Do you know Honda is largest producer of motorcycle in the world? A title it has maintained since the 1970s.
Like Suzuki, Honda also produces cars and engines. In fact, Honda is the largest internal combustion engine maker in the world.
Taking a look at the Honda’s Fiscal 2005 report, it is interesting to see that Asia is top in terms of number of units sold, but North America top in terms of net sales value. This should be no surprise for anyone that had visited any major Asian cities.
Honda (powersports.honda.com)
A while back you read about the major Italian motorcycle makers. Now it is time to round up the Japanese motorcycle makers.
Suzuki was featured yesterday. Other major Japanese motorcycle brands are Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki.
Talking about Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, it would be interesting to look at market share of these manufacturers put together. If you have a copy of this report, drop me the figure.
The second motorcyle that I owned was a Suzuki. Being a main stream brand it was easy to find parts and maintenance was cheap.
Suzuki was founded in 1909. Like many Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, Suzuki’s products cut across other industries, including cars, trucks and engines.
Check out all the Suzuki Motorcycle ever built!
Suzuki Cycles (suzukicycles.com)
My second bike is a Suzuki Marauder 125. This bike was brought brand new after getting some cash from selling an Internet business around 2000.
As with the first bike, there were many things to learn. The most important thing was run in.
What is “run in”? At that time I did not have any idea and the shop just gave me a vague clue. The idea is that a brand new motorcycle had to be “eased” into usage. The shop told me it meant no full throttle riding for the first 500-800km.
If you know how small Singapore is, you will realise that doing 500km is not an easy feat. A friend to me what he did was to ride his bike to Kuala Lumpur. That’s up the Malaysia North-South highway, a distance of about 700km. At that time I still do not have the courage to ride outside the tame traffic that is Singapore. (It was destined for the next bike)
Anyway, it was an excuse for me to take the Marauder out for a spin, riding aimlessly on the expressways from west to east, south to north.
The sound of a new engine was music to the ears. As the throttle turns, the engine purred to life like a concerted piece.
The shiny chrome parts were candies to the eyes. After looking at the rusty RXS for so many years, riding the shiny Marauder is such an uplifting experience. Just imagine floating along the road.
Gasoline engines, airborne equipment, international trade, hydraulic products, real estate, computer softwares.
Just like GE we are diversified.
Welcome to Jincheng Group. Our advertisement on TV brought Ken to our website where we show fighter planes zooming across the sky and motorcycle floating cross the field.
“Jincheng came into being in the same year when the People’s Republic of China was founded. The manufacturer has played an indispensable role in China’s industrial growth in the past and it has been closely keeping the pace of the Chinese development.”
Before you leave, please drop by our motor city.
Writing this blog has got me more keen in spotting and looking at motorcycles. Being the weekend, I picked up the movie Silver Hawk.
I watched this movie before in 2004, the first movie I watched in a Shanghai cinema and with my girlfriend (wife to be).
The Chinese title 飞鹰 should really be “Flying Hawk”. Michelle Yeoh (of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame) is the lead actress.
It is an action movie with lots of stunts often compared as Hong Kong’s Tome Raider. Go watch to movie or read reviews on Amazon if you want to know the story line.
We are more interested in the bikes.
Reputedly BMW sponsored 16 motorcycles and some cars for the filming. Six of the motorcycles were wrecked in stunts like jumping over the Great Wall. Check out more of the jump photos here.
Can you identify the BMW that appears in the movie?
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