Let’s see a show of hands for those folks who thought that Hodaka was a Japanese motorcycle company? It was actually based in eastern Oregon but they did import bikes and/or engines for bikes and they’re fairly rare today. This 1976 Hodaka Wombat 125 can be found listed here on eBay in Fenton, Missouri. The current bid price is $1,250 but the reserve isn’t met yet. I almost called this one “Rare Rodent” but a wombat is a marsupial not a rodent, from the region where our own Adam Clarke lives: Tasmania.
I thought that I would be nabbing this one but the seller’s listing doesn’t have one single word on the condition or anything about this bike at all, which is very unusual. I called them and got less than favorable information about its operating condition other than “yes, it apparently runs”. Then I ran across this Mecum listing from May of 2021 when this bike sold for $990. When the bids reached $1,200 I was out, given the recent sales price and adding another $800 for shipping. I have to admit, the phone brush-off didn’t help matters.
Pacific Basin Trading Company (PABATCO) based in Athena, Oregon designed most of its motorcycle offerings, often using engines purchased overseas. They were a company that was formed to do business trading Oregon farm goods to overseas companies and they latched onto the Hodaka company which made engines. The company made bikes from 1964 to 1978 and they have a rabid following today. This one has a 5-speed, weighs 200 pounds, and holds just under a gallon of gas – hopefully non-ethynol!
You can see that his example has a lot of surface rust on it, a lot. That was another one of my worries in grabbing this one. It looks like it was restored and then left outside in Florida for a decade, I’m not quite sure what happened with it, why the painted parts look like new but so many other parts are incredibly rusty. I like my bikes to be jewel boxes so that would have been a lot of restoration work and with a dozen or so already stacked up in the queue, adding one more just didn’t make sense. Hagerty is at $1,100 for a #4 fair condition bike and given the rust and unknown operating condition, I’d be around there, maybe $1,500. They list a #3 good condition Wombat 125 as being worth $2,600.
PABATCO was bought out by Shell Oil and when the motorcycle division stopped being a fun little diversion – i.e., Japanese bike makers hit the US hard with imports and the US dollar vs. the yen wasn’t profitable anymore, they shut down Hodaka. What a shame. This bike has Hodaka’s 123 CC 12.5-horsepower single-cylinder and the seller says… er.. crickets. I guess it runs. I would have loved to own this one but it wasn’t meant to be. Have any of you owned a Hodaka?
I have heard the name but never seen a bike. Thanks for the story Scotty.
These were kind of popular in my town.
These seemed to be everywhere in the
late ’60’s/early ’70’s.They sold new for a lot less
than the major company’s bikes.
There’s a guy in Harlowton,Montana that had
a whole bunch of these in his shop,in varying condition.
His business was Snowy Mountain Trading Post.I’m
not sure it’s still there or not.
I always liked Pabatco’s advertisements – in one,
they announced the new “Four Slicer”,in reference to
the toaster looking gas tanks on their bikes.
Late 60s? That’s odd, considering they weren’t on the market until late ’73. Here in the PNW they were fairly common for awhile.
I was referring to the Ace 90’s,100’s.
I had one of these that a neighbor gave me in the late 80s, in that color.
What I remember most were the plastics. Genuine Preston Petty, labeled as such, thicker and tougher than any other off road bike plastics that I’ve seen to this day.
Somewhere I still have the front wheel and tire and the front fender.
I recycled the seat to make another oddball bike more comfortable, that being a 1976 Honda TL125. Fit almost perfectly after bending the tabs on the bottom of the Hodaka seat inward. Then secured with zip ties as devised by my clever teenage mind.
I had a all Crome wombat in the early 80s and I believe it was a 175 but I don’t know for sure about that. I do know that it was able to jump out from underneath you very easily
Hodaka are cool, rare.
Some neat small displacement enduros in the 70s. I had a late 70s dt175 yamaha for a while, very fun little bike for sight seeing.
Irill had a super rat in the mid 70s it was parts and pieces but got together-but never got it to run(i was 16-17 years at the time and never really knew what i was doing)I,m 61 now anw learned much. Wish i had that bike now. I,m just finishing a 1971 viloit(plumcrazy with dodge-same color) duster twister but i,m doing the 340 look blacked out hood with the big 340 wedge sticker. I got a rally dash and the sharttooth grill. Back in highschool my coolist car was a 71 ragon red 340 duster so its my trubute to that car-but its such a great body/but a real fc7 car. I did a 70 440 cuda years ago foude it silver-but open the trunk and wa-la it was a plumcrazy car. I didnt like the color but when i painted it-WOW what car! I got pulled over i day by a big dude driving red 7o hemi cuda- he gave me a card-his name and title president of the n/w mopar club.They had no purple mopars in the club and invited me. I went and 2nd in most popular car and got a trophy and sommeother stuff-lets just say i felt like a proud papa!! This duster will even be Beter anI really wish i had a pic to show since i am always on this sitedthe last big build and it stays with me for ever as best i can
I had a ’70 Hodaka Ace 100. It was my first bike. I must have been about 13 when I bought it from a friend for $20. The shift pattern was odd. 1 up and 4 down.
