Tohatsu Arrows & Runpets

Probably the most common Tohatsu in the U. S. was (and is) the Runpet 50 Sport. The 1964 blue beauty shown here seems to be typical of the brand, but it is by far the best photo of any Tohatsu I have ever seen. That should be a hint as to how uncommon Tohatsus without a propeller really are!

The company began building small motorcycles in Japan in 1950, but of of course none were sent to this country until The Sixties. Although Tohatsu first sent its tiddlers here, the brand has become synonymous with small to medium displacement outboard motors from Japan. Tohatsu began building outboards for the home market in '56. Now they not only export them to the U. S., they build them for other companies who stick their own labels on them. You may be surprised to know that all current Mercurys of thirty horsepower or less are built by Tohatsu, and all Nissan outboards are built by Tohatsu and marketed in the U. S. under the familiar automobile brand.

As far as I know, Tohatsu tiddlers were imported by Hap Jones Distributing Company in San Francisco only in 1963 and '64, and all were two-strokes without oil inejction. There were only seven models that I have ever seen in brochures or advertised in cycle magazines, three 50cc Runpets and four 125cc Arrows.

The Runpet was a basic small motorcycle with 4.7 hp, downswept exhaust, dual seat, full front fender, and covered shock springs. The Runpet Sport featured abbreviated fenders and seat and a 15:1 compression that boosted the power to 6.8. There was a Trailmaster model with the base engine, higher bars, large luggage rack and a humongous rear sprocket. All the Tohatsu 50's used three-speed transmissions.

There were four 125cc models, the fourth of which was a derivative of the other three that I'm not sure if and when it was actually imported. The 125's were called Arrows and all had electric starters. The basic model was a single-cylinder, four-speed with full fenders and covered shocks. Next up was the Twin Arrow, strangely enough, the same motorcycle in a twin-cylinder configuration. The top of the line was the Sport 125, featuring uncovered rear springs, abbreviated fenders, low bars, 18/17-inch tires instead of the 16's of the lesser Arrows, and 17 hp aided by a five-speed tranny. These three 125's are shown, along with the Runpets, in what I am generally certain is a 1963 full-line brochure.

Advertised in the July 1963 issue of Cycle World is a somewhat different 125cc Sport. This one is referred to as an LE-type, whereas the aforementioned Sport is called an LD-3A type. This model is noted as having 15 hp, instead of the ten of the Arrow Single, the twelve of the Twin Arrow, or the seventeen of the other 125 Sport. In appearance this model has the long seat, covered rear springs, and Western bars of the slower models. with the tank, fenders, and uncovered chain of the, shall I say, sportier Sport. Who knows where that last two horsepower went, but the ad touts this as being the brand-new model designed for the U. S. market. My best guess is that my brochure is an earlier release than the ad. The company must have thought that what Americans wanted at the time was a bike that looked a little more like a Honda Benly Touring 150 than a Ducati Diana. They may have been right at that brief moment in time, but we grew up fast and Tohatsu motorcyles quickly disappeared from the market.