I'm just a sucker for exquisitely designed and styled little tiddlers. In the 50cc class, there are three standout models that I rate somewhat above the rest. Now don't get me wrong: the Honda Sport Cub and several of the little Yamahas are some of my favorites among the more garden variety tiddlers, but I'm talking special machines here. You could include the 1990 two-stroke Honda NS-50 in this group, too, but I won't simply because the turquoise and pink on white colors with too much black engine and exhaust just didn't make it in my styling department. I never did like punk rock very much, either, for many of the same reasons: long, natural hair on Leon Russell and Mark Farner, fine, but pink and green spiked hair, no thank you. You can spot my age bracket now, but you already knew that if you have read very much of the material here at Tiddlerosis. Although technically speaking the NS-50 belongs in this elite group, but I'm sending him back home to change his clothes first if he wants to join my elitist club!
The point of this story is that among the common tiddlers, the later Honda Sport 50 with the higher bars is the most successfully styled 50cc tiddler, with several others following closely in its 2.25 x 17 tire tracks. The NS-50 is a very sporty Honda tiddler, but the company had nearly thirty years to design it. The most exotic, and expensive, of all the 50cc Hondas, the Dream 50, has already been featured in another post at Tiddlerosis. The most exotic, and expensive, currently produced 50cc tiddler, the Aprilia RS 50, will be featured in an upcoming post.
The Suzuki AS-50 was an underappreciated tiddler produced, I think, in 1968-70. The little Suzi's claim to fame was that it was such a highly sporting machine for its day, with all the correct styling cues and lots of flashy chrome. Unlike the Aprilia, it had neither a full-race fairing or high-tech suspension, and the price was quite ordinary for the day. You spell that ridiculously cheap compared to 2009, for either an RS 50 or an AS-50! Although not as exotic or special as the Dream 50 produced decades later, the AS-50 was sort of a properly dressed NS-50 that was twenty years ahead of its time. Yes, you could say that certain Bridgestones, Yamahas, and even the Yamaguchi SPB offered much the same package, but the styling and technical details of the AS-50 conspired to create racy tiddler perfection for the street.
I am not absolutely certain of the three years produced, but looking at the brochures I have, '68 to '70 appears to be correct. The 1968 model was referred to as the AS-50 Colt. The frame, swing arm, and side covers on this model were red, the rear exhaust support was chrome, and there were no turn signals. The Colt name was not mentioned in the '69 brochure, the exhaust support was red, and the model now had turn signals. The name was changed to Maverick in 1970 and the color was blue, but the color pattern was changed. The '68-69 AS-50 had a silver tank and seat tail with a body-colored frame. The 1970 Maverick had a body-colored (blue) tank on a silver frame. The other blue parts were the seat tail, side covers, headlight shell, and upper fork covers. The swing arm was black and the exhaust support was changed back to chrome. It's a toss-up which year is the most perfect. I like the silver tank and body-colored frame of the earlier models, but since I am a sucker for blue, anyway, I give them all an A+ in styling.
The AS-50 offered technical proficiency to back up its sporty looks. The engine was a rotary valve two-stroke producing 4.9 hp through a five-speed transmission. The brochure claimed a top speed of 65 with a tiny Japanese teenager driving off a cliff, but 55 was more like the truth for normal people and terrain. Since the most I could ever coax out of my '63 Yamaha Rotary Jet 80 was 53 mph, 55 was quite respectable for a 50cc machine. There was no tach, but at least the speedo was a separate unit outside the headlight nacelle. The skinny chrome fenders, chain guard, and expansion-chamber type exhaust added to the tiny machine's racy flavor. Of course all the Japanese two-strokes had oil injection by '68, and the AS-50 was no exception. The long, skinny gas tank had a stylishly angular shape, but the racing-type seat was a bit controversial, although its visual appeal was outstanding. The AS-50 was a solo affair with no rear pegs present at the party!
See Also: The AS-50 at Suzuki Cycles
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