My Brother and I pooled our Confirmation money and bought a Hodaka Ace 100 on a Bonanza mini bike frame, it was well used when we bought it. Had to put a new magneto on it but it ran good after that. Had a lot of fun on that little thing.
Didn’t they also make a Combat Wombat and another called a Dirt Squirt ?
And the Super Rat.
Yes I had a Combat Wombat Moto Cross Racer, and they had Hop up Kits with Reed Ports and You could bore them as far as .60 Over Weisco Race Ported Pistons made a Hella bunch faster enough you’d start ripping the Transmissions out.. accept they were easy to rebuild all functions. But as a Moto crosser the Suspension had to be the all-time worst even though I didn’t know that till I saved up and Bought a New 73 YZ 125 Yamaha. that Most now would say not so great suspension.either
Wombats
Ace 100’s were able to be quick same trannys
and Their newest a maybe last was The 125 Road Toad Made with a much Larger tank with enduro tires full lighting of course
came In an Ugly Frog Green and a Image of a Frog Face seems we all said Oh NO Way to The Road Toad.!!
Hodaka was a Japanese tooling company, and these were a joint effort between Hodaka and PABATCO, and is credited with the trail bike offerings in 1964. I never knew the PABATCO part, and they were actually quite popular, almost a cult like attraction that still exists today. It’s a great find, seems like all my crazy purchases happen in April for some reason, so the temptation is strong with something like this, just not a ring ding. They were tough little bikes, for sure, and why you rarely see one today. Most riders got their start on these, and only went to something bigger when these broke in half. Many, I’m sure, still lie at the bottom of the “junk pile”. Just try and find another,,the junk pile is where I’d start.
Wow – nice find Scotty, and a ton of background I never knew. My memory is a bit foggy but I recall a friend’s family having one in an olive drab color, and it may have been the first motorcycle I ever rode. We took turns putting around the yard until one of the kids got confused on the throttle and popped a wheelie into the side of their house LOL. I would have said it was Japanese for sure, so you got me on that one. Thanks for bringing this to our hallowed halls, and kicking loose some cobwebs in my dusty mental archives.
I traded for a Wombat 125 around 1975. It didn’t run and I never heard it run before I traded it on. I was in high school at the time I didn’t know how to get it running and my parents weren’t interested in me having a running motorcycle. Unfortunately I didn’t learn how to work on motors until I graduated college 6 years later. Then in 82 I got my first motorcycle a Honda XR250 that was fun until I nearly killed myself and then passed it on too!
I went through a phase of restoring 70s dirt bikes awhile back. It was fun. They don’t require a lot of investment or space, they were pretty easy to sell, and you can usually do a full resto in a matter of weeks, which is pretty gratifying.
I owned a handful of Wombats back in the day, older than this, the ones with the chrome fuel tanks and fenders. Super easy to keep running. I rode in the mud a lot so I carried enough tools to remove and clean the shift mechanism out on the trail. Fun bikes!
I drove an orange tank 74-75 super rat for years, back when life was different. Mine came with stand barely broke in for 475 in 76, minibikes, speedway 100, and this the crown jewel. The first time i gave it the gas it came over on me, was super loud, I didn’t care, we took it in lakes pits, you used yo be able to ride in sanpits and aside of the road, more than one cop flashed a badge to me and my partner who had an xr75, we ran from everyone, sometimes walking back an hour later to see the Staties still waiting for us. While it didnt have todays suspension, it did offer a lower center of gravity. Instead of a skid plate you had the tuned exhaust, which had to get pounded back as you hit stuff. I broke everything on it, Sold it for junk and bought another one for 800$ 20 years ago, the super combat was the 125 cc version pf yhe super rat. I outgunned my uncles cr125 in a pit, we played follow the leader and i was the leader till i crashed on a hill, then the next bike crashed i to me and another right on top, that was a bad part of follow the leader. Went pff cloff broke collarbone, it sat in the rain till i healed up. Great bikes, great times , i went to recreate my childhood only to find landowners insisting there was No Trail, and i was way loud and had the fear of an old man( dangerous) we had it made back then , one guy put up a wire on a trail and caught me in the helmet and knocked me off my bike, dodnt dlow me down, my kickstarter k ee and hip would never be the same, wouldn’t change s thing
You sure don’t see too many Hodakas these days.
