Before changing forever The history of transportation On two wheels, Soichiro Honda was simply a Japanese young man from the late 30s obsessed with the engines. He spent hours in the workshop trying to improve motor parts and creating designs that thought they could make a difference. His most precious creation was a motor piston made with parts of an old radio that, according to him, could Improve the performance of engines.
How our partners say Motorpasion motorcyclein those years, Toyota was already The biggest Japanese company of the engine, so the young Honda decided to take his piston with the hope that they would hire him.
However, there they did not receive him as the young Soichiro expected. According to He counted Honda himself in an interview for Japanese television: “I took my first pistons to Toyota. I was young, stubborn and dreamer. I thought the engineers would be impressed. But they laughed on my face: ‘This does not meet our standards.”
Years later, Honda would remember that moment with a phrase that says everything: “They rejected me in Toyota … so I founded Honda“That” no “of Toyota did not demotivate him, on the contrary. He decided to continue on his own and demonstrate what he was capable of.
“I grab my dreams with these hands”
After that rejection, Honda did not lament in a corner “I returned to my workshop with my heart broken, but not empty,” he said. He sold to his wife’s jewels to be able to manufacture a prototype and continue working to transform transport. I slept little and spent so many hours in the workshop that he came to confess that “I worked until my hands bleed.”
And yet, fate seemed to go against. During World War II, his small factory was destroyed by the bombings. Then, an earthquake razed it again. And what did Honda did? He sold the remains of what was left to Toyota and with that money he set up in 1946 the Honda Technical Research Institute.
Such and as they tell in Motorcyclingthe war had left Japan in ruins, so thousands of people needed move in a simple and cheap way. Soichiro thought: If there are engines that are left over, why not put one on a bicycle? Thus their were born First motorized bicycles. They were not the most beautiful or the fastest, but they worked and helped move Thousands of people that before they could not go anywhere. “It was not glamorous, but it worked. And then, the failure ceased to be my enemy … and became my fuel,” Honda told his memoirs.
Honda Dream Type D
In 1948, Honda associated Takeo Fujisawaan entrepreneur who complemented Soichiro’s business vision. A year later, they launched their first motorcycle designed from zero per Honda motor: the Dream type da motorcycle that mounted a two -stroke engine of 98 cc and 3 hp. It was simple, effective and designed for day to day. As he said: “I grabbed an engine, I rode it on a bicycle, and something new was born.” That way of thinking – resolving real problems with simple ideas – was what ended up marking all its history and that of Honda.
The (first) best selling motorcycle on the planet
In 1958, Honda was already a recognized brand that built its own engines and assembled them on a small motorcycle that was razing sales: the Honda Super Cub. It was a total success. More than 110 million units have been sold worldwide. That makes it The best selling motorcycle in history.
A year later, in 1959, Honda’s motorcycles landed in the US and from there to the world. Today Honda is in more than 160 countries, produces motorcycles in 35 factories distributed throughout 21 different countries. In 2025, they have overcome The 500 million motorcycles produced in total.
Honda was always clear with his way of seeing life: “Do you know how that is achieved? Falling so many times that you already know how to get up even before touching the ground“. And everything, for a revenge.
Image | Sling
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