It was Honda's first scooter and would be competing with the well established Fuji Rabbit and Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon.

It featured the first electric start, a full windscreen with a tilt-back sun-shade, and built-in signal lamps.

Kihachiro Kawashima, who retired as executive vice-president in 1979, remembered the bike as a "splendid failure": it was too expensive, the engine overheated, the FRP body was heavier than expected and made the bike underpowered and clumsy, the new cantilevered suspension was problematic, and customers did not like the motorcycle-style clutch operation.

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.

Unlike the K-series, there is no upper windscreen, the engine is an exposed horizontal-twin rather than an enclosed fan-cooled unit, and the body construction is conventional monocoque steel rather than FRP panels over tube.