My favorite was the Hodaka Road Toad. Street legal enduro bike.
Great and truly unique names for the Hodaka line.
Wow. This bike has drawn some of the strangest posts I have seen. Rambling, misspellings, poor grammar, off topic, bizarre. People, please post but make it somewhat readable for us. Spellcheck anyone?
This other Rick completely agrees with you.
Rick, remember what the date is today . .
HAHAHA. Good one.
Look, we’ve been over this and over this, we’re not grammar students and I happen to encourage the bizzare and off topic, what do you think an item like this will generate? I’m the worst offender, but in case it simply irritates the heck out of you, I suggest you move on. We’re gearheads, truck drivers and generally, most barely graduated HS, and are the ones that usually partook in these activities. We weren’t pushing a pencil somewhere, or teaching a class. You can have your opinions, but you “grammar freaks” never add anything to the item being featured, like you just have to say something, aend, thhhet, griends, me gearz,,much more than the misspellings and such.
In the early ’70s, when you could open your garage door and go riding just about anywhere, motorcycle manufacturers sold over 1M bikes a year, many of which were Hodakas.
It was a real golden age of motorcycling, which quickly was killed by the joyless eco-nazis, EPA, expanding population, etc.
A Hodaka was many people’s first bike. Affordable, easily modifiable, reliable, and simply fun, they were a great way to get started.
Agree with Rick. Lots of expounding on Hodakas by folks who don’t know anything about them. The bikes aren’t all that rare – head up to Athena, Oregon for Hodaka Days in the summer and you’ll see more than you can imagine.
Hodakas didn’t “break in half” – they were prized precisely because of their durability and reliability. I have two in my collection – a ’76 Road Toad and a ’74 Dirt Squirt. Great fun, great little bikes.
I had an Ace 90 when in the early 70s I was 12 years old. I literally rode the wheels off of that bike! Learned a lot about keeping a 2 stroke running that served me well in my early adult years desert and motocross racing.
So many fond yet terrifying memories of that little Hodaka!
I grew up on Hodaka bikes with the chrome tank. I’m sure I read that they were made by Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Subaru. I couldn’t believe they went out of production when they did because they were so popular, but maybe that was just the result of a good local promoter here. Even still, most old farm houses here have an old Hodaka frame and tank leaning against a shed. Those engines were also popular to be placed on go-carts.
Never got around to trading in my 250 Yamaha Enduro on a Hodaka Combat Wombat to go with my Norton Comando but alas some dreams remain unfulfilled – Hodaka had the bsolute best model names.
Yes that make and Rickman we’re around my area in Ma. I think I did ride one in the early 1970.
I had a Hodaka 100 as a kid.
Hodakas were pretty popular in Southern California in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and the hills where Six Flags Magic Mountain now stands were once buzzing with the sounds of the Ace 100, Bultacos, and Honda Trail 70’s.
Athena … south of Milton-Freewater, OH-ree-gon
“most barely graduated HS”. Yeah, and flunked English and composition. I say if you can’t tolerate a well written comment, maybe you should move on. Reading yours is an exercise in futility. You may want to look up the words: composition and futility.
Auction update: this one made it to $1,725 and didn’t meet the reserve. Bummer.
I just bought a Hodaka 125 Wombat, my question is do I have to mix the gas and oil separately or does that model and year have oil injections?
Funny, I’ve got one in my backyard right now. Seriously. A customer abandoned it at my shop 3+ years ago. I better look into getting a mechanics lien so I can title it.
I know this is an old post but, was wondering? Ever get the title for that bike? I am not a collector or in the business. Just an old guy approaching retirement who would love a project like that. Road a lot of dirt bikes in the late 60’s early 70’s. My favorite was a Hodaka Super Combat. I was the bike to beat for about a week at our local riding spot until a kid showed up with a 125 Elsinore. That bike was fast! But even so, that Hodaka was no slouch! Either way, I know my Doctor would say it’s a very bad idea but, would love an old 2 stroke enduro to fix up and ride!
I have a restored 1977 125cc Wombat if your interested
I finally heard from the customer about 2-3 months ago. He said he was going to come get it then haven’t heard from him since. His storage bill is getting hefty. I’ve had several offers on it.
Not really interested in one thats already been restored. Kind of want to play with that myself. Spent my life as an auto tech and have enjoyed riding street bikes for most of that time. Am interested in Mr. Conover’s bike tho. Would love to see some pics, maybe find out what kind of offers you have had, where the bike is located etc. .
I puchased a hodaka 125 in 1973 loved it keep it for a couple of year’s my neighbor next door growing up he had a ace 90 and it is still in operation today by his son.