TOP 5 MOTORCYCLES

Honda Motor Co Ltd is a Japanese multinational corporation known above all for its automobiles and motorcycles. It was founded by Soichiro Honda on 24 September 1948 (by incorporating his “Honda Technology Research Institute Co,” founded early September 1946) and has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo. 

The Japanese word honda literally means “root field,” or “original field.”

Honda is the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles, and of internal-combustion engines by volume: it produces over 14 million internal-combustion engines each year. In 2001 Honda overtook Nissan, becoming the second largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in the world; in August 2008, Honda outdid Chrysler and became the fourth largest automobile manufacturer in the USA. Honda is the world’s sixth largest automobile manufacturer.

Aside from automobiles and motorcycles, its core businesses, Honda also builds other items, such as powered garden equipment, various engines, generators, and personal watercraft. The company has done research into artificial intelligence and robotics since 1986, unveiling its first ASIMO robot in 2000. Honda has also taken to the air, entering into a joint venture with GE Aviation in 2004 to establish GE Honda Aero Engines, to produce aviation engines; and creating Honda Aircraft Co in 2006 to build the Honda HA-420 HondaJet aircraft, now scheduled for release in 2012.

Automobiles had fascinated the company’s founder from early youth.. Working as a mechanic at a Tokyo auto shop, Art Shokai, Honda tuned cars and entered them in races. Teaching himself engineering, he designed a piston that he hoped to sell to Toyota. When the first drafts of the design were rejected, Honda labored painstakingly over his design; he even went back to school and pawned his wife's jewelry as collateral. His efforts were eventually rewarded when he won a contract with Toyota to construct pistons for them and built a factory (which was destroyed in an earthquake). When a fuel shortage during World War II prevented car use, Honda mounted a small motor on to his own bicycle: a novelty for Japan that attracted a great deal of interest. He went on from there to establish the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu to develop and build small 2-stroke motorbike engines. When he appealed to 18,000 bicycle-shop owners across Japan to help resurrect the war-torn nation, Honda was able to accumulate enough capital to construct his first real “motor-cycle,” the Honda Cub. It was the beginning of Honda Motor Co, which would expand into the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964.

Yamaha Motor Corp is a Japanese company that builds motors and motorized vehicles, based in Iwata, Shizuoka, and established July 1, 1955. It is part of the Yamaha Group, though distinct from Yamaha Corp.

While Yamaha Corp was growing into the largest piano builder in the world, its CEO Genichi Kawakami also ventured into construction of motorized vehicles, beginning Yamaha Motor Corp in 1955. The main company had intensively researched metal alloys for building acoustic pianos, which had yielded substantial expertise in designing lightweight metal constructions that were nevertheless still dependable  and hard wearing. That expertise was easily transferred to constructing metal frames and motor parts for motorcycles.

In addition to motorcycles, Yamaha Motor Corp also builds all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), private watercraft, snowmobiles, outboard motors, and golf carts.

Kawasaki Motors Corp is a part of Japanese multinational Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which dates back to a shipyard founded by Shozo Kawasaki in Tokyo in 1878. Kawasaki Motors Corp builds motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), diverse utility and sports vehicles, and watercraft. The company began as Kawasaki Motorcycle Corp in 1960, when Kawasaki Aircraft Industries entered into an agreement with Meguro Works. The two companies merged in 1962 to form Kawasaki Motor Sales Co, which was the forerunner of Kawasaki Motorcycle Co Ltd.

Harley-Davidson, Harley, or HD, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded by William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1903. Harley-Davidson was one of only two significant motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression in the USA; later on, the company also outlasted a phase of poor quality control and Japanese competition. 

Harley-Davidson sells heavyweight motorcycles (over 750 cc) that are intended for highway cruising. “Harleys” possess a unique design – and an inimitable sound. Traditionally distinguished by extensive customization, these motorcycles gave rise to the chopper motorbike. Present Harley-Davidson models resemble classic Harley designs; not counting the VRSC range, whose modern styling is not conventional by Harley standards.

The Harley-Davidson brand has highly loyal fans who support clubs and organize events; the company also maintains a museum. An appreciable share of the company’s net revenue – almost 5 % in 2004 – stems from licensing of the Harley-Davidson logo.

Suzuki Motor Corp is a Japanese multinational corporation with its headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan. It dates back to a company founded by Michio Suzuki in 1909. The present-day company concentrates on manufacturing compact automobiles and all-wheel-drive vehicles, every kind of motorcycle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motors, wheelchairs, and various small internal-combustion engines.

Michio Suzuki started building motorized bicycles in 1952. His design was so ingenious the patent office subsidized research into motorcycle engineering, which led to the birth of Suzuki Motor Corp. Almost until the end of the 1970s the company manufactured only two-stroke engine motorcycles. Its most powerful two-stroke model was the water-cooled triple-cylinder GT750 (released 1971).

In September 1961, the East German motorcycle-Grand Prix contestant Ernst Degner defected to the West. He had raced for the East German motorcycle manufacturer MZ, acquiring extensive knowledge of their then highly competitive two-stroke engines which he took to Suzuki. The company hired Degner in November 1961, and in the 1962 season he won the FIM road racing world championship for Suzuki in the 50-cc class. In 1970 it became the first Japanese manufacturer ever to win a motocross world championship when Joel Robert won the 250-cc title. In the course of that decade, Suzuki gained a foothold in the world of motorcycle racing, with Barry Sheene and Roger De Coster each winning world championships in road racing and motocross respectively, in the premier 500-cc division.

Suzuki introduced its first four-stroke engine motorcycles in 1976, the GS400 and the GS750.

In 1994, Suzuki entered into a partnership with Nanjing Jincheng Machinery, China, to establish Jincheng Suzuki, a Chinese motorcycle manufacturer and exporter.