ST, CT, SL, CL, let’s call the whole thing off... Honda’s naming system left more than a few of us scratching our skulls, since this 1973 Honda ST90 can be considered part of the CT family. This former barn find bike is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in West Bend, Wisconsin, and the seller is asking $2,900. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
I’ve wanted an ST90 for several years now, but they don’t come up for sale too often. They’re pretty obscure, even online, where there isn’t a fraction of the information about them compared to the smaller CT70, and we’ve seen a million of those over the years. I don’t get it, the 90 is a much better choice for bigger riders, and riding it on the street is easy with almost 25% more power. At 190 pounds, this little thing weighs more than my Rokon does, I never would have guessed that. There’s no lifting this one into the back of your van or truck.
Most of us know the Honda CT90, or Trail 90, the step-through motorcycle made for around 13 years or so. The ST90, however, is a bit of a unicorn. I think we’ve only seen one here on Barn Finds, and that was three years ago. The seller mentions this example being a barn find that they’ve been tinkering with in order to get it running and working well again. The seat cover looks like it’s been replaced with a non-factory-looking one, and that would be first on my to-do list. And then new tires, as these may be originals.
Honda offered the Sport Trail (ST) 90 from 1973 through 1975, and it wasn’t a big seller. It was just too close to the similar CT70 Trail, the step-through CT90 Trail, and others. That’s exactly why I like them. This photo shows two of the issues left to tackle on this bike: the jumping and/or non-working speedometer and the turn signals. The amber blinky things that nobody uses anymore in America, sadly. The turn signals light up but don’t blink, and the speedometer went from bouncing to not working. It’s likely an easy fix with a new cable, and we don’t know how long this “barn find” bike has been sitting, but the turn signal issue could be just a gummed-up switch, hopefully.
The engine sure looks clean and nice, much nicer than I expected. It’s Honda’s 89-cc OHC four-stroke single with 5.5 horsepower. Backed by a three-speed semi-automatic transmission, it’s also wearing a replacement carb and has some starting issues. It’s unlike a typical Honda in taking 5-10 kicks to start it. I’d guess it’s a simple timing or points issue, but who knows? Have any of you heard of the ST90?
Cool bikes. Be a fun camp 🏕 bike for sure for everyone to take a little trip out on a trail. See the small skidplate saving the bottom of the case from flying gravel 👍 Maybe add it to your collection SG 😲
I’d love to snag this one, Stan, but 2025 has been brutal so far, business-wise.
Thank you for featuring this, Scotty. As time goes on sometimes we’re not really sure of what we thought we saw, and don’t want to be thought as a graduate of MSU (Make Stuff Up) especially when we’re talking with self proclaimed subject matter experts.
Saw one briefly when they 1st rolled out and couldn’t quite figure in what niche they really belonged then promptly forgot about it until now.
Insofar as your business goes, you’re a really smart guy and you’ll get through this-no doubt.
Nothing worth having comes easy otherwise it’s generally not worth having..
I can usually depend on Scotty to slap me out of this BFs funk, ( $12grand for Jeep pickup, sheesh) and this “Lothar” seems to be our Wisconsin connection, thanks to both, makes me feel right at home, although I’ll never go back there to live again.
This is a wonderful find, and just shows to go ya’, this stuff is still around. 4800 miles, see, the thing here, is these won’t ever have a lot of miles, and clearly someone lost interest, or moved on to something more roadworthy, and this sat. I think this could still be called a “monkey bike”, and has limited uses. It’s not a road bike or a dirt bike, but not its intent. More of a pre ATV step saver, but many sure trashed these into the ground. It was perfect in 1973, we took a lot of lumps, but was all in good fun, whatever that is today.
As an owner of a mini trail 50, a CT70, and a trail 90 back in the day……I had no idea these existed. I would have wanted one, for sure.Thanks for the nice write up.
Seems like when the SL70 came out, the CT-ST models started to fall out of favor as the progression went from QA50 or Z50 to SL70 to SL100 or 125, for us who were so fortunate. My favorite as a teen was my orange XL175 which, besides being a beautiful bike, easily dispatched the other guys on 125cc enduros.
175 was a sweet spot for little bikes Melton. The Yamaha DT 175 was another great one 👌 👍
100%, Sir. I had a ’73 DT175 for a while. All the DTs of the era were rock solid, but the 175 was pretty special, still small and light, but vastly superior to the 125s in power and versatility. With 250s, you really started feeling the additional mass in the woods. I’m a big fan of the ’73 and ’75 DTs, just because of the color pallets and tank graphics. Owning the complete ’75 DT lineup is sort of a long-term goal for me.
This was my first bike, a 1973 in this exact color…in 1977 my dad bought it for me when I was 7 years-old. I rode the hell out of it until I was about 12 and got a real bike, a CR80R. My dad even rode the ST90 into downtown D.C. (we lived in Northern Virginia) one day with our neighbor and his friends (that were on larger street bikes). All in all, it was a bulletproof bike and I learned a lot on it. I learned many valuable lessons. I became a good rider and I owe that to my old ST90, lol.
The CT 70 version are going for big bux on Bring a Trailer. $5,000 to $7,000 was not unusual.
Had one amoung my 70’s that included a SL70 which is where some of the parts came from along with a 90cc which Honda that would fill a gap somewhere….
thought…..thought it would fill a gap…..
Had a CT 90, also known as a Trail 90. I always thought CT stood for Cow Trail, because with the high-low and 4spd., That thing would go practically anywhere!
Scotty- Great write up, as usual. I clicked on the link for the ST90 posted 3 years ago and I see I commented on that bike, which I thought kind of looked Kawasaki-Green back then. I added a “thumbs up” to my comment now, 3 years later, for good measure.
Howard- You are welcome back in Wisconsin anytime. It’s still a good spot.
Have a good weekend, all.