158-584: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. ( Japanese : 本田技研工業株式会社 , Hepburn : Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki gaisha , lit. ' Honda Institute of Technology and Industry Joint-Stock Company ' , IPA: [honda] ; / ˈ h ɒ n d ə / ) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate that manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, and battery-powered equipment, founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda and headquartered in Minato, Tokyo , Japan. Honda has been
316-559: A pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has
474-557: A 'miniature version of a motorcycle' in many cases, but a motorized bicycle should hook turn to the right in some cases on a signalized intersection with more than three lanes including a L/R turn lane in the same direction. A vehicle that has a maximum speed of over 20 km/h (12.4 mph) also requires, as a miniature version of a motorcycle, to have similar performance in terms of its brakes, tires, silencer, headlight, license plate lamp, rear reflector, side mirror, horn, tail lamp, brake lamp, direction indicators and speedometer. Hence,
632-406: A 2-day week until the end of May as the manufacturer struggled to source supplies from Japan. It's thought around 22,500 cars were produced during this period. For the fiscal year 2018, Honda reported earnings of US$ 9.534 billion, with an annual revenue of US$ 138.250 billion, an increase of 6.2% over the previous fiscal cycle. Honda's shares traded at over $ 32 per share, and its market capitalization
790-483: A DVLA-required insurance certificate, must provide proof from the original seller of the bicycle and engine that both the bicycle and the engine are new and unused. ICE motorized bicycles that are amateur-built and meet MSVA safety and regulatory standards, and which meet the definition of low powered mopeds (engines of proven output of less than 1 kW (1.34 hp) and capable of 25 km/h (16 mph) or less) face considerably fewer regulatory requirements. In
948-592: A Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and standard on-road safety equipment such as mirrors, turn signal lamps, side marker lamps, and stop lamps ), then the vehicle shall not be considered a "motor vehicle" as defined by DOT/NHTSA regulations, but instead is defined as an off-road vehicle (since the lack of a VIN and on-road equipment indicates that a vehicle was not manufactured primarily for use on public roads.) Such off-road vehicles are considered to be neither motor vehicles nor motorcycles , as those terms are defined under federal law. Under present-day NHTSA rules,
1106-493: A belt turning a large gear wheel attached to the opposite side of the rear wheel as the chain. By 1901 the kit engine was a 211 cc (12.9 cu in) unit developing 1.5 hp (1.1 kW; 1.5 PS), comfortably cruising at 30 km/h (19 mph) at 1,500 rpm, capable of a top speed of 50 km/h (31 mph), and getting fuel consumption in the range of 3 L/100 km (94 mpg ‑imp ; 78 mpg ‑US ). These kits were exported around
1264-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
1422-440: A bicycle on public roads. An example of Nova Scotia 's Motor Vehicle act, as it applies to Motorized Bicycles: In France, the laws regulating moped and scooter ( cyclomoteur ) operation apply as well to the gas-powered motorized bicycle, variously known as a bicyclette motorisée , vélo motorisé , vélomoteur , or vélomoto . Under French law, no person under 14 years of age may operate a gas-powered motorized bicycle (defined as
1580-432: A bicycle with a gasoline motor under 50 cc displacement, and capable of a maximum speed of 45 kilometres per hour (28 mph)). All vélomotos or motorbikes must be registered, and all riders without a full driving license must pass a test and receive a certificate ( Brevet de Sécurité Routière , or BSR) consisting of written exam and five hours of practical training, four and a half of which must be on public roads, with
1738-498: A combination of pedal power and engine power whereas motorcycles are purely either internal combustion engine or electric motor powered. Motorized bicycles have utilized all variety of engines, from internal-combustion (IC) two-stroke and four-stroke gasoline engines to electric, diesel, or even steam propulsion. Most motorized bicycles are based or derived from standard general-purpose bicycle frame designs and technologies, although exceptions abound. In addition, modifications to
SECTION 10
#17330847989131896-589: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
2054-786: A developer studio are part of the Honda Innovations group, formed in Spring 2017 and based in Mountain View, California . Through Honda Mobilityland , Honda also operate the Suzuka Circuit and Twin Ring Motegi racing tracks. Following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Honda announced plans to halve production at its UK plants. The decision was made to put staff at the Swindon plant on
2212-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
2370-427: A driving school. All operators must carry third-party insurance and wear helmets, and a metal license tab with the owner's name ( Plaque de nom ) must be attached to the handlebars. Motorized bicycles are not permitted on French motorways, and riders must use cycle paths where provided. In Japan, any vehicle with an internal combustion engine is regarded as a car, motorcycle or motorized bicycle. A motorized bicycle with
2528-458: A dual-purpose propulsion system seemed particularly advantageous. As time went on, pedal propulsion was increasingly replaced by constant use of a two or four-stroke gasoline engine. Nevertheless, the concept of using motor assist for the ordinary bicycle has persisted, and the concept has periodically resurfaced over the years, particularly in times of austerity or fuel shortages. In countries where automobiles and/or fuels are prohibitively expensive,
2686-408: A gasoline motor over 50 cc is regarded as a motorcycle in law. It can be ridden by persons age 18 or over who have a full driving license for motorcycles who have had long-term training and have sat a driving exam in a driving school. A two-wheel cycle with a gasoline motor of under 125 cc is not permitted to go on Japan's controlled-access highways . Motorized bicycles in Japanese law are treated as
