6 months with the Hunter Cub

It’s difficult to believe, but it’s a little over 6 months since I bought my 125cc Honda Hunter Cub. I remember it like it was yesterday. [Insert wistful sigh]. I remember being dead-set on getting the archetypal red one, and then changing my mind once I saw the turmeric yellow one in the shop. I don’t regret that decision for a moment. As of the time of writing, I’ve done about 2,000Km on my Hunter Cub.

Doing things differently

The Cub has been a great opportunity to refresh my riding skills as it’s not just doing different things, which is what I expected from the outset and is indeed what I wanted. It’s also been a time of doing things differently – how I ride, how I read things, and this isn’t just on the Cub itself, it’s impacted how I ride the Tracer a bit too.

Let’s get into some examples.

One of the many things I wanted from the Cub was to give me a bit of safe practice getting off asphalt. I’ve not done much off the tarmac, and what I have done has mainly been by accident on one of Japan’s many mountain roads which kind of just stop being tarmac for a while. The Tracer can often handle it, so it’s probably more me that isn’t so keen.

As you can see from the photos, I’ve done a fair bit off road on the Hunter Cub- some were tracks I’d wanted to do on the Tracer but erred on the side of caution, but with those tyres and a back end I can lift up and move, they turned out to be a lot of fun, sending dirt flying. Some were new trails to me that I didn’t know existed until they were recommended to me by friends, or I happened to notice them as I went past, with the eyes of a 125cc Hunter Cub owner.

I can now get to even more places where I can stop and take a photo of my bike in front of something.

It’s not all been off-road.

Sometimes I almost forget I rode this machine from Odawara on the Pacific Coast, across a whole pile of mountain twisties, to Joetsu on the Japan Sea coast for the Coast to Coast Twistybutt. That was about 600Km there, and maybe 420Km back home the next day – yes, I put half of the kilometres on the odometre on it over a weekend.

Sometimes when I’m running an errand to the shop and packing stuff in my folding box on the back I think “Wow, I rode this thing to the other side of the country in a day. And it wasn’t the easy way.”.

It’s been a very confidence inspiring bike.

The Ride Itself

Let’s talk about the clutch!

This was the first thing I had to get used to – not just that it’s semi automatic, not just that it’s rotary at stop, not just that there’s only four gears … but that it has that heel kick down.

It being semi-automatic is kind of fun. You can idle in a gear, you can’t stall it, there’s nothing on your left handlebar, which feels a bit wild to start with – I tried to pull in that phantom clutch lever a few times I can tell you. At stop you can just kick through all the gears in a rotary fashion… 1 to 4, then N, then 1 again. Madness. What’s more, N is at the top, then you kick down into the rest of the gears. That took a few kilometres to get used to. It also took a bit of time to get used to using the heel to effectively kick up. The idea is that if you’re riding in sandals or more casual shoes, it’s easier to use your heel than use that lever in the top of your feet and toes.

I was somewhat sceptical, but now, it’s the standard way I go up gears and I think it helps my brain differentiate the Cub from the Tracer, with its more traditional gear system. I should say I never ride in sandals or casual shoes, but the effect is the same.

Having only four gears really isn’t a problem, but I was quickly reminded of a gem of knowledge the mechanic in the shop gave me – be careful shifting down into 2nd and 1st, as the engine breaking is strong in those gears. He wasn’t kidding, the first two times, from what I thought was a low speed, I actually skidded the rear wheel. Not ideal, but that was my fault and now I get much lower in speed before engaging second or first gear and using the shifter, I ease it down a bit more – there’s a little bit of clutch control in the gear changer for sure.

It’s small and there’s no wind protection, but wind isn’t much of an issue, especially at the speeds and on the roads I take this.

The kick start is fun. I’ve not had a bike with a kick-start for a long time, so it’s been fun to just kick start it for no reason – it’s just fun. It’s old school motorbike-dom. The centre-stand is excellent, as is the side stand, though I think the latter needs a slightly larger foot given the soft surfaces I’ve been stopping on.

Mods

I’m not much of a wrencher beyond basic maintenance, and indeed on the Tracer I’ve only added some slider bungs and the top box, and that was it. In just 6 the months on the Cub I’ve added a cross-bar to the handlebars to hold a camera and navigation device, some additional lights to the front, and the box to the rear plate – all have been incredibly useful, and all were incredibly easy to fit thanks to Honda’s fairly straightforward plug-in electrical system in the headlight – though in my case that headlight is pretty packed now. Oh yes, and I removed the rear foot-pegs – there’s no seat back there, I have the Tracer for passengers, and they weighed almost 2Kg together. That means I can have that larger breakfast and not impact performance.

