The 37th Tokyo Motor Show
P HOTO S AND S T O RY BY T RA CY H A GEN
e ar e all familiar with Hond a's
l i fe st or y . Its f irs t wa te r shed
p roduct was th e e asy- to- ride st ep through Honda Cub , m arketed to th e
n ic e p eople of th e 1960 s. Th e next
la ndm ark produ ct ca me at th e 15t h
Tok yo Motor Sho w in 19 6 8 in the
for m of th e CB7 50, with an overhead
cam in -lin e fou r-cylinde r eng ine (a nd
a disc br ak e on the front wh eel ) that
was eventually co p ied by all th e other
J apanese m anufacturers - and a few
in Europe. T he CB750 and all th e
looka l ik es were called Un i v er sa l
J ap an ese Motorc ycle s, o r UJ M s in
the late 19 70s and early 1980s.
Then in the m id - 198 0s th e motor cycle ma rke t fragmented into different
a nd d isti nct segm ents , such as
c rusiers , t ourers, spo rt to urers and
supe rsports. Getting customers to buy
new b ik es in each segme nt requ ir ed
m ak ing new m od els bigger and bett er,
fa st er and fl a sh i er . Too man y b i g
b ik es in the produ ct li n eu p le ft no
space for lightweight m ot orc ycl es.
Based on th e themes from Hon da.
Yamaha and Suzuki at t he 37th
T ok yo Mot or Show, hist ory loo ks set
to repeat itself - th is time with sco oters. Th e scooter industry started
pi ck in g up in th e mid - 1980s , and by
th e end of th e 199 0 s, sco ot ers we re
big bu sin ess in J ap an . But the sco ot ers sol d at the end of th e last decad e
di ff ered litt le among th e manufacturers. You co u ld ca ll t hem Un i v ersal
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NOVEMBER 12,2003'
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New scooters were the talk of th e Tokyo M otor
Show, an d none drew more attention than Hon da's
con c e pt scooter - the Griffon. Part sportbike, part
sc ooter, the Griffon Is a head turner.
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