The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Honda 50 Was a High Mileage Champ 45 Years Ago

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Honda 50 ad claims 225 miles per gallonUsing high mileage as a selling point isn't new as this ad from Honda clearly shows. The "thrifty Honda 50" as the ad calls it, touted 225 miles per gallon at a time when gas was cheap, this ad appeared in May of 1963.

1963 was 10 years before the first oil embargo and high gas prices were not a concern but no matter what the price was, it was still a neat idea to stress how far you could go, turning the Honda 50 into an extremely low cost mode of transportation. If you could buy a gallon of gas for 30 cents and go 225 miles, even in those days, that was pretty close to zero cost compared to most cars on the road, compared to most motorcycles, too, for that matter.

Fast forward to 2007 with gas prices close to 3 dollars, and you still have a super cheap way to get to work or school, if you don't mind blazing along at 45 mph. It may have something to do with the reason they've made over 50 million of these little bikes, even though you can't get them here in the U.S. anymore.

I came across this ad yesterday while looking for something else and I just thought it was cool.

Larger image below:

Honda 50 ad claims 225 miles per gallon

Comments

  1. Peter Egan at Cycle World reprised an article on this a couple of years ago. He had one back in the late 60s or early 70s, and did a couple hundred mile trip with a friend who was riding a bicycle. The idea was to see which cost more to run. Turned out that the cyclist spent more on food (calories), than Egan spent on gas to run the Honda 50.

  2. Pretty much *any* of the small singles provide great gas mileage (maybe not 225 mpg, though!) My CB100 gives me at least 100 mpg, even when I’m heavy on the throttle (which is uh, most of the time).

  3. I had one of these that I built out of parts 25 years ago , I must have had a good 50K miles on it before I broke the trans. I got about 150 miles out of a tank. But I was young and gunning the throttle absolutely everywhere.

  4. I went to a Beach Boys concert once where they opened the act by riding on stage on these things and then jumping into the tune “Little Honda.”

  5. I commute to work about 15 miles each way. My car gets on average about 25 mpg when I go to and from work. Some cars I know are better. But just think about the possible savings of a bike like this. The road I take has a speed limit of 55, but mostly people drive about 60 on it. if we had a bike that could maintain a speed of 55-65 and get 225 mpg that would be a savings for me of just over $3/day or about $850/year. Heck, that would pay for my morning latte.

  7. They’re not fashionable where I live…people will definitely look at you funny for riding one!

  8. To piggyback on what taxman and Phoebe are saying, what they are refering to sounds a lot like what Megelli is offering (see yesterday’s Kneeslider for details). The sport version looks fantastic, and I’m sure it can deliver both enough speed and cool factor to avoid the rider from becoming road pizza or have to risk goofy stares from the cagers.

    I wish it wasn’t made in China, but my ancient Virago hails from Japan, and it runs like a watch despite the crappy starter. Hopefully people will be saying the same about their Megellis (or whatever makes the grade) 25 years from now.

    I believe most new riders are simply intimidated by new bikes with 100+ horsepower and 600 pound curb weights. I lively, manageable single might strike a chord with both new rider skill and managing the now fashionable carbon footprint. Of course, Buell offers the Blast, but that seems to sell like day old hot cakes…

  10. I see a lot of the younger generation and older generation types on the little scooters buzzing about town .

  11. scooters are definitely coming into a new view here in michigan. And many manufacturers are starting to sell

  13. I used to cruise around on a Trail 90. Flat-out continuously at 55+ it would return 90 or so mpg. My Yamaha 90cc two-stroke twin cylinder (HS1) was getting 125mpg despite the manual claiming 150. I could push that thing up to 75 mph. An Elite 125 I had only managed 80 mpg. My GB500 gets 60 mpg.

    For a while (maybe still) you could buy a MZ RT125 with a 15hp four-stroke single. It was very nice looking and full scale but I don’t know what the mileage was. The only place I knew that sold MZ only sold the 660 singles and the MX 125. It’s hard to find small capacity motorcycles these days.

    It seems that as things get more modern their mileage suffers.

    -todd

  14. Greatest motorcycle ever built. Anyone who tells you any different is a barefaced liar. They managed to be a quirky, cool, efficient and above all cheap way of getting more people out of tintops and on two wheels. I owned the 1971 Yamaha copy as my first mode of transport, and with a top speed of 55kph it was fine around town. I could get about 150 kilometers on 2 litres of gas, wish that was the way with my VT250F! Small capacity, high quality bikes do not exist. These new Megelli 125cc sportbikes are exactly what we need.

    A lot of guys who would ride were it not for the fact that they can only find a GN250 or a TLA250RR that’s completely unsuitable for learning are ending up in Jap imports, killing themselves with high power. Long live the Honda 50.

  15. Piaggio make a thing called the NRG50, fuel injected two stroke. Derestricted it is reputed to do nearly 60Mph, and get 120MPG, and it looks trick too…

  16. That Piaggio NRG uses the same direct injection system from Orbital that Peugeot used in some of their scooters, that Aprilia used in some of theirs and that several marine engine manufacturers use. I like the system quite well, and would love to see it used more.

  19. Wow. April, 1963. Honda Cub 50. University of California, Berkeley. One of the room mates, Davey, and I on his Honda making a run to JayVee Liquors for another glass jug of cheap wine to continue the party. Helmets? Gloves? Shoes? Ha. Been riding ever since. Thanks for the reminder.

  20. Have you seen the “Greatest Ever Motorcycles” segment on the Honda Cub? http://youtube.com/watch?v=SLjnqkXNWJs
    Charlie Boorman tries to kill it by changing the oil with grease from a fryer, overloading it, and finally dropping it from a crane.

    When Honda 50s turn up on the Seattle Craigslist, they’re rarely under $1K.

