Honda Motorcycles

About Honda

Honda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan and has been since it started production in 1955. At its peak in 1982, Honda manufactured almost three million motorcycles annually. By 2006 this figure had reduced to around 550,000 but was still higher than its three domestic competitors.

Soichiro Honda began producing motorcycles in 1946 to satisfy a thirst for cheap transportation in war devastated Japan. Honda began his effort by installing military surplus engines in bicycles. As Honda became more prosperous, he designed his own 50cc engine for the bicycles. The first motorcycle that featured a completely Honda designed motor and frame was produced in 1949. It was called the Model D for Dream. Soon Model J Benly appeared.

Honda wanted to sell a more powerful motorcycle that led to the 146cc over head valve four-stroke E-Type Dream with a top speed of 50mph. The motorcycle featured Honda's own designed frame and suspension on both wheels.

In 1952 Honda began producing the Cub with two-stroke engine. Its big sales became basis for future development.

In 1953 Honda began producing a four-stroke single powered motorcycle featuring more engineering sophistication. This small motorcycle was also called a Benly and featured a three-speed gearbox, pressed steel Frame, rear suspension with the engine and swinging arm on a sprung pivot, and telescopic front suspension and produced 3.8bhp.

A revolution in the motorcycle industry began in 1958 when Honda brought the C100 Super Club to the American market. It was the first Honda motorcycle sold in the U.S. The small step through design was easy to ride reliable bike. It was featured in the famous “you meet the nicest people on a Honda” marketing campaign that eventually made the C100 motorcycle the best selling motorcycle of all times. Eventually more than 30 million would be built.

CB models included the CA72 (250cc) and followed by the CA77 (305cc). The parallel twin engines proved very reliable, however their stamped steel welded frames handled poorly at higher speeds.

Performance and handling improved when the company bolted the little parallel twin engines to a steel tubular frame and added twin carburetors for more power. The motorcycles were known as the CB 72 and 77 super hawk models and gained a reputation of reliability.

The first commercially successful large motorcycle was the CB450, brought out in 1965 and called the black bomber. This innovative engine featured torsion bar valve springs that allowed high rpm and was the first serious effort by Honda to challenge English dominance in the American marketplace.

This was followed in 1969 with the Honda CB750 four. A powerful and reliable motorcycle that dominated the motorcycle market. The success of the CB 750 4 cylinder Honda led to a series of smaller Honda motorcycles with 350, 400, 550 cc motors and ushered in the era of the universal Japanese motorcycle.

This design would reach its fruition when it morphed into the cult classic inline 6 cylinder CBX in 1978.

The reliability and power of the four cylinder Honda 750 soon led to a new kind of motorcyclist, the long distance touring rider. Craig Vetter designed a full fairing for the motorcycle called a Windjammer. Before long thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts were touring the countryside on their motorcycles behind a Windjammer.

In 1974 Honda brought out the GL1000 Gold Wing. The motorcycle featured a flat four cylinder 999cc a water cooled engine with power delivered through a driveshaft. It proved to be as reliable as the cars of the day. Soon thousands of Goldwings were bought up and converted to touring motorcycles by their new owners.

With interest running so high for touring models, Honda brought out the Interstate model in 1980. This was the first Japanese produced motorcycle to roll off the assembly line as a complete touring motorcycle. The motorcycle featured a full fairing, trunk and saddlebags.

In addition to touring motorcycles, Honda began developing a series of V-four engines in the 1970s. This led to the production of the Honda Sabre and Magna in 1980. These two models led to a whole series of VF designated high performance motorcycles ranging between 400cc and 1000cc. But due to mechanical problems the VF line was unable to sustain itself.

Following the VF was the new VFR series of motorcycles. The VFR 750R was a sport touring motorcycle with lots of power, good balance and reliability. In 1996 Honda produced the fastest motorcycle in production with the CBR1100XX Super Blackbird (1137cc). The motorcycle became popular with the long range high speed touring crowd.

Soichiro Honda died on August 5, 1991 of liver failure.

