Image : Honda Japan

Honda has pretty much always owned the small bike market, and the Honda Cub has always been at the top of the pile with over 100 million units sold since production started in 1958. The most recent major revamp of the Super Cub saw it inherit the 125cc engine from its Grom and Monkey siblings. It’s a great throwback look with a knee fairing and around town sensibilities. But it’s not quite up to the rigors of a post-coronavirus-apocalypse world. That’s where the new CT125 Hunter Cub comes in.


Unveiled as a concept last fall, the CT125 brings back the 1970s Honda Trail looks we all grew up loving. While it will officially be unveiled during Honda’s Virtual Motorcycle Show launch program this weekend, the diminutive 125cc joint has already been loaded to Honda Japan’s powersports website, along with all of the specifications that make it unique.


Based on the same frame and powertrain as the C125 Super Cub you can buy at a Honda dealer right now, the Hunter Cub strips back some of the features and bodywork that won’t be necessary in an off-road environment. It also adds some extra fuel capacity, suspension travel, a high-mount exhaust, and additional protection for the engine.

Without the Super’s fairing, the Hunter looks much more rugged with exposed wiring, engine, and exhaust. It’s clearly been built in the traditional Honda Trail image. With 1.4 gallons of fuel onboard, and considering the Super’s ability to stretch a single gallon to nearly 100 miles, look for a pretty long range from very little fuel. Add in the wire wheels with trail tires, a slightly longer wheelbase, and 4.3 inches of suspension travel (versus the Super’s 3.5 inches), this should be able to go pretty far off the beaten trail.

After the world has been decimated from the virus we’re currently battling, humans are bound to become a more nomadic and disjointed species. We will stay isolated from each other as society collapses, and many of the more intrepid among us will straddle a competent and reasonably priced two-wheeled Honda trail. Hop on a little Honda Trail and head for the woods for the day, week, year.


Honda has clearly thought ahead here, marketing directly to those of us who will still be alive as we’ve managed to completely self-isolate. Ride off into the wilderness, head down to a body of water somewhere, sleep on a pad under a tarp, carry a big axe, and learn how to clean a fish and cook it on a camp fire. I will miss humanity, my old life, and these here blogs, but we all do what we must to survive.


The Hunter Cub is rated at 8.7 horsepower, which is slightly less than the 9.5-ish horsepower in the Grom, Monkey, and Super Cub. Likely this is a consideration for the nasty low rating fuels available in many of the countries where this bike will be extremely successful. Backing up that engine is a four-speed automatic transmission.

I’ll take mine in Matte Fresco Brown—as shown above—because it’ll blend into the extra-urban surroundings quite a bit better than the other color option, Glowing Red. This bike is expected to hit streets in June of 2020 across Japan before later introductions across the rest of the remaining world.


Honda has not yet indicated that the bike will make it to the U.S. market, but being that we already have its direct siblings, it seems a no brainer. The bike is set to sell for 440,000 yen in Japan, which equates to about $4,000. That seems about right, as it is a few thousand yen more than the Super Cub and Monkey in Japan, which are priced at $3,649 and $3,999 respectively here in the States.