Honda Super Cub is undoubtedly one of the most popular and one of the most sold motorcycles in the world. It came in various engine displacements, but the 50cc bike was the most popular. It was one those machines that didn’t know how to die. With minimum maintenance and a lot of abuse, that 50cc motor turned out to be one of the all-time greats.
Also Read: Honda To Launch Electric Super Cub Bike In 2018
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This makes one think, what if they make a return in Pakistan one day? In most parts of the city, public transportation is not that great. A city like Karachi with more than 20 million population, people need a cheap and reliable ride to go about for their work on daily basis. Public transportation infrastructure in Karachi is in an abysmal state. So naturally people turned to the cheapest possible ride, the 70cc bikes. There are a boatload of cheap 70cc Chinese bikes in the market nowadays. They are cheap and run pretty much okay – it’s another debate how long are they going to last. But the point is, if you are after a cheapest possible ride that can take you from point A to point B on busy roads of our metropolis, why not get a 50cc bike.
Also Read: Girl Power: A Vespa’s Journey From A Scooter To A Car
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Here are few points in the favour of a cheap 50cc motorcycle I could think of:
Cheaper to run
The best part of these small bikes are they are cheap to run. If a 70cc bike is going to do something like 50km/l realistically, the 50cc moped, or bike is going to do more than 60km in a litre. And considering the fuel prices are mostly on the rise in Pakistan, a cheap to run bike is always going to be in demand.
Easy to maintain
Such small bikes are very easy to maintain. Keeping them on the road is far cheaper than other bikes. Their spare parts are arguably also less expensive. Also, if you have a little know-how of the engine, you can do the basic tuning and maintenance of the 50cc motorcycles yourself. Also, they are easy to park due to their size.
More comfortable for women bike rider
Although women bike riders in Pakistan are in far less numbers, the introduction of 50cc bikes or mopeds can increase this number to a large extent. Most of these moped or bikes with 50cc engines are automatic or semi-automatic. That makes them perfect for women who find it hard to manage the conventional sequential gearbox and a manual clutch of ordinary bikes. New 50cc bikes and mopeds are stylish and look good as well.
Lightweight
50cc bikes are very light weight, lighter than a 70cc bike, hence easier for the rider to ride in the heavy city traffic. Being light means they are easier to manoeuvre and handle in the start-stop city traffic. You can easily take side roads, and dirt tracks in case you are stuck in a jam to cut all the traffic.
Tax and registration
Because of their small engine capacity, 50cc bikes can be very cheap to register and tax. In fact, the government should give some sort of rebate to new 50cc bike owners.
Believe it or not, we did have these 50cc motorcycles in Pakistan. And Honda Super Cub was the one with the most presence. Whether it’s Honda or Vespa, it would be great to see these 50cc bikes once again in Pakistan.
No way karachi has 20m population.
ur not from Pakistan , right ?
we DESPERATELY need these. since the govt is already lagging behind in offering cheap cars and stuff like that…
esp those with batteries (i.e the Electric versions) . since those do NOT need petrol and can be charged easily through any plug in socket , as easy as you charge your smartphones.
50cc bikes are so popular in India and are used on a massive basis by male and female riders alike !
really hope to see these return one day !
The article has multiple problems.
1. It discusses Karachi, Karachi and only Karachi. What about the other 90% population of the country?
2. Traffic needs speed parity. If speed parity is not present, it creates problems such as slowing down everybody, increased risk of accidents, etc. Already the 70cc have difficulty keeping up with the traffic.
3. Easy to maintain, this part is right, as the Honda 50 came with the 3-spd gearbox, it cannot make use of the 4th gear because the engine does not generate enough power at the low RPM the 4th gear enables. Therefore, less parts, less maintenance, of course of the quality of material is constant. Otherwise a ship engine is more reliable than poorly-built door lock.
4. Easy to park: Unrelated to engine size. The same chassis can have a 50, 70, 100, 110, 125 engine. Unless we are talking about those cruiser bikes that have 1000cc engines and the chassis is also as big as a car.
5. More comfortable for women driver: No logic for this statement. The same chassis can be made skirt-friendly. Putting a 70cc engine in Honda 50 chassis is a common alteration, which gives a front basket and in the absence of basket, is skirt friendly.
The absurdity of this statement is supreme. Having a 50cc engine would somehow make it more women-friendly.
Another point mentioned is about automatic gear. May the writer know that auto gear demands larger engine? The way it is put in the article, it makes us believe 70/100/110cc engine and auto gear are somehow mutually exclusive. That only 50cc can have auto gear while the others could not.
