| 1.) Soichiro Honda - Lesson: Find your own way | | | | heyday between the end of WWII and the early |
| The son of a village blacksmith, Honda was | | | | '70s. During that time, the company was really a |
| exposed to bicycles when they were brought into | | | | helicopter manufacturer with a small motorcycle |
| his father's shop for repair. He had only a primary | | | | subsidiary. The road-going motorcycles they made |
| school education, but showed a striking aptitude | | | | would never warrant including the Count on this |
| for both engineering and business. Before starting | | | | list, but thanks to his own fierce pride and |
| the Honda Motor Company to make motorized | | | | competitive streak, the company also funded the |
| bicycles in postwar Japan, he had already built up | | | | greatest Grand Prix racing team of all time. |
| two successful businesses, one supplying piston | | | | When the Japanese factories began to dominate |
| rings to Toyota, and another making propellers | | | | in the late '60s, they drove out most of the |
| for the Japanese air force. | | | | Italian marques. By lavishing funds from the |
| Mr. Honda was anything but a typical Japanese | | | | helicopter business on his racing team, Agusta |
| businessman. A rugged individualist, he refused to | | | | single-handedly preserved Italian racing honor. |
| participate in the "keiretsu" alliances between | | | | 7.) Malcolm Forbes - Lesson: It's not what you |
| companies, which typically gave big banks a | | | | know, it's who you know |
| strong influence in business decisions. When | | | | Forbes was the son of America's first business |
| virtually all Japanese motorbikes had noisy, smelly | | | | magazine publisher. After heroic service in WWII, |
| two-stroke motors he decided to make a | | | | he came home to work at Forbes Magazine, |
| four-stroke. That typified a willingness to plan and | | | | although he nearly became the Governor of New |
| invest for long-term success even if it meant | | | | Jersey - he won the Republican nomination but |
| ignoring prevailing "wisdom." One of the | | | | lost the election. So what does running Forbes |
| motorcycles that benefited from that insight was | | | | Magazine have to do with motorcycles? Nothing. |
| the Super Cub step-through. It was introduced in | | | | Forbes discovered motorcycling in the 1960s. He |
| 1958 and is still produced almost unmodified today. | | | | bought a motorcycle dealership in New Jersey, |
| Honda recently sold the 50 millionth Super Cub, | | | | which became one of the biggest shops in the |
| making it the best selling vehicle of all time. | | | | country. Using his high-level business connections, |
| 2.) George Hendee - Lesson: You don't need to | | | | he worked tirelessly to establish motorcycle riding |
| know, you need to know what you need to | | | | as a respectable pastime. He was an extremely |
| know | | | | effective political lobbyist always ready to defend |
| Hendee was one of the most successful bicycle | | | | motorcycling from legal assault. With his |
| racers in Massachusetts at the turn of the | | | | media-savvy background, he managed to plant |
| century - at one point, he won 302 races out of | | | | scores of motorcycle stories in the mainstream |
| 309! He started a company making his own | | | | media. The social acceptability of motorcycles |
| bicycles, which sold well, thanks to his racing | | | | today owes much to Malcolm Forbes. |
| reputation. | | | | 8.) Floyd Clymer - Lesson: If at first you do |
| Many of the very first motorcycles were | | | | succeed, try again anyway |
| "pacers" used to train bicycle racers. They were | | | | Clymer was already famous as a young teenager |
| typically unreliable but Hendee noticed that Oscar | | | | - at 13 (in 1909) he was the youngest Ford dealer |
| Hedstrom's ran very well. In 1901, Hendee | | | | in the country! He went on to become a winning |
| approached Hedstrom and told him that his dream | | | | motorcycle racer and soon had a dealership for |
| was to start a company devoted to making | | | | Harley-Davidson and Excelsior motorcycles in his |
| motorized bicycles. They called their company | | | | home state of Colorado. He was an innovative |
| Indian, and in short order it was America's leading | | | | marketer and one of the first people to sell |
| motorcycle manufacturer. In 1912, Indian sold | | | | motorcycles to police departments and delivery |
| over 20,000 units. | | | | businesses. In his early 20s he began publishing his |
| 3.) Arthur Davidson - Lesson: Support your | | | | first motorcycle magazine. |
| product after the sale | | | | His career was put on hold when he served a |
| While his friend Bill Harley and to a lesser extent | | | | year in federal prison for mail fraud. He had been |
| the other Davidson brothers provided the | | | | offered a chance to plead guilty and avoid prison |
| technical know-how, the early business success of | | | | altogether but he always claimed he was innocent |
