A Honda shop gave me a job when I got out of the Air Force. I bought my first 150 cc in 1964 and quickly graduated to a 305 Super Hawk. In 1969 the 750 hit the streets and I had the first one of those. I finally got my fill with my Gold Wing and hung it up on 2 wheels in 2004 after open heart surgery. I've owned other bikes but never one as clean, and dependable as my Honda bikes. At 88, watching this video I got the itch all over again. Mr. Honda really did have a better idea and he proved it.
We just bought a super clean and extremely low mileage 1964 Superhawk. What an amazing machine! I get the feel I could ride it all day. Even with my knees sucked up to my chest! I imagine when it was new it was seen as a real rocketship! Keep the great memories flowing! That itch is powerful...
Great post, Gary! I'm 82, glad to meet you. I get the itch too, a Super Cub, the original, would actually be useful for me being in the city now and retired. Can't really justify it though. I started out as a Honda mechanic in '63, large part of my working career and good memories.
@@whalesong999 if you can afford it and it would give you joy, won't that be justification enough? at 82, you ain't too old, but if you wait until you're 92, you may be. the Super Cub 125 is really a joy to ride, I've got one in my collection.
@@wolfhalupka8992 It seems doable but I know me, a few spins here or there and I'd want to part with it. Memories are enough. My daughter has a 250cc dual purpose bike that I can use anytime I want should the bug hit me but even she has cooled off from riding. Something in the essence of it all has changed, not the same environment that we had back in the day. I was a devout motorcyclist, invested in the trade and sport but the glamor faded. That may seem sad but life changes are that way. I don't grieve for motorcycling.
My family owns a restaurant and for a delivery vehicle we chose a Honda Wave. Its basically a renamed modern cub. It ran about 200000km before the gauges broke and still ran another 200000 before we decided to just mothball it. I recently decided to pull it out of storage and get it running just for a spare vehicle and it only took me like 60 bucks to get it running again. I always tell people that in a zombie apocalype, I would choos a cub as my vehicle of choice.
Innova/ANF owner here. A couple of years ago I bought one off someone on the Flemish coast. Utterly raped by salt spray, no idea of mileage but can tell it´s lots yet the thing just won´t die. Once you peel all the plastic off it is largely unchanged from the original Cub bar brakes and ignition. Mine´s going to transition into a fake BMW with the frock ripped off an old Bavarian touring bike. I would willingly chug away from a rampaging horde of flesh-eaters on my wee Honda.
@@HotDogLawsSame in the Philippines. Honda Dream and Honda Wave motorcycles are the staple of urban and rural private and public transport, for all kinds of uses.
Honda was on to something in the 1960's revolutionizing the industry with small affordable motorcycles. Nowadays, I think the industry could learn a lesson from its past.
@@cnnw3929 only because everyone wants high tech , there are still very affordable honda bikes on the market for example the xr150 and the cub is still made in different forms and styles worldwide = honda wave 125 , xrm 125 , and grom , plus a new version retro cub
I think Hondas doing something to change that again with them introducing street legal mini bikes again, the grom, monkey, trail 125, and the new super cub I think they’re making another good step
I have a particular soft spot for the Honda scooter. A girl had bought her new Honda 90 and wanted some information about it. She went to a safety rally and found a boy who also had a very small motorcycle. We began talking and we are still talking more than 50 years later. "You meet the nicest people on a Honda"? I certainly did. The put put put sound as the bike came up the drive gave my heart a lift every single time.
as a honda rider, every time i ride my honda, i have a fleeting sense of, the thing, as per james may describes it, you feel the spirit of old man soichiro under the seat, smiling at what a beautiful legacy he built.
Thanks again Bart for yet another great video. A Cub story:- My elder brother bought a new 1965/6 C50 which he used for the 7mile,six days a week round trip to work,3 miles of which were on a potholed dirt road short cut. In about '72or73(memory fade) he asked me to srvice it for him as he thought the clutch was slipping a little,when he brought it round to my parents house I was appalled at the state it was in,he'd never washed it or cleaned in since new.I asked him when was the last time it was serviced,he simply said "I never bothered"😮. This was a bike that had been used and abused in every way with some 10,000miles(memory fade again) without him or anyone else doing any maintenance whatsoever! I cleaned it,changed the oil,clean the oil and air filter,cleaned and adjusted plug,chain,brakes and clutch,when I'd finished it ran as good as new! He ran it for a few more years after that and I'm sure he never had it serviced again,before selling it. An incredible utility vehicle that earned it's keep many times over!
Back in the 80's here in Australia a 1% club turned up to one of our touring bike events outback with a dilapidated Honda cub in the back of their club ute. In an admirable but futile attempt at shithanging on us "Jap crap" owners, they proceeded to thrash the living bags out of it all weekend. Some pretty sizable blokes flogged buggery out of it through rocks, creeks, mud and dust for endless hours... but the little bugga just wouldn't die. Eventually they resorted to setting it on its centrestand in the middle of their camp and draining all its oil, jamming its throttle wide open. Poor thing was all fins, rods, engine and noise for half an hour before it was finally ushered by (Honda) Valkyrie to Mechavalhalla. ...OK boys... why exactly does your club actually own a bloody ute again?!
Since 1981 i'v owned over 38 bikes , street, off road, sports & cruisers. And in recent years i only ride a Honda Cub. Nevermind if it wont chase bigger bikes. Its reliability, simplicity & classic look givs me a big smile everyday!!! ❤Yeah i'v grown old & gracefully along with my beloved little Honda
My Dad bought 2 old NSU Motorbikes and cobbled them together to make one working bike. Not long after he bought a Honda Cub 50 which he rode for many years. I found it in the garden in 1989 in terrible shape and rebuilt it in my kitchen much to my wifes horror. That began my love of the Honda C50 C70 and C90. After retiring to Thailand I realised there was a 100 cc 110 and 125 version. I now have 5 various models and virtually no maintenance. Your video report was excellent, Thankyou so much Steve
Every time I watch a video about the super cub and the cub it always warms my heart somehow. I own a C125 from 2020 and every time I ride it, it fills me with joy. I bought it brand new, and it’s been my daily transportation to work ever since (only if it’s a fairweather day lol). Best two wheeled purchase ever. Not kidding.
I have a 1970 C70M it is my first vehicle. The DMV lady thought it was a scooter when I took my M1 driven test, so because she didn't think it had a clutch, I didn't need to do the shifting part of the CA motorcycle test.
Great fun in town but.. Last month I sold my 2020 C125 because I live out of town and it just does not have enough horses to keep you safe on roads with speed limits above 80 klmh / 50 mph. I live in Australia where the trail version, CT110 has immortal status because it was the mail delivery vehicle of the Australian postal service for many years. It was replace by the 110 NBC Super Cub and I have one of each in my garage. This video is great, especially from a USA perspective but in South East Asia, the Cub and it's imitators had a massive influence on the economic development of several countries.
@@onyertod lots of people here owe their thanks to small displacement bikes as it's the reason why they could bring food to the table and pay for their children's college, in this case it's the Honda Wave and Honda TMX that gets massive recognition
Myself and all my friends learned how to ride on those Honda cubs 30 so years ago in Greece, they were everywhere! An amazing vehicle , nothing comes even close to how popular , reliable and well used they were..
I have a 1970 C70M, and my dad has a 1970 CT70. Great little bikes. Since I bought my C70M, I have put about 2000 miles on it, going back and forth to work for a year, so about 2000 miles on my permit because I took my riding test the day before my permit expired. Tonight, I ended up getting a flat on my way home, which was an experience.
This engine, so wonderful they are still using it variants today, the major changes would be the introduction of SOHC configuration, changing from the original intergrated centrifugal clutch in the multi disc clutch to the seperation of those two into "3 pads centrifugal clutch" and "Multi (4) disc clutch", added the 4th and 5th (on the Honda Grom if I remember correctly) gear in the gearbox. The engine vary from 50cc, 72cc, 90cc, 100cc, 110cc to the biggest 125cc displacement, with the 110cc have 2 styles of bore x stroke (1st: 52mm x51.5mm, 2nd: 50mm x55.6mm), I have ride those all displacement and I love the newer 110cc the most. 72cc, I have a Honda Super Cub C70 Deluxe 1986, 12 volt square headlight, 3-speed gearbox and the original intergrated centrifugal clutch, a beauty of an era. I also have a SS50 1966, bored to 72cc, swapped from the original 5-speed race configuration gearbox for a more reliable 4-speed came from a CD50, absolute beast of a small displacement motorcycle, 11000 RPM redline and reached over 100 kph by just 3rd gear. And Honda Dream 110 Super Cub, a carburated one, it has the 2nd 110cc variant focus on maximizing torque for better fuel economy, I had a lot of fun with it. But to think about the torque, Yamaha is the best on the field in my opinion, as my current bike is the Yamaha Jupiter R 2000 (name depends on the market), 49mm x 54mm, 5 disc clutch - its just a more sportier approach in the market at that time but at the time the bike come to Vietnam, Vietnamese people still have no idea what the heck is a sport underbone motorcycle with the weird N-1-2-3-4 shift and the bike died in vain as people are more familiar with the way Honda bikes shift: N-1-2-3-4-N, its a roundabout of the gears in changing. I'm talking a bit too much but small displacement motorcycles are the spirit of Asian traffic, so I want to show it some love and some trivia, some facts for you to know about
Hi there!!! In My country, Argentina, the 110cc have a special place in the population all over the country, couse of it's cheapness, its 4 gear semi-automatic gearbox that is very easy to drive, in particulary the Honda Wave 110cc, and Yamaha Crypton 110cc
I started on a honda 50 as a young kid in america ended up with a goldwing i also have a 10 year old honda lawnmower and a first gen accord wagon your video is impeccable and thank you for a job well done. Excellent !👏🏁🏁
I had the 84cc Passport as a poor starving college student. And I rode it fairly completely through two Canadian winters. What a great little bike that was.
