"Honda will never build a two-stroke motorcycle.”
Soichiro Honda made that statement in the late ’60s and meant it.
He had built his company on the four-stroke design and was doing
quite well with it.
Yet, a few years later, Honda released a two-stroke that changed the world.
The 1974 CR125M was produced in greater numbers than any motocross
bike ever built. It introduced a generation of riders to racing and, more
than any other single motorcycle, was responsible for the dirt bike boom
that followed. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of that
one motorcycle on the sport we know today.
Mr. Honda’s turnaround on the subject of two-strokes was the result
of two factors. First, he was pathologically competitive. He loved
racing and couldn’t stomach the idea of losing—on the track or in sales.
Second, there was a group of young engineers at the company that
believed in the two-stroke design and had a secret development
program that was hidden from management.
When they summoned the courage to present the project to the president,
he begrudgingly approved. But he warned them,
“If you insist on building a two-stroke,
it better be the best in the world.”
That launched a 34-year run of Honda 125 and 250 two-strokes.
The CR250M was launched first, but it was the CR125 that had
the biggest impact on rank-and-file riders in America.
It was the bike that changed everything, in sheer weight of numbers.