HONDA
DIRT BIKES – A SHORT HISTORY
Honda
dirt bikes made their debut in America during the late 50s. Starting
with a small shop in Los Angeles, Soichiro Honda brought street
bikes to the country. You have to consider that at the time, bike
riders were considered to be crazy people and the concept of trail
bikes or dirt bikes was even more rare.
Mr.
Honda did struggle to keep his business in America. People constantly
discouraged him from continuing operations in that side of the
world. Luckily for him, the business was doing extremely well
in Japan. The reason was that the Honda dirt bikes were small,
reliable, economical and inexpensive.
However,
Americans could not accept the Honda dirt bikes since they thought
that riding such bikes was beneath their dignity. They would only
choose Triumph, BSA, Harley’s - all American and European makes.
Even though Honda dirt bikes were becoming popular all over Europe,
the American market refused to respond. To combat this, Honda
came up with a new advertising campaign in which the company tried
to sell itself, as a bike for all people - old or young, professionals
or housewives. This ad campaign became a big hit and then there
was no looking back!
The
reason why Honda won was because their bikes were highly reliable
to use – they would not breakdown suddenly in the middle of the
road. And more importantly, they suited the pocket very well.
After
tasting success, Honda MX bikes just kept coming, always innovating
on its models. By the time the dirt bike boom started in 1968,
owning a Honda dirt bike became a matter of pride.
Some of the famous Honda dirt bikes in the 60’s were the CA 100T
Trail 50 and the Honda Scrambler. These bikes became highly popular
with high-school kids and even young ladies.
One
of the best-selling mini bikes of Honda was introduced during
this time period as well – the Z50 Mini-Trail. The Z50 was a bike
that was made exclusively for dirt trails and became a craze amongst
teenagers. Following the big success of the Honda Z50, Honda presented
the CT70.
As
time progressed, Honda introduced a large number of models to
choose from. Slowly and steadily, the company also started to
come up with larger models of the smaller ones.
One
of the biggies of this time period was the XR100 in 1981. These
bikes were highly user-friendly and could be ridden by both men
and women.
One
of the greatest dirt bikes introduced by Honda was the Honda CR250M
Elsinore in 1973. It was sleek and light with the power of dynamite.
As
the company evolved, it faced several ups and downs – but one
thing was for sure, Honda dirt bikes had arrived to America.
Today,
the company has gone onto introduce two-stroke and four-stroke
bikes such as the CR450R and the biggest of the Honda XCs, the
XR600R. Always thinking ahead of its time, Honda dirt bikes have
become a force to reckon with. Whatever happens, Honda intends
to remain at the numero uno position for a long, long time to
come!
You are at Honda Dirt Bikes page
Japanese-Motorcycles-Only.com