I began as a mechanic on Hondas right at the beginning of the "you meet the nicest people" seasons. I taught quite a few folks how to ride on them, some never having even ridden a bicycle. They were actually easier to balance than a bicycle because they were lower with a low center of gravity. The little bikes just purred on and on with oil changes and minimal maintenance. Only issue we had was the occasional bent push-rod from a mistaken down shift or mishap. Even that was minimal, I don't recall the valves even being bent. Honda moved on to the OHC engines and they would rev forever. Nice work, Bart.
The Cub for us in 1970s Britain was something else. We were teenagers and not old enough to ride on the roads but already, a used market of Cubs was available and we bought those to ride off road until old enough to be road legal. Britain in the 1970s was almost like an industrial wasteland. Heavy industry was in decline and because of that, vast tracts of waste ground could be used for riding cubs. A particular favourite was the many colliery spoil heaps that could be found everywhere. Cheap to buy, reliable, comfortable, great mpg- they made for awesome off road bikes. Interestingly, once old enough to ride on the roads legally we'd still buy a Cub and sometimes it would stray off the roads for a bit of fun! I actually think they ruined the Cub with the latest 125 model - it's not the same. It has too much technology and too much to go wrong.
Yeah well sometimes i have to ride like an asshole that way i dont get smashed by a semi or a cybertruck that isnt paying attention. That being said, trail 125 is better than the supercub. Its almost the same bike but the trail has a beefed up frame in key areas fof structural integrity so it better endures the harsh trail enviorment. Therefore, its the better bike. I csn go so fsr away and it only cost me a dollar in gas each way i take the same path you habe to have a dirtbike to take it can carry my cooler with my water food and camping gear. Great bike from factory how it has the high up air intake, high lift scrambler type exhuast which is good for the trail. Big wheels unlike the grom makes it a dream on the rough roads and bumpy washboard dirt roads. They put good handlebars so you can stand up on it. You can sorta step through like a scooter to get on its very ergonomic. Its a great looking thing sorta ugly but peculiar its not ugly like a pt cruiser it actually looks good. Definetly one of the bikes of all time. Like a tw200 or a grom or a nighthawk250. The honda rebels. The msf legends
I've ridden big bikes, fast bikes, all sorts. But there's a feeling that the cub brings. I have a 2019 Super Cub and i daily her and its just a magical feeling. Kick her in gear and you're ready to go, every single time, i know she'll start up, and no matrer what, I'll reach my destination. Speed isn't a factor, but it's purely getting there and enjoying the journey. That's what the cub brings, motorcycling in it's purest form. Enjoy the ride 😌
I gpt a trail 125 a few days ago ans ive also been on small bikes big bikes fast and slow bikes and the trail is the closest ive seen to the swiss army knife of bikes. Its like the donkey of motorcycles. Jesus rode in on a donkey once if you didnt know. A donkey is a capable animal. It will ho where others cannot
To the guy who did the VO, narration, on the video did a very good job. Btw, it's been my biz for years, lots of different elements all done well. And whoever wrote the script well done too. Very impressive especially on YT.
I bought the model dubbed the “Honda 50” in the late 70s. It was so fun. I rode it to work, shopping, anytime I needed to get around town. I wish I still had it.
Once upon time, before I had a driver's license, I remember the older kids in the neighborhood renting Cubs for around three to five dollars an hour. They had such fun! I remember wishing I was older so I could do it as well. This was my first exposure to Honda and it wouldn't be my last. For the longest time, with one exception, I always rode a Honda and wouldn't buy anything else. The Cub rental business left almost as soon as it started but it certainly primed me to be a future Honda customer. Once again, a great video from Bart! Thanks for bringing back some long forgotten memories!
Rode a 1986 CT110 cross country and back, 10,000 miles wide open throttle for two months straight. Bike handled it like a champ, no other motor id trust or be able to rebuild on the sidewalk with parts I can carry, and I did, a whole top end and gasket set. wrote "uhaul" on the box.
Thanks for such an excellent video and history lesson on the most sold and iconic motorcycle of all time. I have a 2019 Super Cub C125 in the anniversary color scheme... it's an absolutely amazing machine. I have 16K+ hard highway touring miles on my Cub, and it's still going strong. 10K miles of that was pounded out in less than a month during the 2021 Scooter Cannonball Run. It endured those miles while running at wide-open throttle for 10+ hours/day for 24 days straight AND pulling a trailer behind the bike! It survived that month of brutal torture with ZERO failures. It averaged 109.6 MPG across that trip under the absolute worst-case conditions. What an amazing machine! 😉👍 --QM
First bike I ever bought was a used 1958 Cub 50 for $75. Since then I've owned many Hondas from the Cub to a Goldwing but since 1970 I've always had a Trail 90 in the garage, and still do.
Myself and many of my friends had Cubs as sub-15 year olds in the late 70s. Riding them off road only. We took the exhaust off, making it sound like an industrial bubble machine. Way better hill climbing ability than any 2 stroke moped. My friend smashed a hole in the crankcase, all the oil leaked out...the bike still ran for a couple of weeks with no oil in it, amazing!
We did the same here in Belgium where we as would be motocrossers took off the exhaust for noise and rode these little Hondas in WW II bomb craters for fun.
Yeah running two weeks after all the oil drained out? Nope, this is exaggerated or you've never owned a Honda OHV 50. They would seize up quite rapidly without any oil.
@@jlrutube1312 I had first hand experience with the bigger brother of the OHV C-100. I owned a 1965 Honda CT200 which had in addition to the 14 mm drain plug, a smaller 10mm head bolt in the bottom of the sump that backed off on a ride and my engine lost it's oil and it seized up at 40 mph. Luckily I was able to sense the seize starting and got my foot on the shifter and declutched as it stopped and I coasted to a stop. I walked that bike 5 miles back home. No way you rode that bike for weeks with no oil in the sump. I've owned a few OHV Honda 50 and 90's. If this was a leak out of one of these critical drains, a seize is going to happen, quite soon.
You have the most engaging way of telling a story. I'd have never thought I'd be enthralled by the story of one of the most mundane vehicles ever created.
Dad was the Plant Engineer at Goodyear, here in South Africa, and had a Honda Cub for getting around the factory on. In the mid-1970's my twin sister & I sometimes accompanied him when he needed to go and check on something over a weekend. We learned to ride there and went on to each owning a secondhand 50cc Honda moped followed by bigger (brand new) Honda motorcycles -- a CB750F and CB400N respectively -- once we'd been employed for a couple of years. 😊
I had a positive experience when I had Honda Civic. I was forced to sell it during lockdown; then bought a Honda scooter (Asian market), the Airblade 150. I have it for two years now, and it's a reliable daily ride. $3/week for gas, around $15 for oil change every six months, and a recent change of tires (front & rear) for around $55. After two years, I'm a satisfied customer.
As someone that has 13 cub's from various years, you forgot the most important aspect as to why this bike has sold over 100 million units world wide. And that is due to the fact that a South East Asian business man, by the name of Loh Boon Siew, invested into Honda Japan to become a manufacturer of the famous underbone bike. If it wasn't for Boon Siew setting up a factory in Penang, then subsequent other factories around asia, the cub wouldn't have ever been produced in such vast numbers. Solid history and video either way!
7:18 no push rods in the Cub, it's a cam in head design. Nice to remember the leading-link front suspension that made the front end lift under braking. That chain cover was great too, for keeping the chain from building up grime and extending chain lube intervals.
The 50cc Cub did have pushrods in the earlier model (that was called the C100 although it was 50cc). From about 1967 the bike got the overhead camshaft engine and was called the C50. There was also a 70cc version mechanically very similar to the C50, and a 90cc version that in its late 1960s form had some "issues" the main one being that if the camshaft bearings were worn you could not set the ignition timing accurately. The camshaft bearings were machined directly in the cylinder head, not separately replaceable. The C50 and C70 did not have this problem because the contact breaker cam is on the crankshaft, whose bearings are enormous and do not wear at all.