2844-413: A gasoline motor under 50 cc has a regulated maximum speed of 30 km/h (18.6 mph). It must be registered and the rider must have insurance. To ride one, you have to be at least 16 years old, have a license and wear a helmet. All riders without a full driving license for cars or motorcycles must pass a written test and go through one-day practical training in a driving school. Any two-wheel cycle with
3002-569: A gasoline motor under 50cc, and max design speed of 30 mph is allowed for persons over 14 years old, NOT requiring a DVLA issued driving licence. All bigger bikes have a minimum age of 17. Purchasers of new-construction ICE motorized bicycles must meet a host of regulatory requirements and pass inspections from the DVLA and MSVA in order to register such machines for operation on public roadways. Owners must obtain an EC-type Motorcycle Single Vehicle Type Approval Certification (MSVA), and in order to obtain
3160-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
3318-622: A global recall of about 4.5 million vehicles, including 2.54 million in the U.S., over fuel pump failures, following earlier recalls in 2021 and 2020 for the same issue. Honda is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo , Japan. Their shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange , as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka , London , Paris, and Switzerland. The company has assembly plants around
SECTION 20
#17330847989133476-408: A helmet. Many United States cities and other local jurisdictions may impose additional restrictions upon ICE motorized bicycles when operated on public streets and roadways. The laws on electric motor-powered bicycles or E-bikes vary considerably according to country. In many nations, a top limit on the power of the electric motor is imposed if the vehicle is to be legally classified and/or taxed as
3634-423: A leading-link front fork, a leather spring saddle, a front Duck roller brake , and an Atherton rear coaster brake . A leathern belt-drive directly connected the engine output shaft to the rear wheel. During the summer of 1903, George A. Wyman rode a 200 cc (12 cu in), 1.5 hp (1.1 kW; 1.5 PS) California from San Francisco to New York City, becoming the first person to cross
3792-559: A limited range, particularly when large amounts of power are utilized. This design limitation means that the use of the electric motor as an assist to pedal propulsion is more emphasized than is the case with an internal combustion engine. While costly, new types of lithium batteries along with electronic controls now offer users increased power and range while reducing overall weight. Newer electric motor bicycle designs are gaining increasing acceptance, particularly in countries where increasing traffic congestion, aging populations, and concern for
3950-479: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
4108-418: A maximum speed of 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph)). Moped driver must use a helmet and he must keep right border. Velomotors are not under register. Since 2014, moped driver must have an "M category" license or any of higher grade. But as of 2015, there's no official procedure to obtain "M" license, so moped drivers are still not under control in practice. In United Kingdom, driving a motorised bicycle with
4266-663: A mechanic at the Art Shokai garage, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. In 1937, with financing from his acquaintance Kato Shichirō, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki (Eastern Sea Precision Machine Company) to make piston rings working out of the Art Shokai garage. After initial failures, Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to Toyota , but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products. After attending engineering school without graduating, and visiting factories around Japan to better understand Toyota's quality control processes known as " Five whys ", by 1941 Honda
4424-442: A regular bicycle to which an engine or motor has been simply added is illegal. Driving without a suitable license or without insurance is strictly punishable by law. Any other violations including parking violations in urban areas are severely enforced. Under Russian law, no person under 16 years of age may operate a gas-powered motorized bicycle (defined as a moped with a gasoline motor under 50 сс) displacement, and capable of
4582-469: A second renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s as a new generation of youth discovered they could ride a motorized vehicle without need of a driver's license . Other countries had relaxed licensing requirements, e.g. lower age limits for motorized bicycles, which increased their popularity. In the USSR, a deficiency of any vehicles in the market led to a great increase of cheap 50cc mopeds and kits production. Sales of
4740-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
4898-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
Honda - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-510: A small 356 cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket. The second production car from Honda was the S500 sports car, which followed the T360 into production in October 1963. Its chain-driven rear wheels pointed to Honda's motorcycle origins. Over the next few decades, Honda worked to expand its product line, operations and exports to numerous countries around
5214-431: A standard bicycle frame to support motorization may be extensive. The earliest motorized bicycles were ordinary utility bicycles fitted with an add-on motor and transmission to assist normal pedal propulsion, and it is this form that principally distinguishes the motorized bicycle from a moped or motorcycle. In a day when gasoline engine and transmission designs were in their infancy, and power-to-weight ratios were low,
5372-407: A variety of engine types and designs, the motorized bicycle formed the prototype for what would later become the motor driven cycle. The term motorized bicycle refers to just a bicycle combining pedal power and internal combustion engine power. However, the term could be used as an umbrella category to refer to bicycles using sources besides pedal power. Electric bicycles technically could be in
5530-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
