A Brief History of Honda Dirt Bikes

Honda has a solid base of their dirt bike fans, and there is a good reason for that. Always being at the forefront of innovation helped Honda dirt bikes to establish their reputation with some pretty legendary machines.
Do you know the history of Honda dirt bikes?

First of all – do you know the story of wings in Honda logo? The founder of the brand Soichiro Honda was inspired by the sculpture of the ancient Greek goddess Nike, the goddess of victory. Seems like sometimes those wings really help dirt bike riders to fly higher than the rest, right?

Honda was founded in 1949 by a dedicated motorhead Soichiro Honda, the son of a blacksmith with a crazy passion for everything that #braaps. He was mad for competition and losing wasn’t an option – that helped the brand to strive for the best. The first Honda dirt bike was called Dream Type D which was a 98cc two-stroke single-cylinder road bike. 

When Honda started exporting their rides to the U.S. in 1959, there was a stereotype that all the motorcyclists were thugs and antisocial rebels. Honda took their part in changing that with their legendary slogan: “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” which turned to be a huge success. Because under those thick layers of dirt and oil, we’re all nice and fluffy, right?

Honda was quite late to the motocross party. Only in the late 60s Honda introduced their first dirt bike – CR250 Elsinore which was like no other around. It was sleek, light, and fast as dynamite – no wonder all the dirt bike riders went completely nuts. That was the moment when Honda dirt bikes became a huge success and in 1974, half of the race participants were racing on Honda.

Since then, Honda continued to pump out a hugely successful range of dirt bikes, including the XR’s, CR’s, and CRF’s. A lot has changed since the beginning of the brand, but one thing remains – Honda dirt bikes are made for the winners, and the ones who don’t consider losing as an option. Winners ride red – check these Honda models. Do you know what divides winners from losers? You guessed it – good-looking dirt bike graphics for Honda. And in case of custom Honda mx graphics, there is only one winner to reach for, and it’s OMX Graphics.

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