VOLUME 57 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 1, 2020 P67
"It was a brilliant little machine," Mc-
Cormack said to writer Aaron Frank in
his book, Honda Motorcycles. "It worked
so well because it was light and with the
automatic clutch you could climb logs. To
do that on a big bike, you had to have a
certain amount of skill. I saw lots of pos-
sibility for something like Herb was doing,
selling it as a bike that you could go in the
woods and hunt or fish with."
McCormack was so enthused about
Uhl's 50 that he sent it back to Honda's
home base in Japan demanding a pro-
duction version. Honda, being the small
and nimble company they once were be-
fore becoming the conglomerate they are
today, obliged and created the CA100T
Trail 50 for the 1961 model year.
Like the Cub/Super Cub, the CT
became a motorcycle that could take
you to the farthest reaches of the earth
on barely the smell of an oily rag. In the
60 years since the first CA100T Trail 50
landed here in the U.S., there's only been
five model updates—1964 for the CT200
Trail 90, 1969's CT70 Trail 70, 1981 saw
the introduction of the CT110, and 2021
for the new CT125 Trail 125 ABS.
The bones of 60 years of CT's still
reside in the 125. The ride position has
barely changed in 40 years.
