Honda Motorcycles

It was with pride, passion and dedication to engineering and its perfection that the company founded by a dreamer Mr Soichiro Honda, whose dreams inspired those to create by establishing the Honda Technical Research Institue in October 1946 in Hamamatsu, Japan. The Institute initially developed and produced small 2-stroke engines that could be attached to a bicycle to create a motorcycle, this lead to Honda’s great success. Soichiro received enough capital from the 2-stroke to engineer his first motorcycle, the Honda Cub. This marked the beginning of Honda Motor Company, which would grow a short time later to be the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964.  Through Soichiro Honda’s dedication to achieve the ultimate engine, having done much of the market research himself travelling to races all over the world and examining the competiton’s motorcycles.  Soichiro Honda’s attitude took Honda motorcycles from a disappointing finish in their first international race in 1954 to a manufacturer’s team prize in the 1959 Isle of Man race in Honda’s first year at the race. Within the decade Honda was the class-leading motorbike manufacturer for Japan’s motorcycle industry with sales topping 285,000 units by 1959.Soichiro Honda became a well respected and influential businessman and is still to this day one of the twentieth century’s most inspirational stories, a self taught engineer he showed interest from an early age with helping his father to repair bicycles, becoming a car mechanic and participating in car and motorcycle races through to eventually opening his own repair shop at the age of 22.  It was when he met Takeo Fujisawa by chance that the two men shared a desire for long-term venture within the motor industry and the passion to advance mobility to the extreme.The company has assembly plants around the globe, their products include automobiles, motorcycles, robotics to supplying original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Honda parts and accessories. At its peak in 1982, Honda manufactured almost 3 million motorcycles.  Honda’s success is due to the adaptability and hard work of its team and its global commitments to the environment and enhancing safety in a mobile society.  Honda are active in motorsports, like Motorcycle Grand Prix, Superbike racing and others.   Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) was formed in 1982. The company combines participation in motorcycle races throughout the world with the development of high potential racing machines.  Its racing activities are an important source for the creation of leading edge technologies used in the development of Honda motorcycles.  While always having powerful engines, it took until 1961 for Honda to tune their chassis well enough to allow Mike Hailwood to claim their first Grand Prix victories in the 125 and 250cc classes. Hailwood would later pick up their first senior TT wins in 1966 and 1967. Honda’s race bikes were known for their “sleek & stylish design” and exotic engine configurations, such as the 5-cylinder, 22,000 rpm, 125 cc bike and their 6-cylinder 250 cc and 380 cc bikes.In 1979, Honda returned to Grand Prix motorcycle racing with their exotic, monocoque-framed, four-stroke NR500. The NR500 featured elongated cylinders each with 8 valves and with connecting rods in pairs, in an attempt to comply with the FIM rules which limited engines to four cylinders. Honda engineered the elongated cylinders in an effort to provide the valveinant two-stroke racers. Unfortunately, it seemed Honda tried to accomplish too much at one time and the experiment failed. For the 1982 season, Honda debuted their first two stroke race bike, the NS500 and in 1983, Honda won their first 500 cc Grand Prix World Championship with Freddie Spencer. Since then, Honda has become a dominant marque in motorcycle Grand Prix racing, winning a plethora of top level titles with riders such as Valentino Rossi, Mick Doohan, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Josh Brookes.Honda’s official slogan is “The Power of Dreams”. They have never used this slogan to sell their products. Mr. Honda’s belief is that well built products will sell themselves.