There’s a smart saying about innovations that claims that “the invention has to make sense on the earth it finishes in, not the world it began.” That quote comes from the founding father of O’Reilly Books, Tim O’Reilly, and whereas it’s ostensibly concerning the rise of the digital age, it applies completely to bikes.
To start with, bikes had been pedal bikes (or because the British say, push bikes) with a small motor connected that would take over the pedaling for you. That made excellent sense within the early nineteenth century, earlier than the car rose to reputation. As soon as the car began to make its lasting affect on historical past, bikes morphed from being what we now name mopeds into devoted, purpose-built machines. It took fairly just a few tries to get it proper, however then names like Royal Enfield, Harley-Davidson, Indian, Norton, and lots of others began to carve out their very own niches.
The factor about all these bikes, nonetheless, is that whereas they had been wonderful innovations, they didn’t actually make a lot sense outdoors of some very particular makes use of. They started to make extra sense after World Battle II, as Harley-Davidson had provided patrol bikes for abroad forces, and their ruggedness and dimension meant that they may get locations shortly that bigger autos couldn’t. It was, in truth, Germany that inadvertently helped create the wheels that moved historical past.
The Origins of the Tremendous Cub
Honda Soichiro and his enterprise companion, co-founder of the Honda Motor Firm Fujisawa Takeo, had been touring Europe, selling their new firm, motors, looking for distributors, and finally ending their tour by getting into Honda racing bikes into the Isle of Man TT race, after they occurred to go to Germany in 1956.
Honda, who was as devoted an engineer as you can probably get, and Fujisawa, the salesperson and cash man who fulfilled a job that we’d name Chief Monetary Officer in the present day, witnessed the German populace having fun with small, light-weight bikes and mopeds, utilizing them for all the things from journey to going to the nook retailer for groceries.
It had truly been in Fujisawa’s thoughts for some time that within the post-war financial growth surging by Japan and components of Europe, a high-performance however small bike may very well be precisely what densely packed cities wanted. In a marked change of tempo in comparison with different Japanese producers, he didn’t merely wish to enhance the variety of bigger, extra highly effective, and costlier bikes being offered, however goal a market that many (besides the Germans) appeared to be lacking out on.
His thought was that because the world rebuilt from a devastating struggle, bicycles had been naturally the start line for journey. Because the economic system recovered, folks would then purchase a clip-on motor to make their bicycle a moped, then transfer on to scooters and at last small vehicles.
Devoted bikes didn’t enter into that improve path as a result of the bikes of the day had been typically as costly as a brand new automotive. It took lots of convincing for Honda, who merely wished to construct engines and go racing on two or 4 wheels, to see that there was a ripe marketplace for a small however high-performance bike that was cheap, technologically easy, dependable, and environment friendly.
Honda was, on the time, a extremely popular firm, with their automotive and scooters promoting effectively, however they had been at a turning level. They wanted a mass-market merchandise—one thing that may stamp the Honda Motors title into the historical past books—and so design work started on what was initially simply referred to as “The Cub.”
Fujisawa is quoted as famously giving Honda the requirement that if he might design a motorbike that would disguise all of the wires and tubing underneath the seat, was dependable, highly effective, and may very well be ridden with one hand whereas carrying a tray of soba noodles within the different hand, he might promote it. Honda accepted that problem, and commenced pulling growth from all the initiatives he had engineered.
From the Juno scooter, fiberglass strengthened plastic was used to create leg fairings. The excessive efficiency 50cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine from the light-weight class of race bikes for the Isle of Man TT grew to become the beating coronary heart of the Cub, offering 4.5 HP.
The body can be made out of metal, however in a stroke of genius, your entire spar from the entrance forks to the rear mudguard holder was one steady piece of steel, negating the necessity for advanced welds. It additionally didn’t want a clutch lever—whereas it did have a sequential three pace gearbox, it used a centrifugal clutch that may disengage if the revs had been excessive sufficient if you requested an upshift, then change gears and routinely re-engage as you got here off the shifter.
The completion was that every one the electronics and all the oily bits had been, as Fujisawa had set the problem, beneath the seat and hidden away. It was very simple to take care of, as your entire engine may very well be dropped out by undoing simply three bolts. The chain was additionally hidden behind a full protection chain guard, protecting even that oily bit out of sight, which may very well be eliminated by undoing a clip, one bolt, and giving it a great tug.
It was launched to the world in 1957 at motor exhibits, and particularly round smaller business conventions in Japan—and to say that it landed with a thud is understating the actual fact, because the recession left behind by World Battle II was simply beginning to recuperate. The newly named Tremendous Cub C100 nonetheless went on sale in 1958, nonetheless, and offered decently, but it surely wasn’t the mass market adoption that Fujisawa had envisioned.
Three months after the primary bike rolled off a dealership lot, complaints began to return in that the clutch on the Tremendous Cub was slipping. It was approaching a Japanese nationwide vacation week, and each Honda and Fujisawa knew that they wanted to repair the difficulty instantly.
