Two Wheels

Honda builds 100 millionth Super Cub bike

The basic bike is still good for commuting.

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As the old advertising tagline goes, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." Chances are you've met quite a lot of nice people, as Honda has now built 100 million Super Cub motorcycles since production was started almost 60 years ago.

Currently, the Super Cub is produced at 16 manufacturing plants in 15 countries, and it still looks pretty much the same as it did in August 1958, when the first Super Cub C100 models were finished at Honda's Yamato plant. The first Super Cubs were sold in the States in 1959, and of course it paved the way for Honda's success in the U.S. as an automaker. Some 10 million units were sold globally by 1974, and what is especially noteworthy is how Super Cub sales have accelerated in later years: 2005 marked the point when 50 million bikes had been built — it has taken little more than a decade for that amount to double!

The Super Cub is still sold in more than 160 countries, suitably modernized but still retaining the basic concept with which it was launched: a low-slung backbone frame and a durable, four-stroke 50 cubic centimeter engine, which offered a lot of customers their first instance of motoring by means of internal combustion.

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