If I'm honest, I've had more fun on my C125 than any of the other bikes I've owned. You have to not care what people think to show up at a biker cafe with one of these, but surprisingly most older guys love them and half seem to have some story of a bush basher C50 in their past. I've now added a '66 C90 to the garage as a project bike. It's running but rusty. I may just keep it exactly as it is. Great video, one of your best I would say. 👍🇦🇺
On my '19 I get lots of stories from old folks about their old Honda 50. Recently chatted with a Vietnamese guy about how he grew up with his uncle's 50, and I let him ride around on the 125. It really cleans up at cars shows, lol.
My father gifted me a cd 100 mc in 1995, which is still with me as my best companion. The performance and tuning note are as vibrant as when it was purchased..love honda🌹
I recently purchased a Honda Cub 125 for going to work downtown in slow traffic, it worked well, until I got a new job that was much farther so the CUB sat in the garage until I went camping and found out how handy it was on trails and kept up with most ATV's and quads on the same trails so now it's a Trail bike for getting around campgrounds... A very handy and versatile machine indeed.
First motorcycle was a Honda 50 (not the cub) in 1965. The feeling of freedom and adventure that little bike gave me was something to smile about. I rode it all throughout Fresno County going on longer and longer rides. It led to buying a number of other Honda's and rode a 750 up here to the Northwest in the mid 70's. Moved here a few years later and never left. I don't give that Honda it's due credit for finding a place I now call home.
I thought the Honda 50 was a cub or was there differences between the two. I only ever heard of the Honda 50 in Ireland. I think the CUB name was more an american thing.
@@Lar308 The name "Super Cub" was trademarked in North America for the Piper airplane. Honda put stickers on saying "Honda 50" (or whatever the CC was for any particular bike). Some of the pictures in the factory workshop manual had the "Super Cub" stickers blacked out. Your bikes in Ireland were from the Canada supply chain.
Had a Honda 90 for eight years to commute to work and back and it never broke down once. I remember my brother do the knowledge to be a London Cab driver and he did it on a Honda as well. So reliable.
I drive a cub 1975 as my main vehicle here in Kyoto. Love it to pieces. Living in the city I rarely need go beyond my normal cargo bike or train transit, but sometimes you’re in a real rush or you need to get somewhere which just isn’t well connected and it’s a perfect fit. Including the initial maintenance, fuel, insurance, registration, and of course the initial price cost of ownership has been just under 1k$ over the 1.5 years I’ve owned it :)
My first motorcycle was a 30-year-old Honda from eBay (CM250C). Once I took care of some deferred maintenance it ran great. Shortly after buying it I commented to my former marketing professor that I was "meeting the nicest people." From there I traded up to a used Honda Shadow ACE 750, and it'll probably out-live me.
I remember the fantastic gas mileage my Honda 50 got in the 1960s, about 150 mpg if I remember correctly. That works out to be a little more the 1/10 of cent per mile when gas was under $ .20 per gallon, of course wages were also compatibly lower. And don't forget the song by the Beach Boys "Little Honda".
I had work mates that used these bikes Honda 50s 90s etc for work , they used them almost everyday week in week out covering big mileage, never let them down , the only thing that slowed them down was when they got a puncture or the likes , great little bike , I don't know why I didn't get one years ago , I've just seen one in my classic bike mag with a price tag of £2750 for a 90cc 1970 something 😀
Those clips of people riding motorcycles in the 1950s and 1960s looked like a lot fun. The reason was that there were almost no cars in any shots. They all were travelling at 20 mph or less. I believe that small motorcycles, under 200 ccs are the most fun because they are light weight. Which makes them easy to move around and ride. In 1974, a friend's brother in law bought a 1960s Cub that was found in a shed. We cleaned the carburetor, put new inner tubes and air in the old tires, added gas, and it ran. It would travel at 31 mph on its speedometer. We played with it for a few days until the brother in law took it back. My favorite motorcycle of the six I've owned so far, was the Honda Metropolitan. That was because I lived in a city where I didn't come across roads with higher speed limits. I was fine going 35 on 20-45 mph roads. Now I live in Dallas Texas. I had to cross the city today on my 125 cc KYMCO Agility scooter. I don't own a car. It took an hour and a half to go 40 miles. The only reasons I want a bigger motorcycle now are larger diameter tires for pot holes and 70 mph speed to shave time when crossing the city. Otherwise a smaller engine motorcycle would be plenty for me.
The Cub, and other Honda bikes is a beautifull bike. The first time I saw one was way back in 1973, a neighbor had it and he used to ride it to work. The Cub has a distinct purring exhaust note, just like a kitten! We had seen in the late 60's and 70's the Piaggios, Vespas, Lambrettas, and some German light bikes but nothing came near the Honda Cub. That small 4 stroker was a real winner.
In Greece, the Cub's "grandsons", are still the most popular small bikes on the streets. We call them "ducks" and they are the best and most fun rides to go through heavy traffic. I will never sell my Yamaha Crypton, no matter how many bikes I end up with.
My dad rode a Honda Cub C70 as primary transportation to work from late 1970s until he involved in a serious road accident, totaling the trusty bike in 1997.
Hey Bart, like many of us I have a connection to the Cub, I learned to ride on one, had it as a field bike. Four family members used them from the 60s to the 80s for daily transport. I now restore them and ride them when I can. Great simple machines that do such a good job of transportation
I cant believe you uploaded this perfectly in time with my purchase I just picked up a 2013 NBC110. As an Australian I've always wanted to get my own postie bike and now I've finally got one, so excited to go bike camping on my little cub!!!
Yet another brilliant piece of infotainment. Thanks bart. Miss my cub, in my home country we still have their younger model in production and use to call it Honda Biz.
My parents had two of them for "hunting", but I don't ever remember them using them for that. My first two motorcycles were powered by those horizontal Honda four strokes, and of all the motorcycles I ever owned (eight of them if I remember correctly) the Hondas were just better put together than the other ones.
Man I was just in Vietnam for a few weeks and was about to suggest you made a video about the scooter history (and revolution?) in Southeast Asia. You read my mind!
My Dad's first motorised vehicle was a Honda 50 (as we call the cub in Ireland). I don't think he ever did any maintenance to it in the time he used it before getting a car. He passed the Honda onto me in my teens and I never did anything to it either except clean it and see how fast it would go. I often did 70mph on it and given the right tailwind and gradient it would do it. One thing that I did not like was that those fairings might keep your legs dry but your shoes would get soaked from road water. Took me a while to get used to a clutch on a bike when I was on my police bike training course and was at first constantly putting the police bike in gear without using the clutch which would enrage the instructor.
I had a Cub in the 60s. Among my current 9 Honda motorcycles, I have 3 Cubs; a 1962 and 2 1981 Passports. There are 2 things I think about pretty often; how small 50cc is and how soon after WWII and Pearl Harbor Honda motorcycles came to the US. 50cc is 1.69 oz or 3 tablespoons + a teaspoon. Measure it out and look at it. I'm a big ole boy and my thumb is more than 50cc. If your Cub only gets 76 miles to a gallon, 50cc of gas will take you a mile. Can you imagine being in WWII or losing someone in WWII and 20 years later seeing made in Japan motorcycles everywhere?
A 90cc? Was my first bike! Lady pulled out in front of me...the bike and I was totalled...drove it 20 miles with the front end smashed over...I had a cast on...I traded it in for a bigger bike...rode it home with the cast still on! Fall off the horse, get back on ! I loved that little bike! Would do 53 mph with me laid down on it!
We had a 1961 C110 Sport and 1963 C100 Cub. Later sold the Cub but still have the 110 Sport. It's like a family heirloom now. At age 73 I am thinking about getting a 125 Cub just to run around town on.
The AK47 of motorbikes. Rode a Cub 20k km from Malaysia to the UK. Did not have a single issue. More comfortable than it looks and goes over pretty much any terrain. Who needs a 1250cc adventure bike? Paid $300 bucks for gas, 60 bucks for tires and tubes and a chain. Went from rainforests, through deserts and over snowy mountains. Absolute beast. And its a friendly easy thing to get along with.
My father bought me a 55cc Super Cub for my grade 12 graduation. A great “chick magnet”! So great I did not study for my grade 12 exams. But I got the highest marks I had ever had. Talk about giving me a strong loyalty to Honda. Next a 160 Sport, a 305 Dream (saddle sores anyone), a 305 Super Sport and an original 450, a 400. Then I switched to Yamaha. Another storey.
I had a C90 econo power model 96 like 2 years ago. They last forever. I saved that little monster from a bad owner, invested some time and parts (yeah, they still make parts for cubs) and she was running perfectly, original carb and everything. Ended up selling her for twice the price I bought it.
Soichiro always had a smile on his face as he looked at his bike. That impression left a strong impression on me. Behind that smile, he must have been able to see the smiles of the people riding them.
C50 was a great bike. I rode 40,000km on my second hand one. One problem was the pressed steel frame in the long term; that could rust trough under the seat. BTW: the clip said "overhead valve". In my country the C50 had an overhead camshaft since the 1970s.
