The Marysville Motorcycle Plant was a Honda manufacturing facility located eight miles northwest of Marysville, Ohio . The assembly plant opened in 1979 as American Honda Motor Company 's first production facility in the United States. It was on the original U.S. Route 33 , renamed Honda Parkway when the Route was moved, at the site of an abandoned Pure Oil gas station and a long since razed "lubritorium," and the former rail crossing of the abandoned Erie Lackawanna Marion-Springfield spur.
27-646: Honda of America Manufacturing began motorcycle production at the Marysville Motorcycle Plant in 1979 with the CR250M Elsinore . All-terrain vehicles as well as the Gold Wing and Magna motorcycles, among others, were made there. The 500,000th vehicle produced at the plant was a Gold Wing Aspencade motorcycle in 1991, and the one-millionth vehicle in 1996 was another Gold Wing Aspencade. Annual output peaked at 174,000 vehicles in 1997. Production of ATVs at
54-520: A 500cc motorcycle for the 1973 Trans-AMA series, he purchased a Maico motorcycle and raced it with all the badges removed while wearing his Honda team apparel. This act provoked Honda to end their association with the Jones family. Jones was then contracted by the Bombardier Corporation (manufacturer of Ski-Doo snowmobiles), to race for their recently formed Can-Am motorcycle division. Before
81-693: A Honda CR250M in the years 1973 and 1974, and the 381 was released as a CR250M1 in 1975 and as a CR250M'76 in 1976. Gary Jones (motorcyclist) Gary Jones (born April 22, 1952) is an American former professional motocross and desert racer . He competed in the AMA Motocross Championships from 1971 to 1976. Jones is notable for winning the inaugural AMA 250cc motocross national championship in 1972. Jones then successfully defended his national championship in 1973 and 1974, winning three consecutive 250cc motocross national championships while competing on three different brands of motorcycles ,
108-716: A feat which has never been repeated in AMA motocross history. He was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2000. Jones grew up Southern California where his father, Don Jones was a BSA motorcycle dealer who also ran a motorcycle salvage and repair shop in San Gabriel, California just east of Los Angeles. Growing up in a motorcycle salvage yard meant that Jones and his brother Dewayne became adept at fabricating parts and modifying motorcycles. They never received new motorcycles as, their father told them that if they wanted
135-478: A member of the first American team to compete in the Motocross des Nations event. When Yamaha offered Jones a contract for the 1973 season that didn't include his father and brother, Jones instead accepted an offer to race for American Honda, insisting that his family members were part of a package deal. Soichiro Honda sought Jones and his father's help to develop the new Honda CR series of motocross bikes. When
162-471: A motorcycle, they could cobble one together from parts. His first motorcycle was a 125cc Villiers - Dot that he shared with his brother. He began racing professionally at the age of 15, competing on a BSA Victor in local TT, scrambles and flat track racing . He also competed in motorcycle speedway races riding a J.A.P. motorcycle. In the late 1960s, his father became one of the first Southern California distributors for Yamaha motorcycles. When
189-629: A street bike, and the first production motocrosser . A chrome-moly frame, aluminum bodywork and plastic fenders contributed to its light weight, even after restyling when initial tests showed the frame to be too fragile, potentially bending after less than an hour of riding. Named the CR250M globally, it was subtitled the Elsinore in North America, after the offroad race in Lake Elsinore, California ,
216-667: A world class development team with nothing to do. Up until this point, motocross had been dominated by four-stroke -powered machines, and had no official national championship in Japan. Further, Soichiro Honda had publicly announced that Honda would never build two-stroke-powered motorcycles. The Japan Motorcycle Association introduced a domestic motocross championship from 1967, to which the group of Honda engineers - like their development counterparts at Suzuki and Yamaha - developed lighter weight two-stroke-powered machine. Suzuki's development programme had started in 1965, which by 1970 had produced
243-526: Is a two-stroke single-cylinder motorcycle manufactured by Honda from March 1973 until 1976, when it was replaced by the Honda CR250R . Honda had developed its global motorcycle brand through track racing, with Soichiro Honda collecting the world's best engineers together to create winning road motorcycles such as the Honda RC116 . However, Honda pulled out of motorcycle racing in 1967, leaving it with
270-546: The Mint 400 . Having retired from professional competition, Jones continues his involvement in the sport by working for motorcycle accessory companies and as a test rider for motorcycle magazines. He competes in motocross and desert races, winning World Vet Championships several times. In 2000, he was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and, in 2004 he was inducted into the Motocross Walk Of Fame. The AMA named
297-521: The Suzuki RH70 , which ridden by Belgium's Joel Robert won Japan its first FIM Motocross World Championship . In August 1971, the Honda development team took a two-stroke prototype to a National Championship motocross race to Mine, Yamaguchi , where it was recognised as a Honda. As a result, Soichiro Honda gave his reluctant backing to producing not only a works competitive motocross racer, but also an out of
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#1732855605473324-567: The Yamaha DT-1 was introduced in 1968, Jones and his brother began using them to compete in the newly introduced sport of motocross. With his and his father's vast experience at fabricating parts and modifying motorcycles, the Jones family developed the DT-1 into competitive racing motorcycles by strengthening and lowering the frame and using weight saving components. The Jones family's modifications proved to be so successful that his race results came to
351-575: The 500cc motocross national championship. Jones then competed in the 1972 Inter-AMA series which featured the top European motocross riders visiting the United States after the finish of the F.I.M. motocross world championships in Europe. Some of the European competitors included; Torleif Hansen , Arne Kring , Gunnar Lindstrom, Dave Bickers , and four-time FIM 250cc World Champion Torsten Hallman . At
