The Honda dirt bikes story began in 1946 when company founder, Soichiro Honda, opened the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu, Japan. After the end of World War II, Honda saw a need for cheap transportation that was also economical on fuel due to the shortage of gasoline following the war.

He picked up batch of unwanted two stroke electric generator motors and set about adapting them to fit into a bicycle frame. The result was quite successful and Honda started to develop a complete purpose built motorcycle.

The Honda Motor Company was founded in 1948 and in 1949 the company produced the D-Type motorcycle. This was the first actual motorcycle produced by Honda, this machine was the realisation of Soichiro Honda's dream to build a complete motorcycle and so was dubbed 'The Dream'.

In 1958 Honda released the C100 Super Cub which would go on to become the biggest selling motorcycle of all time. The bike had a centrifugal clutch making it easy for beginners to ride and also had a step through frame configuration which made it popular with females as well as males. In 1960, the company began motorcycle production at its factory in Suzuka, Japan.

Honda has always been a company that is race inspired and the development of the Honda dirt bikes range led to the company taking the win in the first Baja 1000, held in 1967.

The development of Honda dirt bikes has gone from strength to strength since then, the CRF450 is arguably the most popular mid capacity four stroke motocrosser on the market today.