It’s hard to turn heads astride the most popular motorcycle ever produced. But it’s a challenge Aussie custom moto house Deus Ex Machina was happy to accept.
Their newest creation goes by Firefly, and it’s a mod of a ‘61 Honda Super Cub — the only bike that can claim to have moved more units than any motor-propelled two-wheeler there ever was.
Matthew Roberts, Deus Japan’s director of motorcycle operations, based the Firefly’s compact body — which only measures 4.5 inches at its widest point — on old school GP and TT bikes. The bike’s fuel supply, battery, coil and electrics have been reworked with precision and a new “spartan tuck-roll” rider’s perch, but Roberts opted to keep the original C105 speedometer as a nod to the Super Cub’s 57-year heritage.
Equally capable of competing on the track or in the street, the Firefly’s look sent “historians running to the archives in search of reference to a long lost racing prototype,” according to Deus. Roberts didn’t build the Firefly just to look good, and there are plans for the bike, which features a handmade alloy top bridge, stoplight and rear sets, to race in Japan’s pre-1964 series.
Given it’s the only one in existence, let’s hope it doesn’t swap too much paint in the trenches.
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