Soichiro Honda was a racer, a businessman, a manufacturer. But most of all he was a dreamer. He dreamed of a better way of making piston rings, founded a small company and began production. He dreamed of giving people everywhere an economical form of transportation, and began producing small motorcycles, including one built in 1949 called the D-Type Dream.

He dreamed of building high-performance motorcycles, too, and of taking them racing. So his company built bigger and faster machines, two-, four-, five- and six-cylinder racebikes, and won the Isle of Man.

He dreamed of sharing his new motorcycles with the world, and in 1959 he opened American Honda Motor Company in California.

He dreamed of building his motorcycles in the countries where they would be ridden, and opened Honda of America Manufacturing in 1979.

He dreamed of changing the way people looked at motorcycles, and gave us machines that were fun to ride.

He dreamed of building touring bikes, and created a whole new category with the first Gold Wing.

But somewhere along the line, things began to change. Because other people began to dream about Hondas, too. They wrote songs about them, and started clubs that grew to thousands of members.

Soichiro Honda's dreams changed the world of motorcycling, and touched our lives. Fifty years after he founded the company bearing his name, we take a moment to look back at his dreams and his vision. And to say thank you, Mr. Honda, for the dream.

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