Because the saying goes, the most effective commercial is phrase of mouth, and as many traveled throughout Japan to go to family and friends, unhealthy public relations couldn’t solely imply the demise of the Tremendous Cub, but in addition solid doubts on whether or not the Honda Motor Firm truly supported their merchandise.
As such, in the course of the nationwide holidays, everybody that labored at Honda, fairly actually everybody, from salesmen to secretaries, manufacturing facility employees to even Honda and Fujisawa themselves, gave up their vacation time and had been as an alternative despatched out in a PR transfer of navy precision. Honda had discovered the difficulty and altered the design of the bike barely, however the already-sold Tremendous Cubs would wish to have new clutches put in and a small half to repair the difficulty.
In a testomony to simply how straightforward the Tremendous Cub was to restore, throughout that one week vacation interval, each single buyer that owned one of many bikes was visited personally by a Honda Motors worker who would restore their bike proper then and there, freed from cost.
The PR affect of that transfer shot Honda Motors method, method up the buyer satisfaction metrics, which method close to legendary standing in Japanese tradition. It was not “my Honda bike was constructed poorly and has a slipping clutch”—it was “Honda Motors got here out and stuck my bike, at no cost!”
The Wheels that Liberated Asia… Fairly Actually
The information that Honda Motors not solely had an affordable, extremely environment friendly and highly effective light-weight bike on the market, however that they stood behind their product and proved how straightforward it was to repair unfold all over the world. Impulsively, markets that had proven no real interest in the Tremendous Cub had been out of the blue asking about distribution offers and opening of Honda showrooms and dealerships.
The one nation that didn’t appear all that bothered to hitch in on the joy was america, as Indian and Harley-Davidson, of their cruiser struggle with out finish, together with some imported British bikes, had saturated the market.
The demand grew to become so excessive, in truth, that Honda Motors constructed a complete manufacturing facility devoted to the manufacturing of the Tremendous Cub in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture. At a value of 10 billion yen, or roughly $443,140,000 USD in 2022, the brand new manufacturing facility was modeled on the VolksWagen Beetle manufacturing facility in Germany that Honda had seen simply two years prior.
It was constructed to provide at first 30,000 Tremendous Cubs per thirty days, and began working the second the primary manufacturing line was accomplished. That quantity rose to 50,000 Tremendous Cubs per thirty days as soon as the secondary manufacturing line and the entire manufacturing facility was completed.
Nonetheless, it appeared that Honda may need jumped the gun by dumping a lot money into one manufacturing facility. Whereas the demand was excessive, the avenues of distribution had been taking longer to ascertain.
For every nation that wished to import Tremendous Cub, authorities approval, permits, taxation and tariffs all needed to be negotiated. This proved to be such a delay that the Suzuka manufacturing facility nearly ran out of room to retailer completed Tremendous Cubs. Some business analysts on the time even mentioned that the expenditure was too dangerous, and for many of 1959, it appeared to be true.
When all these distribution and import negotiations had been completed, nonetheless, Honda Motors acquired a large return on their funding. Tremendous Cubs had been fairly actually leaving the tip of the manufacturing line, ridden out the manufacturing facility doorways to the stock parking area, and by the point their engines had been switched off, they’d been offered.
The largest issue driving this once-in-a-generation gross sales growth was that Fujisawa’s preliminary idea of a reasonable, high-performance bike that may very well be mounted with a hammer and a rock caught on in Asia. Through the Nineteen Sixties, a lot of the Asian continent, particularly within the Southern areas, was popping out of colonial occupation, or had been creating nations the place vehicles had been just too costly of an merchandise to personal.
When the Tremendous Cub got here alongside, it was an attainable car that out of the blue opened up the potential of intercity journey not requiring a number of days, and of effectively shifting round city to have the ability to release extra time to truly do issues.
International locations akin to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand had been out of the blue bursting on the seams with the Tremendous Cub, and revolutionized the supply driver idea throughout all these nations as Fujisawa had set the objective of the bike needing just one hand to manage, leaving the opposite hand free to hold supply objects.
If it broke down, substitute components had been filth low-cost—one thing particularly vital in creating nations—and as an alternative of getting to take it to a restore store, you can repair your individual bike by the facet of the highway.
No different bike in historical past has ever come near the affect that the Tremendous Cub had on probably the most populated components of the planet. Throughout the decade, your entire tradition of many nations shifted from being isolationist, separate villages and cities and perhaps visiting a metropolis as soon as in a lifetime, to liberating untold hundreds of thousands of individuals to make a day journey to the large metropolis and be again on the town earlier than the solar set. What had as soon as been one thing that individuals had solely examine taking place within the “wealthy nations” just like the UK, components of Europe, and North America was now one thing very actual in their very own a part of the world.
This explosion of recognition was once more all the way down to Fujisawa, who might go down as top-of-the-line gross sales managers in historical past. He had the Honda advertising and marketing division place adverts for the Tremendous Cub in each newspaper, common curiosity journal, at the back of procuring catalogs. He made positive that as an alternative of focusing on the area of interest rider market, he focused the final market, those who would by no means decide up a motorbike journal of their wildest desires.
