Cub on Nanikore

(Epic) Shonan Cub Meeting – November 2025

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 03:43:39 +0000

A few months back I posted about the Shonan Cub Riders owners group having a meet-up. It was a nice little gathering in a small car-park near the beach, with a small flow of owners and some very cool bikes in and out.

I do follow their X posts, and though I’m not a heavy X user, I did see the update of the ‘Vol.2’ event, albeit in a different car park, so I marked the date and decided I’d drop in.

If we approximate, let’s say there were about 70-80 people at the first event at a given time.

At Vol.2, there must have been between 800 and 1000. Maybe more.

I thought it might be a little larger as the carpark was larger, but I was not expecting what I found - literally hundred of bikes, hundreds of all manner of Cubs, some vendors, and a lot of people! Fantastic.

I managed to get a parking spot - and the organisers really had done some prep for just the parking - and got to spend a couple of hours walking around, checking out the bikes, talking to people, buying some stickers and even playing some games for wataame (candy floss) someone had just decided to do for the sake of it.

Cub owners really are something else. I got talking to one chap who had added huge headlights to a couple of Cubs, and walked me through the bracket set up, which was quite ingenious. There was every modification, every bit of bling, and every adaptation you could think of. Anime Cubs, low suspension Cubs, stripped down to wire and frame Cubs - a Cub to take skiing caught my eye though I couldn’t find the owner to talk to as that really got me thinking about taking my Cub snowboarding.

Everyone I spoke to was great - friendly, enthusiastic and keen to talk about what was going on. I spoke to an organiser who said some people had come down from Gunma and Tottori prefectures - that’s a fair distance for a weekend meet up. I should return the favour some time.

I could go on, but instead I’ll leave you with some photos. If you have a Cub and would like to attend, check out their X account the associated FaceBook (and LINE).

Shonan Cub Meeting - April 2025

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 10:47:42 +0000

Whenever I’m in their area I stop by a small coffee shop where the owner’s main passions are music and motorbikes. Some of his guitars adorn the walls and he’s got a few bikes both inside and out of the place, including an old Super Cub and a CL90.

I was in there one afternoon on my Hunter Cub having a very decent scone and cup of tea (yes, very British I know), and the owner mentioned they’d be closing for a morning the next weekend as they’d be attending a user group meet-up which was open to all.

This is the Shonan Cub group ( FaceBook), and now and then they meet up for a few hours down in Chigasaki in a gravel car park near the famous South Beach ‘C’ installation.

Despite the rain that morning, I decided I’d pop down and I’m glad I did. There was a stream of people coming and going for the hour I was there, but there must have been an average of sixty or seventy machines parked up at any one time. Some were, like mine, quite stock, but these are Japanese enthusiasts, so I expected a myriad of mods and I wasn’t disappointed.

Many were very practical or tongue in cheek, acknowledging that the Cub ethos is adventure on a budget, so many ’top boxes’ were self made - a bit like my old one - and there were a lot of stickers, sandals, caps any everything else attached to the machines.

Many had rally stickers on them (e.g. SSTR), many had screens, bags, boxes and other stuff, some bare, some sporting some very nice paintwork. One had three brake calipers on each wheel to deal with the supercharger (?) they’d fitted. Yeahhhh right.

People were very friendly; I got some great advice on that SSTR application since it’s on my Japan bucket list, and I could at least exchange tales of my coast to coast from last year since I’m new to this Cub world, bit this is a place for fun stories of things going well, and things not so well, but most mods had their own stories.

Of course, I had to pick some stickers up, and I had to put one on the bike because that’s just how things are done. Essentially this was a big wet car park of enthusiastic men and women showing their bikes, talking about rides, and then getting out on the road, which is how it should be! It was definitely worth going to, and I’m watching their social media for the next event.

Was there anything missing? A cup of tea or coffee wouldn’t hurt, but then I always say that.

Definitely take time to look our for these owner group meetings if you’re something of a solo rider - there’s definitely fun to be had, but also a lot of things to learn too.

