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Bob Logue Motorsports
Honda Museum
Founded in 1978, Bob Logue Motor Sports displays a collection of Honda classics worthy of National recognition. Recently Bob Logue Motor Sports was featured on Discovery Channel’s “Seven Wonders of Motorcycle,” as the Honda Cub 50 was voted as the number four wonder of motorcycle of all times. Mr. Bob Logue’s collection includes a Honda Cub 50 in mint condition, which was followed by the Discovery Channel’s camera crews across our beautiful Pennsylvania Mountains on a twenty-five mile ride.
We hope that our dedication, belief, respect and commitment for products manufactured by the Honda Motor Co. help to perpetuate the work of Soichiro Honda and the Honda Motor Company. At Bob Logue Motor Sports, “We speak Honda.™”
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Honda Motor Company
Founded in 1948 in Hamamatsu, Japan, Honda Motor Company owes its’ success to the technological ingenuity of Soichiro Honda and the unique management philosophies of Takeo Fujisawa, co-founders. Their successful partnership was largely due to their similar thinking and shared corporate goals.
Honda excelled in developing new, innovative products, while Fujisawa took on the task of creating an organizational structure in which every human resource and skill would be utilized to the fullest extent. The corporation still endures today instilled by the vision, values, and philosophy created by the founders.
Soichiro Honda developed a special interest in wrenching from a very young age. As a boy growing up in Japan, he often helped his father repair bicycles. At the age of sixteen he served a six-year apprenticeship with an auto repair shop in Tokyo, eventually opening his own auto repair shop where tinkering with engines and entering racing events became a hobby. The business was a modest success. Ever the visionary, Soichiro Honda knew that his customer base was limited to the local and surrounding areas. He thought if he were to enter the manufacturing end, he could expand into international markets. In 1937 he bought some machinery and opened a piston ring factory. The business did not do well at first, because he lacked knowledge and experience. On the advice of a friend, Soichiro Honda attended classes at the Hamamatsu School of Technology, learning just what he needed to build reliable piston rings. It was said that Soichiro was never concerned with getting a diploma, as he trusted the acquired experience more than book knowledge. Soon the company began to prosper. In an unfortunate chain of events however, fire bombings during World War II and a powerful earthquake destroyed his business.
By 1946 a war torn Japan was struggling to rebuild itself. Transportation was difficult and gasoline was expensive and scarce. Spotting a potential market, Soichiro Honda established the Honda Technical Research Institute and began building motorized bicycles (motorbikes) with war-surplus engines. It wasn’t long before war-surplus engines became unobtainable, but the demand encouraged Soichiro Honda to begin the manufacturing of his own engines. In 1948 the company was renamed Honda Motor Company and began producing motorcycles. Soichiro Honda was an inventive genius, but had no experience in marketing. In 1949, he met Takeo Fujisawa. Fujisawa agreed to invest privately held funds and to manage additional fund raisings. The partnership they formed established the company and set many of the standards by which Honda still operates today. It allowed Soichiro Honda to focus his energy on his pursuit of technology, while Fujisawa would manage the company, taking charge of finance and marketing. Fujisawa had difficulty finding distributors to carry Honda’s products, which were noisy, two-stroke engines that had an unpleasant high-pitched sound. He communicated to Soichiro Honda that it would be important to concentrate on building a better model, preferably a four-stroke engine or risk failure. By 1951, Honda had developed a new four-stroke engine with an innovative design that had double the horsepower of competitor’s engines.
In 1958, the 50 cc Super Cub, an easy to handle, inexpensive, safe-looking motorcycle with a step-through frame was introduced, which fit Mr. Fujisawa’s marketing plan for an untapped market. Fujisawa’s idea was to target small businesses that needed reliable transportation to make local deliveries. Perfect for getting around the crowded streets and running errands, it was such a success that a new manufacturing facility was built with a capacity of ten times the previous year’s sales. Despite research reporting otherwise, Takeo Fujisawa believed the American market should be entered. He saw the American consumer as affluent and the American market as the pacesetter for international products. His philosophy was to face the toughest challenges first. Despite finance and export impositions by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the American Honda Motor Company was formed in Los Angeles in 1959. Expecting the bigger bikes to sell in America, they managed to set up a few dealers, but they had not researched the riding styles in the United States. Motorcycles were driven farther and faster than they were in Japan. The initial production exported to The United States experienced mechanical problems, which required some reengineering in Japan.
Meanwhile, the 50cc Super Cubs that had been so popular in Japan had a chance to be introduced in the North American market, despite the perceived little demand in the market for small bikes. The small sales team began to ride the bikes around Los Angeles while doing errands. They immediately attracted attention and the orders began racing in, not from motorcycle dealers, but from sporting goods stores and Sears! Honda had misread the U.S. market for small, lightweight motorcycles. Then in 1963, the advertising campaign “You Meet the Nicest People on A Honda” was developed. Honda had changed the stereotypical negative leather-jacketed biker image of motorcycling and established its place in American business. The end of 1963 saw more than 100,000 units sold in the United States, outselling all domestic and foreign manufacturers combined.
American Honda built a manufacturing facility and began producing motorcycles in Marysville, Ohio in 1979. They added an automobile factory alongside the motorcycle plant in 1982. An engine manufacturing facility was built in 1984 in Anna, Ohio and Honda Research of America was established as a separate entity. Today Honda has 109 manufacturing facilities in 29 countries. Honda has become the largest producer of motorcycles and engines in the world and is the seventh largest carmaker.
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