5688-529: Is 200 watts. Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia have banned the use of ICE motorized bicycles. For example "In NSW, all petrol-powered bicycles are banned on New South Wales roads and road-related areas such as footpaths, shared paths, cycle ways and cycle paths. The ban, introduced on 1 October 2014, includes bicycles that: -Have had a petrol-powered engine attached after purchase -Were bought with an attached petrol-powered engine -Are powered by any type of internal combustion engine." And "As from
5846-534: Is a bicycle with an attached motor or engine and transmission used either to power the vehicle unassisted, or to assist with pedalling. Since it sometimes retains both pedals and a discrete connected drive for rider-powered propulsion, the motorized bicycle is in technical terms a true bicycle, albeit a power-assisted one. Typically they are incapable of speeds above 52 km/h (32 mph); however, in recent years larger motors have been built, allowing bikes to reach speeds of upwards of 113 km/h (70 mph). Powered by
6004-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
6162-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
6320-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
6478-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
Honda - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-827: Is based in Alliston, Ontario . Honda has also created joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars and Hero Honda Motorcycles in India, Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda in China, Boon Siew Honda in Malaysia and Honda Atlas in Pakistan. The company also runs a business innovation initiative called Honda Xcelerator , in order to build relationships with innovators, partner with Silicon Valley startups and entrepreneurs, and help other companies work on prototypes. Xcelerator had worked with reportedly 40 companies as of January 2019. Xcelerator and
6794-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
6952-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
7110-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
7268-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
7426-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
7584-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
7742-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
7900-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
8058-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
SECTION 50
#17330847989138216-594: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned by the UK government to write a report explaining why and how the British motorcycle industry had been out-competed by its Japanese competitors. The report concluded that the Japanese firms, including Honda, had sought a very high scale of production (they had made a large number of motorbikes) in order to benefit from economies of scale and learning curve effects. It blamed
8374-831: The Civic GX as the greenest car in America for seven consecutive years. Honda currently builds vehicles in factories located in Japan, the United States of America, Canada, China, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Honda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan and has been since it started production in 1955. At its peak in 1982, Honda manufactured almost three million motorcycles annually. By 2006, this figure had been reduced to around 550,000 but
8532-700: The Fit and Accord. Honda's first hybrid electric vehicle was the 1999 Insight . The Civic was first offered as a hybrid in 2001, and the Accord followed in 2004. In 2008, the company launched the Clarity , a fuel cell car . In 2008, Honda increased global production to meet the demand for small cars and hybrids in the U.S. and emerging markets. The company shuffled U.S. production to keep factories busy and boost car output while building fewer minivans and sport utility vehicles as light truck sales fell. Its first entrance into
8690-505: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
8848-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
9006-508: The Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from
9164-461: The Thomas Motor Company , he began selling complete motor-assisted bicycles under the name Auto-Bi . The Auto-Bi is generally considered to be the first production motorized bicycle made in the United States. The 1900 Singer Motor Wheel was a wheel incorporating a small ICE powerplant that could be substituted for the front wheel of a bicycle. A later design, the 1914 Smith Motor Wheel ,
9322-475: The Trojan Minimotor . In West Germany, a compression-ignition (diesel) engine kit using an 18 cc variable head engine made by Lohmann was produced during the 1950s. In France, where postwar reconstruction, taxes, and fuel shortages limited automobile access, motorized bicycle kits and complete models were produced by a variety of smaller manufacturers, often using a two-stroke gasoline engine mounted above
9480-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
9638-505: The chain drive made possible the safety bicycle , giving the bicycle its modern form. The origins of the motorized bicycle or motorbike can be traced back to the latter part of the 19th century when experimenters began attaching steam engines to bicycles, tricycles , and quadracycles . The first true motorized bicycle is generally considered to be the French Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede of 1868. The Michaux-Perreaux
SECTION 60
#17330847989139796-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
9954-448: The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics ,
10112-532: The "Autocycle" with a purpose-built frame incorporating pedals and a two-stroke engine (often a 98 cc Villiers engine), but without a gearbox (e.g. the Malvern Star ). Autocycle manufacturers were well established in countries such as Britain and Australia before World War II. In 1939, the American bolt-on Whizzer gas-engined bicycle kit was introduced, utilizing a 138 cc side-valve four-stroke engine,
10270-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
10428-627: The 15 December 2016 internal combustion engines that are fitted to bicycles are not permitted to be used on South Australian roads or road-related areas". In Victoria ICE bicycles over 200 watts are classed as motorcycles and must be registered as such. The legislation in all states favours electric power assisted bicycles over ICE powered bicycles. In Canada, each province has its own authority over motor vehicle and transportation laws, including classification of vehicles used on public roads. Motorized bicycles using an internal combustion engine under 100 cc are generally legally indistinguishable from
