After the success of Noyce it wasn’t long before Honda would add World Championship number two when Andre Malherbe gave Honda more success. Championships would add up as Malherbe, David Thorpe, Eric Geboers and Georges Jobe would win 500cc championships. In total Honda won 13 Open Class titles in 17 years.

Standing on the podium at the 1990 Grand Prix of Namur and with his fifth World Motocross Championship in his pocket Geboers retired and soon after HRC also pulled the pin on the greatest era in Motocross history.

A new ruling from the AMA in America meant that factory bikes were no longer allowed in the American series and Japan who had seen America as an important market pulled back on having special factory bikes on the Grand Prix scene; it was now pointless using the Grand Prix series as a testing ground.

Honda teams continued, although it would never be the same powerful line-up of the 1980’s, the special factory bikes would never been seen again as Honda began to work ever harder on making their production bikes as special as those famous machines of the 80’s.

The 1990’s did see Honda represented by Stefan Everts in Europe and Jeremy McGrath in America and these two legends did keep Honda in the championship race, Everts winning World titles for Honda in 1996 and 1997, before making his fateful move to Husqvarna in 1999. McGrath reeled off Supercross title after Supercross title, until his equally fateful departure to Suzuki in 1997.

In Europe Frederic Bolley won World titles in 1999 and 2000, and Ricky Carmichael added AMA titles to the Honda name in 2002, 03 and 04, but it’s been slim picking for Honda ever since. Teams like CAS Honda and Martin Honda have had some success, however Honda haven’t picked up a World Motocross championship in 10 years and the chance of them getting one soon is not likely.

Eric Geboers helped Honda to their legacy. World titles in 1988 and 1990 and the rider known as “the kid” enjoyed a good relationship with the team. He remembers the effort Honda put in, but as a Suzuki team manager now seems a little careful in his praise.

“When I was riding for Suzuki in 1993 I was World Champion and I thought about the chance of riding for the HRC team and I had this image of it being really impressive and in many ways it was, but it wasn’t that different from riding for Suzuki. Both teams had big budgets and for sure Honda had a very professional look, I mean we had the best riders the best bikes, the biggest trucks. It was an image they created and it worked in that era.”

“I think Honda maybe didn’t look at doing something for the long run; maybe their success could have been longer, because as you can see now it’s not that big a success, they haven’t had a World title in a number of years and those wins in the 1980’s, while it was a great era for Honda, it doesn’t count for much now.”

“What I do know is that their development back then was really impressive, that first Honda I rode was a difficult bike, in 1984 the frame was really stiff and I didn’t like it at all. I really had trouble getting used to it after riding the Suzuki, but when the new total factory bikes came back you could feel the change. I think we had the best bikes back then, but where I think Honda were also good was in their marketing, they made us look maybe even better than we were, the whole product of Honda looked impressive, maybe even more impressive that is actually was. Sometimes I look back and the way people look at that era and I don’t remember it being as impressive as it maybe is seen.”

Dave Thorpe collected three World 500cc Championships with Honda and without question lead the Honda era with his sheer brilliance. Thorpe unlike Geboers has a pretty picture of how it was to ride for the red rockets.

“When I was there the one thing they never did was cut back on the quality and development of the bike. In 1984, 85, 86 we had the special full factory bikes then in 1987 they did a production bike, which I don't think was because of budgets but because of the bikes. Eric won the 250 title in 87, but for me it wasn't something I gelled with, I didn’t feel comfortable on the 1987 bike. In 1988 they moved away and a 60/40 split was created, some factory parts, some stock. I rode my 1988 bike a couple of months ago, and I was astounded how fast it was. That bike is over 20 years old and the right person on that, like Cairoli on it he would be competitive, the power is still amazing compare to today’s bikes.”

“Our bikes were good, but in that time you had Jobe, Carlqvist, Van der van, Martens, a lot of good riders on good bikes. You realize what an advantage we had, but at that time they all did their best, all the bikes were special. All the companies did their best KTM put far more effort now then they did then and you see the results. When you look at their effort in this era, it's the similar to Honda in the 1980’s.”

The thing you have now is the production bike is so much closer to a factory bike. In the 80's there were a lot of people on inferior bikes, that the bikes were so different made the factory bikes seem all that more trick. Back in the 1980’s most of the bikes on the start grid were Honda's, in British Championship or club races, but now it's a pretty even split, probably Honda have maybe a bigger market in England, but all the bikes are pretty good now.”

“I think when Eric stopped in 1990 I think from a European point of view Honda backed off then, you had Kurt (Nicoll) on the Castrol Honda in the 250c class, but it wasn’t the same, wouldn’t be ever again I think. We had a bunch of technicians all the time, a big Japanese boss and Steve Whitelock and they had the best people to do the job. They might have to pay for it, but they wanted the best people from riders, mechanic’s, team manager, everything had to be near perfect.”

“I think everyone is suffering; there isn't a sport in the world other than maybe soccer that isn’t suffering. Look at Formula One, or some of the other leading sports. At the end of the day people are still watching it (football) on television and in the stands, football will prosper.

“You have all the companies as a whole, in every aspect of the company they are all suffering. Honda pulled the plug on the Formula One team shut a major plant 4 months ago, when a company makes decisions like that, Motocross isn't out of that whole thing. The level they give is what they can do, we can’t expect more.”

