A look back at an Australian icon, the ‘postie bike’
January 22, 2018
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The good old ‘postie bike’ is the nickname the Australian public has fondly bestowed upon the Honda Super Cub. As the Honda Super Cub’s most popular customer is Australia Post, it was only a matter of time the bike was more commonly referred to as a ‘postie bike’.
When expecting mail or a parcel, did you ever wait to hear the sound of the bike’s economical engine coming from around the corner? Or hear someone yell out from another room in the house “can you check the mail? I think I heard the postie”?
The iconic Honda Super Cub even had a popular campaign in the US that helped Honda lift their brand name and give motorbike rides a better reputation, with the slogan “you meet the nicest people on a Honda” proving to be a hit. This campaign in the 1960’s featured what we now call the postie bike and helped boost sales of Honda’s from 40,000 units to 200,000 units in the US in a year[1].
Over the years our local Aussie postie has changed their sets of wheels from the CT100, to the Super Cub. The bike was originally used in the campaign “you meet the nicest people on a Honda”[2], which was also the popular model referred to in the Beach Boys song “little Honda”[3].
Since the beginning of the Super Cub (1958), Honda have now produced 100 million units worldwide[4]. That’s enough to give nearly everyone in Australia five postie bikes each, that’s a lot of mail delivered!
Apart from our local postie getting the most out of the Honda Super Cub, who else rides these bikes? Well the role of the postie bike has definitely changed in recent years. If it isn’t using them as a quick, cheap form of transportation around town or good for forming a “bike crew” with mates, there are Australian’s who have actually made the trek in the outback on their postie bike. Some trips have included the Simpson Desert and the Nullabor.
The postie bike continues to grow in clientele, especially after 2009 when Ken and James Stanford set themselves a challenge to complete a 3000km ride across Australia on their postie bike that was running on alcohol. You can read about their journey here. Now people do loads of different postie bike challenges around Australia.
But Honda’s biggest customer is still the postie or Australia Post who in fact send their bikes off to auction after 25,000kms or every three years – roughly[5]. So if you are looking to purchase the old faithful postie bike picking one up second hand is the way to go!
Where to start? At Manheim we auction off used postie bikes as part of our public auctions. This is your chance to get yourself a bargain with the latest auction of around 15 bikes going up for auction on Tuesday, January 30. For more details on this auction, please click here.
At Manheim we have regular auctions of the iconic bike, which you will find here.
[1]http://world.honda.com/history/challenge/1959establishingamericanhonda/page08.html
[2]http://theoldbloke.homestead.com/postie-bikes.html
[3]https://classic-motorbikes.net/honda-super-cub-pack-leading-legend/
[4]http://autoweek.com/article/motorcycles/charming-mighty-honda-super-cub-has-sold-astounding-100-million-units-worldwide
