Monday, May 20, 2013
Honda Motorcycle History
Company founder Soichiro Honda first began manufacturing piston rings before turning his attention to inexpensive motorcycles. Mr. Honda always had a passion for engineering, and this became evident by the wild sales success of his motorcycles in the 1960s and by competing head-to-head against the world’s best on racetracks. Today, Honda is a juggernaut, offering class-leading machines in most every category.
- 1906 : Soichiro Honda is born in Hamamatsu, Japan. His father owns a blacksmith shop that also repairs bicycles. As a young man, Honda is an apprentice in an automotive garage in Tokyo.
- 1928 : Honda returns to Hamamatsu to open his own auto repair shop. Enamored with speed, he builds his own race car.
- 1936 : Honda is injured in an auto racing accident.
- 1937 : He forms a company to manufacture piston rings. After a shaky start (owing mostly to his complete lack of formal training in metallurgy) his company becomes successful. He is a key supplier to Toyota, which starts manufacturing cars at about the same time.
- 1946 : Soichiro Honda sells his piston-ring business. Japan is struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy, after having been bombed flat at the end of WWII. Honda realizes the need for affordable transportation and begins grafting war-surplus two-stroke motors onto bicycles. (The motors had originally been intended for use on portable generators for military radios.)
- 1948 : Honda Motor Co. Ltd is incorporated. Soichiro Honda focuses on the engineering side of the business, while financial operations are controlled by Takeo Fujisawa.
- 1949 : The company produces its first real motorcycle, powered by a 98cc a two-stroke motor. When an employee sees the first one assembled and it is ridden outside the factory, he says, “It’s like a dream.” The name “Dream” was adopted for the bike, officially known as Model D.
- 1951 : Mr. Honda is infuriated by the noise, smell and fumes from the two-stroke motorbikes (including his own) that crowd Japanese city streets. In response, the company creates its first four-stroke motorcycle, the Dream E (146cc).
