Honda sold the company to Toyota after World War II and founded the Honda Technical Research Institute in 1946. They built and sold motorized bicycles using Tohatsu 50cc two-stroke generator engines. When the supply of the engines ran out, Honda began building their own version of the engine and selling them to customers to attach to their bicycles. In 1959 Honda began exporting to the U.S. It wasn't easy for Honda, people were riding Triumphs, BSAs and Harleys. Bikers were in 3 basic groups: crazy outlaws, racers or people that used bikes for transport. There was no such thing as trail bikes. In 1973 Honda released the CR250M Elsinore, a motocross bike that was completely different. It was soon followed up by the street-legal version, the MT125, and MT250. Two important models were released in 1979, the XR and XL500S. They had the 23-inch front wheel and were heavy, but powerful. By 1985 you could buy a 600cc XR. Modified versions of the XR600 and the water-cooled XR650R released in 2000 became Baja 1000 winners, and have dominated the event ridden by riders like Johnny Campbell. The late 1990’s saw the revolution of the four-stroke motocross bike led by the Yamaha YZM400F in 1998. Honda introduced the CRF series in 2000 as the most purchased to the XR series. The motocross version, the CRF-R series was introduced in 2000. The CRF450R was the first of the series, followed by the CRF250R released in 2004. As of 2017, the CRF-L series included the CRF150L, CRF250L, and the mighty CRF1000L Africa twin Adventure bike. Honda has been a popular choice for on and off road motorcycles since it began!
My dads old 2004 crf450r
My dads old 2004 crf450r
Do a Yamaha one Foley
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post about the history of Hondas!
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