6. For the same bike and same chassis, how would a 50cc engine vs 70cc engine make the bike noticeably lighter? Granted that 50cc would come with a lighter gearbox too, but still, the difference could easily be made up by drivers/riders of different weight.
7. Easy to maneuver in the start-stop traffic? With that painfully slow pickup, would it be easier or frustrating?
8. Dirt tracks? In some dirt, 70cc and 110cc get stuck and the engine cannot keep the wheel moving enough, so the rider has to get off, dirty his/her shoes and drag the bike out, whereas 125cc can easily tackle it due to higher power, and the wider tyres that this higher power enables.
9. Because of their smaller engine capacity, how much cheaper to register and tax would a 50cc be than a 70cc? Thousands of rupees? Hundereds of rupees? Or virtually no difference? Why not quantify?
10. Government should give rebate? But why?
11. And why the targeting of 50cc? Why not 40cc? Why not 30? Why not 20? Why not 10?
Well, 24 million as of 2015.
Take a bow sir! Your comment itself is worth publishing as an article!
Hi Bro…Greetings from across the border!
Regarding electric vehicles – they pollute way more than normal petrol powered vehicles since majority of power generated from developing country like ours are from coal. Secondly, the batteries are costly and will burn a big hole in our pockets while replacing one(As high as 30% of the vehicle’s original cost). And the best part when it comes to countries like ours – resale value. They can’t be sold off at all as no one is ready to buy those. Also, it can’t keep pace with the speed of the moving traffic thus slowing down everyone on the road!
Regarding 50cc bikes being famous in India – Yes, they were once very popular, may be in the 90’s. Not anymore since those went out of production before 20 years. Also, we don’t have any vehicle’s engine capacity less than 100 cc on sale currently.
Also, majority of 50 cc bikes being two strokes, they are completely banned from sale.
Greeting brother 🙂
well , it seems i MIGHT have mistaken the 50cc for the scooties. iirc , they look very similar to these and are used alot in India , right ?
im basically in favour of those scooties … maybe i confused em with these.
good points bro
Vespas are 150cc, Raja. This blog confuses me. What do we need again, 50cc mopeds or scooters?
Hi buddy! Yeah, they are very similar to the ones mentioned here. These vehicles like in the below pic has engine coupled with CVT gear box that it’s a breeze to ride in city traffic.
yeah … this baby (the bike , not the gal 😀 ) is what im talking about.
so they’re basically double the CCs ? and they’re all CVTs ?
what about the fuel options ?
In the rest of the world, 250-500cc is the fairly standard displacement for bikes. We’re using, literally, a 8-year-old-kids’ bike engine (70cc) in an adult bike! That’s why it’s a safety problem riding our bikes at, for instance, 80 km/h that shouldn’t be the case. Get over of your myopia!
Yeah, the scooter engine options vary from 100cc(the above scooty) to 150cc (modern vespa scooters). Fuel – all petrol ones and mated to CVT gear box. Recently ARAI has developed a CNG kit for two-wheelers, don’t know how the public will respond.
Bonus – That gal 😛 is Anam hashmi, the first woman to reach the highest motorable road – khar dung la pass with that scooty in that pic. 😀 The whole trip was sponsored by TVS. Lucky girl… 🙁
i’d like that CNG kit to go with one of the modern vespas 😀
that’d be a GREAT concept.
petrol is sort of expensive , atleast here in Pakistan altho we have seen some price stability recently.
good thing CVT is common trait for all , no space for variation in price due to gear options.
thanks for the bonus tho , lucky gal indeed 😀 !
Those CNG kits can be retro fitted to any two Wheeler without voiding the warranty.
Well done for STEALING my ARTICLE. I submitted this article for review on 19-June-2016, it’s still pending and RAJA KHAWAR has “successfully” rewritten my article. Where’s ADMIN? Is this your CULTURE? Do you like PLAGIARISM? It takes HOURS for a writer to think about a specific unique topic and you steal it in seconds. I DEMAND PakWheels admin please UNPUBLISH it immidiatly or I’ll assume that you ENCOURAGE plagiarism!
Actually he stole my article but he never knew that Vespa is 150cc. He wants to become famous but he doesn’t know journalism ethics
Actually he stole my article but he never knew that Vespa is 150cc. He wants to become famous but he doesn’t know journalism ethics
Have a look at ORIGINAL article which is still pending.
Please read my ORIGINAL article, he’s STOLEN it from WordPress. Then you’ll have idea why he’s so confused because he just STOLE it, he’s only good at stealing things he is not a writer!
This was my article which has been STOLEN and badly RAPPED. Please have a look at this one