Jon Barclay

While I love my new Trail 90, there are bound to be things wrong with a 37 year old bike. One of the small things that was not working when I bought the bike was the tail light.

A few days after bringing the bike home I started troubleshooting the light problem. My first guess was a blown bulb, but a replacement did no good. While fiddling with it I noticed that when I hit the brakes with the lights off the tail light would sometimes flicker on. After taking off the light assembly I quickly saw what the problem was. The green ground wire was not connected to anything. Thus when the lights were off the brake light would come on because the tail light wire was acting as a ground.

Once I grounded it and got it back together the light worked perfectly!

The next problem to tackle is to look at why the brake light is not triggered by the front brake. My guess is that the switch inside the handle bars is the culprit. Who knows though, I may find that something else is the cause. One of the fun things about these bike is that they are fairly straight forward to work on, even for a complete beginner like me.

For the past couple of months I have been keeping an eye out for a good used Honda Trail bike. Buying one of these is not necessarily easy as they are a vintage bike in demand from collectors and enthusiasts. As I looked for a good buy I soon realized that bikes that were competitively priced and in good condition went very quickly, many times selling the same day they were listed.

About a month ago I saw a listing for a 1971 Trail 90 up in Ogden. The ad listed the bike as having 20,000 miles, but in great running condition. It was priced right at $700 and included a small trailer. At first I was reluctant to call about it. That many miles is A LOT for a little motorcycle, and even though they say that sitting is much worse for these than being used I was not sure I wanted one that used.

Even though I was still unsure about this particular bike my Dad and I decided to drive up and take a look. What a difference seeing the bike made. It was 10° outside, but the bike started on the third kick. The seller was a bike enthusiast and had taken very good care of it. In addition the mileage listed was incorrect. The bike only had 2,700 miles.

We ended up getting the bike. Even though we are still snow bound, it has been loads of fun putting around on it. I can’t wait to get out on the trails with it. Below is a picture of my model. Unlike this photo mine is red.

Jennifer posted pictures and video of the bike on here blog here.

One of the toys I have wanted to get for a long time is a small motorcycle for tooling around on. We live in the perfect area for one with a trail right behind our yard and all of Lake Mountain to explore.

Back in the 60’s and 70’s Honda made a line of bikes that was targeted at hunters and fishermen who wanted to get into the back country. They made extremely sturdy and reliable bikes. With a top speed of 55 MPH these bike could be ridden on the road, but they were designed for trails. They are not really a dirt bike though, and should not be ridden hard like a dirt bike would be. Weightless Dog has a great site devoted to these bikes. Check it out at ct90.net.

These bikes are exactly what I have been looking for. I have no desire to buy a true dirt bike designed for speed and hard riding, what I want is a little bike that I can ride around on and get up into the hills with. An added bonus are that these bikes, though 40+ years old, are workhorses and are inexpensive as well. They seem to range in price for $400 to $1400 depending on the condition of the bike.