The story of Kawasaki Company goes back to 1924, at that time involved into metallurgy and the aircraft industry.
In 1949, they decided to enter the motorcycle industry producing engines that could be adapted to motorcycles.
FIRST KAWASAKI MOTORCYCLES PRODUCTS a Motorcycle Engines
In their line you could find a 60 cc two-stroke, as well as a 150cc and a 250cc four-stroke engines developed with technology from BMW; company whom with they had had relationships since their beginnings in the aeronautical industry.
It wasn't until 1954 that Kawasaki Motorcycles produced their first complete motorcycle under the name of Meihatsu (a subsidiary of Kawasaki Aircraft Co.).
Almost at the same time, they also tried to introduce their own line of scooters to the market, but they soon realized they couldn't compete against the two giants of the scooters industry for those days: the Fuji Rabbit and the Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon.
And now before continuing with Kawasaki Motorcycles history, I have to open a big parenthesis...
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF KAWASAKI MOTORCYCLES
We cannot talk about Kawasaki without mentioning another make that will definitely help Kawasaki become as well as Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha one of the big players in the Japanese Motorcycles scene:
--> Meguro Motorcycles: better know in that time as the "senior make and the king of four strokes".
Meguro entered the motorcycle industry in 1937. Having a good relationship with the government, the people at Meguro took advantage of the army orders.
Their first motorcycle was the Z97: a 500cc rocker-valve motorcycle influenced by the Swiss Motosacoche. It's worth mentioning this model was a success for the factory and the Z97 was in production till the fifties.
Along the years, Meguro produced some very nice 250cc and 350cc rocker-valve, single cylinder models as well as high performance twins. All of them with a very strong British influence. Then and thanks to the commercial success they were living, they also launched a rocker-valve 125 cc for their low end range and a twin cylinder 650cc to accompany the already existing 500cc.
But it was in 1958, when Meguro tried to get rid of their British influence, when things started to go wrong...
Based on a winning prototype of Mount Asama (one of the biggest races that time), Meguro Motorcycles produced three nice and elegant machines with overhead camshaft: the 125cc E3, the 250cc F and the 350cc Y A. Unfortunately these bikes turned out to be too heavy and didn't get the buyers' attention. Meguro will soon return to rocker valve models.
Meguro Motorcycles remained as one of the top 10 manufacturers till 1960, but due to some bad decisions, as the ones mentioned above, the company started to decline and was soon bought by Kawasaki.
In 1960 Meguro signed an initial agreement with Kawasaki Motorcycles, and in 1962 they had completely disappeared.
....And this brings us back to Kawasaki Motorcycles...
In 1960, the company decides to give a serious push to the motorcycle division of Kawasaki Aircrafts:
They take out of the market the Meihatsu brand, they build their own plant of low end and low powered machines and buy Meguro.
These brilliant moves and decisions made Kawasaki Motorcycles have one of the widest range of models in the market. Kawasaki Motorcycles could offer at that time (1960's) from a 50cc moped-scooter to a powerful, high end and beautiful 650 cc twin cylinder motorcycle.
Its also important to mention that due to their very own nature, Kawasaki Motorcycles has always played the role of Maverick in the industry and that a feeling of independence from their main competitors has always been present.
Since then, many stories have been written, many models have been produced and many races have been won on Kawasaki Motorcycles, the truth is...
Nowadays Kawasaki Motorcycles is one of the major players in the industry and following their tradition, they nowadays offer a wide range of products for all kind needs and likes.
Enjoy the ride!
Rabu, 30 Agustus 2017
Senin, 14 Agustus 2017
Yamaha Motorcycles - Creativity and Spirit of Challenge
"If you are going to do something, be the best"
Ginichi Kawakami, Yamaha Motor Company First President.
Yamaha Motorcycles, under this motto, employing all its creativity, and with a very strong spirit of challenge, became what it is now: one of the biggest players in the worldwide motorcycling scene.
