I had my first motorcycle ride on the rear half of a gray Buddyseat with white side panels. It was attached to a 1960 Hi-Fi Blue Super 10 with Buckhorn handlebars, crash bars, and black leather saddlebags. This was also the machine on which I learned to drive a motorcycle down a residential back alley in North Greenwood, Mississippi. It was the Spring of '60 when I took that first passenger ride. I was twelve and it scared the dickens out of me when the pilot took that viciously fast machine through the backyard shrubbery at 20 mph! Hooooeeee! It was all over but the crying from that moment onward. Sure, I had been carefully drooling over the Allstate models in the Sears & Roebuck catalog since about 1955, but that was mostly because I so vividly despised pedaling! I lived in North Carrollton MS back then, a town located in hilly terrain. I had wheezed and panted up those hills in ninety-degree heat and humidity quite enough, thank you. My 26" J C Higgins felt like a boat anchor at my feet. I wanted to be motorized - I just did not really know what that would feel like. Besides, I was just a big chicken nerd anyway.
My best friend's older brother, who was away at college in France in 1960, had had a Harley-Davidson Hummer when he was back home in high school, so little brother went on a crusade to his parents for his own Hummer. The Hummer model was officially replaced in 1960 with the Super 10. I am uncertain of exactly all the detailed differences between a 1959 165cc and a 1960 Super 10, but I am sure there must be at least a few or the company would not have changed the name. The description that follows probably applies in practically all detail to all of the U.S.-built H-D tiddlers.
Unlike practically all other motorcycles, the kickstarter is on the left side of the machine. You approach from the left, hold the bike upright by the handlebars, and kick with your right foot while standing on your left. Of course you don't have to start it this way, but it never felt right to me to approach from the right. The side-stand is on the left and kicking with your left foot just feels weird. The next thing you notice is the large handgrips with a cross-hatch pattern. They feel as if they are made for big American hands, unlike the tiny grips on Hondas of the Sixties. This feature, along with the large seat and wheels, make even the scrawniest teenager feel like he is riding a real motorcycle. The '61 Super 10 and all of its descendants lost a little something when the company changed to 16-inch wheels. After the engine starts, you swing your leg over and feel the comfortable seating position. Pull in the large, straight, heavy clutch lever and push the left toe shifter down to the first of its measly three gears. You're about to notice the lack of a throttle return spring as you putt-putt away. If you are on relatively smooth streets you may not notice the lack of a rear suspension due to the comfort of the seat. The short-travel, Tele-Glide front suspension was relatively soft, too. Back then most Japanese bikes had short-travel rear shocks that were too stiff at the rear, in concert with leading-link front forks with limited travel, too. The difference in riding comfort between Japanese tiddlers of the period and the Super 10 was far less than you would expect, although many of the Hondas certainly were superior in the high-speed handling department. The speedometer has a big-bike look to it, too, and you know the gas tank was taken from this machine to the XLCH!
The second motorcycle I had a close encounter with was probably the Super 10's nemesis, the Honda 150 Benly Touring. Everything the Super 10 was, the Benly was not, and vice-versa. They both cost about $500 out the door and they were probably a high school kid's first graduation from a Schwinn. They were within 15cc of each other, but otherwise they were mortal enemies. The Super 10 had 19" wheels; the Benly had 16" ones. The Super 10 was started from the left and the Benly from the right, not to mention the starter button. The Super 10 had 1948 DKW single-cylinder, piston-port, mix-it-before-you-pour-it technology while the Benly was a SOHC twin. Honda probably fudged the advertised weight of 242 pounds like a fat lady, but that was still about 25 pounds porkier than the H-D. The 16.5 hp rating of the Benly was probably a stretch, but so was anything approaching 10 hp for the Super 10. Although the Honda would reach its 84-mph claimed top speed only if you pushed it out the back of a cargo plane, it would go 70-75 mph readily. The Super 10 lost its spunk at about 60 mph. The Honda Benly Touring represented the future and the Super 10 the past; or did it? Honda did later prove the Benly to be quite a basic toad with its single carburetor, basic cam, and leading-link front suspension. The CB-160 of five years later would join its brothers in the almost total takeover of the motorcycle market. What the Super 10 had tons of was style, image, and visceral appeal. Honda would finally figure this out twenty-five years later when it introduced one of its longest-running models, the 250 Rebel. And what exactly does a Rebel look like? A Super 10. And what does a Harley-Davidson Hugger of this millennium look like? A Super 10.
The Hi-Fi Red 1961 Super 10 shown in the photo is owned by Mac Chandler of Tontitown, Arkansas. Mac runs a specialty shop called Customs by Mac. Vintage Hummers and custom parts fabrication are a couple of his specialties. Pay him a visit!
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