"You meet the nicest people on a Honda" has been my favorite response to anyone who comes up to talk trash about my Honda. All of my bikes are Hondas, and eventually you'll have someone come up to you to tell you that Hondas are boring, or that they aren't fast whatever nonsense they feel like they need to tell me, and my favorite thing to do is just look then straight in the eye and say "yeah but you meet the nicest people on the Honda!"😂
Great video! My brother and I (7&9yo) got an early Super Cub 50 used in 1968. It had a trail sprocket, a 55cc engine, no front fender or fairing and no muffler. We beat the heck out of it for years, they are one tough little bike. One time a hole got punched into the crankcase and we drive it around for we don't know how long w/o oil before noticing it was running very hot. We let it cool, drive a wooden plug into the hole added oil and it kept on going for years. I retraced my entire morning ride that day and never found the rock that poked the hole in the case or the lost oil. Weak points; 3rd gear 3x and the rear swing arm 2x.
Thanks for this fun and interesting video. Honda has got to be the greatest motorcycle company of all time. Not only did they produce motorcycles but they introduced entire classes of motorcycles from the Z50 Mini Trail to the iconic 750 Four and everything in between 👍
I live in southeast asia and honda is pretty much our life here! having underdeveloped roads, most of us cannot afford cars and motorcycle us the best choice for us
I had a C50 with an enlarged cylinder. It got so much compression, I could do wheelies easily in 2nd gear. I still have a soft spot for those small 4-stroke Hondas.
Here in Australia we use them for delivering mail. I'm a 'Postie', (Australian for 'mailman'), and I put in about 25 hours a week riding an NBC110 Super Cub around the suburbs delivering mail. The bikes have fairly large side panniers, a large box on the back, and a pouch on the front handlebars that carries the current bundle of mail you're delivering. You start the day carrying around 30kg of mail, and I weigh about 80kg, so that's a decent weight for a 110cc bike to bear. It's the best job in the world some days. The bikes handle pretty much anything you throw at them, withstand lots of bumping around on the nature strip, and you can do this for over 4 hours without feeling uncomfortable. I own two of these bikes personally; an NBC110, and a CT110, which was the off road model, and the model we used for decades before they introduced the NBC. They are literally the fundamental motorcycle. I did a motorcycle mechanics course many years ago, a long time before I got this job, and what I came to realise when I started riding these is that every component of any bike around now is pretty much just a sophistication of a part that was included on these little Hondas, where form was determined by function. Thanks for a great video!
@@MrMoneyHelper when we had CT's they usually were retired around 32k. The NBC's here don't really have that applied to them, so usually when the engines start to wear out they get sent off to be rebuilt. I'm relief staff, so I ride whatever bike belongs to the run on the day. Some weeks I'll do five different runs, and ride 5 different bikes. (until recently. I decided I was sick of riding other people's bikes because not everyone takes bike care as seriously as I do, so I demanded my own bike, which I got!). But in answer to the question, because these bikes get rebuilt nowadays it's not uncommon to see 40k on the clock, and occasionally 50 and 60k. It's a testament to how utilitarian these bikes are; whenever they break they just get repaired. That's saying something because we put them through a lot more than what they were originally designed for. They are essentially a road bike, but most of what we do is off road
When I moved to Florida in 1965 we of course went to Daytona Beach. Where I, as a 13 yo, got to rent a Cub for $5 (hour or half hour - not sure) and ride it up and down the beach. I was hooked from that day on. The coolest kid in my 1967 Jr High rode a 305 to school while everyone else rode 50cc and 60cc two strokes. To us that 305 was the big time. Ironically, I've never owned a Honda, mores the pity. At 71 I still regret that 650 BSA Lightning when I should have gotten a 750 four; later I passed on a 550 four (another regret). I would like a Honda, but I can't find one that fits me like my Indian Scout.
Have to ride one to appreciate how great they are. I was visiting my sister in a small rural town many years ago and had the chance to ride one. I was surprised at how fun it was, with the low compression engine be very relaxing yet providing all the power I needed... a dream to ride!
I bought a red & white stock '60's Cub at the Davenport meet many years. Had years of fun with it and as as a pit bike. Still wish I had it. The whole family enjoyed it. The Motor Company should take PR more like Honda, and I ride a Harley.
Easy to understand why the Cub is the worldwide darling it is. Cheap, reliable, utilitarian without being hideous. Its basically the "model t of the 60s and later", incredibly well suited to any non highspeed highway environment, economical to feed, and able to run on basically any fuel that vaguely resembled gasoline. Toss in legendary honda engineering/reliability, it just makes sense that, pole to pole, these bikes were embraced by practically everybody who had the means to buy one
Back when all things were over engineered to last a lifetime!!! Great video! It's cool to see some of the very early honda advertisements and stuff!! Keep up the great work, awesome video!!
Video is fantastic. I have a honda ss50 1967 and I think I saw it pop up in your images. I don't know to much about it except most of the parts are swappable with a cub
My riding life started when my older brother gave me a ride on his super cub. Though I am a Harley guy, through over 50 years of riding I have owned a couple Hondas. My first bike was a 66 Honda Street 90.
the one thing u did not mention is the modifying on the c50 cub glx 50/90 here in grece and some aisian countries they turn them from 47mm to 53 to even 60 or 62
Perhaps understates the gamble taken to produce these in HUGE numbers when many international manufacturers thought the motorcycle market was already highly competitive & almost saturated, certainly in the USA, honda created a new market.
I humbly apologize Bart, to my amazement, it was indeed a pushrod engine. The OHC followed, though I have always thought that Honda was total OHC, not true, you have taught me something, thank you.
I learned how to ride a motorcycle for the first time in my life by learning on a SuperCub . That little Honda bike changed my life. I now ride a Honda Rebel 1100 DCT. If Honda reads this, I want to say thank you. from one of the nicest people on a Honda.
My first motorcycle, the Honda 55 step through, just like the Cub was the most fun I have ever had on a motorcycle for the least amount of money. Starting high school driving my bike to school and everywhere else was great and to fill the gas tank with 20cents each week was even better. Thanks Honda 👍❤️
My first bike was a C90. I worked out that you could actually do a wheelie, by holding the gear pedal down, and revving the engine up, then when you took your foot off the pedal sharply, the front wheel would 'reach for the sky'. Should have probably broken the bike the first time I tried it, but that indestructible little bike just took it in its stride. BTW, not pushrod engines - I think they were all chain-driven SOHC right from the first.
A Honda shop gave me a job when I got out of the Air Force. I bought my first 150 cc in 1964 and quickly graduated to a 305 Super Hawk. In 1969 the 750 hit the streets and I had the first one of those. I finally got my fill with my Gold Wing and hung it up on 2 wheels in 2004 after open heart surgery. I've owned other bikes but never one as clean, and dependable as my Honda bikes. At 88, watching this video I got the itch all over again. Mr. Honda really did have a better idea and he proved it.
Thank you for your service. May you be in good health and spirit always.
We just bought a super clean and extremely low mileage 1964 Superhawk. What an amazing machine! I get the feel I could ride it all day. Even with my knees sucked up to my chest! I imagine when it was new it was seen as a real rocketship! Keep the great memories flowing! That itch is powerful...
Great post, Gary! I'm 82, glad to meet you. I get the itch too, a Super Cub, the original, would actually be useful for me being in the city now and retired. Can't really justify it though. I started out as a Honda mechanic in '63, large part of my working career and good memories.
@@whalesong999 if you can afford it and it would give you joy, won't that be justification enough? at 82, you ain't too old, but if you wait until you're 92, you may be. the Super Cub 125 is really a joy to ride, I've got one in my collection.
@@wolfhalupka8992 It seems doable but I know me, a few spins here or there and I'd want to part with it. Memories are enough. My daughter has a 250cc dual purpose bike that I can use anytime I want should the bug hit me but even she has cooled off from riding. Something in the essence of it all has changed, not the same environment that we had back in the day. I was a devout motorcyclist, invested in the trade and sport but the glamor faded. That may seem sad but life changes are that way. I don't grieve for motorcycling.
My family owns a restaurant and for a delivery vehicle we chose a Honda Wave. Its basically a renamed modern cub. It ran about 200000km before the gauges broke and still ran another 200000 before we decided to just mothball it. I recently decided to pull it out of storage and get it running just for a spare vehicle and it only took me like 60 bucks to get it running again. I always tell people that in a zombie apocalype, I would choos a cub as my vehicle of choice.
Innova/ANF owner here. A couple of years ago I bought one off someone on the Flemish coast. Utterly raped by salt spray, no idea of mileage but can tell it´s lots yet the thing just won´t die. Once you peel all the plastic off it is largely unchanged from the original Cub bar brakes and ignition. Mine´s going to transition into a fake BMW with the frock ripped off an old Bavarian touring bike. I would willingly chug away from a rampaging horde of flesh-eaters on my wee Honda.
