Honda Super Cub

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Honda Super Cub, also known as the Honda Cub or Honda C100, is a small 49 cc 4-stroke model manufactured by Honda Motor Co. Ltd. which is the most produced motorcycle model in the world. It debuted in 1958, 10 years after the establishment of Honda Motor Co. Ltd. The production of Honda Cub became an important event of Japanese automotive history since it marked the beginning of the Japanese motorcycle conquest era. More than 50 million Honda Cubs have been sold worldwide, primarily in Asia and Europe since its launch and this model is still in production especially in Asia despite the introduction of a variety of bigger, more powerful motorcycles.

Specifications
Honda Cub C50
Engine type: SOHC 2-valve 4-stroke 49 cc air-cooled engine (original model: OHV 2-valve 4-stroke engine)
Displacement: 49.0 cc
Compression: 10.0
Bore x Stroke: 40.0 x 39.0 mm
Max Power: 4.0ps@7000 rpm
Max speed: 80 km/h (50 mph)
Transmission: 3-speed (4-speed some models)
Clutch: Wet multi-plate centrifugal
Starter: Kick (some models Electric optional)
Ignition: CDI Magneto
Frame Type: Step-through pressed steel tube
Suspension (F): Leading bottom link
Suspension (R): Swingarm
Brake (F): Leading trailing drum
Brake (R): Leading trailing drum
Dry Weight: 75.0 kg
2004 Super Cub "Street" model

Model History
The Honda Cub debuted in 1958, 10 years after the establishment of Honda Motor Co. Ltd. The name 'Cub' was said to be the acronym of Cheap Urban Bike because the development of this model was aimed to provide a kind of cheap urban transportation in busy cities. The name also likely refers to the earlier Piper Cub, an affordable and extremely popular light aircraft from the 1930s possessing many of the same mechanical qualities of the Honda bike (note that improved versions of the Piper Cub were also called Super Cubs, with spacing in between the words).

After Honda successfully found a way to increase the power and efficiency of 4-stroke engines, the company was optimistic about its ability to use 4-stroke engines to power the most popular motorcycle in the world while other motorcycle companies used 2-stroke engines to power their smaller models. Therefore, there were some critics questioning the viability of the Honda Super Cub project. Despite those critics, Honda Cub which only used 49 cc 4-stroke OHV engine became the most successful motorcycle model in history. The sales of Honda Cub contributed the most in overall Honda's sales and profit. Honda used the slogan You meet the nicest people on a Honda as their slogan when Honda Cub was introduced to the US market.

Years later, the Honda Cub engine configuration was upgraded from pushrod engines to SOHC engines which deliver better volumetric efficiency. Honda also offered bigger displacement options (70 cc and 90 cc models) to provide more power. In the 1970s when the US government required all newer vehicles to use electronic ignition systems in order to pass stricter emission standards, Honda installed a capacitor discharge ignition system (CDI) to replace the earlier contact point ignition system which could no longer meet US standards.

In the 1980s, a larger 100 cc GN-5 engine model was introduced especially for Asian markets. The newer 100 cc model was a major upgrade of the previous Honda Cub models, with new features such as a telescopic front suspension to replace the older leading bottom link suspension, and a more efficient 4-speed transmission to replace the older 3-speed transmission used in older Honda Cubs. The 100 cc model was known as Honda Dream in Thailand and Honda EX5 in Malaysia.

In the late 1990s, Honda introduced their newer NF series motorcycles, known as Honda Wave series which use steel tube frames, front disk brake and plastic cover sets in various displacement options: 100 cc, 110 cc and 125 cc. In European countries, the production of Honda Cub models was terminated to make way for newer Honda Wave models. However, the production of Honda Cubs in Asia and Africa still continues even though newer Honda Wave models have been introduced.

Not only are they continuing, but sales for Super Cubs have increased in Japan with new upgrades on the engine, making it even more powerful, more economical and cleaner than ever before. With all due respect to the newer, plastic body designs, the original Cub model is as popular and as stylish as ever. That's not including the delivery service market, which is what the Cub was originally intended for, unlike in the U.S. or Europe, where the bike was mainly used for leisure. One can't cross a street in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe or any other city or town in Japan without seeing at least two or three of the classic designed Super Cubs.The plastic-bodied Wave was not designed for delivery or utility, but rather for leisure. Hence the interest in exporting the bike, while keeping the Super Cub design alive and well. (Yamaha has taken a cue from Honda and revamped their Mate series, which is a direct copy of the Honda Super Cub except it sports a 2 cycle engine.)

