True Classics: Honda Juno K-Type

HONDA’s Juno K-Type made its debut in January 1954. It had the world’s first self-starter on a two-wheeled vehicle and a large, all-weather windscreen which was further equipped with turn-signal lights, another first. It was practically the scooter version of an automobile. An especially original feature was its FRP body panels. FRP is a plastic reinforced with polyester and glass fiber, and at that time it was a brand-new material. The first vehicle to use it had been the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, of which only about three hundred were produced, and mass-production techniques using this material were still under development, even in the United States. Only 5,980 were produced.
Technology developed for the Juno K would be applied to later bikes. The electric start was re-introduced with the C71 Dream in 1957, and the new Plastics department under Shozo Tsuchida developed polyethylene components that would distinguish the Super Cub...