Honda's first four years in America
Here is an excerpt of honda's first difficult years in America, written by Dave Ekins.
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Dave Ekins
At the time honda Motor Company of Japan (HMC) decided to set up a motorcycle importing business in the United States, Yamahas were already being imported by American distributor Frank Cooper. BMWs were imported by Butler & Smith of New Jersey, Triumph was distributed in the western states by Johnson Motors. There were also privately-owned eastern and western distributors for BSA, and the list went on through a host of Italian and German made machinery, all brought in by U.S based independent businessmen. HMC calculated correctly they could do a better job themselves, so honda eased into the U.S. market on a small scale with a company-owned distributorship, testing the waters much like sticking your big toe in the tub to see if it’s too hot or too cold. After honda proved their point, other makers followed HMC’s lead. Even Sweden’s Husqvarna had a small distributing company near San Diego in the ‘70s and ‘80s. honda proved the job is best done by company owned distributors and everyone else followed, learning it is just easier to communicate direct, without a middle guy. You could say honda Motor Company showed their competition the way toward success and riches in the U.S. marketplace.
Dave Ekins, Andy Kolbe, and Mr. Kawashima, at the Big Bear hare and hound in 1960
Incorporated in 1948, honda Motor Company entered the U.S. just eleven years later, early in 1959 as American honda Motor Company; or “AHM.” It had taken only ten years for honda Motor Company to get a solid hold on their home and nearby markets by offering highly efficient, small displacement four-stroke transportation bikes into the Asian economies (already smoking up their villages with two-strokes), desperately in need of inexpensive personal transportation. All Hondas were of engine/gearbox unit construction, allowing the engine oil to lubricate the gearbox, primary, and clutch; which eases maintenance. The same oil does everything, unlike machines from Europe which required different lubricants for each cavity. Also, honda’s popular 50cc bikes were highly efficient and featured an automatic clutch, which made it easy for anyone to learn to ride
At the Big Bear hare and hound in 1960, left to right are Dave Ekins, Andy Kolbe, and Mr. Kawashima, director of American honda. The three rode out to the desert together in the cab of Kolbe’s 1938 Chevy pickup. Ekins recalls, “It was the best transportation we could afford.”
I first saw a honda motorcycle at the legendary Big Bear Hare and Hound in January, 1959. Alan D’Alo (the magneto guy) had imported the bike, an experimental small production CL 70 scrambles/cross country racer with tubular frame, 19-inch wheels, Earles-type leading link fork, and a domestic “rotary” gearbox. With such a gearbox, you shifted down for first, down for second, down for third, down for fourth, down for neutral, down for first again. Get it? This positive neutral idea is great for stop light to stop light riding in crowded cities; but not for cross country races such as the world-famous 150-mile-long Big Bear. Imagine being in fourth gear, flat out, and shifting for fifth only to hit neutral, then stabbing again to get a gear and you find first!!! Oops…
Early in 1959, AHM loaned honda dealer #15 Andy Kolbe a CB92 and a CB95 which I raced in local events. Andy took the bikes to his shop in Woodland Hills, California, did some testing, and swapped the reverse-cone road racing megaphones for short straight pipes. Then he changed fluid in the shocks until the Benlys got close to something that might work in our type of racing. With this setup, Kolbe and I won a few sporting TT scrambles with the 150 entered in the 175cc class. Then in January, 1960, we went to the last ever Big Bear and won the 125cc class with a CB92, finishing somewhere in the 40s overall and besting all of the 175s. This isn’t so bad when you consider that 70 percent of the bikes on the starting line were 500cc and larger; most Bear Chase winners were on 650cc Triumphs. It was the biggest cross country motorcycle race in the world with nearly 1000 entries, all starting at the same time. The 125 class win, although meagerly contested, allowed AHM their first bragging rights in the U.S marketplace.
read the whole article
Source: http://motohistory.net/feat...
issued: Wednesday, January 2, 2008
updated: Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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