Honda works bikes in Australia

[redrider1]

Was there many works or factory Honda mx bikes imported, and raced, into Australia throughout the 1970s?

[JohnnyO]

Not really any works Honda's but there were some factory Mugen's raced here in the late 70's and early 80's.

[redrider1]

Who were the main riders in the 1970s for Honda?

[mainline]

didn't Leisk get a works bike (or at least semi-works) to ride in 83-ish?

[Rossvickicampbell]

I agree with Johnny - the Honda guys were riding kitted Mugen bikes at the 81 (??) Nats in Tassie - I offerred to buy a 250 and Honda agreed........................but without the kit 

[D project]

Leisk, had a pre production 84 bike for the later rounds of Mr Motocross in 83,that ended up with a rear disc.  In 82 Vaughan Style had a Mugen kitted bike.

[GD66]

Who were the main riders in the 1970s for Honda?

They seemed to support largely through dealers initially. Mark Pace is the first one I can recall receiving strong importer support, then Style and Leisk after him.

[JohnnyO]

Mark Pace and Darryl Willoughby had Mugen bikes in the late 70's then later Neville Cutts and Vaughan Style had Mugens in the early 80's. I never saw Leisky on anything other than std looking or pre production Hondas.
There was also a Mugen kitted '81 CR250 racing for Honda in Qld with Kiwi Moston Wadsworth on board.
There were no real 'works' Honda's in Oz.

[redrider1]

Was Mugen an industry sponsor only associated with Honda during this time?

[GD66]

Mugen was set up by Hirotoshi Honda, son of Soichiro Honda. He had a tuning house along the lines of Yoshimura or Moriwaki, and after starting out with a range of bike mx products, moved into small cars, then all the way up to F3000 : but all basically centred around Honda, because of the family connection. His stuff always looked trick, and seemed to make good power.

[number8]

Mugen was some relation to Mr Honda from memory, like a son-in-law or nephew. He had a tuning house along the lines of Yoshimura or Moriwaki, and after starting out with a range of bike mx products, moved into small cars : but all basically centred around Honda, because of the family connection. His stuff always looked trick, and seemed to make good power.

He is Mr Honda's son,and now is primarily into race car engines for various formula's

#8

[Rossvickicampbell]

but have started this year with 4 stroke MX kits - mainly in England initially I beleive.

[Mick22]

didn't Leisk get a works bike (or at least semi-works) to ride in 83-ish?

I used to dag around the Honda Race Team when I was in high school as they were helping me out a bit, when ever they were throwing stuff out I would grab what I could . They were having a clean out of stuff that was lying around in the late 80's and I ended up with a spare shock from Leisk's 84 bike. It was about half the weight of a standard shock but looked standard. From memory there was lots of titanium fittings so even if his bike was not "works" it had some good gear on it.

Unfortunately I sold it a while back when I had lost interest in bikes for a while, about the same time I sold the NSR500 rear wheel and brake set up I had as well, DOH!!

[Hoony]

hope you got a good price for that shock 

[Mick22]

$100