But Yamaha's history doesn't start with motorcycles...
It is back in 1877 that Torakusu Yamaha started with the Nippon Gakki Company that later would become Yamaha Corporation: an important manufacturer of fine musical instruments.
As the company grew, they explored several fields of opportunity in the textile industry and others.
During the World War II, the company set up a factory to produce airplane propellers. This plant played an important role in Yamaha's entry to the motorcycle industry as you will see.
After the war, Yamaha Corporation had to find new ways to use the tooling and experience that had been accumulated during their times in the airplane industry, and it was then when Yamaha Motor Corporation was founded.
It's important to mention that even though this new company was just another branch of Yamaha Corporation, it was placed under an independent management. In this case, under the guidance of Ginichi Kawakami; which turned out to be a brilliant move.
Before producing their first motorcycle, Ginichi Kawakami traveled a lot establishing what would be very useful relationships. He also sent out his engineers to Europe and had them learn how to build motorcycles, particularly from DKW; whom with they kept an underground and unofficial long lasting relationship.
One proof of this is that nowadays, the only two manufacturers in the world of mass-produced five side-valve engines are Yamaha an Audi (DKW - Auto Union).
One of the most important legacies from this international relationships were all the skills learnt by Yamaha's engineers on two stroke engines know-how. Other manufacturers as Suzuki would not reach the same level of development in this area till seven years later.
Not to wonder why the first bike from Yamaha Motorcycles the 125 YA-1 was fairly a faithful copy of the 1949 DKW RT 12. The only two important differences were the four speed gearbox instead of the original three speed gearbox, and a gear transmission replacing the primary chain drive.
IMPORTANT MODEL FROM YAMAHA MOTORCYCLES
>>> Yamaha YA-1
Even though the Yamaha YA-1 - baptized "Acatombo" (Red dragonfly) by its fans - had "nothing in special" and was more expensive than its competitors, it almost immediately became a great success.
It was reliable: before putting it into the market, the prototypes were tested along 10,000 miles of rough rides . Even the big boss himself, Ginichi Kawakami, rode the bike without any incident from Hamamatsu to Tokyo.
It was beautiful: with this model Yamaha was the first manufacturer to put special attention to the decoration of the motorcycle. This task was given to GK Design in Tokyo. It's worth mentioning that this firm has designed the "look" of most Yamaha motorcycles to date.
It was fast: the YA-1 obtained excellent overall results in the most important local races of that time: Mount Fuji (third place) and Mount Asama (first place).
In fact it was this aggressive attitude in the sporting world that helped Yamaha Motorcycles gain fast acceptance even though they made a late start in the motorcycle scene (in comparison to Honda and Suzuki).
In other words: Yamaha Motorcycles showed the world they had arrived to be considered good and fierce competitors from the beginning. Particularly to Honda and Suzuki.
Other important models from that time were:
>>> The Yamaha YD-1 (the competition for the Suzuki TP of that time)
Some technical specifications:
Yamaha YD-1
15 hp
70 mph.
185,000 yen
in comparison to:
Suzuki TP
18 hp
80 mph.
195,000 yen
>>> The Yamaha YDS-1
The dream bike of all young Japanese between 1959-1960.
Some technical specifications:
20 hp
333 lbs.
85 mph.
Direct rival of the Honda CB72
Since then, the history of models and victories goes on and on...
Today, Yamaha Motorcycles is one of the major players in the worldwide motorcycling scene.
Just to give you an idea of how important Yamaha Motorcycles have become:
- The 2004 Moto GP was won by excellent rider Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha motorcycle.
I could go an and on writing about Yamaha Motorcycles, victories, challenges and models but I would need a whole book
You will find a pictorial history of Yamaha Motorcycles from 1955 to 2001.
Enjoy the ride!
Ginichi Kawakami, Yamaha Motor Company First President.
