You meet the nicest people ...

FrankenHonda - '83 Honda C70 Passport with bigger Lifan Engine

It's important to have goals in life and one of mine is to stay physically active, so I made a commitment to run and cycle more. One part of my exercise strategy involves getting a new folding bike, that takes money, I'm not independently wealthy, and so something had to go. Unfortunately it was my beloved 1983 Honda C70 Passport. The fact is that I was seldom riding this scooter, so I posted it for sale online. Within two days, it had gone to a new home.

Those in the know immediately recognize the Honda Passport (aka C70, aka SuperCub) as a legendary product. Over 60 million of these vehicles were made since their introduction in 1958 making the C70, by some estimates, the most produced motor vehicle in history. The C70 is dirt-simple, ridiculosly reliable, cheap to operate, and so indestructible it should have been illegal. By the mid 1960's, Honda's ground-breaking advertising campaign "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" had forever changed the way Americans looked at motorcycles and showed how powerful lifestyle marketing could be.

My particular Passport was one of the last made and sold in the US, though the C70 continues to be made and marketed in other countries. My particular C70 had been outfitted with a more powerful, aftermarket Lifan engine. This didn't really change this simple, classic, reliable scooter, though it did make my FrankenHonda more powerful and flexible.

Honda has a history of getting it right, making a great product, have it develop a loyal following, only to discontinue it. The SuperCub C70 scooter as well as CR-X and 1st generation Insight automobiles are just a few examples. Discontinuing these products may have been a marketing decision or a matter of economics, but the beauty of these designs is that they are still recognized and appreciated for the cool products that they are.

Symba - C70 Cub knockoff with a few improvements, same classic style

As for the future of the SuperCub, there are some knock-off products available. Some folks consider the Symba better than the original SuperCub. In 2009, Honda showed off an EV-Cub, a concept electric scooter styled after the SuperCub. The media gushed that the EV-Cub could become a successful consumer product by 2010, but so far it seems to have remained only a concept. No matter. All those original Passports still have a loyal following. And the scooters themselves? They just keep going, and going, and going ...

Honda EV-Cub