Vision 110 owner here. I also would choose it to escape a zombie apocalypse over my BMW GS1200 Adventure.
in Vietnam the Wave and a similar but lower-budget version called the Dream are by far the most common vehicles on the roads
@@VPB1970 yeah no shit, you don't need fuel guzzling beasts to outrun 15km/h zombies
@@HotDogLawsSame in the Philippines. Honda Dream and Honda Wave motorcycles are the staple of urban and rural private and public transport, for all kinds of uses.
Honda was on to something in the 1960's revolutionizing the industry with small affordable motorcycles. Nowadays, I think the industry could learn a lesson from its past.
Riding a motorcycle is definitely no longer considered an affordable hobby. And that is very unfortunate.
@@cnnw3929 only because everyone wants high tech , there are still very affordable honda bikes on the market for example the xr150 and the cub is still made in different forms and styles worldwide = honda wave 125 , xrm 125 , and grom , plus a new version retro cub
Get a bicycle.@@cnnw3929
@@cnnw3929In south east asia ( I am from India btw ) the market is dominated by sub 200cc bikes, simple, practical and reliable.
I think Hondas doing something to change that again with them introducing street legal mini bikes again, the grom, monkey, trail 125, and the new super cub I think they’re making another good step
I have a particular soft spot for the Honda scooter. A girl had bought her new Honda 90 and wanted some information about it. She went to a safety rally and found a boy who also had a very small motorcycle. We began talking and we are still talking more than 50 years later. "You meet the nicest people on a Honda"? I certainly did. The put put put sound as the bike came up the drive gave my heart a lift every single time.
Love this, thank you for your story!
So sweet, thank you
"You meet the nicest people on a honda",that part!
#Wholesome
Dude, you just made this 77yo former Honda mechanic tear up. Today in 2024 I have a trail 90, a CX500 cafe racer, and a CRF250X.
as a honda rider, every time i ride my honda, i have a fleeting sense of, the thing, as per james may describes it, you feel the spirit of old man soichiro under the seat, smiling at what a beautiful legacy he built.
Thanks again Bart for yet another great video.
A Cub story:- My elder brother bought a new 1965/6 C50 which he used for the 7mile,six days a week round trip to work,3 miles of which were on a potholed dirt road short cut.
In about '72or73(memory fade) he asked me to srvice it for him as he thought the clutch was slipping a little,when he brought it round to my parents house I was appalled at the state it was in,he'd never washed it or cleaned in since new.I asked him when was the last time it was serviced,he simply said "I never bothered"😮.
This was a bike that had been used and abused in every way with some 10,000miles(memory fade again) without him or anyone else doing any maintenance whatsoever!
I cleaned it,changed the oil,clean the oil and air filter,cleaned and adjusted plug,chain,brakes and clutch,when I'd finished it ran as good as new!
He ran it for a few more years after that and I'm sure he never had it serviced again,before selling it.
An incredible utility vehicle that earned it's keep many times over!
Back in the 80's here in Australia a 1% club turned up to one of our touring bike events outback with a dilapidated Honda cub in the back of their club ute.
In an admirable but futile attempt at shithanging on us "Jap crap" owners, they proceeded to thrash the living bags out of it all weekend. Some pretty sizable blokes flogged buggery out of it through rocks, creeks, mud and dust for endless hours... but the little bugga just wouldn't die.
Eventually they resorted to setting it on its centrestand in the middle of their camp and draining all its oil, jamming its throttle wide open. Poor thing was all fins, rods, engine and noise for half an hour before it was finally ushered by (Honda) Valkyrie to Mechavalhalla.
...OK boys... why exactly does your club actually own a bloody ute again?!
There was a British TV show a few years back when, among other things they replaced the oil with used vegetable oil. It ran fine.
Since 1981 i'v owned over 38 bikes , street, off road, sports & cruisers. And in recent years i only ride a Honda Cub. Nevermind if it wont chase bigger bikes. Its reliability, simplicity & classic look givs me a big smile everyday!!! ❤Yeah i'v grown old & gracefully along with my beloved little Honda
My Dad bought 2 old NSU Motorbikes and cobbled them together to make one working bike. Not long after he bought a Honda Cub 50 which he rode for many years. I found it in the garden in 1989 in terrible shape and rebuilt it in my kitchen much to my wifes horror. That began my love of the Honda C50 C70 and C90.
After retiring to Thailand I realised there was a 100 cc 110 and 125 version. I now have 5 various models and virtually no maintenance.
Your video report was excellent, Thankyou so much
Steve
Every time I watch a video about the super cub and the cub it always warms my heart somehow. I own a C125 from 2020 and every time I ride it, it fills me with joy. I bought it brand new, and it’s been my daily transportation to work ever since (only if it’s a fairweather day lol). Best two wheeled purchase ever. Not kidding.
I know how you feel. I bought mine a year ago, a c125 in red with 450 miles on it. When the sun comes out I'm on my Honda. 😊
I have a 1970 C70M it is my first vehicle. The DMV lady thought it was a scooter when I took my M1 driven test, so because she didn't think it had a clutch, I didn't need to do the shifting part of the CA motorcycle test.
I'm planning to get a C125 as soon as they bring back the red color. This year is some kind of sickly gray color.
Great fun in town but.. Last month I sold my 2020 C125 because I live out of town and it just does not have enough horses to keep you safe on roads with speed limits above 80 klmh / 50 mph. I live in Australia where the trail version, CT110 has immortal status because it was the mail delivery vehicle of the Australian postal service for many years. It was replace by the 110 NBC Super Cub and I have one of each in my garage. This video is great, especially from a USA perspective but in South East Asia, the Cub and it's imitators had a massive influence on the economic development of several countries.
@@onyertod lots of people here owe their thanks to small displacement bikes as it's the reason why they could bring food to the table and pay for their children's college, in this case it's the Honda Wave and Honda TMX that gets massive recognition
Myself and all my friends learned how to ride on those Honda cubs 30 so years ago in Greece, they were everywhere! An amazing vehicle , nothing comes even close to how popular , reliable and well used they were..
Five generations of my family have learned to ride on THE SAME 1965 Super Cub! Love that bike more than any other I’ve ever ridden.
No way that’s sick
Bring me tears of happiness remembering my st-70 of 1970. Always love Hondas, they are as you presented them. Great job man!!!!
I have a 1970 C70M, and my dad has a 1970 CT70. Great little bikes. Since I bought my C70M, I have put about 2000 miles on it, going back and forth to work for a year, so about 2000 miles on my permit because I took my riding test the day before my permit expired. Tonight, I ended up getting a flat on my way home, which was an experience.
This engine, so wonderful they are still using it variants today, the major changes would be the introduction of SOHC configuration, changing from the original intergrated centrifugal clutch in the multi disc clutch to the seperation of those two into "3 pads centrifugal clutch" and "Multi (4) disc clutch", added the 4th and 5th (on the Honda Grom if I remember correctly) gear in the gearbox. The engine vary from 50cc, 72cc, 90cc, 100cc, 110cc to the biggest 125cc displacement, with the 110cc have 2 styles of bore x stroke (1st: 52mm x51.5mm, 2nd: 50mm x55.6mm), I have ride those all displacement and I love the newer 110cc the most. 72cc, I have a Honda Super Cub C70 Deluxe 1986, 12 volt square headlight, 3-speed gearbox and the original intergrated centrifugal clutch, a beauty of an era. I also have a SS50 1966, bored to 72cc, swapped from the original 5-speed race configuration gearbox for a more reliable 4-speed came from a CD50, absolute beast of a small displacement motorcycle, 11000 RPM redline and reached over 100 kph by just 3rd gear. And Honda Dream 110 Super Cub, a carburated one, it has the 2nd 110cc variant focus on maximizing torque for better fuel economy, I had a lot of fun with it. But to think about the torque, Yamaha is the best on the field in my opinion, as my current bike is the Yamaha Jupiter R 2000 (name depends on the market), 49mm x 54mm, 5 disc clutch - its just a more sportier approach in the market at that time but at the time the bike come to Vietnam, Vietnamese people still have no idea what the heck is a sport underbone motorcycle with the weird N-1-2-3-4 shift and the bike died in vain as people are more familiar with the way Honda bikes shift: N-1-2-3-4-N, its a roundabout of the gears in changing. I'm talking a bit too much but small displacement motorcycles are the spirit of Asian traffic, so I want to show it some love and some trivia, some facts for you to know about
Hi there!!! In My country, Argentina, the 110cc have a special place in the population all over the country, couse of it's cheapness, its 4 gear semi-automatic gearbox that is very easy to drive, in particulary the Honda Wave 110cc, and Yamaha Crypton 110cc
@@sego456 Wow, Crypton in Vietnamese market is Sirius, surprisingly that the Honda Wave is still a Wave everywhere
I went from old Brit bikes to a CB160 in about 1970. What a revelation.....12 volt electrics, an alternator and an electric starter.....wow!
