Honda Makes 300-Million Motorcycles

Last week Honda Motor Co. announced that it, since it started in 1949, produced its 300-millionth motorcycle.

2015 Honda Gold Wing

The bike in question was a Gold Wing. It was manufactured at the Honda Kumamoto Factory in Japan.

Some of you may recall that Gold Wings were once built in Marysville, Ohio. In fact, Honda of America Manufacturing actually started with motorcycle manufacture. They started building bikes in mid-Ohio in 1979.

The Marysville Auto Plant didn’t open until 1982.

Honda stopped building motorcycles in Ohio in 2009.

(It is worth noting that the Marysville Motorcycle Plant built all-terrain vehicles as well as bikes. Production of ATVs was shifted to Honda of South Carolina Manufacturing, in Timmonsville, SC. They are still producing motorcycles in North America, in a plant in El Salto, Jalisco, Mexico.)

Honda Dream Type-D

The first motorcycle produced was the 98-cc Dream Type-D.

Incidentally, one big contributor to the 300-million number is the Honda Super Cub, of which more than 90-million have been sold globally. It is that bike gave rise to the mid-1960s commercial with the line: “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.”