MOTORCYCLES BULGARIA
Honda Bulgaria
Soichiro Honda was born in 1906 in central Japan, the oldest of the nine kids the family had. His father was a motorcycle mechanic. Young Soichiros love to cars started the moment he saw the first T model of Ford, when he was just eight years old. He had had numerous competitions and developed new inventions until in 1937 he signed the contract with Toyota and Nakajima Aircraft for spare parts supplying. In October 1946, Soichiro Honda created Honda Technical Research Institute, which two years later received the name of Honda Motor Company. Nevertheless, until the end of his active participation in Honda Motor Co in 1971, he had the engagement of personally testing each new model released. In 1989, Soichiro Honda became the first Asian ever presented in the American Automobile Hall of Glory.
DKW
In the first part of the 1950’s the headquarters of the Bulgarian army decided to equip the motorized military forces with Russian motorcycles – IZh and M75 and to sell the old German machines, used from the times of the war (during the WWII Bulgaria was aligned with Germany) – BMW and ZÜNDAPP, but mostly a great number of DKWs. Part of the motorcycles were trophies from the war-times, others were original vehicles from the Bulgarian army, operated in the army before and during the war, when the machines were used basically in operations against the guerilla units (organized by the Bulgarian communist party and supported by the USSR) and as vehicles of the dispatch riders.
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