# Anyone have a hodaka MTB?



## dansjustchillin (Apr 8, 2004)

i've had one hanging in my garage for ages and i've never seen or even heard of another one.


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## Guitar Ted (Jan 14, 2004)

Me thinks Hodaka is a Taiwanese manufacturer of bicycles. Pretty good reputation for higher quality stuff. I think the late model Breezer mtb's were made there. At any rate, lots of people are riding bikes welded up by them with other folks design/name on them. I didn't know that they put out anything under their own name.


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## dansjustchillin (Apr 8, 2004)

Guitar Ted said:


> Me thinks Hodaka is a Taiwanese manufacturer of bicycles. Pretty good reputation for higher quality stuff. I think the late model Breezer mtb's were made there. At any rate, lots of people are riding bikes welded up by them with other folks design/name on them. I didn't know that they put out anything under their own name.


hodaka used to make motorcycles from what i understand.


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## Guitar Ted (Jan 14, 2004)

dansjustchillin said:


> hodaka used to make motorcycles from what i understand.


Yeah! Your right! There is that possibility, as well.


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## cyclodan (Feb 15, 2004)

Look here...
http://www.johnsvintagebikes.com/sold/hodaka_slides/
and here...
http://www.hodaka.com.tw/bikes.htm
They do some pretty high end stuff today for markets allover the globe. I believe they build some Tomac models. Maybe did some of the last Breezer MTBs too.
As motor cycles go, they had a famous 125cc "Combat Wombat" that used to dominate the 250 class in the late 60's.


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## Jeroen (Jan 12, 2004)

Hodaka is actually Giant that welds frames for others.

They made/make frames for:

-Breezer
-Scott
-VooDoo
-Lappierre

And lots and lots of more smaller brands that are wellknown and big in some smaller regions over here in Europe like Santos, Cube etc... 

Hodaka is one of the biggest framebuilders in the world and sit aside Kinesis for instance, concerning output's... They know how to make good frames... and quite a lot good frames in short time


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## dansjustchillin (Apr 8, 2004)

here it is in all it's glory.


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## bill (Dec 28, 2003)

*Not so sure that they dominated*



cyclodan said:


> Look here...
> http://www.johnsvintagebikes.com/sold/hodaka_slides/
> and here...
> http://www.hodaka.com.tw/bikes.htm
> ...


A friend of mine was a Hodaka dealer in the mid 70's when the Wombat and Combat Wombat models appeared and although they were decent bikes for trail riding they were far outclassed by Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki in power and handling.

bill


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## tl1 (Dec 21, 2003)

bill said:


> A friend of mine was a Hodaka dealer in the mid 70's when the Wombat and Combat Wombat models appeared and although they were decent bikes for trail riding they were far outclassed by Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki in power and handling.
> 
> bill


In the mid-70s yes but before then Hodakas were great, at least among 100 & 125cc bikes. The Hodakas were good handling, very reliable and reasonably fast machines in the 1960s and early 1970s unlike the other Japanese 125cc MXers of the day like the 1973 Suzuki TM-125 and '74 Yamaha YZ125 which had better stock power but flexy frames and crappy suspension. I owned a 1973 Suzuki TM-125 at the time which was slightly faster than a Hodaka 125 but handled worse.

When the Honda CR125M Elsinore was released in 1974 it blew everything out of the water without having to add any aftermarket parts of any kind, then Suzuki followed suit with its excellent long-travel RM-125 in 1975. After that, Hodaka and the Europeans were hard pressed to compete in 125s and many stopped selling bikes in the states or got out of the bike business completely. I believe similar things happened among 250cc bikes but I don't clearly remember all the details. Shortly after the mid-late 70s I got out of riding motorcycles.

That said, the Hodaka _were_ always good trail bikes that you could ride all day back into the woods and not worry have to worry too much about pushing or towing it back out. I wonder if it's the same company that builds bikes now that built the motorcycles then.


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## EBasil (Jan 30, 2004)

I know a guy that used to race flattrack on Hodaka motorcycles, back in the Bruce Penhall era. It was a pretty competitive brand in the 70's.


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## dansjustchillin (Apr 8, 2004)

here's a new picture of my hodaka. i'd still like to know more about it.


