Honda Sh 150

The SH150 was Honda's answer to chaotic Italian city traffic, and it does that job with surprising conviction — the two-stroke pulls cleanly from low revs and hits its stride around 60 km/h, where it feels genuinely confident. Step-through ergonomics make filtering through Roman gridlock almost meditative, and the 760mm seat height means nearly anyone can plant both feet flat. That said, 95 km/h is optimistic on a bad day with a headwind, and the two-stroke oil consumption and smoke at startup will irritate anyone who parks in an enclosed garage. Storage is laughable — a small hook and the goodwill of your jacket pockets — and the brakes are drum-drum, so plan your stopping distances accordingly.

I put about 18,000 km on one of these in Milan traffic, and the revised suspension genuinely makes a difference over the first generation — potholes that used to jar your fillings out are now merely annoying. The four-stroke 150 pulls cleanly from low revs and the automatic transmission means you're never caught in the wrong gear at a junction, though you'll notice the engine running out of breath above 90 km/h if you're carrying a passenger and luggage. The updated bodywork is tidier and the under-seat storage is genuinely useful, but the brakes — while improved on paper — still feel wooden and require planning ahead in wet conditions. It's not exciting, but it starts every morning, costs almost nothing to run, and after six months you stop thinking about it and start depending on it.

Honda's move to the 149cc OHC four-stroke in '95 transformed the SH from a smoky commuter into something genuinely refined — throttle response is smooth, fuel consumption sits around 2.5L/100km in real urban use, and the engine just doesn't feel stressed at city pace. That 105 km/h top speed is honest but not comfortable; above 90 you feel the wind pressure and the chassis starts to communicate its limits through the bars. The 118kg wet weight is heavier than it looks in the brochure, and threading through tight gaps in slow traffic takes more deliberate steering input than rivals. What keeps me coming back is the reliability — I ran mine for three years and 22,000km on oil changes and brake pads alone, nothing else.

I ran one of these through two Italian winters and a Roman summer, and the SH 150 Gen 4 is quietly excellent in ways that don't photograph well. The reshaped bodywork feels more planted at speed — that old Gen 3 nervousness above 80 km/h is largely gone — and the enlarged under-seat storage finally swallows a full-face helmet without the lid-juggling ritual. The 11 horses are modest, but torque delivery is smooth enough that filtering through gridlocked traffic feels almost effortless, and the suspension soaks up cobblestones better than anything in this class. What'll frustrate you: 105 km/h is a real ceiling, crosswinds above 90 genuinely unsettle the front end, and the brakes — single disc up front with a rear drum — require early, deliberate squeezing rather than any last-minute heroics.

I ran a fuel-injected SH150 through two Roman winters and the thing simply refused to let me down — cold starts were instant, fuel consumption hovered around 2.8L/100km, and the underseat storage swallowed a full-face helmet without drama. The restyled bodywork looked genuinely contemporary in 2006, a real step up from the dumpy Gen 4, though the plastic quality around the front apron showed stress cracks by year two. On city streets it's composed and planted, the 16-inch front wheel handling tram lines better than most competitors, but push it onto a fast ring road and that 11hp ceiling becomes very real, very fast — sustained 95 km/h cruising feels like the engine is auditioning for a stress test. The front drum brake on base-market versions was the one thing I actively disliked; wet-weather stopping distances required genuine forward planning.