Honda Monkey And Super Cub 125 Customs Hit SEMA

Two totally reworked custom mini-motos make the scene at SEMA 2019

Monkey fan Arthur Yang ordered a re-styled Monkey when it first came out a couple of years ago and planned a complete makeover before he even got the bike.Courtesy American Honda Motor Co.

With the 2019 SEMA Show kicking off this week, Honda announced some pretty wicked custom projects that it’ll be showing at the premier automotive specialty products event, including some heavily modified versions of our favorite models. Team Red’s SEMA exhibit is also gonna take the opportunity to celebrate the company's 60th anniversary in the US.

Monkey fan Arthur Yang ordered a re-styled Monkey when it first came out a couple of years ago and planned a complete makeover before he even got the bike.Courtesy American Honda Motor Co.

Saru Monkey Overview

"Saru" means monkey in Japanese and it's clear that "Saru With Love" builder Arthur Yang is a big fan of Honda's quirky little miniMOTO machine. When he first saw photos of the throwback model, he immediately placed an order at his local dealership, and began collecting the components and planning mods even before receiving the bike that'd be the platform for his "Saru With Love" project. This modded-out Monkey features numerous aftermarket enhancements from Over Racing including forged aluminum wheels, a titanium exhaust system, aluminum swingarm, CNC side-plate covers, and an Over Racing handlebar system. The suspension has been refitted using Öhlins components, with a Chimera Engineering ram intake, Kitaco seat, and Asia-spec light conversion that completes the package.

Steady Garage has been responsible for a number of Honda customs over the years, and this latest Super Cub build doesn’t disappoint.Courtesy American Honda Motor Co.

City Slicker Overview

The City Slicker Super Cub bears almost no resemblance to the bike that inspired it, the Honda Super Cub 125 introduced in 2017 (and the original from 1959). But that doesn’t mean it’s not killer; Southern California custom shop Steady Garage appreciated the model's appeal to multiple generations, and channeled that into their City Slicker build, which rocks out with chopped and shortened fenders floating over a retrofitted front suspension that uses aftermarket components designed for the Honda Ruckus. The C Custom hubs carry three-piece front and rear wheels, and a throaty Yoshimura GP-Magnum exhaust brings up the back, with a custom hazel-brown seat and two-tone green/off-white paint done by Midnight Garage/Advance Auto Group in San Gabriel Valley, California, to cap the whole thing off. The original Honda Super Cub is the world’s best-selling motorcycle of all time.

The City Slicker Super Cub sports chopped fenders, a retrofitted suspension, and three-piece wheels.Courtesy American Honda Motor Co.
This Chevy pickup is a dead ringer for the vehicle American Honda employees used for bike deliveries when the division first set up shop in America back in 1959.Courtesy American Honda Motor Co.

Heritage Chevy Truck overview

This 1961 Chevrolet half-ton pickup on display at the Honda booth at SEMA is a faithful reproduction of one of the delivery trucks used by American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (AHM) shortly after it first opened for business in Los Angeles back in 1959. The truck features hand-painted lettering and period-correct trim, and it carries two important motorcycles from those early days, helping recreate what the package looked like as salespeople traveled around the state to support their dealers. The 1965 Honda 50 in the bed helped put Honda on the map in the early 1960s, thanks to its low price and easy-to-ride nature, and the 1965 Honda CB160 was one of Honda’s early small-displacement sportbikes, and also a big hit for AHM.

The SEMA Show takes place November 5–8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.