Honda Lead 100 scooter

Suspension is ye olde twin-shock leading link swingarm on the front, with a single-side design, incorporating the transmission, and single shock on the rear. There's no adjustment.

Brakes are basic drums at both ends.

The powerplant is a single-cam fan-cooled four-stroke single, with solid-state ignition and a carburetor with an automatic choke. It puts out seven horses. That's matched to the ubiquitous constant velocity auto belt transmission and 10-inch wheels.

Shall I carve?
Riding it is as about as simple as you would expect. Hold the rear brake lever, stab the button and give it a hint of throttle - off it goes. It settles into a fast idle until it warms up and seems happier to be given 30 seconds or so to settle down before you move off.

Performance is not stunning, but perfectly adequate for city and suburban use. You can keep up with the traffic, but might want to be a little circumspect about jumping the kid with the V-eight ute at the head of the lights. That said, you can carve up peak hour with abandon. It's so small and light that gaps which motorcycle riders would never consider suddenly have lots of appeal. It's unbeatable when the world turns in to a sea of tin-tops.

Top speed with a 65 kilo rider is an indicated 90km/h. I'd be counting on more like 80-85 in most situations, which rules out freeways.

Braking is adequate, with good feel and great stability thanks to the leading link front end. The latter design is an old one that has the benefit of keeping the bike on a level attitude when you're hard on the picks.

Steering is quick and can be a little flighty - which is typical of ten-inch-wheel and short wheelbase scooters. It's stable enough for the speeds it does.

The small wheels mean it tends to 'crash' through bigger bumps. You find yourself avoiding manhole covers. That aside, the suspension copes quite well.

Cheap thrills
The first time we saw the Lead name on a local scooter was on the 125 two-stroke of the mid-1980s. The general chassis layout hasn't changed a lot in that time, but the engine and styling has. Speaking of looks, it's very much in the current Honda family vein, while the general fit and finish is okay without being great. The price means you're not going to get a lot of chrome and add-ons.

There is luggage space under the seat, though we could not get any of our full or open face helmets in. Our family's lids tend to be large, so the space might fit a small open face. In any case, there are two under-seat hooks for helmets that work fine. A top-box would be a useful addition and you can get them fairly cheaply, while there's a shopping bag hook under the front of the seat.

For the cost-conscious, the best news (other than the price) is it sips fuel and has so far been getting better than 30km per litre. This is going to be a very cheap toy to run, even once you throw in servicing.

Okay now for a trivia quiz: Guess where it's made...

Give up?

India.

The subcontinent is becoming a huge market and manufacturing base for Honda, so don't be surprised to see more models coming from there.

We're running the Lead as a long-termer and suspect it's going to hold up very nicely.

By Guy Allen