aziz’ reminded me, i too rode the yamaha with my wife and my eldest sitting on the tank when i was visiting pakistan…whats the big deal? its a big deal to me as i had just learnt to control the clutch and change gears and three (or more) people is unheard of where i live. i can’t wait to try out another bike again when i return iA, my cousin has a new honda…