Honda’s motocross head for racing and production bikes
TAKEN FROM ISSUE 80, JUNE 2012
BY ADAM DUCKWORTH
Mister Honda really does live up to his name. As far as motocross goes at the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer, he is just about as important as it gets.
Taichi Honda is the man in charge of the world’s biggest-selling motocross bikes, Honda’s CRFs. And he’s head of Honda’s GP racing effort, AMA Supercross and motocross programmes and the Japanese test, development and racing programmes.
He’s a former Japanese motocross championship rider and has helped develop every Honda crosser from the first beam-framed CR two-stroke right through to the current CRF450 and 250s. And also the new factory bikes.
He was promoted from a test rider of both production and HRC factory motocross sbikes, then as a development engineer and is now is a director of the company. He has been the main driving force behind the new breed of fuel-injected CRFs. He also heads up Honda’s global factory racing division, HRC. All by age 36. And no, he isn’t related to the founder of the company. Honda is just a reasonably common surname in Japan.
“My job is to head up Honda’s research and development side for the CRF450 for both production bikes and factory race bikes. And I am project leader for both the 250 and 450 production bikes,” he says.
“I work for both HGA – which is Honda’s R&D department – and HRC which is just about racing and factory bikes.
“R&D make and create the production bike, HRC race it and develop it, then give feedback to HGA for future production bikes. I work across both.”
Taichi Honda, who still owns an old CR250 two-stroke, is a regular at GPs and AMA races and is the man who has revitalised Honda’s involvement at a high level. He’s put increased importance on GPs as the place where one-off factory bikes can be raced and develop, as opposed to AMA racing where all bikes must be production based. It’s a real shot in the arm for the world championship.
But crucially, where Taichi Honda leads, many other manufacturers follow. So Taichi’s views on the future of motocross bikes will directly influence every manufacturer.
“Mass centralisation, weight, power and handling is our target. I think customers want lower weight and especially the placement of weight, towards the centre of the bike,” he says.
“And then it’s power. Not the amount of power as we have lots of that. But controlling the power. I think electronic control systems will be important.
It’s important we make it easier for customers to tune their bike’s power. Now they have to use a laptop, which is OK for some people. But we have to make it easier for everyone.
“I know there is no future for two-strokes at Honda. Our policy is 100% four-stroke. It’s a green issue, for emissions. Honda strongly believe this in everything it makes, from motorcycles to garden strimmers.
“I know there is a two-stroke resurgence and they have many good points. In fact, I own a 2005 and 2007 CR250 two-strokes and ride them a lot. They’re completely stock with no HRC parts on them. I don’t race any more, just ride for fun with my son. But overall, 450 four-strokes are far better than two-strokes now.”
Reprint from www.moto.mpora.com