Chombi1 

What I remember was Hondas had Showa shocks, that eventually did not keep pace with other shock manufacturers and eventually became Honda's weakness when bikes from different makers were tested against each other...
Even with Honda's road bikes, Showa's performance had always been unimpressive....stock springs always too soft, compression and rebound control inadequate or not there at all and they are never rebuildable, travel less than everyone else..... Just mediocrity from Honda as usual in the suspension department.
I never could figure out why Honda insists on using Showas, unless my suspicion is correct the Honda owns the company?

plimsoul

This afternoon I ran across a craigslist listing for a brand new 1976 Moto bike. Apparently it has not been ridden and the rotted rubber has been replaced. I obviously cannot paste a link here. But it is easy enough to find if you look on craigslist in the Seattle area. Just wow.

From the listing...

"1976 Yamaha MotoBike C Model. This is a new old stock bicycle with only minor touchups to seat (seat has a few knicks in the vinyl back) /handlebars. Tires are 70s Cheng Shin C183 era correct but not original. Original tires were dry rotted. Chrome is beautiful, original down to chain guard and reflectors. I even have the owners manual"

AngryFrankie

I rode one of those things to death in the 70's. I think they were sold at the motorcycle dealers. A friend of my dad's who built shrimp boat riggings welded the frame back several times after I broke it. I remember the big burly dude looking down at me on the last trip there and saying, "Kid, don't break this bike again. There nothing left to weld if you do."

dddd

I had use of my big brother's Moto-Bike in the 70's, it was bought used and had a normal saddle and a two-speed Bendix kickback hub.

I used to bomb through a local farm's apple orchard on it at speed, and was left forever enamored of the idea of bicycles having full suspension.
It was easy to wheelie because you could rock it back on the soft suspension, then launch the front wheel into the air even though the front end was super-heavy.

I first wore out the swingarm pivot, was so loose I would sometimes have wild wheel-hop while doing hard cornering. The guy I sold it to had the seat tube break down at the bottom bracket.
It was a fun experiment and had me paying very close attention to developments in full suspension from the late 1980's through the 90's.

leadholder

My brother and I each had Moto-Bikes which my Dad gave us in the fall of 1975. Mine was yellow and my brothers was orange. We drove to a Yamaha dealership in Yuba City, California one late afternoon to pick the bikes up and I remember listening to Game 4 of the World Series. A game in which Luis Tiant pitched a complete game to beat the Reds. I absolutely loved that bicycle rode it all over town but the best place to ride it was down fire roads in the near by mountains! It was a heavy beast and all that suspension would smooth out the bumps and take the corners much faster than an unsuspended Stingray. In flat country though it was much too heavy to race. I passed mine down to my younger brother who ride it hard as well and broke the frame so many times until there was nothing left of it. The fate of the orange Moto-Bike my other brother had was much better. It ended up in the rafters of my Dads barn to collect dust all these years. My brother brought it over to me a while back and asked if I would restore it for him which I intend to do so he can use it as a pit bike when he goes racing vintage motocross (AHRMA). I will send before and after photos!

leadholder

Rebuilding the front forks is relatively inexpensive and the parts are easily found on ebay. For the seals look for seals for the Yamaha JT1 or GT80 as Yamaha used sliders and bottom tubes from these motorcycles for the forks on the Moto-Bike. Same goes for the dust seals.