Mash RoadStar 400

With just 29bhp, the Roadstar easily fits into the A2 licence category, but it should also fit the bill for those with a full licence looking to downsize. Why? Because it’s very easy and unintimidating to ride, to the extent that 20-somethings might want a bit more of a challenge.

For everyone else, the Mash has an upright riding position that catches the wind at high speed but is comfy enough below 70mph. The Roadstar is small, slim and lightweight, and in fact it would make a decent commuter, assuming the finish holds up through UK winter salt and slush. All right, this bike is made in China, but it does appear to be pretty well put together, with neat welds, nice paintwork and a lot of stainless bolts.

The UK importer is promising a whole list of options, including a centre stand and three different screens. And fitting in with the need to build a new brand, Mash jackets and helmets will be on offer as well.

The Mash is that rare thing in motorcycling; an entirely new brand. Yet the Roadstar 400 is based around 1980s technology. This bike is really about its cool retro styling – a canny mix of late 1960s British with late ’70s Japanese. Launched in Europe in October, bikes are now trickling into UK dealers.

The idea, says the British importer, is for a simple bike that should be easy to ride, cheap to run and able to hit a nostalgia chord with those of a certain age, plus attract younger riders as their first step up from a 125.

If the engine looks familiar, and your memory stretches back as far as 1985, that’s because it’s Honda’s old XBR unit; an air-cooled overhead-cam four-valve single with contra-rotating balance shaft. Even in the ’80s, it was a bit of a retro, powering the XBR500, which Honda hoped would be a modern equivalent to the Gold Star or Velocette, especially to misty-eyed Brits. It didn’t quite turn out like that, but still, with those lovely alloy cooling fins and compact size, it suits the retro Roadstar to a tee.

Of course, it isn’t the same engine Honda dealers were trying to sell us 30 years ago. For a start, it’s not made by Honda any more, but by Shineray in China, that builds the whole bike. It’s smaller than the original, down to 398cc from 498cc, and has acquired Siemens fuel injection. To thoroughly clean the emissions up, small catalysts are hidden inside the ’60s style silencers, of which there are two, with twin pipes sprouting out of the twin-port head.

The gearbox, as Honda intended, is a five-speeder, though this should offer enough ratios, given the single’s relaxed power delivery.

No ABS, no linked brakes, no traction control or multi-adjustable suspension… the Roadstar has a supremely simple chassis, with everything held together by a straightforward tubular steel cradle frame. At one end are non-adjustable 35mm forks, and at the other twin shocks, though they can be adjusted for pre-load (with a C-spanner – none of your remote control here).

It has to have spoked wheels of course, and the rims are chromed steel, not alloy, while the tyres are Chinese-made Kenda Cruiser S/Ts. The brakes are deliberately retro, with a 160mm drum at the rear supplementing the single 280mm front disc, though this does have a more modern two-pot caliper, because you can take this retro thing too far.

The geometry is relaxed, something underlined by the 19-inch front wheel, with an 18-inch rear. This bike is designed with B road fun in mind, but nothing more ambitious than that.

With just 29bhp, the Roadstar easily fits into the A2 licence category, but it should also fit the bill for those with a full licence looking to downsize. Why? Because it’s very easy and unintimidating to ride, to the extent that 20-somethings might want a bit more of a challenge.

For everyone else, the Mash has an upright riding position that catches the wind at high speed but is comfy enough below 70mph. The Roadstar is small, slim and lightweight, and in fact it would make a decent commuter, assuming the finish holds up through UK winter salt and slush. All right, this bike is made in China, but it does appear to be pretty well put together, with neat welds, nice paintwork and a lot of stainless bolts.

The UK importer is promising a whole list of options, including a centre stand and three different screens. And fitting in with the need to build a new brand, Mash jackets and helmets will be on offer as well.

Review: Peter Henshaw, More Bikes