| Harley-Davidson was largely due to Arthur | | | | and refused to admit a crime he didn't commit. |
| Davidson. In 1910 he set out to enroll a national | | | | When he got out of prison he took over the |
| network of dealers. He also recognized the | | | | distribution of Indian motorcycles on the west |
| importance of factory-training for dealer service | | | | coast. Here again, he had marketing savvy, |
| staff, and the importance of advertising if H-D | | | | arranging for Indian motorcycles to appear in films |
| was ever to surpass Indian in annual sales. | | | | and lending them to Hollywood stars. When Indian |
| 4.) Vaughn Beals - Lesson: Quality-control rules | | | | faltered in the '50s, Clymer desperately tried to |
| By the mid-'70s after years of AMF | | | | save the brand but failed. He also was briefly the |
| mismanagement, Harley-Davidson had lost almost | | | | importer of the eyebrow-raising Munch Mammoth |
| all customer loyalty and profits were in freefall. | | | | motorcycle. |
| When a group of company executives led by | | | | Last but not least, he was the publisher of Cycle |
| Vaughn Beals offered to buy the division for $75 | | | | Magazine from the early '50s to the mid-'60s and |
| million, AMF quickly agreed. | | | | ran a very successful business publishing |
| After the 1981 leveraged buyout, Beals led an | | | | motorcycle repair manuals. |
| amazing corporate turnaround. He funded new | | | | 9.) George Barber - Lesson: Always remember |
| product development and implemented world-class | | | | where you came from |
| quality control. It's impossible to know what would | | | | Barber was a sports car racer who gave up the |
| have happened to the H-D brand if Beals had not | | | | track to take over the family business, Barber |
| risen up to save it, but it's certain that no one | | | | Dairies, based in Birmingham Alabama. He built it |
| else could have done a better job at rehabilitating | | | | into the largest privately-owned dairy in the |
| it. | | | | southeast and then, late in life, assembled the |
| 5.) John Bloor - Lesson: Never underestimate the | | | | world's most important collection of vintage |
| value of your brand, never take it for granted | | | | motorcycles. |
| Like Harley-Davidson, Triumph was a company | | | | When the collection outgrew its original home in |
| that had fallen on hard times - more than once. In | | | | one of the old dairy warehouses, he built Barber |
| the 1920s the company made an ill-fated move | | | | Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Birmingham. |
| to produce cars as well and in 1936 an | | | | The park includes one of the best race-tracks in |
| entrepreneur named Jack Sangster drove a hard | | | | the U.S., and the best motorcycle museum in the |
| bargain, acquiring the motorcycle business at a | | | | world. The track and museum are set in a |
| good price. Sangster's business instincts nearly | | | | manicured landscape that puts every other U.S. |
| make him worthy of a place on this list, too. He | | | | race-track to shame. After spending $60 million of |
| hired the brilliant Edward Turner and after turning | | | | his own money on the park, Barber essentially |
| a handsome profit on sales, sold the company to | | | | gave it to the city of Birmingham and the state |
| BSA for another big payday in 1951. | | | | of Alabama. |
| From the mid-'70s through the mid-'80s Triumph | | | | 10.) "Big" Bill France - Lesson: If you build it, they |
| died an agonizingly slow death. The brand would | | | | will come |
| have vanished altogether had John Bloor, a real | | | | France is best known as the father of NASCAR |
| estate developer, not bought the old factory in | | | | the builder of Daytona International Speedway, |
| Meriden. Against all advice, Bloor decided to build a | | | | France was also a motorcycle racer. The city of |
| new factory in nearby Hinckley. He spent millions | | | | Daytona Beach convinced the AMA to hold the |
| designing new motorcycles that were unveiled at | | | | 200-mile national championship race there in 1937. |
| the Cologne Motorcycle Show in 1990. While those | | | | After a few lackluster years, it seemed Daytona |
| first "new" Triumphs got mixed reviews, the | | | | would lose the race, until France was convinced to |
| company has shown a remarkable willingness to | | | | become the promoter. He continued to promote |
| go its own way, producing a line of unique | | | | the race until, realizing that it could not continue on |
| machines that once again have earned it a | | | | the beach, he built the speedway. He opened his |
| devoted fan base.j | | | | track in 1959 and the AMA saw the light and |
| 6.) Count Domenico Agusta - Lesson: Follow your | | | | moved the race there two years later. Under |
| passion | | | | France's control, the race became an international |
| This Italian Count ran MV Agusta during its | | | | sensation. |