We’ve seen 10 of these unusual “trunk bikes” over the years here on Barn Finds, and I like to show another one every few months, just to shake things up a bit. That’s how I roll, on eight-inch tires… This is certainly one of the most unusual mini-motorcycles of all time, with tough plastic body panels over the fiddly bits. The seller has this 1983 Honda Motocompo listed here on eBay in Bell, California, and they’re asking $4,300, or you can make an offer.

This is like looking in a mirror, as I have this exact same mini bike/motorcycle. Or a similar one, not a 1983, but they were all the same between 1981 and 1983. Mine is also red, but they were also available in white and yellow. The asking price seems on point to me, I paid $3,500 for mine with $500 in shipping costs from San Diego about nine years ago. The seller says this one is ready to go and has good tires, but it clearly needs tires. Even with tubes and a 19 MPH top end, please get new tires; these deeply cracked ones aren’t safe.

Otherwise, this looks like a nice example, and the seller has provided a ton of great photos in all stages of this caterpillar-to-butterfly’s life. The photo above shows it folded down so you can sneak it into the back of your Honda City car, or almost any other car, but that’s what they were made for. The theory was, you could drive to the edge of uber-congested Tokyo, park outside of the city, take this 95-pound Motocompo out of the back, and ride it to your job without having to deal with traffic.

The handlebars fold down and into the body of this bike via those two knobs on the top. Just unscrew them, fold the bars down, and you’re set. The seat also folds down. The horn button is the yellow one, and the turn signals (“What are those for, dad?”) are operated by the switch above it. That’s it for controls, other than a typical twist grip throttle on the right handlebar and two brake handles, one on each side. Honda makes a battery-powered version now called the Moto Compacto.

The engine is mostly hidden under the body cladding, which comes off in two minutes with a 10mm wrench. This is Honda’s 49cc air-cooled, oil-injected, two-stroke single, and mine has a glorious blue smoke screen. It smokes about the same as the Rokon, but it’s much faster, believe it or not. Honda thought they would sell 10,000 of them a month, but, sadly, only 54,000 were sold over three years. It has 2.5 horsepower and 2.75 lb-ft of stump-pulling torque (kidding), and the seller says it runs well and everything works. I love mine and ride it every couple of days, yes, even at 6′-5″ tall. You know by now that I don’t care what anyone else thinks about my vehicles as long as I like them, life is too short for that nonsense. Have any of you ridden or owned a Motocompo?