Something I love in Asia (not just where live in Thailand but all over) is the love of classic scooters. In Thailand and Indonesia where I have spent most of my time they are prolific and it seems in recent years there has been a renewed interest in the restoration and preservation of these beautiful classic scooters from the the 70s and back. And nowadays the iconic Honda Super Cub has been re-released more or less along the same design style of the bike that dominated to market in the 60s and 70s. Lets have a little comparison.....
A Honda Super Cub from sometime in the 60s (maybe 70s I cant tell):
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/boo66/25969930061
Now lets compare it to the newly released Super Cubs. How badass do they look yet defo following the same style!
Source: https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/
When I started seeing them more and more in my travels around Thailand during covid my interest was peaked. Then suddenly I saw one for sale on my buddy's facebook feed and I called him up. Dude I said - I want that bike. So he cut me an OK deal and funnily enough rode it to the post office and sent it to me. From Chiang Mai to Phuket. Heres the bike when it arrived. This is literally how it arrived at the post office in Phuket. All wrapped in cardboard...:_
I unwrapped it and was super excited to see it was in reasonable condition but for sure needed some work and detailing. I got it started and drove her home....:)
I started scouring the internet for ideas on how best to pimp my little C70. I didn't want to go overboard and customize it beyond her classic style. It's a popular bike to customize and as much as I love the results of some of these bikes I wanted to keep it classic.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/K.speed.net
She is from 1979 and the guy I bought it from had already done a pretty nice job on restoring the paint work and the engine was running nicely. I decided to do the following. Some of this was aesthetic and some of it maintenance.
Change out the checkered seat cover for tan leather.
Add chunky white wall tyres.
Replace the plastic wind guard.
Repaint the engine black.
Replace the handlebar grips.
Replace the speedometer.
Put a new front basket.
Add silver trim to the fairings.
Replace all the wiring.
New carburetor.
New battery.
New lights.
New indicators.
New ignition.
So after the work was done this is what I ended up with......
I was pretty happy with it but had one last final detail! I wanted to put a skateboard rack on it. So I had it made of stainless steel and then bought some leather bicycle tape.....:)
Pretty cool right? I was super happy with it so decided to do a little promo shoot with it for my skateboard business. I got my best friends son to be a cool model along with a cool skater chic!
I love my C70. I ride it most days but never much further than my local bar or to grab some something from the local minimart.
I got three pretty nice bikes now. I ride the small ones every day and keep the big bike for heading off the island. I think my C70 may be my favourite. Everywhere I go I get thumbs up from Thais and farang alike. Even the police love it because I got it fully registered and insured...:)
