Honda Cub, and several very small
trail bikes.
Honda was also able to quickly
identify when particular bikes were
not selling in the United States,
change dealer inventory and come
up with more promising machines.
In the early Sixties, Honda was sell-
ing several types of pushrod-operated
small displacement singles. Although
the 50cc Cub was a huge hit, Honda’s
larger displacement singles were
down on power compared with simi-
lar machines offered by other manu-
facturers. Honda’s answer was to design overhead cam 90cc
single cylinder machines. At the time, most overhead cam
machines were competition-only, and
an overhead cam street bike was a
real novelty.
In 1960, Honda had opened a
state-of-the-art manufacturing facil-
ity in Suzuka, with the facilities and
engineering staff to design new mod-
els quickly and then manufacture
them economically. Overhead cam
machines like the Superhawk, the
CB160 and the 90cc singles would not
have been possible without Honda’s
massive investment in tooling.
The 90cc singles quickly proved
themselves as both fun and reliable.
Honda sold millions of these peppy
little motorcycles, not only in the
United States, but all over Asia. Although early-Sixties Hondas
needed improvement in the handling department, they were