20 October 2009

Honda Cub for the Next 50 Years?

The Honda Super Cub has been on the market since 1958. Sixty million units have been sold, making it the best selling motorized vehicle of all time. Now Honda will be showing at least a concept version of a battery-electric Cub at the Tokyo Motor Show (see press release and pix at Autoblog Green).
The Super Cub (also known as the Cub, the Honda 50 and the Honda C100) is a 49cc, 4-stroke, one-cylinder workhorse that has put millions on wheels for generations in 150 countries. It served as the inspiration for the Beach Boys song "My Little Honda", which probably nobody reading this has ever heard. Sigh. (I was going to include a link to the video, but it is too embarrassing.)

Now maybe a new generation of Cub riders will be humming a new tune, instead of the buzz of its mighty four-stroke. And our grandchildren may be puzzled by the "first gear, second gear" lyric, should they somehow run across the song, perhaps while getting a Ph.D. in historical popular musicology.

Electric bikes were discussed in this earlier post.

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