On sale in Mexico!! About $2,000 OTD. http://www.honda.mx/motos/supercub110/ Looks gorgeous in white. I'd love to have one.
And the mini site: http://www.honda.mx/motos/supercub110/minisitio/ Even with my limited Spanish, I know it's cool.
Nice, but it's not going to happen. You can buy it, and even bring it here, but you cannot register or insure it here. It does not meet DOT and EPA standards. I tried every way I could think of to buy a brand new air cooled VW bug when they were still building them in Mexico. I had an easy way to get it here, all I had to do was to have a Mexican citizen drive it across the border. But it would have been a huge paperweight. People have transferred the VIN plate from a U.S. bug to one of those, but if you get caught, you are looking at a few years in the federal pokey.
Yeah, until you get stopped by a cop, and the VIN does not match the plate. They check that here, mostly looking for stolen vehicles, but an unapproved vehicle with a fraudulent plate/registration would get you into a whole lot of trouble.
Here in Texas, they check if you have insurance. If you do, that's pretty much all that matters. I also don't know how you can get pulled over on that thing. It's pretty slow. Unless you make it look like this: Or this: Or even this:
You can and will get pulled over here on anything. They mainly target crotch rockets, but I have been pulled over on a Goldwing a couple of times. And they always run the VIN. We are very close to the Mexican border, and several Indian reservations. Vehicle theft is probably the most common crime here. And it doesn't have to be something fancy or expensive, they will steal anything. I had a ratty dual sport motorcycle stolen once, from a McDonald's parking lot, in the daytime.
Never let 'em take you alive, Jerry! We interrupt our regular programming for this live report from Channel 12's "Eye in the Sky"... "Thanks, Bob. The video you are seeing is a low speed chase of a curmudgeonly guy on a bootleg Honda scooter running from Sheriff Joe. The man is being chased down for suspicious behavior believed to be 'First Degree Fraudulent Importation of a Vehicle With Less Than 10 Horsepower'. The authorities have put out spike strips, but the scooter tires are so narrow that the perp was able to drive between the spikes. Hold it! It appears an officer has fired 6 warning shots into the perp's helmet. We understand that may not be a vital organ on those who ride on two wheels. Hold it, again! The perp has left I-10, after getting off the 101, and is riding through the desert. Sheriff Joe has decided to skip the usual helicopter pursuit and has launched one of the department's new missile-equipped drones... but, it appears that the little Honda doesn't put out enough of a heat signature to lock on. Wait - this just handed to me... not only is he suspected of the Fraudulent Importation, but it appears the perp is wearing an MX jersey instead of a mesh armored jacket. Obviously, an outlaw biker type. Whoa! He side-swiped a saguaro cactus - that's gotta hurt! He has ducked between the boulders in the Superstition Mountains. We'll have more on this as it unfolds. And now, back to "Days of Our Lives'."
As others have mentioned, buying a Sym Symba in Texas would be a lot easier w/o the hassles. http://alliancepowersports.com/find_dealer/ But either way, I applaud your desire to "stick it to the man" and bring one in from Mexico.
They actually sell Symbas here in AZ. I do not know what the difference in quality is between the Symba and the Cub from Mexico. They certainly have a very different look. But a Symba is not a Cub, as made by Honda. The only actual Cub I have ever seen was way back in the early '70s, so I remember nothing about it. It belonged to a neighbor. But in comparing the Honda Passport of the early '80s to the Symba, the Passport (which is the same as the Cub) is a sturdier, more substantial bike. I owned an '82 Passport for about a year and a half back in the mid '80s. I have looked at a few much more recently. I really want one, but I am just to big for them. I have also looked at the Symba. There is a definite quality difference between the two, with the made in Japan Honda being more solid, with many parts made out of heavier metal and plastic, the fit and finish is better (Honda is well known for their top quality fit and finish) the parts just seem to fit together better. I am not putting down the Symba. It has been proven to be tough when abused, but some problems have also shown up. I mean broken spokes? I have bent dirt bike wheels severely, and only bent the spokes. Broken spokes on an undamaged rim should be a very rare occurrence, and should not happen if the spokes are not allowed to become really loose. I have an early '70s VeloSolex moped that I destroyed two rear wheels on (broken spokes, bent rims, damaged holes in the soft aluminum hub) The cause of this was overloading. The Solex is designed to carry a max load of 165 pounds. I'm almost 60 pounds over that. It is now hanging on the wall in my bedroom as a display bike. Despite the Passport being to small for me to fit properly on, I doubt I would have any issues with broken spokes. There are also a number of less serious issues which were brought up on the SYM forum, like bad paint, rotted rubber, and rust on new bikes. I doubt that kind of thing was an issue on a new Passport. The above comments are my opinion only, based on my observations and the comments of others. I do not have any empirical evidence to prove any of it, so I won't argue about it. I have never ridden a Symba, and have not put enough miles on a Passport to know what might happen on a long trip. Believe it or not, the Maricopa County Sheriffs Department is the one law enforcement agency (if you could call it that) I have never been stopped by.
That's true! We even a have a motorcycle rally called the Republic of Texas Rally in Austin. http://www.rotrally.com/