Honda Monkey Z50J-I 1978
Tamiya Honda Monkey Z50J-I

The Honda Z series is a line of mini bikes manufactured by Honda Motorcycles. Though Honda's official model designations are typically Z50A, Z50J, Z50M, Z50R and ZB50, they are more commonly referred to as the "Monkey" or "Gorilla" because of the way people are said to look when riding one of such bikes. Sales of the bike began in March 1964 with the Z50M model.

These vehicles all had a 4.5-horsepower (3.4 kW), 49-cubic-centimetre (3.0 cu in) single horizontal cylinder four-stroke engine, and a seat height of less than 22 inches (560 mm). The very first Monkey bikes did not have any suspension but the front forks was soon added. By 1974, when the Z50J was introduced (US 1972 Z50AK3), suspension had been added to the rear as well. The first Monkey bikes had 3.5-by-5-inch (89 mm × 127 mm) wheels, but later models had 3.5-by-8-inch (89 mm × 203 mm) wheels.

My very first kit built in my return to hobby during 1990.