I started on a honda 50 as a young kid in america ended up with a goldwing i also have a 10 year old honda lawnmower and a first gen accord wagon your video is impeccable and thank you for a job well done. Excellent !👏🏁🏁
Have to tease you for the confusion '1st gen Accord wagon' implies, having a '77 hatchback😂
As someone who's getting into Honda motorcycles recently, this was wonderful.
Ayy
Sussy baka😂😂 nice yaa..
Get a trail 125
@@JacobWillits I actually bought a 2022 Honda Monkey and absolutely adore it!
I had the 84cc Passport as a poor starving college student. And I rode it fairly completely through two Canadian winters. What a great little bike that was.
The trail 125 engine is a great daily rider engine. The grom trail monkey dax engine
I began as a mechanic on Hondas right at the beginning of the "you meet the nicest people" seasons. I taught quite a few folks how to ride on them, some never having even ridden a bicycle. They were actually easier to balance than a bicycle because they were lower with a low center of gravity. The little bikes just purred on and on with oil changes and minimal maintenance. Only issue we had was the occasional bent push-rod from a mistaken down shift or mishap. Even that was minimal, I don't recall the valves even being bent. Honda moved on to the OHC engines and they would rev forever. Nice work, Bart.
The Cub for us in 1970s Britain was something else. We were teenagers and not old enough to ride on the roads but already, a used market of Cubs was available and we bought those to ride off road until old enough to be road legal.
Britain in the 1970s was almost like an industrial wasteland. Heavy industry was in decline and because of that, vast tracts of waste ground could be used for riding cubs. A particular favourite was the many colliery spoil heaps that could be found everywhere.
Cheap to buy, reliable, comfortable, great mpg- they made for awesome off road bikes. Interestingly, once old enough to ride on the roads legally we'd still buy a Cub and sometimes it would stray off the roads for a bit of fun!
I actually think they ruined the Cub with the latest 125 model - it's not the same. It has too much technology and too much to go wrong.
And it doesn't have the dual range transmission of the original total deal breaker for me
MY first bike was a Honda and too young to appreciate that it just always worked. Some of the best days ever on that bike!
You meet the nicest people on a Honda
In 2024, you get run over by them.😢
Yeah well sometimes i have to ride like an asshole that way i dont get smashed by a semi or a cybertruck that isnt paying attention. That being said, trail 125 is better than the supercub. Its almost the same bike but the trail has a beefed up frame in key areas fof structural integrity so it better endures the harsh trail enviorment. Therefore, its the better bike. I csn go so fsr away and it only cost me a dollar in gas each way i take the same path you habe to have a dirtbike to take it can carry my cooler with my water food and camping gear. Great bike from factory how it has the high up air intake, high lift scrambler type exhuast which is good for the trail. Big wheels unlike the grom makes it a dream on the rough roads and bumpy washboard dirt roads. They put good handlebars so you can stand up on it. You can sorta step through like a scooter to get on its very ergonomic. Its a great looking thing sorta ugly but peculiar its not ugly like a pt cruiser it actually looks good. Definetly one of the bikes of all time. Like a tw200 or a grom or a nighthawk250. The honda rebels. The msf legends
I've ridden big bikes, fast bikes, all sorts. But there's a feeling that the cub brings. I have a 2019 Super Cub and i daily her and its just a magical feeling. Kick her in gear and you're ready to go, every single time, i know she'll start up, and no matrer what, I'll reach my destination. Speed isn't a factor, but it's purely getting there and enjoying the journey. That's what the cub brings, motorcycling in it's purest form. Enjoy the ride 😌
I gpt a trail 125 a few days ago ans ive also been on small bikes big bikes fast and slow bikes and the trail is the closest ive seen to the swiss army knife of bikes. Its like the donkey of motorcycles. Jesus rode in on a donkey once if you didnt know. A donkey is a capable animal. It will ho where others cannot
To the guy who did the VO, narration, on the video did a very good job. Btw, it's been my biz for years, lots of different elements all done well. And whoever wrote the script well done too. Very impressive especially on YT.
As an owner of a 2019 C125, it was great to hear more of the history of my little cub, cheers.
My 64 50 cub was indestructible and I beat it up in the bush when I was a kid and it never let me down. Great memories of good times.
Same here with the bush riding.
I bought the model dubbed the “Honda 50” in the late 70s. It was so fun. I rode it to work, shopping, anytime I needed to get around town. I wish I still had it.
Once upon time, before I had a driver's license, I remember the older kids in the neighborhood renting Cubs for around three to five dollars an hour. They had such fun! I remember wishing I was older so I could do it as well. This was my first exposure to Honda and it wouldn't be my last. For the longest time, with one exception, I always rode a Honda and wouldn't buy anything else. The Cub rental business left almost as soon as it started but it certainly primed me to be a future Honda customer. Once again, a great video from Bart! Thanks for bringing back some long forgotten memories!
Rode a 1986 CT110 cross country and back, 10,000 miles wide open throttle for two months straight. Bike handled it like a champ, no other motor id trust or be able to rebuild on the sidewalk with parts I can carry, and I did, a whole top end and gasket set. wrote "uhaul" on the box.
Thanks for such an excellent video and history lesson on the most sold and iconic motorcycle of all time. I have a 2019 Super Cub C125 in the anniversary color scheme... it's an absolutely amazing machine.
I have 16K+ hard highway touring miles on my Cub, and it's still going strong. 10K miles of that was pounded out in less than a month during the 2021 Scooter Cannonball Run. It endured those miles while running at wide-open throttle for 10+ hours/day for 24 days straight AND pulling a trailer behind the bike!
It survived that month of brutal torture with ZERO failures. It averaged 109.6 MPG across that trip under the absolute worst-case conditions. What an amazing machine! 😉👍 --QM
And it's your videos that inspired me to buy my own Super Cub. I'm now a proud owner and love it. Thank you.
First bike I ever bought was a used 1958 Cub 50 for $75. Since then I've owned many Hondas from the Cub to a Goldwing but since 1970 I've always had a Trail 90 in the garage, and still do.
Trail 90 perfect little utility bike
Myself and many of my friends had Cubs as sub-15 year olds in the late 70s. Riding them off road only. We took the exhaust off, making it sound like an industrial bubble machine. Way better hill climbing ability than any 2 stroke moped. My friend smashed a hole in the crankcase, all the oil leaked out...the bike still ran for a couple of weeks with no oil in it, amazing!
We called them 'soupdragons' due to that sound.
We did the same here in Belgium where we as would be motocrossers took off the exhaust for noise and rode these little Hondas in WW II bomb craters for fun.
Yeah running two weeks after all the oil drained out? Nope, this is exaggerated or you've never owned a Honda OHV 50. They would seize up quite rapidly without any oil.
@@tauncfester3022You are right but possibly the hole was high enough up that only some of the oil drained out.
@@jlrutube1312 I had first hand experience with the bigger brother of the OHV C-100. I owned a 1965 Honda CT200 which had in addition to the 14 mm drain plug, a smaller 10mm head bolt in the bottom of the sump that backed off on a ride and my engine lost it's oil and it seized up at 40 mph. Luckily I was able to sense the seize starting and got my foot on the shifter and declutched as it stopped and I coasted to a stop. I walked that bike 5 miles back home. No way you rode that bike for weeks with no oil in the sump. I've owned a few OHV Honda 50 and 90's. If this was a leak out of one of these critical drains, a seize is going to happen, quite soon.
You have the most engaging way of telling a story. I'd have never thought I'd be enthralled by the story of one of the most mundane vehicles ever created.
Dad was the Plant Engineer at Goodyear, here in South Africa, and had a Honda Cub for getting around the factory on. In the mid-1970's my twin sister & I sometimes accompanied him when he needed to go and check on something over a weekend. We learned to ride there and went on to each owning a secondhand 50cc Honda moped followed by bigger (brand new) Honda motorcycles -- a CB750F and CB400N respectively -- once we'd been employed for a couple of years. 😊
I had a positive experience when I had Honda Civic. I was forced to sell it during lockdown; then bought a Honda scooter (Asian market), the Airblade 150. I have it for two years now, and it's a reliable daily ride. $3/week for gas, around $15 for oil change every six months, and a recent change of tires (front & rear) for around $55.
After two years, I'm a satisfied customer.
As someone that has 13 cub's from various years, you forgot the most important aspect as to why this bike has sold over 100 million units world wide.
And that is due to the fact that a South East Asian business man, by the name of Loh Boon Siew, invested into Honda Japan to become a manufacturer of the famous underbone bike. If it wasn't for Boon Siew setting up a factory in Penang, then subsequent other factories around asia, the cub wouldn't have ever been produced in such vast numbers.
Solid history and video either way!
Yeah it kinda glosses over the actual markets where such bikes sell a lot and are the normal lifestyle
Correct 💯 ! !
Excellent video! I grew up on Hondas, always loved them and came to appreciate their superior engineering.
7:18 no push rods in the Cub, it's a cam in head design. Nice to remember the leading-link front suspension that made the front end lift under braking. That chain cover was great too, for keeping the chain from building up grime and extending chain lube intervals.