10586-612: The 1890s, with the advent of the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine (ICE), that the motorized bicycle could be considered a practical machine. One of the first gas motor-assisted bicycle designs was the Millet motorcycle developed by Félix Millet in France in 1892. Millet's designs had both pedals and a fixed-crankshaft radial engine built into the back wheel. In 1896, E. R. Thomas of Buffalo, New York, began selling gasoline engine kits for propelling ordinary bicycles . After forming
10744-461: The 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of
10902-547: The Accord and Civic (with the exception of its USA-market 1993–97 Passport which was part of a vehicle exchange program with Isuzu (part of the Subaru-Isuzu joint venture)) have always employed Front-wheel drive powertrain implementation, which is currently a long-held Honda tradition. Honda also installed new technologies into their products, first as optional equipment, then later standard, like anti-lock brakes , speed-sensitive power steering , and multi-port fuel injection in
11060-631: The Civic is the second-longest continuously running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer; only its perennial rival, the Toyota Corolla , introduced in 1966, has been in production longer. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude , comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded. Having gone through several generational changes, the Civic has become larger and more upmarket , and it currently slots between
11218-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
11376-528: The Minerva motorized bicycles continued through to about 1909, they became a less and less significant part of the company. In England, the Phelon & Rayner motorized bicycle was introduced in 1901, and was sold through 1903. The original Phelon & Rayner machine used a 260 cc (16 cu in), 1.75 horsepower (1.30 kW; 1.77 PS) gasoline engine mounted to a standard 28-inch bicycle frame. In
11534-534: The North American continent aboard a motor vehicle. As early as 1903, motorized bicycles were being fitted with larger and heavier loop frames designed to specifically accommodate larger displacement engines, which produced higher speeds. These new motorbike frame designs soon incorporated a new riding position that no longer centered the rider over the pedals, but instead moved the rider's feet forward, where they rested on pegs or platforms. The new riding position
11692-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
11850-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
12008-914: The Tohatsu engine, and supplying these to customers to attach to their bicycles. This was the Honda A-Type, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made. In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for ¥ 1,000,000, or about US$ 5,000 today; these funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltd. At about the same time Honda hired engineer Kihachiro Kawashima, and Takeo Fujisawa who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro Honda's technical bent. The close partnership between Soichiro Honda and Fujisawa lasted until they stepped down together in October 1973. The first complete motorcycle with both
12166-469: The U.S. market was a story of "miscalculation, serendipity, and organizational learning" – in other words, Honda's success was due to the adaptability and hard work of its staff, rather than any long-term strategy. For example, Honda's initial plan on entering the US market was to compete in large motorcycles, around 300 cc. Honda's motorcycles in this class suffered performance and reliability problems when ridden
12324-579: The US to suspend production in its factories. It resumed automobile, engine and transmission production at its US plants on 11 May 2020. Honda and General Motors announced in September 2020 a North American alliance to begin in 2021. According to The Detroit Free Press, "The proposed alliance will include sharing a range of vehicles, to be sold under each company's distinct brands, as well as cooperation in purchasing, research and development, and connected services." In 2021, Honda announced its intention to become
12482-522: The US. Honda power equipment includes: Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes
12640-470: The United States and Canada due to an issue with seat belts in the car not latching correctly. Among the models recalled were the 2017-2020 CR-V, the 2018 and 2019 Accord, the 2018-2020 Odyssey, the 2019 Insight, and the Acura RDX from 2019 and 2020. According to the recall, the seat belts in the front seats would break open on impact increasing the risk of injury in a crash. On 21 December 2023, Honda announced
12798-453: The United States, Velosolex America markets the VELOSOLEX worldwide. Currently there are several companies manufacturing aftermarket internal combustion engine (ICE) motor conversion kits for conventional bicycles. These include both four-stroke and two-stroke gasoline engine designs. Among these, Golden Eagle Bike Engines currently produces a rear-engine (rack-mounted) kit using a belt to drive
12956-613: The United States, federal law governing ICE motorized bicycles is subject to interpretative rulings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at the United States Department of Transportation. Under current NHTSA rules, a "motor-driven cycle" (a definition that includes a two-wheel vehicle such as a bicycle with an add-on ICE engine of five brake horsepower or less, a speed capability of more than 20 miles per hour and/or lacks both
13114-622: The United States, the California Motor Company was formed in 1901 to sell complete gasoline-engine motorbikes in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. The company began with a 200 cc single-cylinder, 1.5-horsepower, four-stroke engine designed by R.C. Marks. Mounted to a standard bicycle frame, the California could reach speeds of approximately 25 mph (40 km/h). The California weighed around 75-80 pounds, and featured
13272-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
