Celebrating 50 Years Of The Honda Super Cub

Making its debut in 1958, the Honda Super Cub (also known as the Honda C100 or Honda 50) has become what is probably the most successful motorcycle in history, with over 60 million having now been sold worldwide.

Powered by a 50cc 4-stroke engine fitted into a revolutionary ‘underbone’ frame, the Super Cub soon became a firm favourite with motorcyclists the world over, renowned for its reliability and utility. By the early 1960’s the Super Cub dominated the small bike market and following the success of Honda’s famous ‘You Meet The Nicest People on a Honda’ marketing campaign, quickly established the manufacturers leadership of the small bike market.

Still in production (though not now offered in the UK), the Super Cub celebrated its 50 th Anniversary in July 2008 and a special ceremony was held at Honda’s Kumamoto Factory where the Super Cub is produced.

Honda Press Release 23 July 2008 :
“The reason we have been able to continue producing and selling Super Cub for 50 years, which is quite a long time, is because of our customers who enjoy using Super Cub every day,” said Takeo Fukui, president & CEO of Honda Motor Co, Ltd. “I would also like to thank Honda associates who have supported the history of Super Cub. Super Cub has continuously advanced to accommodate the needs and preferences of people throughout the world, and cumulative worldwide production of Cub series motorcycles reached the 60 million-unit milestone in April of this year. Moreover, in this year of the 50th anniversary of Super Cub, a new motorcycle plant has been built at this Kumamoto Factory, and the transfer of motorcycle production to the new plant will be completed within this year. I expect Kumamoto Factory to serve as the global leader of Honda’s motorcycle production operations around the world and to continue providing our customers with products that create new value.”

Since the introduction of the first Super Cub C100 model in 1958, Super Cub has been a long-selling product sold in more than 160 countries* to date, and customers around the world enjoy using Super Cub every day. Production of Super Cub in regions outside of Japan began in 1961 in Taiwan, with production based on component parts sets provided from Japan and was expanded to other countries based on Honda’s commitment to “build products close to the customer.” The Honda Cub series is currently being produced at 16 plants in 15 countries around the world.

* Honda’s internal data