Massive Shonan Cub Meet Up

6 months with the Hunter Cub

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 11:35:16 +0000

It’s difficult to believe, but it’s a little over 6 months since I bought my 125cc Honda 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.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Jacob — 2024-11-01

I’m a motorcycle enthusiast living in Kansai, great to find your blog. Been saving up for a gently used CT125, to use as a daily commuter and compliment my trusty SV650. I also have no experience off-road but always wanted to give it a go, seems like a perfect way for a street rider to dip a toe into a bit of dirt. If your adventures take you through western Japan, let’s ride!

gurahamu — 2024-11-01

Thanks! Yes, going for the CT125 was an all around great decision (a change for me!) and it’s been even more fun than I expected. I’d certainly love to ride it - or the Tracer - around the west of Japan, I’ve heard great things!

Coast to Coast on the Cub

Mon, 06 May 2024 12:50:24 +0000

Another Golden Week, and another opportunity to ride from the Pacific Coast of Japan via just over 500Km of twisties to the Japan Sea - from Odawara to Joetsu - and just to add to the fun, this time I did it on my new 125cc Honda Hunter Cub.

The Twistybutt has always been an interesting 2 days because for me, no two have been the same and this time, trading in the Tracer for the Cub was going to make a huge difference for sure.

The Build Up

Preparation went pretty well, I’d been doing some runs through the Tsubaki line and around Hakone to get used to the Cub on winding slopes and learned a few things such as not completely rolling off the throttle uphill unless really necessary since it doesn’t have the world’s greatest pick up with 9 horses, and perhaps because of the riding position and the nature of the bike and its tyres, going down steep corners with any kind of speed can be a little nerve wracking at times.

Aside from that, it’s a fun bike to ride in the twisties once you get a bit of practice in, so come the day I felt relatively well prepped.

Maps are always fun, and as always the biker brains over at TE issued the routes for both the 500Km and 650Km routes. Don’t ask me about the 650Km option - I’ve never done it, and likely never will (until I finally prep for an 18 hour day…really, how does anyone do 650Km of this?)

I mention maps because you need to know how maps, map files, map apps and devices and all that work before you turn up. I have a bit of a page about it here.

On the day…

24-meet-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

So at dawn - near 5am - we gathered. For me that mean’t almost an hours riding the backstreets mostly in the dark - no fast toll roads or expressways for us mere 125cc riders. Fortunately again the weather was great - and more on that later.

One of the great things about this ride is that each year you get to see those people who you haven’t seen for a while, and it’s not uncommon to make a team on the morning - in fact I was planning to ride with one friend, and another person I knew was there, but their riding partner had to drop out due to sickness, so we invited him along, though with the massive caveat that I was going to be on 125cc time. Speaking of the Cub, there is actually a pretty active contingent each year, and I was kind of honoured to be asked to ride with them, but I know their pace, and as a Cubster newbie, I knew I wasn’t going to keep up with them. Maybe next year … maybe next year.

…and we’re off.

Being on a slower bike, and just being a relatively slower rider, I’m used to and quite comfortable waving the quicker riders past me, and this year was no different. There’s a lot of talented people around for sure.

It’s always nice to get those first 50Km under your belt, and a couple of hours of riding to warm up for the veritable all you can eat twisty-fest for the day. For our small group, we munched along taking in the side view of old man Fuji, winding up to the Tenkachaya tea shop. It wasn’t open of course, but it’s a breath taking view on any day.

24-tenkachaya-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

Following that, it’s down into Kofu and some suburban riding, before getting back into the mountains again, and that’s the model for many hours - beautiful landscapes when you can take your eyes off the next corner which is likely only a few metres away, with the exception of some of the farmlands, which can have what looks like a whole kilometre of straight road, which is an odd sight anywhere on the main island of Honshu.

24-roadvid-07.jpg" alt="" caption=""

As you can see from the photos, the weather was superb - in fact it was a little too superb - up to 28degrees C at times in the valleys. At stops for fuel and convenience stops, we were opening jacket vents and checking layers, aware that the highest point of the trip was yet to come and it can indeed get chilly.

As it was, we moved on, just that endless ribbon of asphalt of varying levels of quality streaming past, and we were making decent time for a low capacity lead bike - I figured that since it was me causing the other two to be so slow, I should at least take point and make sure we were on the route, so the others could enjoy the view a little more.

