Ultimate Pit Scooter: Honda’s Motocompacto All-Electric Bike Is Fast, Fun, and Affordable
This electric bike is an indispensable asset for your next track-day event.
Honda didn’t have any new cars eligible to compete in MotorTrend’s 2024 Performance Vehicle of the Year showdown, but it scooted away with a big victory in a different type of way. The Honda Motocompacto—an electric tribute to an ’80s cult classic folding moped—was pressed into duty as MotorTrend’s official pit bike for the festivities, and it proved itself an indispensable, making-life-easier tool.
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Generally, it sucks trying to get around racetrack facilities quickly during track days. Pit and paddock areas are typically far away from things like classrooms, bathrooms, and garages, and the need to regularly pop into and out of those buildings often means you may do as many miles walking across the paddock as you might drive on the actual racetrack. That’s undoubtably why pit bikes—typically small dirt bikes or city-friendly scooters—rule racetrack paddocks.
Lightweight, electric, and foldable, the Honda Motocompacto might just be the best pit bike on the market. While most pit bikes need to be transported in a pickup bed or in a trailer, the Motocompacto folds up like a Razor scooter to the size of a large briefcase. Practically speaking, this meant it fit as easily in the back of the Acura Integra Type S as it did behind the Porsche 911 Dakar’s fixed bucket seats. In a pinch, it’s also small enough to ride shotgun in the passenger seat of a McLaren 750S or Ferrari 296 GTB.
More 2024 PVOTY: Winner | Finalists | Contenders | Behind the Scenes
2023 PVOTY: Winner | Finalists | Contenders
Unfolded, the Motocompacto’s 12 miles of driving range easily got us through a day of heavy use. The storage slot in front of the seat is large enough for water bottles, sunscreen, and laptops, and the bike’s tiny front-mounted 0.6-hp electric motor got it up to its 15-mph top speed quickly—perfect when its rider really needed to hit the head.
It’s also a riot to ride. Small, maneuverable, and unintimidating, not a single editor hopped off the $995 bike without a smile on their face. In fact, it proved so much fun that even during the little downtime we had, judges couldn’t resist sneaking in a “quick” lap of Chuckwalla’s 2.68-mile road course (where we learned the Motocompacto’s downhill top speed is 19 mph). Or drag racing it against the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray—the latter, when in its electric-only Shuttle mode, matches the Motocompacto’s top speed. Curious who won that match up? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out.
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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