13430-453: The air-cooled N360, called the Honda Life , which was water-cooled. The Honda Life represented Honda's efforts in competing in the kei car segment, offering sedan, delivery van and small pick-up platforms on a shared chassis. The Life Step Van had a novel approach that, while not initially a commercial success, appeared to be an influence to vehicles with the front passengers sitting behind
13588-508: The air-cooled, four-cylinder, gasoline-powered Honda 1300 which was introduced in 1969. The Civic was a hatchback that gained wide popularity internationally, but it wasn't the first two-door hatchback built by Honda. That was the Honda N360 , a Kei car that was adapted for international sale as the N600. The Civic, which appeared in 1972 and replaced the N600 also had a smaller sibling that replaced
13746-433: The category of motorized bicycles but instead of using internal combustion engines as a combination it is driven by electric motors which power from pedals and batteries . Mopeds are also almost motorized bicycles since they function the same way as these vehicles but with engines less than 50 cc (3.1 cu in). The term motorized bicycle should not be confused with motorcycle since this type of vehicle uses
13904-654: The company introduced a complete production bike, the Pacemaker . Sales of the Whizzer conversion kits continued until 1962. In the United Kingdom, the motorized bicycle saw a resurgence of popularity and such bolt-on motors as the Cyclaid and the Cyclemaster motor wheel saw brief periods of immense popularity. The Cyclemaster , which was a hub motor that could be fitted to an ordinary bike, started at 25 cc (painted black), but later
14062-579: The company. Honda also aided the war effort by assisting other companies in automating the production of military aircraft propellers. The relationships Honda cultivated with personnel at Toyota, Nakajima Aircraft Company and the Imperial Japanese Navy would be instrumental in the postwar period. A US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944, and the Itawa plant collapsed on 13 January 1945 Mikawa earthquake . Soichiro Honda sold
14220-510: The decline of the British motorcycle industry on the failure of British managers to invest enough in their businesses to profit from economies of scale and scope . The second explanation was offered in 1984 by Richard Pascale, who had interviewed the Honda executives responsible for the firm's entry into the U.S. market. As opposed to the tightly focused strategy of low cost and high scale that BCG accredited to Honda, Pascale found that their entry into
14378-662: The desire to create a more environmentally friendly company image. The Honda Aircraft Company as established in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary to manufacture and sell the HondaJet family of aircraft. The first deliveries to customers began in December 2015. On 23 February 2015, Honda announced that CEO and President Takanobu Ito would step down and be replaced by Takahiro Hachigo in June of that year; additional retirements by senior managers and directors were expected. In October 2019, Honda
14536-566: The development of new, lighter, and more powerful batteries, electric motors for power assist are increasingly popular, often using hub motors to facilitate after-market conversions. Converting bicycles or tricycles has proven useful for some people with physical disabilities such as knee injury or arthritis. In 2003 production of the French gasoline-powered VELOSOLEX ceased in Hungary. However, production continues in China and has restarted in France. In
14694-508: The early 1980s. This desire to be the first to try new approaches is evident with the creation of the first Japanese luxury chain Acura , and was also evident with the all-aluminum, mid-engined sports car, the Honda NSX , which also introduced variable valve timing technology, which Honda calls VTEC . The Civic family is a line of compact cars developed and manufactured by Honda. In North America,
14852-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
15010-473: The engine or for emergency use. The alternate design philosophy to the moped is the so-called motor-assist or pedal-assist bicycle. These machines utilize the pedals as the dominant form of propulsion, with the motor used only to give extra assistance when needed for hills or long journeys. The two-wheeled pedal powered bicycle was first conceived in Paris in the 1860s. By 1888, John Dunlop 's pneumatic tire and
15168-445: The engine, a large cargo area with a flat roof and a liftgate installed in back, and utilizing a transversely installed engine with a front-wheel-drive powertrain. As Honda entered into automobile manufacturing in the late 1960s where Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan had been making cars since before WWII, Honda instilled a sense of doing things a little differently than its Japanese competitors. Its mainstay products like
15326-433: The environment have stimulated development and usage. The legal definition and status of motorized bicycles using internal combustion engines varies from nation to nation, and in some cases, on local rules and regulations. Current laws in some states/territories allow the use of ICE motorized bicycles, provided they do not produce more than a certain number of watts of power. In Tasmania and The Northern Territory this limit
15484-705: The establishment of GE Honda Aero Engines in 2004 and the Honda HA-420 HondaJet , which began production in 2012. Honda has two joint-ventures in China: Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda . In 2013, Honda invested about 5.7% (US$ 6.8 billion) of its revenues into research and development. Also in 2013, Honda became the first Japanese automaker to be a net exporter from the United States, exporting 108,705 Honda and Acura models, while importing only 88,357. Throughout his life, Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda (1906–1991), had an interest in automobiles. He worked as
15642-445: The final decision as to whether such federally defined off-road vehicles may be legally operated on public roads is determined by the laws of the state in which the vehicle is being operated. The legal status of an ICE motorized bicycle in the United States is presently determined by the laws of each state and/or local jurisdiction. Several states allow ICE motorbikes to be operated on roadways without registration, tax, or licensing in
