Honda Super Cub: Everything about the history -making motorcycle – Jalopnik

In 1958, Honda announced his plans to release the C100 Super Cub. At the time, few could have predicted that the Super Cub would be the best -selling motor vehicle ever to be built. Honda has sold more than 100 million units, and that was in 2017, so the figures are certainly higher now. This small step has done more than people get to work, it has firmly defined what motorcycling all over the world means, especially at the entry level.

You may have heard the slogan: “You meet the nicest people on a Honda”, which was not just marketing fluff. It was a cultural reset that came specifically for the American market in 1963. Before the cub, motorcycles in America were often linked to outlaws and leather jackets. The Super Cub, with its approachable design and smart engineering, made its two wheels something that your mother, your postman or your university buddy could jump on without a doubtful appearance.

What made the Super Cub special was the engineering. This small motorcycle was genius in its simplicity and used a step -by -step frame to support a reliable four -stroke engine. The semi-automatic transmission cut the intimidation factor to operate and change a clutch lever at the same time, so that even beginners have the confidence to jump on and go on the road. In the decades after that, the Super Cub became an icon, both in Japan and here in the US, the bike is so famous that it even inspired technical students to build a cardboard replica of the SuperC. But there is much more about the story of the bike.

In the mid -1950s, Soichiro Honda and his business partner Takeo Fujisawa were interested in making a two -wheeler that Japan could transport through his post -war tree. It had to survive the battered roads of the country while transporting groceries and looked attractive.

The starting point was the engine. The Honda team managed to create a unique 50cc four -stroke engine that pumped 4.5 hp. They have mounted it horizontally to make the bike slimmer and easier to step on. They then drilled an airflow passage in the cylinder head and stabbed them to spark plug makers for adapted parts. The bike came with pressed steel steering wheel, 17-inch wheels and tires and polyethylene resin fats, which were light, durable and painted in attractive bright colors.

Development was a bit chaotic – engineers were often busy with heated discussions, which Soichiro usually silent by grabbing a piece of chalk and sketching ideas on the blackboard. However, the last Mockup made so much impression on Fujisawa that he not only predicted success – he expected 30,000 units to be sold every month. That was a hugely optimistic number for that time, given that the total number of motorcycles sold per month was around 40,000 by all composite manufacturers.

In 1958, Honda announced the Super Cub in Japan, while the sale started a year later. Nowadays Honda is an auto necessary and has recently launched an experimental reusable rocket, but at that time the company started to make a name for himself. Little knew that a small 50cc step -by -step bicycle would rewrite the rules of motor history.

In the 2020s, the coolest new motorcycle came from Honda to the US, but when the manufacturer brought the Honda 50 (C100 Super Cub) to the US in 1959, it was not exactly a clear sale. Americans were used to Big Harley-Davidsons. A small 50cc step seemed like toys compared to. But Honda’s gamble has paid off. The “You Meet the Niceste People on A Honda” campaign was launched in 1963 and turned the script, so much so that it forced the high-manufacturer to produce the only Harley-Davidson scooter ever, the topper. In the 60s from the 60s, the Superwelp became the perfect starter bike and a great way for students and families for the suburbs to baptize their toes in the joy of motorcycling.

Honda’s marketing plan worked. The Super Cub found its first fans in Hollywood. West Coast Tastemakers, who forever chased the next cool thing, saw the small step as a stylish alternative to Detroit iron and oversized American bicycles. It was lightweight, modern and simply quirky enough to stand out in the streets of LA. College -children quickly caught up. With a sticker price of $ 295, the cub was even accessible for students with a part -time job, and the economical appetite of the CUB for gas made it even more attractive. Soon it was the youth mobility badge of the 60s, sometimes gifted as a Christmas gift and even immortalized by the Beach Boys in “Little Honda”, an international hit in 1964-65.

In the early sixties, riders bend the Honda Super Cub in a little more practical for the unpaved paths. The first major transformation came when an employee of Honda America pulled out the bone shields of the Super Cub and the front of the front, exchanged in a lumpy block pattern tires and added a larger rear gear. That experiment in the back garden became the trail 50 (CA100T) and sold for $ 275. Suddenly hunters, fishermen and campers had a lightweight, 50cc bicycle that they could throw in a pick -up bed, drag into the forest and drive where no car or scooter dared. Honda leaned quickly in the craze and offered optional guns and fish rod holders together with an elevated exhaust damper.

The trail family did not stop there. In 1963, Honda introduced the CA105T, a specially built off-road model with a highly mounted exhaust. By 1964 the trail 90 (CT200) was born, with an 86.7cc upper valve engine. Two years later, in 1966, the CT90 replaced it, this time with a new 89.6cc overcover cam engine. The big leap came in 1968, when Honda closed the old double gears for a double-distance sub-transmission with which drivers could switch between highway and trail gear with a simple lever clip. A telescopic front fork arrived in 1969, making the bike more smoother over rowed roads. By the early 1970s, the trail Cubs had sprouted 90-degree folding lanes and soft fuel tanks, which changed work horses to real farm and rear wood.

By 1960, Super Cub sale exploded in the US expectations in the US. The company sold 564,000 Super Cubs, making Honda the world’s best motorcycle maker the next year. By 1966 the cumulative sale was 5 million, and the small Super Cub continued with a 15-year-old sale of American sale before he expanded in 1974. In the meantime, it continued its success story in other parts of the world.

Honda expanded to Europe in 1961 with the Super Cub, and the company landed in Southeast -Asia with the launch of Asian Honda in Thailand in 1964. Just like in Japan, the cheap, rough and approachable shape of the Super Cub made the face of mobility in regions where roads were rough and cars were out of reach. In Thailand, where only 100,000 motorcycles were en route, Honda increased that number to 150,000 in 1966. Honda started to collect Super Cubs in Thailand in 1967, supported by a new local version of the campaign “You meet the best people on a Honda”. From there, the cub spread to Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, where he confirmed his place as the region in two -wheeler in the region.

The story of Vietnam was more dramatic. In the late sixties, the US Army shipped more than 20,000 Super Cubs to Zuid -Vietnam, causing a flowering to appear that 750,000 Honda bikes arrive between 1967 and 1969. When Saigon fell in 1975, countless cubs were abandoned and quickly taken over by the local population. During the US embargo imposed by the US, the Vietnamese ingenuity kept the Super Cubs alive with local parts and imports of gray market. The Super Cub was not only transport in Vietnam, it was cultural rock, which led to the nickname of the country: Super Cub Paradise.

The original Super Cub was completely about simplicity and Honda did not let it frozen on time. In 2019, Honda re-introduced the Super CUB C125 in the United States, with styling inspired by the original and modern technology to bring it up-to-date. It kept the step-through style and classic lines, but extra functions such as fuel injection, ABS, LED lighting and a smoother, air-cooled 124cc four-stroke engine. The bike is still approachable, but now it is ready for today’s traffic and emissions.

The modern Super Cub functions both a nice piece of nostalgia for older riders and an excellent access point for new ones. It may not dominate the American sale as it did in the sixties, but it could harden a niche at city forces that want style and content without breaking the bank. The Super Cub remains true to its core value offering and is just as relevant as always, even producing its modern Hunter Cub contrary, the 2020 CT125 Hunter Cub.