This year (2006) the Discovery Channel, in a fast-wheeling documentary on motorcycles, rating the best in a top-ten system, deemed the Honda Super Cub "Number One", declaring it "the greatest ever motorcycle". The Honda Wave series or other plastic-bodied designs, it should be noted, were not even mentioned in the list.

One thing is for certain, while other models may undergo vast design changes to appeal to new markets, the Honda Super Cub is timeless. The fact that more Super Cubs have been sold than any other motor vehicle in history says it all.

Reasons for the success of Honda Cub series

Available at a low price compared with other motorcycles. (New: approx. USD$1200)
Easy to ride because of the automatic centrifugal clutch, making it great for beginners to learn riding a motorcycle.
Very low fuel consumption (up to 135 km per liter as of this writing: 2006 Super Cub).
Capable of carrying heavy loads. In developing countries especially in Asia, people use Honda Cubs to carry their agricultural harvests and livestock or their entire family.
Easy to weave through heavy traffic during heavy traffic jams.
Cheap maintenance and abundance of spare parts.
The usage of 4-stroke engines enable the Honda Super Cub to surpass strict emission standards.
Extremely durable, all weather bike.
Regularly achieves very high mileages logged before any breakage or replacement of parts is necessary.

The "Super Cub" has sold over 50 million units making it the biggest-selling motor vehicle in history. It was named the greatest bike ever, beating many of today's top superbikes, on Discovery Channel's Greatest Ever series.

You may want to read this: Honda supercub

I Love My Honda

Nama pemilik/Owner: Budiono

Lama tahun memiliki Honda/Honda’s year of belonging: 5

Spesifikasi kendaraan/Motorcycle specification:

Model/Model: CB 100
Tahun/Year: 1976

Jarak tempuh setiap hari/Travel distance each day: 60 km

Pertanyaan/Questions:

1. Mengapa memilih Honda?/Why you choose Honda?
Apabila spare part sudah tidak tersedia mudah dimodifikasi dengan spare part kendaraan lain.
If you can’t find spare part in the market is easy to modify with other motorcycle’s spare parts.
Harga jual sepeda motor bekas di pasaran relatif stabil.
Second used market price is pretty stable.

Mesin?/Engine?
Mesin tidak pernah rewel alias bandel.
Never have a serious problem with the engine durability.

Bahan Bakar?/Fuel?
Bensinnya irit dengan perbandingan pemakaian 1:30.
Low fuel consumption with measurement 1:30.

Perawatan?/Maintenance?
Perawatan sepeda motor sangat mudah dan apabila memerlukan penggantian spare part harga terjangkau.
To maintain this Honda motorcycle running well is easy and if I need to change spare part the price isn’t expensive.

Suku Cadang?/Spare part?
Untuk suku cadang tertentu masih mudah didapat di toko-toko dan harga masih terjangkau.
For certain Spare parts is not really hard to find in nearest retailers and the price is still in good reason.

2. Ada tips atau trik agar sepeda motor anda awet?/Any tips or tricks to make it long lasting?
Jangan malas untuk melakukan perawatan rutin, seperti ganti oli secara teratur.
Don’t get lazy to do routine maintenance such as change oil regularly.
Jangan sampai kehabisan bensin karena tangki bensin mudah keropos.
Avoid as much as you can “out of gas” because this will make the tank corrosion.

3. Punya pengalaman menarik dengan Honda? Do you have an interesting experience with Honda?
Setiap hari saya pakai untuk belanja barang dagangan sampai muatan penuh tetapi mesin tetap oke.
Every day I drive my bike to do groceries and I put a lot of stuf in my bike but the good thing is the engine still powerful.
Saya juga pakai untuk menempuh jalan tanjakan dan boncengan mesin tidak rewel.
I also drive my bike with 2 riders and go to high places and the engine still okay.

Another related article: Honda Super Cub

Testimony of Honda Motorcycle Rider

Nama pemilik/Owner: Supriyanto

Lama tahun memiliki Honda/Honda’s year of belonging: 2 bulan/month

Spesifikasi kendaraan/Motorcycle specification:

Model/Model: CB 100
Tahun/Year: 1976

Jarak tempuh setiap hari/Travel distance each day: 8 km

Pertanyaan/Questions:

1. Mengapa memilih Honda?/Why you choose Honda?
Saya merasa cocok dengan sepeda motor Honda.
I feel Honda is best match for me.

Mesin?/Engine?
Mesin sepeda motor ini masih orisinil cuma saya baru beberapa hari kemarin ganti CDI dan pulser coil
This motorcycle engine is still original but few days ago I just changed coil ignition using a CDI and pulser coil.