The 50cc Cub did have pushrods in the earlier model (that was called the C100 although it was 50cc). From about 1967 the bike got the overhead camshaft engine and was called the C50. There was also a 70cc version mechanically very similar to the C50, and a 90cc version that in its late 1960s form had some "issues" the main one being that if the camshaft bearings were worn you could not set the ignition timing accurately. The camshaft bearings were machined directly in the cylinder head, not separately replaceable. The C50 and C70 did not have this problem because the contact breaker cam is on the crankshaft, whose bearings are enormous and do not wear at all.
If I'm honest, I've had more fun on my C125 than any of the other bikes I've owned. You have to not care what people think to show up at a biker cafe with one of these, but surprisingly most older guys love them and half seem to have some story of a bush basher C50 in their past. I've now added a '66 C90 to the garage as a project bike. It's running but rusty. I may just keep it exactly as it is. Great video, one of your best I would say. 👍🇦🇺
On my '19 I get lots of stories from old folks about their old Honda 50. Recently chatted with a Vietnamese guy about how he grew up with his uncle's 50, and I let him ride around on the 125. It really cleans up at cars shows, lol.
My father gifted me a cd 100 mc in 1995, which is still with me as my best companion. The performance and tuning note are as vibrant as when it was purchased..love honda🌹
I recently purchased a Honda Cub 125 for going to work downtown in slow traffic, it worked well, until I got a new job that was much farther so the CUB sat in the garage until I went camping and found out how handy it was on trails and kept up with most ATV's and quads on the same trails so now it's a Trail bike for getting around campgrounds... A very handy and versatile machine indeed.
Just bought a 1966 Super Cub last week! The damn thing starts with one flick of the wheel, and is super fun to drive!
Great work Bart. I’m 62 and ride my Honda Navi 8 miles to work. Honda still makes the best small bikes in the world.
First motorcycle was a Honda 50 (not the cub) in 1965. The feeling of freedom and adventure that little bike gave me was something to smile about. I rode it all throughout Fresno County going on longer and longer rides. It led to buying a number of other Honda's and rode a 750 up here to the Northwest in the mid 70's. Moved here a few years later and never left. I don't give that Honda it's due credit for finding a place I now call home.
I thought the Honda 50 was a cub or was there differences between the two. I only ever heard of the Honda 50 in Ireland. I think the CUB name was more an american thing.
@@Lar308 The name "Super Cub" was trademarked in North America for the Piper airplane. Honda put stickers on saying "Honda 50" (or whatever the CC was for any particular bike). Some of the pictures in the factory workshop manual had the "Super Cub" stickers blacked out. Your bikes in Ireland were from the Canada supply chain.
Had a Honda 90 for eight years to commute to work and back and it never broke down once. I remember my brother do the knowledge to be a London Cab driver and he did it on a Honda as well. So reliable.
Absolutely one of the best videos you've made in a long time in my opinion!!!
I drive a cub 1975 as my main vehicle here in Kyoto. Love it to pieces. Living in the city I rarely need go beyond my normal cargo bike or train transit, but sometimes you’re in a real rush or you need to get somewhere which just isn’t well connected and it’s a perfect fit. Including the initial maintenance, fuel, insurance, registration, and of course the initial price cost of ownership has been just under 1k$ over the 1.5 years I’ve owned it :)
About 40 odd years ago I took my bike test in England on a C90. I still love that bike and I bet it's still running!
My first motorcycle was a 30-year-old Honda from eBay (CM250C). Once I took care of some deferred maintenance it ran great. Shortly after buying it I commented to my former marketing professor that I was "meeting the nicest people." From there I traded up to a used Honda Shadow ACE 750, and it'll probably out-live me.
I remember the fantastic gas mileage my Honda 50 got in the 1960s, about 150 mpg if I remember correctly. That works out to be a little more the 1/10 of cent per mile when gas was under $ .20 per gallon, of course wages were also compatibly lower.
And don't forget the song by the Beach Boys "Little Honda".
I had work mates that used these bikes Honda 50s 90s etc for work , they used them almost everyday week in week out covering big mileage, never let them down , the only thing that slowed them down was when they got a puncture or the likes , great little bike , I don't know why I didn't get one years ago , I've just seen one in my classic bike mag with a price tag of £2750 for a 90cc 1970 something 😀
Those clips of people riding motorcycles in the 1950s and 1960s looked like a lot fun. The reason was that there were almost no cars in any shots. They all were travelling at 20 mph or less. I believe that small motorcycles, under 200 ccs are the most fun because they are light weight. Which makes them easy to move around and ride.
In 1974, a friend's brother in law bought a 1960s Cub that was found in a shed. We cleaned the carburetor, put new inner tubes and air in the old tires, added gas, and it ran. It would travel at 31 mph on its speedometer. We played with it for a few days until the brother in law took it back.
My favorite motorcycle of the six I've owned so far, was the Honda Metropolitan. That was because I lived in a city where I didn't come across roads with higher speed limits. I was fine going 35 on 20-45 mph roads. Now I live in Dallas Texas. I had to cross the city today on my 125 cc KYMCO Agility scooter. I don't own a car. It took an hour and a half to go 40 miles. The only reasons I want a bigger motorcycle now are larger diameter tires for pot holes and 70 mph speed to shave time when crossing the city. Otherwise a smaller engine motorcycle would be plenty for me.
The Cub, and other Honda bikes is a beautifull bike. The first time I saw one was way back in 1973, a neighbor had it and he used to ride it to work. The Cub has a distinct purring exhaust note, just like a kitten! We had seen in the late 60's and 70's the Piaggios, Vespas, Lambrettas, and some German light bikes but nothing came near the Honda Cub. That small 4 stroker was a real winner.
In Greece, the Cub's "grandsons", are still the most popular small bikes on the streets. We call them "ducks" and they are the best and most fun rides to go through heavy traffic. I will never sell my Yamaha Crypton, no matter how many bikes I end up with.
My 2020 Cub has over 35,000 miles on it and I love it more every time I ride it 😁
My dad rode a Honda Cub C70 as primary transportation to work from late 1970s until he involved in a serious road accident, totaling the trusty bike in 1997.
Hey Bart, like many of us I have a connection to the Cub, I learned to ride on one, had it as a field bike. Four family members used them from the 60s to the 80s for daily transport. I now restore them and ride them when I can. Great simple machines that do such a good job of transportation
i had one it was from the 90s still in the family, great bike man, i went everwhere whit that little machine, just unstoppable
I cant believe you uploaded this perfectly in time with my purchase
I just picked up a 2013 NBC110.
As an Australian I've always wanted to get my own postie bike and now I've finally got one, so excited to go bike camping on my little cub!!!
Yet another brilliant piece of infotainment. Thanks bart. Miss my cub, in my home country we still have their younger model in production and use to call it Honda Biz.
My parents had two of them for "hunting", but I don't ever remember them using them for that. My first two motorcycles were powered by those horizontal Honda four strokes, and of all the motorcycles I ever owned (eight of them if I remember correctly) the Hondas were just better put together than the other ones.
Man I was just in Vietnam for a few weeks and was about to suggest you made a video about the scooter history (and revolution?) in Southeast Asia. You read my mind!
Good one! I like the way you pull together all sorts of relevant video. That's what sets you apart from many similar UA-camrs. 😀
My Dad's first motorised vehicle was a Honda 50 (as we call the cub in Ireland). I don't think he ever did any maintenance to it in the time he used it before getting a car. He passed the Honda onto me in my teens and I never did anything to it either except clean it and see how fast it would go. I often did 70mph on it and given the right tailwind and gradient it would do it. One thing that I did not like was that those fairings might keep your legs dry but your shoes would get soaked from road water. Took me a while to get used to a clutch on a bike when I was on my police bike training course and was at first constantly putting the police bike in gear without using the clutch which would enrage the instructor.
I had a Cub in the 60s. Among my current 9 Honda motorcycles, I have 3 Cubs; a 1962 and 2 1981 Passports. There are 2 things I think about pretty often; how small 50cc is and how soon after WWII and Pearl Harbor Honda motorcycles came to the US. 50cc is 1.69 oz or 3 tablespoons + a teaspoon. Measure it out and look at it. I'm a big ole boy and my thumb is more than 50cc. If your Cub only gets 76 miles to a gallon, 50cc of gas will take you a mile.
Can you imagine being in WWII or losing someone in WWII and 20 years later seeing made in Japan motorcycles everywhere?
A 90cc? Was my first bike! Lady pulled out in front of me...the bike and I was totalled...drove it 20 miles with the front end smashed over...I had a cast on...I traded it in for a bigger bike...rode it home with the cast still on! Fall off the horse, get back on ! I loved that little bike! Would do 53 mph with me laid down on it!
We had a 1961 C110 Sport and 1963 C100 Cub.
Later sold the Cub but still have the 110 Sport.
It's like a family heirloom now.