Yamaha Motorcycles, under this motto, employing all its creativity, and with a very strong spirit of challenge, became what it is now: one of the biggest players in the worldwide motorcycling scene.
But Yamaha's history doesn't start with motorcycles...
It is back in 1877 that Torakusu Yamaha started with the Nippon Gakki Company that later would become Yamaha Corporation: an important manufacturer of fine musical instruments.
As the company grew, they explored several fields of opportunity in the textile industry and others.
During the World War II, the company set up a factory to produce airplane propellers. This plant played an important role in Yamaha's entry to the motorcycle industry as you will see.
After the war, Yamaha Corporation had to find new ways to use the tooling and experience that had been accumulated during their times in the airplane industry, and it was then when Yamaha Motor Corporation was founded.
It's important to mention that even though this new company was just another branch of Yamaha Corporation, it was placed under an independent management. In this case, under the guidance of Ginichi Kawakami; which turned out to be a brilliant move.
Before producing their first motorcycle, Ginichi Kawakami traveled a lot establishing what would be very useful relationships. He also sent out his engineers to Europe and had them learn how to build motorcycles, particularly from DKW; whom with they kept an underground and unofficial long lasting relationship.
One proof of this is that nowadays, the only two manufacturers in the world of mass-produced five side-valve engines are Yamaha an Audi (DKW - Auto Union).
One of the most important legacies from this international relationships were all the skills learnt by Yamaha's engineers on two stroke engines know-how. Other manufacturers as Suzuki would not reach the same level of development in this area till seven years later.
Not to wonder why the first bike from Yamaha Motorcycles the 125 YA-1 was fairly a faithful copy of the 1949 DKW RT 12. The only two important differences were the four speed gearbox instead of the original three speed gearbox, and a gear transmission replacing the primary chain drive.
IMPORTANT MODEL FROM YAMAHA MOTORCYCLES
>>> Yamaha YA-1
Even though the Yamaha YA-1 - baptized "Acatombo" (Red dragonfly) by its fans - had "nothing in special" and was more expensive than its competitors, it almost immediately became a great success.
It was reliable: before putting it into the market, the prototypes were tested along 10,000 miles of rough rides . Even the big boss himself, Ginichi Kawakami, rode the bike without any incident from Hamamatsu to Tokyo.
It was beautiful: with this model Yamaha was the first manufacturer to put special attention to the decoration of the motorcycle. This task was given to GK Design in Tokyo. It's worth mentioning that this firm has designed the "look" of most Yamaha motorcycles to date.
It was fast: the YA-1 obtained excellent overall results in the most important local races of that time: Mount Fuji (third place) and Mount Asama (first place).
In fact it was this aggressive attitude in the sporting world that helped Yamaha Motorcycles gain fast acceptance even though they made a late start in the motorcycle scene (in comparison to Honda and Suzuki).
In other words: Yamaha Motorcycles showed the world they had arrived to be considered good and fierce competitors from the beginning. Particularly to Honda and Suzuki.
Other important models from that time were:
>>> The Yamaha YD-1 (the competition for the Suzuki TP of that time)
Some technical specifications:
Yamaha YD-1
15 hp
70 mph.
185,000 yen
in comparison to:
Suzuki TP
18 hp
80 mph.
195,000 yen
>>> The Yamaha YDS-1
The dream bike of all young Japanese between 1959-1960.
Some technical specifications:
20 hp
333 lbs.
85 mph.
Direct rival of the Honda CB72
Since then, the history of models and victories goes on and on...
Today, Yamaha Motorcycles is one of the major players in the worldwide motorcycling scene.
Just to give you an idea of how important Yamaha Motorcycles have become:
- The 2004 Moto GP was won by excellent rider Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha motorcycle.
I could go an and on writing about Yamaha Motorcycles, victories, challenges and models but I would need a whole book
You will find a pictorial history of Yamaha Motorcycles from 1955 to 2001.
Enjoy the ride!
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