VoodooChyl wins!

 

But Honda started with engines first (actually Mr. Honda's first design was a piston ring that Toyota rejected). They didn't do other things and then get into motorized vehicles. This IS their market, not a market they expanded into. Kawasaki is also originally an engine maker.

 

Actually, Toyota building a motorcycle may not be a far fetched idea. They are sponsoring the AMA motocross championship and have a partnership with Yamaha. They also note that a large percentage of bikers own a truck (which a high volume product for Toyota) and in October 2006, Toyota bought 5% of Yamaha according to some other news reports. So it could be a few years before they start selling two wheeled vehicles to reinforce their truck sales.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...21/148610.html

Don't think that's a problem anymore once 1098 ships, specially in the US. They are going to be a big hit.

As for buying a Toyota motorcycle, I'll pass. It'll probably be a hybrid and gutless.


Food for thought: What about Mazda motorcycles? A rotary powered sports bike? Those engines make a lot power for being such a small size, they could make a busa killer, but their reliability isn't exactly great since those apex seals suck. Fisher, the new US bike manufacturer, is building their bike using off the self parts. Even though they are small, but as long as you have a few professional bike engineers and motivation, it could be done.

 

Don't wat to get anybodies panties in a twist, but a lot of the stuff that goes into motorcycles does come from car manufacturers. A Yammie that I had back in 86 actually said Toyota on the brakelines, car makers source their stuff from the place that bike makers do. Headlights, wiring, batteries, seats, tyres etc.
It would not be such a big step for Toyota to make bikes, cept maybe a few 100 million to set up the thing.
Reliability, my wife loves the things, she has owned 4 of em. Japanese build reliable products (Cept maybe for the 80's model Mitsibishi Colt, what a piece of crap)

 

Interesting stuff, JBaz...

Rotary-powered motorcycle. Hmm...

On a side note, Feb 07's issue of MotorCyclist had numerous letter from upset readers claiming the Fischer bike is stealing the thunder from Buell, and that it's less powerfull. They think it looks ugly...

I think the Buells are ugly, but decent for their price. I want a Fischer.

It'd be intereting to be a fly on the wall in Toyotas engineering department when someone suggested the idea of manufacturing bikes.

 

Oh what a feeling?

 

i love the logic in this post attack gm because of a conversation about Toyota and purchasing a bike built by Toyota weird i didn’t know gm had any thing to do with Toyota building a bike. my disdain for buying a bike built by Toyota has nothing to do with gm so why bring them in to this. second Toyotas quality has been slipping dramatically with there quest to become number one yes all manufacture have recalls domestic or import. but from a companies who reputations is based on quality increasing your recalls from 2000 to 2003 being 3 million and 03 to 06 being over 9 million is not good and the number is increasing where as other imports and domestics recalls are dropping dramatically hence the big issue with Toyotas recalls. Toyota used to be known for there engineering and nothing being over looks and now they even for get to put anchors in there trucks for car seats. Imagine how nice that would be of them to forget to put a part on your bike and get on it and ride down the road. and remember this is about Toyota building a bike not gm so i don’t understand why you would come back with a response attacking them just don’t make sense in my book unless your trying to attack me instead of the issue. by the way its brakes not break

 

That must be where Nintendo came up with the name "Piston Honda" for Mike Tyson's Punch Out.

Damn it's true - you DO learn something new everyday. This forum never ceases to amaze me

 

Hahaha, man that makes some sense!

Well, I'd romp a Toyota bike, I'll be the guinea pig... Someone tell them I'm down, wouldja?

 

Yes, it is brake and not break. I see that a lot on the forums, but I don't make a big deal out of someone's grammar. If I did I'd point out to you that it's "their" and not "there" in your post.