Bahan Bakar?/Fuel?
Bensinnya irit dengan perbandingan pemakaian 1:25
Low fuel consumption with measurement 1:25

Perawatan?/Maintenance?
Perawatan sepeda motor mudah.
Easy maintenance for this motorcycle.

Suku Cadang?/Spare part?
Suku cadang masih murah dibanding merk sepeda motor lain tetapi suku cadang mulai susah dicari.
Spare part for this motorcycle is still cheap if I compare with other brandname but some spare part now isn’t available anymore in the market.
Saya melakukan beberapa modifikasi besar terhadap motor ini seperti lampu depan, piringan cakram RX King, sokbeker depan GL Pro, knalpot, tangki bensin dan beberapa modifikasi kecil seperti slebor depan, sokbeker belakang dan sadel.
I did some major modifications to this bike such as head lamp, RX king’s disc brake, GL Pro’s front fork, muffler, fuel tank and some minor modifications like front fender, rear cushion and sadle.

2. Ada tips atau trik agar sepeda motor anda awet?/Any tips or tricks to make it long lasting?
Seperti sepeda motor pada umumnya, sering-seringlah ganti oli.
Like any other motorcycles, change oil regularly.

3. Punya pengalaman menarik dengan Honda?/Do you have an interesting experience with Honda?
Tidak ada, karena saya baru beli Honda ini 2 bulan yang lalu.
No, I don’t because I just bought this Honda 2 months ago.

Artikel yang berhubungan: Honda C70

Testimony of Honda Rider

Nama pemilik/Owner: Suparno

Lama tahun memiliki Honda/Honda’s year of belonging: 11

Spesifikasi kendaraan/Motorcycle specification:

Model/Model: Astrea 800
Tahun/Year : 1985

Jarak tempuh setiap hari/Travel distance each day: 15 km

Pertanyaan/Questions:

1. Mengapa memilih Honda?/Why you choose Honda?

Sepeda motor Honda adalah sepeda motor ramah lingkungan dan apabila dijual kembali sangat mudah serta harga jualnya bagus.
Honda motorcycle is a friendly environment vehicle and easy to sell in used motorcycle market with reasonable price.

Mesin?/Engine?

Mesin tidak pernah rewel alias bandel.
Never have a serious problem with the engine durability.

Bahan Bakar?/Fuel?

Bensinnya irit dengan perbandingan pemakaian 1:50.
Low fuel consumption with measurement 1:50.

Perawatan?/Maintenance?

Perawatan sepeda motor sangat mudah dan selama 1 tahun ini tidak pernah servis karburator.
Maintaining this motorcycle in a good shape is very easy. For a year I never have to service its carburator.

Suku Cadang?/Spare part?

Suku cadang mudah didapat di toko-toko dan harga masih terjangkau.
Spare part is not hard to find in nearest retailers and the price is cheap.

2. Ada tips atau trik agar sepeda motor anda awet?/Any tips or tricks to make it long lasting?

Oli mesin harus rutin dicek dan diganti agar mesin awet.
Check the engine oil and make sure you change it frequently to make the engine long lasting.
Jangan sampai kehabisan bensin karena ini menyebabkan karburator menjadi cepat kotor.
Never happen to your motorcycle out of gas because this will make the carburator get dirty easily.

3. Punya pengalaman menarik dengan Honda?/Do you have an interesting experience with Honda?

Selama 11 tahun mengendarai motor ini tidak pernah macet.
For 11 years I ride this motorcycle never have engine problem.
Untuk bepergian jarak jauh 100 km dan berboncengan tidak ada masalah dengan mesin kendaraan.
I travelled for 100 km with 2 riders on my bike and I was amazed by its powerful engine.

Another interested article: Honda Passport

Honda C70

Honda Passport was the elder brother of Honda Cub C50, with more power, same cheap economical ride and reliability. It was introduced in USA, Canada, Asia and Vietnam in 1970, first models were called C70 but in 1980 Honda Passport motorcycle was introduced.
It had a 72 cm³ air-cooled single overhead cam engine, an automatic 3-speed gearbox, enough horse power to pull this bike to a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h). First models had 6 v electrics, in 1982 12v electrics and CDI ignition were introduced to further improve the performance of the engine. 1983 model had a full enclosed drive chain for less maintenance.