It’s also worth noting that on any group tour, there’s always that person who doesn’t cancel his signal / indicator / winker in a timely fashion, and I’m ashamed to say that this year I was that person. It’s one thing I need to work on with the Cub - the light is just out of your vertical peripheral vision and is completely silent and along with a switch which sometimes in gloves doesn’t cancel means I have to work on that!

The Top

It’s such a long ride you get to see all manner of different vistas, and one of my favourites is just north of Kusatsu and the 292 road as it climbs through broken volcanic areas - complete with shelters - with the remains of the winters snow still at the sides. Coming up from the south side of the range, climbing through the snow walls to the highest point of any national road in Japan. Of course, I had to take a photo of the Cub there - it had earned it (I got one of the Tracer in the same place, several years ago).

24-highpoint-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

Even though there’s quite a few upward hills still to climb, this sort of marks the top of the trip, and you feel like it’s downhill from here, with about three hours riding left to go, which would mean doing the last serious set of twisties through the fields in the darkness, but we’ll get to that.

Unexpectedly, it wasn’t that cold up at the top either, so once we got down to the Yamanouchi village - a place I usually come through on the way to snowboard trips - we stopped for a bit longer, checked our layers, and prepared for that one last push.

These last sections are rural - the road quality is generally good but there are virtually no street lights, safety barriers or other road markers, and as there are almost no [cats-eyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_eye_(road%29) in Japan, its dark and you really have to stay focussed for these last twisties, which is its own challenge given we’d now been on the road for twelve hours.

This illustrated another issue with the Cub - it’s lights, including full-beam aren’t great - it’s fine for urban and sub-urban riding, but it could do with a little more lumens, so that’s on the future mod list. Fortunately, having two other riders meant that between us we could easily illuminate enough of the road, and we weren’t exactly charging through and could take our time and enjoy it.

I even enjoyed that random metre of gravel across the road in the middle of nowhere - at least there was a sign!

24-roadvid-16.jpg" alt="" caption=""

Down into Joetsu

Just after this it levelled out a little, through a stretch of farmland, then it’s on to Route 18 and into the town of Joetsu and the hotel.

If there’d been some daylight, I might have done the beach, but I’ve been there in the dark before and … well, it’s just dark!

24-roadvid-17.jpg" alt="" caption=""

In total then it had taken us 14 hours from Odawara to Joetsu, and it had been thankfully stress free, and there’d been no incidents, which is always good news.

There’s usually a few beers being drunk at the usual hotel bars, but for me, it was time to just sort my gear out and get some sleep - another long day tomorrow!

24-hotel-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

The Day After

Of course going to Joetsu is one thing, but what to do the next day? How to get home? Quite a few people continue the tour and take a few more days to ride around the nearby mountains or head up the coast. Usually I’d do some expressway, then jump off, check out some twisties and repeat all the way back home, but of course this time that wasn’t an option as the Cub can’t go on expressways by law, and so I knew I was staring at around 420Km of main roads, and potential traffic jams on the way back with it being [Golden Week](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan%29).

One other tradition of sorts for some of the Twistybutters is the morning meet up at Starbucks. Yes, it’s quite tongue in cheek to kick of the next day at the home of the BMW GS riders! Joking of course, but we do meet up, have a morning beverage before we all go our seperate ways.

For me, I followed Route 18 south, then cut through to Chino City, Route 20 a hop over to Gotemba and then Odawara and home - quickly said, but another 11 hours of riding. There was a little traffic, but actually I was quite pleased and surprised how little there was, so it was a fun ride. I rode with a friend for the first half, before he made for the expressway to try to get home himself at a reasonable hour and I finished again in darkness, but a decent sense of accomplishment.

So there we are, another Twistybutt - good riding, good times and good people. Also, knowing I could use my Cub for this kind of thing is nice to know.