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## frankenbike (Mar 17, 2004)

Guitar Ted said:


> Me thinks Hodaka is a Taiwanese manufacturer of bicycles. Pretty good reputation for higher quality stuff. I think the late model Breezer mtb's were made there. ...


Right you are.

I had a Breezer Lightning from the final year and those are from the Hodaka factory.


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## Bigwheel (Jan 12, 2004)

High Gear is certainly an appropriate moniker for that bike. Check out that dinner plate chainring!


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## Tracerboy (Oct 13, 2002)

*Mid 80s,department store...*



dansjustchillin said:


> here's a new picture of my hodaka. i'd still like to know more about it.


Steel wheels,steel spoke protector.Nice paint and great condition by the looks of it.


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## jeffgothro (Mar 10, 2007)

dansjustchillin said:


> here's a new picture of my hodaka. i'd still like to know more about it.


Is that an 83-84 bike, I ask the year because the geo looks very out-dated. Its still a nice looking bike nonetheless.


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## DFA (Jan 26, 2004)

Guitar Ted said:


> I didn't know that they put out anything under their own name.


They made several motorcycles back in the 70s. Combat Wombat, Super Rat.......


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## Timmy (Jan 12, 2004)

DFA said:


> They made several motorcycles back in the 70s. Combat Wombat, Super Rat.......


My first motorcycle was a 1972 100cc DirtSquirt which was a smaller version of the Combat Wombat and yes... That gas tank is as potentially dangerous and painful as it looks.


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## sandmangts (Feb 16, 2004)

That exhaust looks like a skin graft waiting to happen. Cool bike though.


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## Oldfatbaldguy (Nov 4, 2010)

Hodaka motorcycles appeared around 1963; at first it was the brainchild of the president of the Pacific basin trading Co, who learned of a struggling small motorcycle maker in Japan, where they already procured some farm chemicals and other supplies. The first motorcycle company failed, but sales were so brisk that PABATCO soon organized another factory to assemble bikes from contract-supplied parts. Honda had yet to introduce the 90, and the 55 was woefully inadequate for most terrain...and a whole lot less fun. Because they were light and cheap, they developed a huge following, but disappeared around 1980; their business model was to keep making the same product for years to keep it cheap and simple. Most of their dealers were under-capitalized mom-and-pop shops unlikely to undertake their own ad campaigns, and by then American riders were looking for more...

PaBaTCo still exists, having been traded a number of times, as does Hodaka, but by the time Hodaka-branded bicycles appeared there was little relationship to the first incarnation. Kinda like the cheap Jeep mountainbikes...just a license fee to use a name.

I wish I could say I knew all about this from a deep well of personal knowledge. I read a lot of this in an old copy of "Cycle" magazine while I was supposed to be cleaning the basement last winter.


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## dansjustchillin (Apr 8, 2004)

jeffgothro said:


> Is that an 83-84 bike, I ask the year because the geo looks very out-dated. Its still a nice looking bike nonetheless.


It very well could be and probably is. I still don't have much info on the bike.


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## Glide the Clyde (Nov 12, 2009)

Seven years later, jeffgothro types "Hodaka" in the search box for giggles and kicks and up pops...


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## tl1 (Dec 21, 2003)

*Amazing how serviceable and fun that looks*



DFA said:


> They made several motorcycles back in the 70s. Combat Wombat, Super Rat.......


Compared to the Hodaka mountain bike.


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## rodster (Apr 11, 2005)

I remember seeing a Hodaka mountain bike at a discount chain store circa 1983. Pabatco (Pacific Basin Trading Company) designed and imported the Hodaka motorcycles. I speculate (no research done) that with the obsolescence of the motorcycle line vs the big 3 in Japan this might have been an effort to diversify.


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## KDXdog (Mar 15, 2007)

I have a couple old chrome Hodaka “toaster” gas tanks in my garage. They bring me back to the 70s, good memories.


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## rogerhodakamtb (11 mo ago)

i have hodaka tech fullsuspension MTB “vacanze 03”


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## Sparticus (Dec 28, 1999)

Sick!


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## joeduda (Jan 4, 2013)

My 1st dirt bike was a Hodaka 100 super rat. Wish I would have kept it.


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