15800-511: The first whizzer was of the friction drive variety, but was soon replaced with belt drive. Despite some initial engine reliability issues, the Whizzer enjoyed modest popularity during World War II due to fuel and automobile shortages, and was used by war plant workers and others with priority for transportation. After the war, the Whizzer became popular with youth who desired faster speeds from their heavy cruiser-framed Schwinn bicycles. In 1949,
15958-501: The first-generation Odyssey and the CR-V , and a refocusing away from some of the numerous sedans and coupes that were popular with the company's engineers but not with the buying public. The most shocking change to Honda came when Kawamoto ended the company's successful participation in Formula One after the 1992 season, citing costs in light of the takeover threat from Mitsubishi as well as
16116-551: The frame and engine made by Honda was the 1949 D-Type , the first Honda to go by the name Dream. In 1961, Honda achieved its first Grand Prix victories and World Championships in the 125 cc and 250 cc categories. Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964. The first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August 1963. Powered by
16274-565: The front wheel. In 1946, production of the very successful French VELOSOLEX commenced, continuing until 1988. The VéloSoleX was a mass-produced motorized bicycle that used a tire roller ( friction drive ) to the front wheel. After French production ceased, the VELOSOLEX continued to be produced in China and Hungary. An in-wheel gasoline engine was used on the Honda P50 moped, which ceased production in 1968. The velomoteur and motor scooter enjoyed
16432-412: The gasoline-powered motorized bicycle, known popularly as the vélomoteur or vélomoto was popular during the 1930s, and continued to be widely sold in early postwar years as a means of transportation during a period of gasoline shortages and limited automobile production. In the 1930s, the United Kingdom and its former colonies also developed "clip-on" motors for bicycles (35 to 49 cc), followed by
16590-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
16748-400: The globe. These plants are located in China, the United States, Pakistan, Canada, England, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, México, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Taiwan, Perú and Argentina. As of July 2010, 89% of Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the United States were built in North American plants, up from 82.2% a year earlier. This shields profits from
16906-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
17064-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
17222-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
17380-537: The models TRX 90X, TRX 250X, TRX 400x, TRX 450R and TRX 700. Power equipment production started in 1953 with H-type engine (prior to motorcycles). Honda power equipment reached record sales in 2007 with 6.4 million units sold annually. By 2010 ( Fiscal year ended 31 March) this figure had decreased to 4.7 million units. Cumulative production of power products has exceeded 85 million units annually (as of September 2008). In September 2023, Honda ceased sales of gasoline lawn mowers and some other power equipment in
17538-409: The mopeds and kits reached approximately a half million per year in the later 70s. As to technical level, it was analogous to pre-WW2 German models, with minimal changes made to later 80s. The only clip-on kit engine was "D" series ("Д-4" ... "Д-8Э", designed by Soviet engineer Filip Priboloi), a single-speed chain-driven 45cc 2-stroke motor with manual clutch and a rotary slide valve in a crankshaft. It
17696-444: The motorized bicycle has enjoyed continued popularity as a primary mode of transportation. The design of the motorized bicycle varies widely according to intended use. Some motorized bicycles are powerful enough to be self-propelled, without use of the pedals. A development of the motorized bicycle is the moped, which commonly has only a vestigial pedal drive fitted primarily to satisfy legal requirements, and suitable only for starting
17854-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
18012-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
18170-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
18328-1252: The pickup segment, the light-duty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from Motor Trend magazine in 2006. Also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won Car of the Year from the magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors. It is reported that Honda plans to increase hybrid sales in Japan to more than 20% of its total sales in the fiscal year 2011, from 14.8% in the previous year. Five of United States Environmental Protection Agency 's top ten most fuel-efficient cars from 1984 to 2010 come from Honda, more than any other automakers. The five models are: 2000–2006 Honda Insight (53 mpg ‑US or 4.4 L/100 km or 64 mpg ‑imp combined), 1986–1987 Honda Civic Coupe HF (46 mpg ‑US or 5.1 L/100 km or 55 mpg ‑imp combined), 1994–1995 Honda Civic hatchback VX (43 mpg ‑US or 5.5 L/100 km or 52 mpg ‑imp combined), 2006– Honda Civic Hybrid (42 mpg ‑US or 5.6 L/100 km or 50 mpg ‑imp combined), and 2010– Honda Insight (41 mpg ‑US or 5.7 L/100 km or 49 mpg ‑imp combined). The ACEEE has also rated
18486-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
18644-580: The rear wheel. Staton-Inc., a motorized bicycle manufacturer of long standing, also uses a rack-mount with either a tire roller-mount (friction drive) or a chain-driven, geared transmission. Other manufacturers produce kits using small two- or four-stroke gas engines mounted in the central portion of the bicycle frame, and incorporating various types of belt- or chain-driven transmissions and final drives. Some of these brands include Jiangdu Flying Horse Gasoline Engine Factory Ltd., EZ Motorbike Company, Inc., Mega Motors Inc., and Grubee Inc. The Sachs 301/A (Germany)
18802-529: The relatively long distances of the US highways. When the team found that the scooters they were using to get themselves around their U.S. base of San Francisco attracted positive interest from consumers they fell back on selling the Super Cub instead. The most recent school of thought on Honda's strategy was put forward by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in 1989. Creating the concept of core competencies with Honda as an example, they argued that Honda's success