Honda's entry into the U.S. motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a case study for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide. There are a few theories explaining their great success.

Moto blog

Very, very, very fast Honda C90!

Takegawa are a company based on Osaka, Japan. They make so many hop-up parts for small Honda engines that it's possible to build a brand new, complete engine from their catalogue using no Honda parts at all. Four valve heads, double overhead camshaft kits, stroker cranks, big bore Nikasil barrels, slipper pistons, dry clutches, huge carbs and close ratio gear kits are all available.

V8 Honda motorcycle

Some of the best things happen in Holland - if you know where to look. For such a small country their can-do attitude has allowed them to conquer a great part of the developing World and most of the developed World with their prudent and er, careful attitude towards money. It's no coincidence that some of the most successful banking conglomerates are Dutch.  And then we have people doing this - just because they can - in their sheds.

Top box trauma

I've struggled with my Honda hard luggage over the past few months, I have to admit. To much office hilarity (and piss taking) I managed to lose the top box just a few miles from the office. I thought the locating mechanism was fastened securely but the first rapid getaway from the first set of traffic lights on Upper Street proved me wrong.It was at least a mile before I noticed that my top box was absent.

Start the ultimate project bike

The base for the ultimate project bike have appeared online, a Honda RC211V. The adverts consist of the supposedly the frame from Valentino Rossi's championship dominating machine from 2003 on eBay and a frame that comes complete with the sexy V5 engine. The eBay listing is currently at $510 and is literally an incomplete frame with the ad stating that it is the 'unfinished basis of replacement RC211V frame, all made in aluminium with CNC machined parts & high quality welding', the bidding is still under the reserve set by the user.

Pulling the pin ...

WARNING: Not for the squeamish. You're looking at surgeons removing a pin from Ten Kate Honda man Jonathan Rea's wrist. The World Superbike frontrunner underwent surgery after sustaining fractures during a fall in qualifying at Imola, which hampered the Irish racer's end of season performance.

Glen Richards back with Embassy Racing

One of the unsung heroes of the BSB paddock over the past few seasons, has to be 2010 Superstock 1000 runner up Glen Richards. A nasty tumble in at the Brands Hatch opener lead to four DNFs, but once back on track he pushed the dominant BMWs hard, finishing on the podium eight times. While many were trading their grannies to fund new S1000RRs, Richards kept the faith and rode the wheels off his Padgett’s Honda Fireblade.

Would you pay £115,000 for this?

A HONDA NR750 - one of the most hi-tech production motorcycles ever built - is up for grabs on eBay with an asking price of £115,000.The bike was produced in the early 1990s by Honda to showcase the company's engineering skills; a 32-valve, oval piston V4 engine, Carbon Fibre Composite bodywork and titanium-tinted screen are just some of the revolutionary features that warranted the bike's £37,000 original price tag.This particular 1993 model has covered 5000 miles from new - quite a few for a bike with such a heady price tag. We'd have expected it to come with delivery mileage only. It's being sold by an Essex-based dealer who describes the bike as 'IMMACULATE'.

And it's goodbye to all that ...

WHAT, you may well be asking, is a picture of an upturned helicopter doing on a website dedicated to motorcycles? Chopper fans amongst you may know this isn't any ordinary helicopter, it's an Agusta 109C; an 8-seat twin-turbine multi-million dollar aircraft capable of whisking its occupants across the sky at around 170mph. And my point is?

Stafford Bric-a-Brac. Misery and Sadness in excess

Just got back from the Stafford show. It was packed. Largely with groups of silver-haired men.

GSX-R600 and CBR250R the glass is half full

Suzuki’s GSX-R600 might not look that much different to the outgoing model but I suspect this bike could be very much a dark horse in 2011. I say this because two years ago I was definitely not building my hopes up en route to the K9 GSXR 1000 launch. The leaked pictures suggested the biggest change from the 2007 version would be some fresh graphics but I was so wrong.  As it turned out, I was greeted in Almeria with a brand new bike, built from the tarmac up and it proved to be more than a match in every department for the much hyped 2009 Yamaha R1.