Black Anniversary

Spotted this gem at the local supermarket. Very clean Anniversary Edition. Low miles. Looks like it's garage kept, too.

Happy Anniversary, Super Cub! 50 Years Young!

I went back to the dealer to pick up an air cleaner element and took a couple more photos. 

In that short span of time, someone dropped off a yellow Motocompo for used sale on the second floor. 

Here's some sneak peak early shots of the brand new 50th Anniversay Edition Super Cub and Little Cub, still not fully assembled at the dealer. 

The added indicators look a bit 'add-on' for my tastes, but I'm sure lots of folks will appreciate them. I would've rather seen them incorporated into the speedo face like it is on the Little Cub, or as separate bezeled openings on the handlebar cover. 

The differences in powerplant are evident here with the lack of cooling fins on the cylinder head and black crank casing. 

Still not ready to see your public!

The Gold-on-Dark combination is tastefully commemorative of the 50 years of a winning creation. And the black crank case works better with the dark body color and dark leg guard (only available with a regular 08 Little Cub). 

Overall, not a bad look here. 

Or here. But I just can't get used to that black crank casing. It seems out of place next to the aluminum chain guard. Especially on a lighter colored Cub, like this Little 'un. 

The Little Cub harks back to the original Super Cubs with it's 1950's Blue paint scheme. 

Here's a trio of Little Cubs, '08 models that are not the 50th Anniversary Edition models. They look a little lonely over there next to the Zoomer. 

Visit the Honda website celebration for the 50th Anniversary of the Super Cub, click here.

Honda Feels the Green

(This is an unchanged new 90cc for comparison.)



Well, File this under the heading, 'Fixed when wasn't broken'. Honda has made some, in my opinion unsightly, and misguided changes to the Super Cub Standard and Press Cub and Little Cub.

My precious Super Cub Street is unchanged as of yet, thankfully. But I fear it's only a matter of time. Maybe next year's model?

Yes, that big bad monster known as Global Warming (® Trademark) has forced Honda to implement some design changes to the Cub making it less powerful, slower, and with lower fuel mileage ratings. Wonderful. Sounds great, doesn't it?

It now contains an electronic computerized fuel injection system called PGM-FI (Programmed Fuel Injection System)

To achieve: "global environment-friendly for an even more dependable, more comfortable Cub series" "and the atmospheric conditions such as engine revolutions, the computer is always ideal fuel usage control. Optimal timing and amount of fuel supply, so the engine performance out efficiently."

Hogwash. In other words, performance is sacrified in the name of being green, so called. Here's an idea, why not just scrap the delivery bike all together, and go back to rickshaws and handcarts? You get green and in-shape at the same time.

Let't take a look at the new "improved" AA02E engine system:

Went from

POWER:
(kw[PS]/rpm) From 2.9 [4.0] /7,000 to 2.5 [3.4]/7,000


TORQUE:
(N・m[kg・m]/rpm) From 4.7[0.48]/4,500 to 3.8 [0.39]/5,000


FUEL MILEAGE:
(km/L) From 130.0 km/liter to 110.0 km/liter


FUEL CAPACITY:
(Liters) From 4.0 to 3.4


Now, that's progress! If that wasn't bad enough, and I'm not all a numbers guy, appearance is very important, so when they start messin' around withe the design, I take notice.

They've colored the engine black (why not green?) and added a cheap looking leg guard over the tailpipe to replace the bar type guard. The mount for the tailpipe is now a bumpy chrome, rather than black as it used to be.

Now, the bike looks more plastic and more like the Yamaha Mate.

And if that weren't enough, it's now more expensive than ever, breaking the 200,000yen mark for a basic barebones Cub. More for Custom, Deluxe, Press varieties.

Now, my bet is, this new bike will actually use and waste more fuel due to its lower power to weight ratio, and in the end contribute more to so called global warming than the previous model.

Soichiro would not be proud.

Links (note the cut off point in the pics on their splash pages. Clearly, they are using older photos that don't have the new black engine. What does that say?)

Super Cub Standard
Specs

Super Cub "Press Cub"
Specs

Little Cub
Specs
To be fair, the black engine with the black color scheme in the Little Cub matches well.



And the last holdout and UNCHANGED Super Cub:
Super Cub "Street" Type
Specs

UPDATE: Ok, scratch that. Honda no longer offers the "Street" designation of the Super Cub Standard. I guess that makes mine that much more unique and hard to find. :)