Discovery channel has rated the Honda C50 Cub moped 1st in their greatest ever motorcycles show, and it certainly deserves its ranking after selling something like 50 million plus over the last 50 years. Plenty of other mopeds have sold in their millions like the Velo Solex or the Motobecane Mobylette, or the NSU Quickly, but the Honda was a technologically superior moped with 3 speed transmission and full suspension. In fact under its plastic façade the Honda C50 is a motorcycle that simply sold more than any other which is of course why it won. The runner up was Ducati which started out in the motorcycle business by bolting engines onto bicycles, number three was Honda again and they also made motorized bicycles before diversifying into everything with an engine, (almost). Also on the list was Triumph who found success with their NVT moped, and Moto Guzzi who sold their Trotter moped in the 1960’s, and their Robin moped in the 1970’s. Vespa of course which should have been higher came in at number eight with their PX125 scooter, why they chose this particular model beats me, everyone knows the best Vespa was the Ciao moped (not). Harley Davidson which came in last don’t mention the mopeds they sold to stay afloat during the 1970’s, maybe they should have released the Sportster moped after all. In all out of the top ten motorcycle marques featured, seven have from time to time found success by building and selling mopeds. Although Britten didn’t make mopeds, sixth place went to the Britten V1000 which was made right here in New Zealand. Anyway after awarding the 50cc Honda Cub the mantle of being the Greatest ever motorcycle they then proceeded in some bizarre expression of hate to destroy it by replacing its engine oil with old cooking oil, overloading it and generally trying to break it before finally giving up and dropping it from a crane, but of course they couldn’t kill it,(See video here). I doubt that Harley or Ducati would have received the same abuse had their machines achieved the top position, I mean they don’t go and kill the winner of American Idol, or execute the president when he wins an election, (or should I say they haven’t recently). On that note as we head toward the congressional elections and the price of oil is rocketing back to earth, this is good for everone but me so I guess it would be mean of me to wish for higher oil prices but in my dreams I saw oil passing through $100 a barrel and now its just over $60 and dropping fast, just shows what I know. It’s funny how everyone thinks the world is running out of oil so the price goes up to a point where it becomes worthwhile to look for more again, then six months later a huge new oil reserve is found in deep water off the gulf of Mexico, big enough to bring the US back to 50% self sufficiency again which is the same as turning the clock back to 1994. Its all about Peak Oil, a phenomenon some people are taking so seriously that they are building bunkers in Oregon to survive the predicted chaos should the Peak be realized. That might be taking things a bit too far but Peak Oil has reached the mainstream media with this Bloomberg article on Peak Oil which is something considering Bloomberg is a mainstream news channel that provides content to newspapers globally and the article as I read it comes out pro Peak Oil, well worth a read. Anyway it just means a few cents more or less to fill a moped, and mopeds have been around regardless of oil feast or famine. Mopeds aren’t really about economy although that is one of their many virtues, mopeds are all about fun and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Mopedguy
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