At age 73 I am thinking about getting a 125 Cub just to run around town on.
The AK47 of motorbikes. Rode a Cub 20k km from Malaysia to the UK. Did not have a single issue. More comfortable than it looks and goes over pretty much any terrain. Who needs a 1250cc adventure bike? Paid $300 bucks for gas, 60 bucks for tires and tubes and a chain. Went from rainforests, through deserts and over snowy mountains. Absolute beast. And its a friendly easy thing to get along with.
Honda produced a bunch of such AK-47s like Cub 50, CG 125, CD 80, H100S, XL series.
My father bought me a 55cc Super Cub for my grade 12 graduation. A great “chick magnet”! So great I did not study for my grade 12 exams. But I got the highest marks I had ever had. Talk about giving me a strong loyalty to Honda. Next a 160 Sport, a 305 Dream (saddle sores anyone), a 305 Super Sport and an original 450, a 400. Then I switched to Yamaha. Another storey.
I had a C90 econo power model 96 like 2 years ago. They last forever. I saved that little monster from a bad owner, invested some time and parts (yeah, they still make parts for cubs) and she was running perfectly, original carb and everything. Ended up selling her for twice the price I bought it.
In my opinion, you are one of the best Vloggers online today. I thoroughly enjoy your videos.
You meet the nicest people on a Honda.
Soichiro always had a smile on his face as he looked at his bike.
That impression left a strong impression on me.
Behind that smile, he must have been able to see the smiles of the people riding them.
C50 was a great bike. I rode 40,000km on my second hand one. One problem was the pressed steel frame in the long term; that could rust trough under the seat.
BTW: the clip said "overhead valve". In my country the C50 had an overhead camshaft since the 1970s.
I ordered a CT125 and I'm so sad of the supply shortages but so excited for the day I can get my 125cc motorcycle!!
"You meet the nicest people on a Honda" has been my favorite response to anyone who comes up to talk trash about my Honda. All of my bikes are Hondas, and eventually you'll have someone come up to you to tell you that Hondas are boring, or that they aren't fast whatever nonsense they feel like they need to tell me, and my favorite thing to do is just look then straight in the eye and say "yeah but you meet the nicest people on the Honda!"😂
Where do you live? I've never experienced this in MA. With the weather up here, most of our bikers are hobbyists, so that might be why.
Great video! My brother and I (7&9yo) got an early Super Cub 50 used in 1968. It had a trail sprocket, a 55cc engine, no front fender or fairing and no muffler. We beat the heck out of it for years, they are one tough little bike. One time a hole got punched into the crankcase and we drive it around for we don't know how long w/o oil before noticing it was running very hot. We let it cool, drive a wooden plug into the hole added oil and it kept on going for years. I retraced my entire morning ride that day and never found the rock that poked the hole in the case or the lost oil. Weak points; 3rd gear 3x and the rear swing arm 2x.
Thanks for this fun and interesting video. Honda has got to be the greatest motorcycle company of all time. Not only did they produce motorcycles but they introduced entire classes of motorcycles from the Z50 Mini Trail to the iconic 750 Four and everything in between 👍
I had a couple of cub's in the seventies, really very good to drive. Also the CB 50 and the Amigo where good.
The Honda 50cc Cub was the first motorcycle that I ever rode with nobody on the back with me. 😊❤
I live in southeast asia and honda is pretty much our life here! having underdeveloped roads, most of us cannot afford cars and motorcycle us the best choice for us
I had a C50 with an enlarged cylinder. It got so much compression, I could do wheelies easily in 2nd gear. I still have a soft spot for those small 4-stroke Hondas.
Here in Australia we use them for delivering mail. I'm a 'Postie', (Australian for 'mailman'), and I put in about 25 hours a week riding an NBC110 Super Cub around the suburbs delivering mail. The bikes have fairly large side panniers, a large box on the back, and a pouch on the front handlebars that carries the current bundle of mail you're delivering. You start the day carrying around 30kg of mail, and I weigh about 80kg, so that's a decent weight for a 110cc bike to bear. It's the best job in the world some days. The bikes handle pretty much anything you throw at them, withstand lots of bumping around on the nature strip, and you can do this for over 4 hours without feeling uncomfortable. I own two of these bikes personally; an NBC110, and a CT110, which was the off road model, and the model we used for decades before they introduced the NBC. They are literally the fundamental motorcycle. I did a motorcycle mechanics course many years ago, a long time before I got this job, and what I came to realise when I started riding these is that every component of any bike around now is pretty much just a sophistication of a part that was included on these little Hondas, where form was determined by function. Thanks for a great video!
How many kilometers are put on the postie bikes before they are officially retired?
@@MrMoneyHelper when we had CT's they usually were retired around 32k. The NBC's here don't really have that applied to them, so usually when the engines start to wear out they get sent off to be rebuilt. I'm relief staff, so I ride whatever bike belongs to the run on the day. Some weeks I'll do five different runs, and ride 5 different bikes. (until recently. I decided I was sick of riding other people's bikes because not everyone takes bike care as seriously as I do, so I demanded my own bike, which I got!). But in answer to the question, because these bikes get rebuilt nowadays it's not uncommon to see 40k on the clock, and occasionally 50 and 60k. It's a testament to how utilitarian these bikes are; whenever they break they just get repaired. That's saying something because we put them through a lot more than what they were originally designed for. They are essentially a road bike, but most of what we do is off road
When I moved to Florida in 1965 we of course went to Daytona Beach. Where I, as a 13 yo, got to rent a Cub for $5 (hour or half hour - not sure) and ride it up and down the beach. I was hooked from that day on. The coolest kid in my 1967 Jr High rode a 305 to school while everyone else rode 50cc and 60cc two strokes. To us that 305 was the big time. Ironically, I've never owned a Honda, mores the pity. At 71 I still regret that 650 BSA Lightning when I should have gotten a 750 four; later I passed on a 550 four (another regret). I would like a Honda, but I can't find one that fits me like my Indian Scout.
Have to ride one to appreciate how great they are. I was visiting my sister in a small rural town many years ago and had the chance to ride one. I was surprised at how fun it was, with the low compression engine be very relaxing yet providing all the power I needed... a dream to ride!
Just found this channel... And loving it. Thank you!
I bought a red & white stock '60's Cub at the Davenport meet many years. Had years of fun with it and as as a pit bike. Still wish I had it. The whole family enjoyed it. The Motor Company should take PR more like Honda, and I ride a Harley.
Easy to understand why the Cub is the worldwide darling it is. Cheap, reliable, utilitarian without being hideous. Its basically the "model t of the 60s and later", incredibly well suited to any non highspeed highway environment, economical to feed, and able to run on basically any fuel that vaguely resembled gasoline. Toss in legendary honda engineering/reliability, it just makes sense that, pole to pole, these bikes were embraced by practically everybody who had the means to buy one
Back when all things were over engineered to last a lifetime!!! Great video! It's cool to see some of the very early honda advertisements and stuff!! Keep up the great work, awesome video!!
Video is fantastic. I have a honda ss50 1967 and I think I saw it pop up in your images. I don't know to much about it except most of the parts are swappable with a cub
My riding life started when my older brother gave me a ride on his super cub. Though I am a Harley guy, through over 50 years of riding I have owned a couple Hondas. My first bike was a 66 Honda Street 90.
The Honda Vision and Airblade is absolutely dominating the streets of Saigon rn.
in the mountains of western canada. CRFs aplenty but the cars are all subaru
the one thing u did not mention is the modifying on the c50 cub glx 50/90 here in grece and some aisian countries they turn them from 47mm to 53 to even 60 or 62
What a top notch documentary! Honda should reintroduce this bike to the USA and Canada. Thanks for producing this amazing film.
Perhaps understates the gamble taken to produce these in HUGE numbers when many international manufacturers thought the motorcycle market was already highly competitive & almost saturated, certainly in the USA, honda created a new market.
I humbly apologize Bart, to my amazement, it was indeed a pushrod engine. The OHC followed, though I have always thought that Honda was total OHC, not true, you have taught me something, thank you.
This motorcycle is Perfection. A distillation of everything good about motorcycles.
I learned how to ride a motorcycle for the first time in my life by learning on a SuperCub . That little Honda bike changed my life. I now ride a Honda Rebel 1100 DCT. If Honda reads this, I want to say thank you. from one of the nicest people on a Honda.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched... but are felt in the heart.
My first motorcycle, the Honda 55 step through, just like the Cub was the most fun I have ever had on a motorcycle for the least amount of money. Starting high school driving my bike to school and everywhere else was great and to fill the gas tank with 20cents each week was even better. Thanks Honda 👍❤️
My first bike was a C90.
I worked out that you could actually do a wheelie, by holding the gear pedal down, and revving the engine up, then when you took your foot off the pedal sharply, the front wheel would 'reach for the sky'.
Should have probably broken the bike the first time I tried it, but that indestructible little bike just took it in its stride.
BTW, not pushrod engines - I think they were all chain-driven SOHC right from the first.