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| Honda Motor logo 1947 |
Name: Honda "A-Type"
Nickname: "Bata Bata"
Category: Motorcycles
Subcategory: Motor-bicycles
Inventor: Soichiro Honda
Producer: Honda Motor Company
Prototype made in: October 1946
Prototype features: The Honda "A-Type" prototype was a motorized bicycle which used a tubular fuel tank that had been nicknamed the "tea canister"; it was equipped with an auxiliary engine made from a small, remodeled unit that had served as a power generator for an old no. 6 military radio transmitter. This engine marked the origin of Honda Motor.
First model features: The Honda "A-Type" had a cast aluminum fuel tank with a teardrop shape made by sand casting. Engine Air-Cooled 2-st. Single Rotary Valv. 50cc. Maximum power 1PS / 5,000rpm. Maximum speed: 45km/h. Dry weight: 10kg. Cantilever crankshaft, v-belt clutch, variable transmission.
Interesting facts: Throughout his life, Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda had an interest in automobiles. In 1937, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki to produce piston rings for Toyota. During World War II, a US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944 and the Itawa plant collapsed in the 1945 Mikawa earthquake. In 1946 Japan is struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy, after having been bombed flat at the end of WWII. Soichiro Honda realizes the need for affordable transportation and begins grafting war-surplus two-stroke motors onto bicycles (the motors had originally been intended for use on portable generators for military radios). In October 1946, he established the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu, Japan, to develop and produce small 2-cycle motorbike engines. In November 1947, Soichiro Honda started producing a complete motorized bicycle, the "A-Type" (nicknamed "Bata Bata" for the sound the engine made), which was driven by the first mass-produced engine designed by Honda, and was sold until 1951. The first complete motorcycle was the 1949 D-Type, also known as the Honda Dream.
Quote (Soichiro Honda): «Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure».
Property: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Producer website: http://world.honda.com
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| Honda A-Type prototype (October 1946). Its engine marked the origin of Honda Motor. |
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| Honda A-Type (November 1947). Honda's first product on the market. |
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| Honda A-Type, engine assembly at the Noguchi Plant (1948) |
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| Honda A-Type, employees and their families at the Hamamatsu factory (1948) |
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| Honda D-Type (August 1949). Also known as the Honda Dream, the first complete motorcycle manufactured by Honda featured a two-stroke, 98cc, single-cylinder engine, and 3 horsepower. |
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| Soichiro Honda (Hamamatsu, Nov. 17, 1906 - Tokyo, Aug. 5, 1991), the Japanese engineer and industrialist who invented the Honda A-Type and founded the Honda Motor Company. |
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| Honda motorcycles, an advanced model (CBR1000RR, 2015) |
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| Honda Motor Company celebrates its 75th Anniversary (1948-2023) |