  21. I learned to ride on a Passport 70 (at age 14), and I rode one again recently (13 years later) and it still lived up to my memory of the one my brother had. It wasn’t quite as quick, but I’m not as light as I was back then. Overall, the Cub is a very well thought out bike and was executed really well. Vespas get all the attention for being practical, but the little Honda is the real king of 2 wheel transportation.

  22. I rode a 1970 Cub upgraded with an 84 cc cylinder and head for a while. Even with hard city riding up to 55 mph it would still return 90 mpg. When I could hold a constant speed the mileage would be well over 100 mpg.

    There’s only one thing that can kill an old Cub: the slow march of rust and neglect. It’s about time we get a good replacement on the market again.

  23. Honda sells bikes like this all over the world at $800 – $1200 a pop. I would gladly pay 2 grand for the kind of modern, water cooled, fuel injected bikes that are common all over SE Asia.

    Sonic RS 125

  24. Reddog is right…When I was living in S. Korea 10 years ago, Cub clones were everywhere. I believe Daelim was making them, and they had 70cc or 110cc engines (I can’t remember). They were most often used for making food deliveries.

  26. Tanshanomi, not to get too off-topic, but how are the MB5s? I’ve always been curious about them ever since I saw one for the first time. They look fun.

  27. To answer your question, MB5’s are unceasing giggle generators, and built like tiny Sherman tanks! 400 miles a day at redline is nuthin’ for an MB. I even toured on mine, covering most of the states of Missouri and Idaho, even through the mountains.

    http://www.zilliox.org/MB5tour.jpg

  30. i’m in vietnam and if anyone is interested i could export any version of the honda cub to the usa. tslc04 @ yahoo

  31. Thanks for the offer seth but there are a number of legal reasons why people don’t do this already. Basically it is illegal to import a non-US vehicle into the US with some minor exceptions. Too many people have had to destroy or return vehicles at their own expense after they sat at the dock for a few months waiting for customs to not clear ($$$ per day).

    You could send them over in pieces though but registering them would be tricky if possible at all.

    -todd

  32. Seth: Don’t discount the possibility of sending Cubs to America in pieces. In kit form you could probably by-pass the EPA/DOT rules and since they look like a moped could probably fool most officers of the law. Figure out what it would cost to break down a new one to ship it here by the containerload–you might have a business on your hands!!

    I currently have an old Passport going together with the automatic tranny version of the Honda 50 motor from a Chinese mini-quad. I plan to use it as an Indiana (and most other states)-legal moped. The Chinese ought to consider doing this.

  33. May 05 2008 I rode 2 up for 165km (102,5Mi) using 3.14L (.83g) of gas. Including camera gear, water bottles etc there was a load of 168k (370lb) on the 125cc Honda Wave S which only weighs 100k itself. Started the day riding over to my office where a Storedge Array was not being recognised by a couple of Sun v440s, fixed that and then rode off up into the hills to Monghe a monastary for Marian monks. Took some pictures, (up later) and then rode further down the coast to have lunch in Alcoy. Then road home to Cebu. Some highway but not what is called highway in the US, some Holbrookian mountain roads and some city driving.

  34. I had a Cub 50 that I got after graduating from High School to get back and forth to classes in college. Had a ball with it and did a lot of things that it wasn’t really designed to do. Off road was no problem. It was especially nice to run all week on 25 cents of high test gas. I frequently got right around 300 mpg. I put over 60,000 miles on it before parking it (bad battery and a couple of other “fixable” issues. I later let my father give it away.
    I think Honda could make a killing in the US market if they would re-introduce the 50 (essentially as it was in the late 60’s). Bring back the retro ads and, more importantly, the bike.
    Thanks,
    Gerry

  35. I have a 196? Cub 50 with 256 miles on her! Bought her from the original owner over 10 years ago-141 miles at the time. I may have to get her running again the way things are going, even my DR 650 is getting “expensive” to fill at a mere 48-49mpg. OTOH on my original 1964 Cub 50 (bought new just after High School) I probably didn’t do but @ 60-65mpg, but then it was ALWAYS run WFO! Over 8000 miles in about 8 months! Oh what fun; even on bike 79 I still have fond memories of buzzing around Wisconsin on my stripped down Cub 50………….DFO

  37. Just picked up two “shed bikes”, a 1980 and a 1981 C70 Passports. Red and Yellow. Red looked like hell, Yellow seemed well-cared for. Wrong.

    Red is running now, awaiting tires and a new battery. Yellow will be getting (I hope) stubby tires for farm/field roads.

    Should have a nice-looking, good running Red bike, and a stripped, but functional Yellow one. Still waiting to see finished scoots before going through the registration ordeal (one has ’88 plates, the other out-of-state ’83 plates.)

    I’ve been riding R series BMWs for 35 years. I feel like a kid waiting for the “toys” to get on the road.

  38. I bought a brand new Honda 50 around 1970. My brother had a Honda trail 90 and the neighbor kids had different dirt bikes etc. at the same time. I believe I probably racked up at least 7,000 very hard on and off road miles on my 50. I took the plastic leg guards or whatever they are called off the bike and also removed the front fender. I used the bike more as a trail bike than a street bike. Basically I beat the heck out of that thing and it finally ended up in the junk yard more from abuse and lack of maintenance than anything. Those are great memories.

  39. I can’t believe this caused all that fuss amon you americans, 50cc 2 stroke carb engines were all over the place during my teen years [90’s] here in europe. Now they’re being scrapped for 4 strokers cos of emissions policies. An alternative could come from fuel injected 2 strokers but they ain’t so common.

  40. I’ve seen people carry pigs, chickens, huge cans, wood, tons of gear, boxes of vegetables, and passengers stacked upon passengers on these things. Durable is an understatement for this little bike!