==Specifications (1970-71 models)==
Displacement : 72 cm³
Engine : 4 stroke Over Head Cam single cylinder
Ignition : Breaker points
Transmission : 3-speed with an automatic clutch
Fuel system : Carburetor
Valves : 2 valves / cylinder
Top Speed : 80 km/h (50 mph)
Electrics : 6 Volts
Available colors : Aquarius blue, Bright red, and Pine green
Leg guard/cowling : white
Fuel tank emblem read : "HONDA 70"
Seat : long (for two riders)
Rear footpegs : standard
Starter : electric start
Tail light : large tail light common to other Hondas of the '70s

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soichiro Honda, Honda Founder

Soichiro Honda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soichiro Honda (Honda Soichiro, November 17, 1906–August 5, 1992) was the founder of the Honda Motors company and was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.
Honda spent his early childhood helping his father, Gihei, a blacksmith, with his bicycle repair business. At the time his mother, Mika, was a weaver. At 15, without any formal education, Honda arrived in Tokyo to look for work. He obtained an apprenticeship at a garage in 1922, and after some vacillation over his employment, he stayed for six years, working as a car mechanic before returning home to start his own auto repair business in 1928 at the age of 22.
In 1948 Honda began producing motorcycles as president of the Honda Motor Company. Honda turned the company into a billion-dollar multinational that produced the best-selling motorcycles in the world. Honda's excellent engineering and clever marketing resulted in Honda motorcycles out-selling Triumph and Harley-Davidson in their respective home markets. In 1959 Honda Motorcycles opened its first dealership in the United States.
Honda remained president until his retirement in 1973, stayed on as director, and was appointed "supreme adviser" in 1983. His legendary status was such that People magazine placed him on their "25 Most Intriguing People of the Year" list for 1980, dubbing him "the Japanese Henry Ford." In retirement Honda busied himself with work connected with the Honda Foundation. He died in 1992 from liver failure.

A dream
Throughout his life, Soichiro Honda never forgot the day he became a small figure who ran hopelessly after the first motor car he ever saw.
Long before it actually reached Yamahigashi, a small village in Japan's Shizuoka prefecture (now called Tenryu-shi), its own extraordinary noise heralded its imminent arrival. The small boy who heard the rumble was at first astonished, then excited, and finally enthralled, by it.
Later he would describe that moment as one of those life-changing experiences. He was seeing his first car, and as he began to tremble the closer it drew, and the dust cloud of its passage engulfed him, something inside him was triggered off.
"I turned and chase after that car for all I was worth," he said later. "I could not understand how it could move under its own power. And when it had driven past me, without even thinking why I found myself chasing it down the road, as hard as I could run."
He had no chance of catching it, and the experience became a symbol for his life: always he was chasing something that was just beyond his reach. By the time the road was empty and the car long departed, the young boy continued to stand there breathing in its gasoline stench. When he came upon a drop of its precious lifeblood spilled on the dusty track, he dropped to his knees and sniffed the oily stain like a man in a desert smelling water.

Early years
Soichiro Honda was born in Yamahigashi on November 17 1906. His father, Gihei Honda, was the local blacksmith but could turn his hands to most things, including dentistry when the need arose. His mother, Mika, was a weaver.
Honda's subsequent spirit of adventure and determination to explore the development of new technology had its roots in his childhood. The family was not wealthy, but Gihei Honda instilled into his children the ethic of hard work, and a love of mechanical things. Soichiro soon learned how to whet the blades of farm machinery, and how to make his own toys. A nearby rice mill was powered by a small engine, and the noise fascinated him. He would demand daily that his grandfather take him to watch it in action. At school he got the nickname 'black nose weasel', which is less derogatory in Japanese than it sounds in English, because his face was always dirty from helping his father in the forge.
Soichiro Honda's childhood days are full of examples of technical ingenuity, including using a bicycle pedal rubber to forge his family's seal on school reports that were less than promising.
The bicycles had another use: those that his father sold from the shop he subsequently opened helped Honda to hone his engineering skills. As he grew, the dream of the car on the country road acted like a magnetic force, drawing him ever closer towards things mechanical. In 1917 a pilot called Art Smith flew into the Wachiyama military airfield to demonstrate his biplane's aerobatic capabilities. Honda raided the family's petty cash box, 'borrowed' one of his father's bicycles and rode the 20 kilometers to a place he had never before visited. When he got there he soon realized that the price of admission, let alone a flight, was far beyond his meagre means, but after climbing a tree he watched the plane in motion, and that was enough. When Gihei Honda learned what his son had done to get to the airfield, he was more impressed with his initiative, determination and resilience than he was angry with him for taking the money and the bike.