378-657: The Ammex over the previous Cooper model. Jones competed on an Ammex motorcycle during the 1976 250cc motocross national championship with his best result being a 10th place at the Sears Point race. However, the brand failed when the Mexican peso was devalued in 1976. In addition to racing motocross, Jones was also an expert desert racer . In 1972 he won the Baja 500 and the Baja 250. He also won
405-604: The Inter-AMA series lacked prestige of an international event, his victory didn't resonate within the American motorcycling community in the same manner as Jim Pomeroy 's later victory at the 1973 250cc Spanish motocross Grand Prix or Jimmy Weinert 's victory at the 1973 Trans-AMA 500cc race in Rio Bravo, Texas. His victory against European riders was also overshadowed 13 days later by 16-year-old Marty Tripes ' historical victory at
432-505: The Yamaha factory team and won three of the nine rounds of the 250cc national championship. Although Jones didn't win a race overall, he rode consistently to secure his third consecutive 250cc national championship for a third manufacturer. When he suffered a severe leg injury at the season opening Daytona supercross in 1975, Can-Am bought out his contract. Jones took the $ 70,000 and along with his father, started their own motorcycle company. At
459-483: The attention of the Yamaha factory who asked to take their motorcycle back to Japan for testing. The motorcycle that Jones and his father developed helped to further the development of motocross bikes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was to become the basis for the YZ range of models. Although there was no American motocross championship series in 1971, Jones is recognized as the 250cc National Champion by virtue of being
486-514: The best-known off-road race of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The popularity of the CR250M and its derivatives soared after Gary Jones rode a stock machine to win the 1973 AMA 250 national motocross series . In 1974 the CR250M was followed by its smaller version, the Honda CR125M , and the first US Honda factory that opened in 1979 in Marysville, Ohio built CR250Ms. The 357 was released as
513-414: The box version as well. The Honda CR250M had a two-stroke 29 horsepower engine, and weighed in at 229 pounds (104 kg). Designed by Soichiro Miyakoshi, the prototype production machine began testing in Japan in 1971, and on California motocross tracks in 1972. The CR250M was Honda's first two-stroke production race bike, the first competition dirt bike that Honda built from scratch instead of adapting
540-566: The first Super Bowl of Motocross on June 8, 1972, an event that marked the creation of a new sub-discipline of motocross that became known as supercross . Jones considered his victory against a field of top competitors in the Boise Inter-AMA event to be his proudest racing achievement. Jones and Hallman fought for the championship points lead until the final race of the series when Jones prevailed ahead of Hallman and third-place finisher, Arne Kring . Also in 1972, Jones travelled to Europe as
567-511: The hand-built, custom racing motorcycles proved to be too brittle, the Jones family reverted to modifying production Honda CRs. As they had done with Yamaha's motocross bikes, Jones and his father developed the Honda into a winning motorcycle. He successfully defended his 250cc crown, riding the Honda CR250M to six consecutive national race victories to win the 1973 250cc motocross national championship . When Honda failed to provide Jones with
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#1732855605473594-463: The old motorcycle plant to free up space at Honda's auto plants in order to add flexibility and increase production. This facility is now used to receive parts and sequence them for consumption at the line at the Marysville Auto Plant. 40°16′44″N 83°30′30″W / 40.278773°N 83.508371°W / 40.278773; -83.508371 Honda CR250M The Honda CR250M
621-597: The plant ceased in 2005. In June 2009, the Marysville Motorcycle Plant ceased production after almost 30 years, as Honda consolidated global production of specific large motorcycles at a new factory in Kumamoto Prefecture , Japan. Some employees there were moved to the Marysville Auto Plant , located at the same facility, or took early retirement. Honda consolidated suspension sub-assembly for its vehicles including: Honda Accord , Acura TL and Acura RDX at
648-418: The start of the 1974 AMA Motocross National Championship season , the AMA made a controversial decision allowing only American citizens to compete for the motocross national championship. The decision would exclude the defending 500cc national champion Dutchman Pierre Karsmakers who was set to compete against Jones in the 250cc class. Despite his exclusion from the overall results, Karsmakers competed for
675-575: The time Cooper Motorcycles was going out of business, so the Jones family bought the Mexican-based company and used the Frank Cooper designed enduro bike as a prototype for the first Jones-Islo motorcycle (the name would later be changed to Ammex, which stood for American-Mexican). Their intent was to achieve sales success by having Jones compete aboard the motorcycles in the AMA motocross national championship. The Jones family significantly improved
702-489: The time, it was considered a significant accomplishment for an American rider to finish among the top five against the more experienced European competitors. At the first race of the series in Boise, Idaho, Jones defeated former world champions Hallman and Bickers to win all three races. His impressive performance marked the first time an American rider had scored an overall victory in an AMA-FIM sanctioned motocross event. Because
729-620: The top-placed American rider in the Inter-AMA series which featured European riders touring America after the European-based World Championship season had ended. He also competed in the 500cc class, finishing second to Brad Lackey . The following year, the AMA introduced 250cc and 500cc outdoor motocross national championships. Jones won the 1972 250cc title on a Yamaha, becoming the first-ever 250cc U.S. Motocross National Champion. He also finished second to Brad Lackey in
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