The Real Reason Japanese Engines Never Die

In 1985 a man rode a Honda out of Buenos Aires with 300 dollars in his pocket and did not come home for ten years. When he finally rolled back in, the odometer read 457,000 miles, and he had changed the engine exactly once.

That is not a fluke, and the reason is stranger than the myth. This is the real story of why Japanese motorcycle engines go so far, and why "they just made them simple" gets it completely wrong. We get into the Honda Super Cub, the best selling motor vehicle ever made, the liquid-cooled Gold Wing that outlasts almost everything despite being one of the most complicated bikes on the road, the truth about horsepower and piston speed, and the 1975 Gold Wing whose original engine ran 382,000 miles before it was ever opened up more than once. Then the part nobody talks about: the obsessive testing and manufacturing that actually let four Japanese companies take over the motorcycle world, and push Triumph, Norton, BSA, and Harley to the brink.

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