The opposite stroke of genius he had was chatting with the tradition of the Tremendous Cub, not solely its technical specs. As a substitute of the adverts stating “50ccs of Earth-churning energy,” they said “Wouldn’t you’re keen on to have the ability to go to your mom extra usually?” or “What would you say to a motorbike that allows you to go to the market within the metropolis down the highway and be house in time to prepare dinner for your loved ones?”
By making the core of the advert campaigns the problems of the time, the Tremendous Cub grew to become the liberator of the Asian continent—and even in the present day, practically 40% of all new Tremendous Cubs being made go to Asia.
Constructed Since 1958: The Greatest Promoting Highway Automobile of All Time
Some vehicles have a repute of being offered at a prodigious price. The VW Beetle involves thoughts, in addition to the Ford F150, “the truck that constructed America.” Nonetheless, if you happen to mix the whole variety of VW Beetles and Ford F150s ever offered (23 million and 41 million respectively for a complete of 64 million), that also pales when put subsequent to the Tremendous Cub.
As of 2017, the Tremendous Cub had offered a nigh unbelievable 100 million items. It is vitally probably nearer to 110-120 million in 2022, and it’s secure to say that Fujisawa’s and Honda’s want to have a mass market product that would go away its mark on historical past has been attained 100 million occasions over.
The Tremendous Cub hasn’t simply affected the bike markets both. Driving the recognition of their engines being ultra-reliable, Honda stormed the US, UK, and EU markets with their vehicles, together with the S600 and S800 Roadsters. These had been offered as environment friendly, enjoyable little sports activities vehicles, sedans that had been snug and will simply deal with a household of 4, and entry-level vehicles that somebody of their first couple of years of working in the true world might afford with out breaking the financial institution.
It’s fairly secure to say that with the Tremendous Cub, one other one in all Honda’s most dominant autos was in a position to come to life. We’re, after all, speaking concerning the Civic. Even in the present day, in 2022, the Civic is to a current school or college graduate in North America because the Tremendous Cub was to the Asian continent within the Nineteen Sixties: inexpensive, straightforward to repair with a hammer, and dependable for getting you from level A to level B even if you happen to abused the hell out of it.
The Lasting Legacy of the Honda Tremendous Cub
What’s astounding is that the Tremendous Cub continues to be a fascinating bike in lots of markets that scoffed at it or shunned it throughout its first export years. Within the UK, it is likely one of the greatest promoting runabout bikes for for those who have simply obtained their A1 bike license, and its now-iconic plastic leg fairings hold your pants dry when it rains (which occurs quite a bit within the UK). In Europe, the place the retro-styled scooter is the extra stylish possibility for two-wheeled journey, the Tremendous Cub has a timeless traditional type that by no means will get previous.
We might go on itemizing why the Tremendous Cub continues to be a gross sales chief in the present day, and why Honda has cashed in on the enjoyable of small bikes with their miniMOTO line of the GROM, Monkey, and Navi, however it will simply be the identical purpose again and again. It was the proper bike, on the proper time, in the proper place, to liberate Asia and introduce dependable, environment friendly bikes to the world. The one problem that’s even probably going to have an effect on it’s the present push in the direction of electrification of autos.
An Electrical Future? What the Subsequent Decade Holds for the Tremendous Cub
A lot because the Tremendous Cub revolutionized historical past when it appeared in 1958, the EV Cub is ready to revolutionize electrical bikes. In a market that has seen many guarantees, some bikes, and lots of questioning the place all the electrical bikes are, Honda is steadfast in proving that electrical bikes and scooters are the way in which of the long run for 2 wheels.
A part of this technique was lastly signed and authorized earlier this 12 months, when Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki all formally adopted the identical customary for electrical bike batteries.
The core concept is that at fuel stations and cost stations as they’re now, there will probably be a wall of batteries with a straightforward to seize deal with. As a substitute of getting to plug your bike right into a supercharger or the wall at house, which can nonetheless stay choices, you merely park your electrical scooter or bike, raise the battery out, go to the wall, pull a totally charged battery out, place your drained battery within the now-free cubby, and slide the charged battery into your bike—then off you go.
This method is already up and working in Japan, the place it is called Gachago. The Honda Benly-E scooter, which might maintain two of the swappable batteries for prolonged vary using, is now the default car utilized by the Japan Submit Workplace to get to locations the place vehicles merely won’t match. It’s anticipated that by the tip of 2022, a battery swap model of the PCX maxiscooter, the EV Cub, and the just-announced, Japan-only Gyro-e will probably be in the marketplace within the island nation.
There may be additionally ongoing analysis by all the Massive 4 into sustainable gas, as motorsports collection underneath the auspices of the FIA and FIM have set targets to have 100% bio-ethanol generated from sustainable non-food sources by 2026.
Motorbike engines as they’re in the present day don’t like ethanol-hydrocrabon mixtures usually, which is why no bike on sale in the present day can run on E85 except it’s modified closely. With the trickle down impact of motorsports to the mainstream, nonetheless, we would have the EV Cub and the Tremendous Cub Bio-Gasoline by 2030.
All we all know is, there isn’t a method Honda will ever cease making the bike that stamped their title into historical past. Nor ought to they.
