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The History of Honda

The success of the world’s leading motorcycle manufacturer lies with its founder Soichiro Honda, an engineer who had a passion for motor racing. Honda established the Honda Technical Research Institute in 1946, manufacturing make-shift motorbikes using WWII-surplus engines. He attached these engines to proprietary push-bike frames and adapted them so they ran on turpentine as gas was in short supply. Being fuelled by turpentine meant that a degree of strenuous peddling was required to heat the engine sufficiently to get the bike moving. However, that didn’t deter people from buying them, and when his stock of engines was exhausted Honda started designing and building his own 50cc engine based on the surplus model he had been using. By the end of 1947, the company was making and selling its A-Type model, fondly known as the ‘Chimney’ due of the amount of smoke it emitted and its smell of turpentine!

In 1948 the company was renamed Honda Motor Company, and Soichiro Honda, then aged 41, teamed up with business executive Takeo Fujisawa who came on board to manage the company while the company’s founder concentrated on engineering.

That year the company introduced a 90cc version of the A-Type which was eventually transformed into the D-Type. Soichiro Honda was instrumental in all stages of designing and making this machine: it was his first bike and he called it the ‘Dream’ as with it he had realised his ambition to build a complete motorbike. This model went on to become the E-Type Dream, able to achieve 50mph. The Dream was an immediate success, and by the autumn of 1951, 130 copies were being produced each day. The first ‘Cub’ F-Type, a 50cc two-stroke engine was manufactured the following year, and soon accounted for 70 per cent of Japan’s motorcycle production.

Honda was almost ruined by an economical slump in Japan in 1953 triggered by the Korean War ending. The company managed to survive; sales of its Cub motors, used on bicycles, helping the company to stay afloat. Once over the worst, Honda introduced the 90cc four-stroke single motorcycle named the Benly, which translates as ‘convenience’ in Japanese. Over the following years, Honda manufactured several adaptations of both the Dream and Benly models incorporating various engine sizes up to 350cc.

Honda introduced its first twin-cylinder motorcycle in September 1957. The 250cc C70 Dream was the precursor to the company’s high-performance 125cc and 250cc twin models. The following year saw Honda modify the C70 Dream and the Benly, and produce two new motorcycles, the C71, and the C92, the latter able to achieve 70mph.

Around this time, the C100 Super Cub was released in Japan and became the world’s most successful motorcycle. This bike was in development for three years. Its specifications made motorcycling as simple as riding a push-bike, and due to its imaginative frame with no cross-bar, it also became popular with female riders. The Super Cub paved for way for commuter motorcycling, and the word ‘scooterette’ was introduced as a term for this new style of ‘step-through’ motorbike.

By the end of the 1950s, Honda was the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer with an annual turnover of 500,000 units. It was now time to venture a little further a field…

Surveys suggested that Europe and Southeast Asia offered the best marketing opportunities for Honda’s economical and easy-to-ride motorcycles. It was believed that America had little to offer in terms of market potential due to the country’s low annual motorcycle sales figures and the negative image motorcycling attracted in the States. However, Honda paid no heed to the surveys, and Kihachiro Kawashima was appointed Executive Vice President and General Manager of American Honda Motor Company in 1959. To help dispel the stereotypical image motorcycling had, Honda introduced the slogan ‘You meet the nicest people on a Honda’. While the big manufacturers at the time discounted Honda’s small bikes, the inexpensive Japanese imports attracted a new breed of rider to motorcycling and thereafter the industry was changed forever in America.

The first Honda motorcycle to be sold in the US was the C100 Super. This bike went on to become the world’s biggest selling vehicle with 30 million models having been sold to date. That today’s C50, C70, and C90 models bear only detail differences in comparison to their 25-year-old counterparts is a testament to Honda’s innovative concept and design.

Honda’s first motorbike to be showcased in Europe was the 250cc C72, which was introduced in Amsterdam in 1959. Meanwhile in the UK, Honda was able to meet the demands of learner riders who, having recently been prohibited from riding motorcycles with an engine capacity greater than 250cc, wanted to ride the fastest motorcycles they legally could: the Honda C72 could achieve 80mph while performing 66 miles to the gallon.

In June 1959, Honda’s racing team came to the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) race, which was then the most popular motorcycling event in the world. This was the first time a team from Japan had entered and they left with only the manufacturer’s prize. Two years later, however, the team stormed the Isle of Man TT race taking the top five positions in the 125cc and 250cc classes. The name Honda became known throughout the world and its export sales rocketed as a result.

By the mid-1960s, Honda had seized 62 percent of the US market, after only six years of having first entered the arena. The company now started to look to the big league of motorcycling and produced its first ‘big’ bike. The CB450 twin motorcycle was capable of achieving 104mph and was a motorcycle to rival the 500cc-plus bikes. Sales were disappointing, however, and the following years were spent developing the product, until in 1967 Honda won its first important off-road event, the Baja 100.

In 1968 Honda was to unveil a landmark product which changed the world of motorcycling forever: a 750cc bike so powerful and fast it gave birth to the term ‘superbike’. The CB750F was the largest motorbike Honda had produced and proof that a first-class performance bike could also be reliable.

The following decade saw Honda constantly modifying its 250cc and 350cc motorcycles to compete with other manufacturers’ models. During this time, Honda also stepped into the off-road market and introduced a two-stroke motocross bike and trail versions, the MT125 and MT250.

In 1975, the company created a new touring culture with its first long-distance cruiser, the GL1000 Gold Wing. The company also conceived alternative products such as the three-wheeled scooter and the one-man dune buggy.

Soichiro Honda retired in 1973, 25 years after the company’s founding, aged 67. Takeo Fujisawa also retired that year, and Kiyoshi Kawashima was appointed president of Honda Motor Company.

In 1981, Team Honda gave the States a first in world team motocross when the Honda Race Team achieved success in both the Motocross and Trophee des Nations events. Team Honda repeated its success the following year, chalking up string of victories that are unequalled to date.

Another record that remains unbroken to date was achieved by Honda in 1985 when Freddie Spencer won Grand Prix World Championship titles in the 250cc and 500cc classes in the same year. Two years later, Honda introduced the Hurricane and began an 11-year domination of the 600 Supersport class, clocking up five track championships and dozens of best-bike awards.

In 1989 Soichiro Honda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame (USA).

Honda continued to make technological advances in the 1990s. By twinning a hot-rod Gold Wing engine with a custom chassis, the company broke conventional barriers and the Valkyrie secured its place as the number one power cruiser. The company also launched its first line of aluminium-framed MX bikes, again reminding us all why Honda leads the pack in the world of motorcycling.

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