Till next year…

24-hotel-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-meet-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-tenkachaya-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-highpoint-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-sbucks-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-01.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-02-fuji1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-03-train.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-04-fuji2.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-05-fuji3.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-06.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-07.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-08.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-09.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-10.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-11.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-12.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-13-1024x682.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-14.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-15.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-16.jpg" alt="" caption=""

24-roadvid-17.jpg" alt="" caption=""

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

C — 2024-05-06

Brilliant G! Well done.

gurahamu — 2024-05-10

Thanks C, and thanks for pulling together this fun ‘challenge’.

Top Box on the Hunter Cub

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 14:31:53 +0000

I wanted to add a bit of storage for my Hunter Cub, but not something which would get in the way when I wasn’t using it, and not something which would make it awkward when I’d be wearing a backpack, or getting a tent on the storage plate when needed, between me and a box.

After trawling container websites, I went for a 20litre folding box from local company Captain Stag. I even found one in black to sort-of match the bike. It folds down to about 7cm high, is quite thick and durable, and has latches on the top to stop it flying open.

Installation

I made a template sized to the bottom of the box made from a couple of sheets of paper taped together (no expense spared), and marked on the 4 * M6 / Pitch 1.0 positions.

box-template1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

I then taped this again to the bottom of the box and then slowly drilled the holes. By a stroke of luck, none of the holes impacted the thicker support struts and in the end were pretty much spot on which surprised me - the most I was out was about 0.5mm, so I slightly widened the hole, which wasn’t an issue.

siliconemat1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

I then cut a silicone mat to fit the interface size of the box to the plate, to try to prevent any scratching or vibration, and marked the screw holes in it too. After the above photo I trimmed the top part to stop it hanging down anywhere near the exhaust. I then mounted the box and mat, and it all lined up!

I used the 30mm M6 screws with a cut piece of silicone as a washer between the plastic box and the 25mm M6 steel washers to try to avoid the washers biting in the the plastic.

For the bolts, 30mm seemed to be about the correct length, since from the bottom of the internal storage area, to the actual bottom of the box was about 15mm. I’d previously tested tested that the side-walls could swing with the bolts in place since I’d seen a forum post where someone tried a similar thing with zip ties, and in that design they couldn’t collapse the box easily.

boxscrews1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

I’m mostly happy with the outcome, and it should work fine with a 20L dry bag for smal lgrocery runs and camping supplies, so objective completed.

box-folded1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

The one obvious issue is that the four holes are more central, being designed for something taking up the whole plate, but it seems to be pretty sturdy and in some testing over the last weekend, didn’t seem to have any issues or vibration, so I’m going to mark this as DONE.

siliconemat1-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

box-template1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

boxscrews1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

box-normal1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

box-folded1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

Honda Hunter Cub CT-125 First Impressions

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 13:25:53 +0000

Some news indeed. I have recently taken ownership of a 2024 Honda Hunter Cub ( CT-125) in Turmeric Yellow, as Honda calls it.

Firstly, no, I have not sold the Tracer, but now has a stable mate. I have a stable. I am now a multiple bike owner for the first time in my life.

I’ve had the Tracer for 7 years and honestly it does pretty much everything I need in a motorbike and nothing else in that format has really caught my eye, but there’s a couple of things I want to do more of, and which there are better options for:

Simple around town errand running. It’s fun to do on the Tracer, but it isn’t that fuel efficient in stop-go traffic. It’s not what it likes doing.
Getting a little more off-road onto gravel and broken up roads - I’ve done it on the Tracer, but between the tyres and its size and weight, it’s not always fun, but it’s something I’d like to spend a bit more time on.

Like the Tracer, the Hunter Cub is tremendous fun but it’s a different kind of fun for sure.

cub-famima1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

What is a Hunter Cub?

The Hunter Cub (or the Trail 125 as it’s known in other markets) is a member of the storied Honda Cub line, which tracks its lineage back to the late 1950s. The Hunter Cub comes from a few years later when a mid-west US dealer was selling a mass of Cubs by replacing some parts and tyres and selling them as farm bikes. The rest is history.

I’ve wanted to own a Cub for a long, long time, and there are plenty of options to go at. There are the 50cc varieties, and nowadays multiple 100cc+ versions - the Super Cub and the Cross Cub both appealed, but I’ve long liked the Hunter’s stripped down, more rugged design - though the Cross Cub isn’t far behind and is cheaper.