Any downsides?

Not really.

It has sometimes had the issue that all cycles and scooters have in that sometimes car drivers don’t see it (or aren’t expecting it) and I have to use the louder-than-expected hooter (horn) more than I do on the Tracer to remind people I’m here, if by some chance they’ve missed that awesome yellow paint job. It’s not been often and I don’t ride it like the ‘flip-flops and backwards facing, un-strapped helmet’ scooter crowd do for sure.

Let me just address some of the complaints some reviews knocked it for though.

Not being able to maintain expressway speeds. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had this up to near those speeds, and it’ll do it, even with my bulk on it, but it’s not what it’s for. It’s not what it likes. The tyres are narrow and a little knobbly, the suspension is basic. It doesn’t want to do it – but it’ll certainly give it a try. Why did you buy a 125cc if you needed to do 80+ Kmh consistently?

One odd complaint I read was about the brakes. I’ve had literally no issues stopping, and I am not the lightest person – I’m a lot closer to it’s carrying capacity than my Doctor says I should be, but perhaps like the speed comment, what did the user expect? I don’t expect this thing to stop like my Tracer, I expect it to feel a little softer, and it does feel a little softer but it will stop. I mean, it’s not a Harley Street…

For myself, the only irk I have is the helmet lock is fiddly – you have to raise the seat and loop the metal cable through the helmet and around a hook. Oh yes, and sometimes the indicators don’t cancel as easily as I’d like, meaning I’m that rider going along with a left indicator blinking away. Sorry about that.

I do agree with ‘Some Guy Rides‘ though, it kind of does look and feel like sitting on a toilet.

I can’t really think of any other issues relative to my expectations.

Two Prong Attack

So I now have two motorbikes, and what a combination! I explained in my initial post on the Cub why I bought it, and it’s completely fulfilled a gap that even the awesome Tracer doesn’t fill. Sometimes I get up, and I’m feeling a different kind of energy and belting the Tracer around twisties near Hakone just isn’t what I’m feeling, so out comes the Cub,and I’m plodding down Route 1, taking random turns to beach access tracks and just mucking about until it’s time to stop at Denny’s or Jonathon’s for a cup of tea.

Also, I’ve sometimes gotten myself into bad situations on the Tracer – and not the bike’s fault at all. For example, last year I wanted to check out a temple in the middle of nowhere and the map showed a straight road up to it … except the map lied and the road I took was very very steep, and then just stopped within view of the temple grounds but with 10m of high weeds, rocks and debris between me and another service road. It was so steep I had to delicately keep the Tracer in gear, get off and roll it back down 15 meters, and then take a small turn to the ‘correct’ road.

On the Hunter Cub that would not have been such a lengthy – and somewhat scary – undertaking.

So basically, the Hunter Cub is also a little bit of insurance against my own poor decision making when it comes to routes. Fun decisions to look back on, but only when you can literally walk them back.

In Conclusion

As you can probably tell by now I have a very positive feeling about the Hunter Cub. It does exactly what I wanted from it, and so much more. I’ve learned a different way of riding.

Honestly, the bike mentally paid for itself on that Coast to Coast ride weekend. It was so much fun – for me anyway – those tagging along were probably bored of only going up to their 4th gears. The community around it that I saw for that event was also very encouraging – some of the friendliest and most knowledgeable bike owners I’ve met.

Have I got the point across that it’s simple fun? It is, Sometimes I get up at the weekend, put my camera in my backpack and just ride down tiny roads down near the coast, seeing small places I haven’t seen before. It’s all just so simple.

I did wonder if I’d grow tired of the yellow, and lament not getting the red – not for a minute – black and yellow is the way this bike needs to be for me – it’s easy to pick out in a crowd, and I really do think it makes me more visible on the road.

Go and buy one.

Some Web References

In researching the Hunter Cub, I found some fun videos and channels, so here’s a selection:

The brilliantly eccentric C90 Adventures, Nathan the Postman, Small Bike Stuff on the ideo side, and the ever-helpful Trail 125 Forum.