18960-415: The release of the first EVs scheduled for 2026 in the US under the "Afeela" brand. On 2 February 2023, Honda announced a deal with American car company General Motors to produce cars using a new hydrogen fuel system. The aim is to ramp up the hydrogen powered cells in their Electric vehicles as well as trucks, construction machinery, and power stations. On 15 March 2023, Honda recalled 500,000 vehicles in
19118-408: The relevant market, usually 500 W for Europe (Sachs 301/A) and 200 W for Australia (Rotary RH-01). These units could rarely exceed 20 km/h on level ground without pedal assistance hence are true 'power assisted' bicycles. Motorized bicycles using electric motors have also re-entered the market. Electrically powered bicycles use batteries, which have a limited capacity and thus
19276-456: The salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for ¥450,000 and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute in October 1946. With a staff of 12 men working in a 16 m (170 sq ft) shack, they built and sold improvised motorized bicycles , using a supply of 500 two-stroke 50 cc Tohatsu war surplus radio generator engines . When the engines ran out, Honda began building their own copy of
19434-483: The same manner as bicycles, providing certain restrictions are observed. Many state jurisdictions use limits on top speed and/or engine displacement to determine if ICE motorized bicycles require registration and licensing—sometimes as mopeds, sometimes as motorcycles. Some states prohibit the use of motorbikes on multi-use recreational paths or high-speed, limited access roadways, while others require additional safety equipment for operation on public roads, such as wearing
19592-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
19750-463: The same time, purpose-built motorbikes like the Derny and VéloSoleX , with stronger frames and sometimes with only token ability to be wholly human-powered were introduced in France. Many years later, manufacturers would re-introduce this concept as the moped, a small motorcycle fitted with pedals that can be used as a starting aid but which cannot, practically, be ridden under pedal power alone. In France,
19908-555: The size went up to 32 cc (painted grey). Elsewhere in Europe, the motorized bicycle continued to be popular, particularly in France and Italy. An Italian manufacturer, Vincenti Piatti, designed a 50 cc engine for driving portable lathes and this was also used to power a bicycle frame in the form of the Mini Motore . Piatti later licensed the design to Trojan for production in Britain as
20066-408: The slogan " You meet the nicest people on a Honda ." In contrast to the prevailing negative stereotypes of motorcyclists in America as tough, antisocial rebels, this campaign suggested that Honda motorcycles were made for the everyman. The campaign was hugely successful; the ads ran for three years, and by the end of 1963 alone, Honda had sold 90,000 motorcycles. Taking Honda's story as an archetype of
20224-416: The smaller manufacturer entering a new market already occupied by highly dominant competitors, the story of their market entry, and their subsequent huge success in the U.S. and around the world has been the subject of some academic controversy. Competing explanations have been advanced to explain Honda's strategy and the reasons for their success. The first of these explanations was put forward when, in 1975,
20382-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
20540-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
20698-458: The successful establishment of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in Marysville, Ohio . Irimajiri and Kawamoto shared a friendly rivalry within Honda; owing to health issues, Irimajiri would resign in 1992. Following the death of Soichiro Honda and the departure of Irimajiri, Honda found itself quickly being outpaced in product development by other Japanese automakers and was caught off-guard by
20856-561: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Motorized bicycles A motorized bicycle
21014-536: The truck and sport utility vehicle boom of the 1990s, all which took a toll on the profitability of the company. Japanese media reported in 1992 and 1993 that Honda was at serious risk of an unwanted and hostile takeover by Mitsubishi Motors , which at the time was a larger automaker by volume and was flush with profits from its successful Pajero and Diamante models. Kawamoto acted quickly to change Honda's corporate culture, rushing through market-driven product development that resulted in recreational vehicles such as
21172-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
21330-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
21488-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
21646-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
21804-577: The world to countries including the United Kingdom , France , Germany , the Netherlands , Australia , and other British territories of the time. As engine power increased, frame ruptures became increasingly common, and by 1903 Minerva had developed an in-frame design with the engine mounted above the bottom bracket , while still also offering the clip-on kit. From 1904 Minerva began focusing more on car production, and while development and production of
21962-481: The world's first carmaker to sell a vehicle with level 3 self-driving technology. In March 2022, Honda announced it would develop and build electric vehicles in a joint venture with electronics giant Sony . The latter is set to provide its imaging, sensing, network and other technologies while Honda would be responsible for the car manufacturing processes. The Sony Honda Mobility company was officially announced on 13 October 2022 with pre-orders said to open in 2025 and
22120-421: The world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a production of 400 million by 19 December 2019. It is also the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. Honda became the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in 2001. In 2015, Honda was the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in
