HONDA could be about to revive its iconic Dax minibike, as the name ST125 has been protected in trademark filings this month.
The Dax is a bike that will be very familiar to readers of a certain age, to those younger readers amongst us, think of it like the Grom of the 60s and 70s. The original bikes were known as the Dax in Europe and Japan, although the actual model designation was the ST series and it covered ST50, ST70, and ST90 models. Each bike featured an air-cooled single-cylinder OHV engine and a pressed steel T-bone frame. Fast it wasn’t, but it did garner something of a cult following in its heyday and joined a fleet of other mini-bikes and small capacity motorcycles of the time.
The latest trademark filing from Honda points to the firm reviving this machine, although given it is being called an ST125, it seems feasible for the new bike to use the 125cc single-cylinder engine as found in the latest generation MSX125 Grom models.
It’s not just these filings that point to a return of the model, across the pond the name Trailsport has also been protected. This was the name under which the ST90 Dax was sold in North America, further adding to the theory that the model is about to make a comeback.
If the model does indeed borrow the engine from the Grom and CT125 models, it’ll be producing around 10bhp and 7.7lb-ft of torque from the two-valve engine. The gearbox could be a four or five-speed ‘box, with either semi-auto ‘crash-gears’ (as found on the CT125) or the manual set-up of the Grom.