Art Shokai
By 1922 Honda was working in an auto shop in Tokyo called Art Shokai. Initially he had done menial tasks, but more and more he became a trusted mechanic. He worked on the racing car Art Daimler, then the famous machine born from the marriage of a Curtiss aircraft engine and an American Mitchell chassis. The need to make parts for this monster taught him things that would be invaluable later in life.
When Shinichi Sakibahara raced the car for the first time at Tsurumi, and won the Chairman's Trophy, the young man riding alongside as his mechanic was Soichiro Honda. He was 17 years old.
As customers brought in Mercedes, Lincolns and Daimlers for attention, Honda's experience grew in proportion with his ambition. Four years after that first race he started his own Art Shokai auto shop in Hamamatsu. It opened its doors for business on the day that, thousands of miles away on Daytona Beach, Frank Lockhart crashed to his death trying to break the land speed record. April 25, 1928. The American track star and the Japanese kid lived in different worlds but had much in common besides their willingness to take a risk. Lockhart's mechanical genius had set new standards for record car design, and in the years that followed Soichiro Honda's own technological ideas would similarly revolutionize Japan's motorcycle and automobile industries.
Yet Honda himself never sought dominance in his homeland. At a time when nationalism was at its peak, he always saw the bigger picture. "I knew that if I could succeed in the world market," he said, "then automatically it would follow that we led in the Japanese market."

Honda Motor Co. Ltd.
Employees in the Art Shokai shop soon came to understand that sloppy workmanship and poor performance would not be tolerated, but while Honda's tool-hurling antics did not always encourage loyalty, those who stayed recognized his total determination to succeed and to establish an engineering business second to none. And Honda was sufficiently aware of his own managerial shortcomings. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. was established in September 1948, initially to build small capacity motorcycles to get Japanese workers mobile. Honda focused his considerable energies on the engineering side, using all the experience he had painstakingly accumulated, including time out taken to study piston ring design at Hamamatsu tech and subsequent experimentation with a small engine-powered bicycle. He left the running of the company in the hands of Takeo Fujisawa, his most trusted friend, and urged him to look to the long-term. They complemented one another perfectly.
When the first fruits of their partnership hit the streets, it was a 98 cc two-stroke motorcycle appropriately named 'Dream'.
Several times Honda Motor Co. sailed close to the rocks in the years that followed, for both Honda and Fujisawa were gamblers who knew that expansion would only be possible with risk. Growth at one stage was unprecedented, until the purchase of state-or-the-art machinery in the early Fifties led them perilously close to bankruptcy. But Honda was never faint-hearted.

Racing
This section needs an update
Later, when the Juno bike flopped and bankruptcy again beckoned, his reaction was to embark on the Tourist Trophy race program that would eventually make Honda's name as an international motorcycle manufacturer. It took him five years, but by 1959 Hondas were racing on the Isle of Man. Two years later they were the talk of the TT.
In 2000, Honda's management again made clear just how determined it is to win again in F1. The first effort, with the 1.5 liter V12 of 1964, came good just as the small-bore formula was ending. The subsequent three-liter V12 was over-engineered and far too heavy, yet won the Italian GP with John Surtees in 1967. But Honda's next effort brought domination throughout the late Eighties and the early Nineties, until Renault's arrival crossed over with Honda's decision to pull back in 1992.
Now once again Honda expects victories, this time from BAR and Jordan, prior to an all-out championship challenge in 2002. Such uncompromising ambition is a fundamental part of the legacy bequeathed by its founder, who died in Tokyo's Juntendo Hospital on August 5 1991, aged 84 years and eight months. "Racing is in our blood," former president Nobuhiko Kawamoto once admitted.
Soichiro Honda was the prototypical F1 engineer. He was always probing new limits of technology, always seeking better and greater feedback from the men who rode or drove the machines that bore his name. He preached the gospel that ambition was no sin, and that success was the reward for hard work and investment. Honda was the first major manufacturer to understand that motorsport was the perfect crucible in which to develop not just superior machines, but superior engineers, and today every global player in the F1 game rotates its engineers through its motorsport programs.

Last years
Yet there was more than even that to Honda. He and his wife Sachi both held private pilot's licences, he was still skiing, hang-gliding and ballooning at 77, and he was a highly accomplished artist. And he was a man of rare understanding. He had never wanted to follow his father in the smithy or the bicycle shop, and he and Fujisawa made a pact never to force their own sons to join the company.
Today Honda continues to leave honorable footprints in the motorsport sand, for it has been racing ever since that day in 1917 when Soichiro Honda left his own footprints chasing an automobile - and a dream - down a dusty road that had no end.