Honda has brought back the Trail Cub

At the Tokyo Motor Show last year Honda showed a cool little concept bike that looked like a revival of the 1980 CT110. Also known as Trail Cub or Hunter Cub, the original was a more rugged version of the venerable Super Cub for light off-road duty. Honda said the concept was merely there to gauge customer reaction. Customer reaction must have been quite good, because Honda has just announced it’s going into production.

The original debuted overseas first before being sold in Japan, and garnered a well-deserved reputation as an outdoorsman’s bike, favored by nature lovers, hunters, mail carriers in remote areas, and even aid workers. Although its Japanese sales spanned just 1981-83 and US sales ceased in 1986, it continued to be sold in some parts of the world until 2012.

The CT125 shares a same powertrain as the recently updated Super Cub 125 and Monkey 125. However, it’s tuned for more low-end torque (8.1 lb-ft at 4500 rpm versus 7.4 at 5000 for the Super Cub), at the expense of some horsepower (8.7 versus 9.5 for the Super Cub) for better performance on unpaved surfaces. It has a bit more suspension travel (4.3 inches of travel versus the Super Cub’s 3.5) and more rugged, exposed shocks.

Visually, there’s quite a bit of difference with the Super Cub. Obviously, it does away with the Super Cub’s trademark fairing, favoring an exposed look with the addition of a crash bars to protect the engine. The front fender is utilitarian rather than sculpted, and rear fender is shorter. The wheels retain the original’s wire spoke and pattern, and wear knobbier tires as well. The exhaust routes up for clearance, and the rear end is capped off with a larger luggage rack.

It’s the ideal vehicle for escaping into the wild, which might come in pretty handy right now. Social distancing? It has a larger 1.4 gallon fuel tank (versus the Super Cub’s 1.0-gallon capacity) to help you get even further away from civilization. The extra equipment raises weight by about 24 pounds, to 264, but according to Japanese testing cycles it has an estimated range of about 220 miles.

The CT125 goes on sale in Japan on June 26. Though it hasn’t been officially announced for the US, Honda has trademarked the Hunter 125 and Hunter Cub names with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Super Cub and Monkey have made it here, and the CT125 seems likely to follow.

Images courtesy of Honda.