22278-477: The world. Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand, Acura , on 27 March 1986. Aside from their core automobile and motorcycle businesses, Honda also manufactures garden equipment, marine engines, personal watercraft , power generators, and other products. Since 1986, Honda has been involved with artificial intelligence/robotics research and released their ASIMO robot in 2000. They have also ventured into aerospace with
22436-450: The world. In 1986, Honda introduced the successful Acura brand to the American market in an attempt to gain ground in the luxury vehicle market. The year 1991 saw the introduction of the Honda NSX supercar, the first all-aluminum monocoque vehicle that incorporated a mid-engine V6 with variable-valve timing . In 1990, CEO Tadashi Kume was succeeded by Nobuhiko Kawamoto . Kawamoto was selected over Shoichiro Irimajiri , who oversaw
22594-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
22752-574: The yen's advance to a 15-year high against the dollar. American Honda Motor Company is based in Torrance, California . Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) is Honda's motorsport division. Honda Canada Inc. is headquartered in Markham, Ontario , it was originally planned to be located in Richmond Hill, Ontario , but delays led them to look elsewhere. Their manufacturing division, Honda of Canada Manufacturing ,
22910-413: Was a popular 30cc 2-stroke developed in the late 70's that was later copied by Pro-Rotary (Taiwan) in the late 90's as an RH-01 and sold in markets such as Australia. The design is that of a hub motor with considerable internal gear reduction resulting in low-output RPM hence low measured power. These units were fitted with a unique ignition system whereby the spark-advance curve limited output power to suite
23068-509: Was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers. Tōkai Seiki was placed under the control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (called the Ministry of Munitions after 1943) at the start of World War II, and Soichiro Honda was demoted from president to senior managing director after Toyota took a 40% stake in
23226-559: Was attached to the rear of a bicycle by means of an outrigger arm, a design later taken up by Briggs & Stratton . In Belgium , the Minerva company, later known for luxury cars, started out manufacturing standard safety bicycles in 1897, before expanding into light cars and "motocyclettes" from 1900. They produced lightweight clip-on engines that mounted below the front down tube, specifically for Minerva bicycles, but also available in kit form suitable for almost any bicycle. The engine drove
23384-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
23542-399: Was designed to increase rider comfort and control when using the motor for propulsion, and soon owners began relying on the gasoline motor for all but emergency use. Front suspension and (on some machines) rear suspension increased control at high speeds. By 1915, some manufacturers were omitting pedal propulsion entirely, resulting in the introduction of the first true modern motorcycle. At
23700-481: Was destined for clipping into a classic twin-diamond bike frame. As of the present day, it is still widely produced by some Chinese factories like Jiangdu in a piston distribution version, and has some popularity even in the United States. During the 1960s, the moped craze arrived in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Mopeds had been produced for years in France and Italy, but were largely unknown in other countries. The moped's surge in popularity
23858-521: Was due to its focus on leadership in the technology of internal combustion engines. For example, the high power-to-weight ratio engines Honda produced for its racing bikes provided technology and expertise which was transferable into mopeds. Honda's entry into the U.S. motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a case study for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide. Honda builds utility ATVs under models Recon, Rubicon, Rancher, Foreman and Rincon. Honda also builds sports ATVs under
24016-461: Was followed by the American Roper steam velocipede of 1869, built by Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts . Roper demonstrated his machine at fairs and circuses in the eastern United States in 1867, and built a total of 10 examples. These early attempts at propelling a bicycle by means other than the human body were not successful, either practically or commercially. It was not until
24174-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
24332-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
24490-635: Was motivated by the arrival of new machines produced in Japan by Honda , Yamaha , and other manufacturers, which could be operated without a driver's license and with a minimum of effort to meet existing regulation by the authorities. The new moped designs were really low-powered motorcycles, equipped with pedals largely to meet legal requirements. Most could be pedaled only with difficulty over short distances on level ground. Today, motorized bicycles are still being developed both as complete designs and as add-on motor kits for use on standard bicycles, either by part-time hobbyists or by commercial manufacturers. With
24648-483: Was reported to be in talks with Hitachi to merge the two companies' car parts businesses, creating a components supplier with almost $ 17 billion in annual sales. In January 2020, Honda announced that it would be withdrawing employees working in the city of Wuhan , Hubei , China due to the COVID-19 pandemic . On 23 March 2020 due to the global spread of the virus, Honda became the first major automaker with operations in
24806-448: Was still higher than its three domestic competitors. In 2017, India became the largest motorcycle market for Honda. In India, Honda is leading in the scooters segment, with 59% market share. During the 1960s when it was a small manufacturer, Honda broke out of the Japanese motorcycle market and began exporting to the United States. Working with the advertising agency Grey Advertising , Honda created an innovative marketing campaign, using
24964-628: Was valued at US$ 50.4 billion in October 2018. Honda's automotive manufacturing ambitions can be traced back to 1963, with the Honda T360 , a Kei truck built for the Japanese market. This was followed by the two-door roadster , the Honda S500 also introduced in 1963. In 1965, Honda built a two-door commercial delivery van, named the Honda L700 . Honda's first four-door sedan was not the Honda Accord , but
#912087