Here in Japan, in early 2024, there isn’t much of a price difference between used Hunter Cubs and new ones - 10-15% on the road. I spent quite a few months checking places out as I planned to buy used to stay under budget, but then one day wandering through GooBikes, I found a local dealer selling some on the road below MSRP, and below many used bike prices, so I went down to confirm, and walked out with my yellow CT-125. The red is by far the more popular colour, but having seen the yellow in person, I liked it, and it’s nice an visible, which is no bad thing on a smaller bike!

These are first impressions as I’ve put about 200Km on the clock (break-in is apparently 500Km for this bike).

That Transmission

It’s semi automatic, so no clutch lever, 4 gears, but the fun part is that neutral is at the top, and you kick down into 1,2,3,4. You can then either toe it up, or kick the heel lever to go up. That took some learning.

The chap in the shop mentioned that more experienced riders tended to take about 20Km to get used to it, especially coming down, which was my experience too. He also mentioned the engine braking in 2nd and 1st is quite aggressive - as I found out. However, as you’d expect, it becomes second nature pretty quickly, and you realise there’s more scope and feel for that foot shifter than there is on a manually clutched bike, so it’s sometimes worth being smoother and gentler than one might usually be.

Regular petrol

More of a personal one this. In Japan, petrol (gasoline) comes in two main flavours, regular and high octane. My Tracer drinks the latter. The Cub wants the former. Just have to remember that on those early morning refills.

It has a fuel gauge too, with six segments on the LCD display, so I need to learn its quirks and what exactly each of those segments represent. We’ve all had gauges which took a long old time to hit half, but then that second half seemed to disappear pretty quickly. Specs claim ~ 60Km/litre, but I’m heavier than most, so we’ll see how I get on.

Odo has a decimal point!

OK, this one is really minor, but for the first couple of days I kept double checking. The odometre for trips has a decimal point. That’s to be expected for a 125cc I think, but coming from a larger bike, I wasn’t expecting the extra digit.

On the subject of the instrument panel, it’s not bad. Not so easy to see some details in direct sunlight, but the useful things like speed and neutral aren’t bad. It also seems very far away compared to the dash on larger bikes. Not an issue, but not having it in lower peripheral vision means you really have look down for it. There’s no gear indicator, but since it’s semi-automatic and so virtually impossible to stall, going by feel and a light for neutral is pretty much all you need.

Installing USB was easy

For a number of reasons I wanted a USB charger, and quite a few scooters come with them. The Hunter Cub doesn’t but the mod is cheap (~3,500yen) and installation took less than 10mins including tea sipping. The wiring harness in the front light has been designed via a plug system to have things daisy-chained off it, and it’s a short run for the socket to a built-in mounting point near the ignition. Simple.

I understand that the battery is a little awkward to wire to, so it seems many utility mods can go on that daisy chain.

cub-headlamp-1.jpg" alt="" caption=""

Mounts and ‘mods’.

A couple of notes; not negatives, but notes nonetheless. There’s no helmet lock. You can add one, and I suspect I will since it’s one of things you don’t think about until it’s not there.

The Ram mount for holding my navigation smartphone sits nicely on the handlebar without too much trouble, so that can be re-used between the two bikes. I was thinking about getting an additional bar across the handlebar for more space, but right now I’ve dropped that plan.

Finally, and perhaps most obviously given that huge platform on the back of the bike, I’m going to put a box on the back. This version house some basic mounting screws, so I’ll make a plate and just bolt on a sturdy cargo box for now, and keep it cheap - no need for a Givi style case.

Around Town

As hoped and expected, it’s been great around town - so light, tiny turning circle, and can pop through gaps in traffic, it’s great. Of course I have to be aware it doesn’t take off like the Tracer, so turning at junctions I need to give myself that little bit more time.

Oddly, I was also offered theft insurance for it, which I’ve never had before here in Japan, and the shop highly recommended keeping it locked, which is easily done. I also got a non-descript cover as I’ve always done for my bikes since that is something of a deterrent as well.

So there we are. I’m excited to put some more distance on it, and I’m seriously thinking about doing the coast to coast this year on it, as I know quite a few people have managed it, so that’s the next goal.