Ken Ives’ S90 Honda Trials Special, the first Honda trials bikes
Ken Ives was a Honda dealers that made one of the first transformations from the «street» Hondas to ride on Trials races.
Ken Ives took a 1965 Honda S90 and made following modifications and improvements to well adapt on atrials riding:
He replaced the tyres, made a wider swing arm, of course improved the position and design of the foot rests, special exhaust, and add a bash plate to protect the bootom engine.
Engine was a lttle 90cc OHC, developing 8hp power, but strong enough to start on the first trial races.
Anounced sales price was 159GBP taxes included and 1-2 weeks delivery time.
In 1965 Clive N Mills was given a contract with Ken for one year, thanks to his son Andrew ho had the kindness to share me pictures and this info we can now enjoy with these documents.
© Thanks to Andrew Mills (Clive N Mills son)
At same time the Japanese Hideo Tanaka made his own transformation and rode with his S90. Tanaka, some time later was working on the RTL305 development.
In 2006, Kojiro Mori entered at Kinlochleven Scotish Pre 65 2-Day with this machine ( an S90 replica, the original one owns to Olivier Barjon who had the kidness to send me below nice pictures, after Jean and Pascal pictures)
Nice Kojiro’s picture thanks to good friend of this site Jean Caillou who rode and travelled with him to the Scottish that year. Copyright picture © Pascal Houdard.
Kojiro & Mick Andrews at Kindlochleven. Picture thanks to Jean Caillou. Funny detail is the RSC sticker on Kojiro’s helmet, as Jean remind me this was the old RSC logo. Thanks Jean!
THE HONDA S90 TRIAL
The S90 original street version
The S90 Trials original version thanks again to Olivier Barjon
Arie Bottinga from Holland made this below pictures nice Ives Honda S90 replica. He is going to use it for Pre’65 Classic trial competition in Holland.
The engine now is 113 cc and has a longer stroke. The engine has a Japanese rotary shift pattern 0-1-2-3-4-0-1-2- etc.
Arie, also made this special website were he deeply explained the restoration process. Very interesting. Thanks Arie to share your nice work and pictures.
https://s90hondatrial.wordpress.com/
Later, around 1967,68 Kevin Ives built a new Honda Trials bike based on the CB 160 and CD 175 engine.
Of course he replaced the wheels, tyres, rear suspension, also he changed the forks, special twin exhaust, frame with a lot of improvements like Camber angle, swing arm, reinforced sections, bash plate… Engine also was modified, low compression, lower gearing,..
Really a nice bike!!
Peter Gaunt’s Honda History
Peter Gaunt riding a Suzuki trials
Peter Gaunt was the first engineer who in 1973 developed a serious transformation using a Honda bike as a base. The bike was sold under the Jefferies Honda name, this is because Jefferies bikes, located at Shipley, Yorkshire, was the dealer. The bike was offered ad L469!!
Small series were made, no more than 20 units.
Almost two units still alive!!
Thanks to Carlo, from Italy, I found an original Peter Gaunt’s Honda Jefferies,
and thanks generosity of Carlo to share these pictures, we can enjoy today with this nice bike survivor.
I also found another original one, and thanks to John comments we know that the bike was from 1973. You can find pictures on the excellent and maybe the best Honda trials bike web page: www.honda-trials.com
The bike is from Adres Cook, and you can see it on following link: http://www.honda-trials.com/_sgg/m1ma_1.htm
The Jefferies Honda XLS
Gaunt started using a XL250 (trail/enduro bike) but modifying several points in order to have a competitive trial bike.
The FRAME
Based on the original XL250, Peter Gaunt moved some degrees the head in order to improve the CASTER angle.
Of course all electrical system, battery,lights, etc was rejected.
Metal Mudguards were replaced for a plastic ones
Buttom tubes were also cutted
Seat dimension was redefined
Swinging arm improved to reduce the wheels distance
Brakes and suspensions were respected due to a reasonable good function and quality.
And some more parts also were improved or modifyed (mirrors, side panels, air filter, exhaust silencer,etc)
The wheelbase was finally 1.346cm and the weight 104 Kg (maybe the worst on this bike)
The ENGINE
The engine was a Honda Single Cylinder, air cooled with 248cc displacement. Four stroke with four valves on head moved by chain.
Keihin 30mm Carburetor was replaced by a concentric 26mm Amal (only for dimensional reasons)
Ignition eas by flywheel magneto
The maximum power was 20CV at 8.000 rpm
The TRANSMISSION
Five speeds
Primary drive, gear
Final drive, chain
Clutch type, wet multi-disc
Actually Peter Gaunt still ride and participates on races as Two Scotish Days with his wonderfull Royal Enfield. This bike has a lot of clever solutions, and perfectly explains how this engineer could make a transformation so successful. The bike is today in Spain bought by a private friend collector.
