Seventy years ago, in a workshop in Hamamatsu, central Japan, a motorcycle was born. But unlike the Christmas story, this was no divine miracle. Instead, it was the result of years of hard work and engineering experimentation by Soichiro Honda, which had seen him attach war-surplus two-stroke portable generator motors to bicycles in an effort to meet the need for affordable post-war transport. In 1948, he founded a 34-employee company with business partner Takeo Fujisawa. The following year, their first motorcycle debuted, powered by a 98cc two-stroke motor.
Honda celebrates building 400,000,000 motorcycles and scooters

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