“As much as we want motocross to be main stream, it's a luxury for many families and if the bread winner isn't putting money into the new bike and new kit, maybe now the kid has a new kit every two years. That is the world we are in now and that is why they are not selling bikes. I like to think I have my finger on the pulse and live in the real world and the last 18 months it's changed and you either cut your cost and you can’t beat yourself up about it.” 

Roger Harvey has been a racer in the 1970’s and 80’s and now works for Honda Europe. Obviously he will defend Honda, however he also knows what they are doing for the sport and what they can afford.

“Honda had that massive era of the late 1970's and more or less the complete 1980's with riders like Graham Noyce, Dave Thorpe, Eric Geboers, Andre Malherbe and it pretty much put Honda on the map as far as being known as a winning machine. After that era Honda decided to work hard to continue that name and I think if you ask many of the leading riders who have ridden a selection of brands which is their favourite bikes many will tell you the red bikes.”

“I mean it's not like Honda stopped make a big contribution to the sport of Motocross, we have a long list of National Motocross Championships around the world, take for example the last 15 years of British Motocross Championships, Honda have won most of them. In the World Motocross Championship Honda haven't had a win for some time, but people forget the performance from somebody like Clement Desalle, he was the only non-factory rider to win an MX1 Grand Prix this year and he did it twice. That in itself tells you something about the quality of the Honda product.”

“Our association with teams such as Martin Honda, CAS Honda and LS Honda in the World Championship has created some great moments, but we just haven't picked up that World title again, probably one of the biggest reasons was because of a guy called Stefan Everts, he dominated and in all fairness there were only a few riders capable of challenging him during this time.”

“One of the major areas of concentration for Honda now is machine development, making sure the reputation they gained for quality is continued, it may look like we have backed off a little on the Grand Prix scene but that isn’t the case, we still invest considerably into the Grand Prix teams and we have just launched the Honda Racing Xtreme Academy in several countries, these championships give the younger generation of Honda riders on our CRF150 the chance of championship success, they can also contest the new 150 European Championship as well.”

Harry Ainsworth who runs the CAS Honda team and has done so for more than a decade has been a major part of the success story of Honda in England. With British Championships to riders like Gordon Crockard, Paul Cooper, Josh Coppins, Billy Mackenzie and Mike Brown. Ainsworth was also a big time HRC fan and in the 1980’s followed Andre Malherbe and Graham Noyce.

‘”You know that was the era wasn’t it. Times have changed and I remember that bike Noyce ride in 1979 and it didn’t seem that great, but then around the early 1980’s they had those factory bikes and there hasn’t been a bike as good since.”

“They were really impressive, but what you have now is that the standard bikes are just like factory bikes. Even in when Gordon (Crockard) rode for us in the early years he was on a stock bike and running with Bolley and Everts on their factory bikes. Our bike was as good as or better than the factory bikes.”

“As far as Honda pulling back, we actually get more from Honda this year than we did last year, so they are not looking at cutting back. I am very happy to have a long association with Honda and believe they have the best bike and I saw that because every time a rider comes to our team he is amazing how good the bikes are.”

“Doesn’t matter who it is and if you ask Josh Coppins he will tell you the Honda was the best bike he ever rode. Gareth Swanepoel got of the bike after riding it recently and couldn’t believe how fast it was, that is what you hear from everyone who rides a Honda after coming from another team.”

Rob Walters is now the Smith Goggles guy in Europe, although he was once a hot shot mechanic for several riders on the World scene, including American Billy Liles who actually rode in that post HRC factory era.

“We (Liles) were in the same “Honda team as Jobe and I think we more or less had the old parts from the factory bikes. It was a lot of fun back then and I remember being a kid and watching Keith Thorpe with his white gloves working on those factory bikes of HRC. You know those bikes always looked so clean and everything was in place. As a young man you looked at those bikes and that was it, that was what Motocross was all about back then.”

Sidebar – What do people buy?

While Honda might not rank up with Yamaha and KTM in the battle for World titles at the present moment, they do still control a good share of the market when riders have to buy their own bikes.

In the World Motocross MX1 championship class Honda have the biggest percentage with 27.4% of riders in the MX1 class riding Honda machines, second best in MX1 are Suzuki with 17.9% and then comes Kawasaki with 15.5%.

The World MX2 Championship is not surprisingly controlled by KTM who have 27.5%, followed by Suzuki with 22.1% and Honda with 19.7%.

In the World MX3 Championship Honda dominate with 34.3%, followed by Yamaha with 24.2% and KTM with 18.3%. World Veterans Championship it’s 36.1% for Honda, 23.7% for Yamaha and 13.4% for Suzuki.

Sidebar - Championships

Honda have won 23 World Motocross Championships in total. Starting with Graham Noyce in 1979, followed by Andre Malherbe in 1980, 81 and 84, Dave Thorpe in 1985, 86 and 89, Eric Geboers in 1988 and 1990. Georges Jobe would win in 1987, 1991 and 1992. Amazingly they took nine titles in nine years from 1984 until 1992. Marcus Hansson also won for Honda in the 1994 World 500cc Championship.

Honda would also picked up titles in the 125cc and 250cc classes, wins going to Geboers in (250cc) 1987, J.M.Bayle in 1988 (125cc) 1989 (250cc), Greg Albertyn in 1992 (125cc) and 1993 (250cc), Alex Puzar 1995 (125cc), Stefan Everts 1996 and 1997 (250cc), Fredric Bolley in 1999 and 2000.

Since 2000 no Honda rider has stood on the top of a Grand Prix podium and picked up the World Motocross Championship, although 2009 World MX2 Champions Marvin Musquin did win a handful of GP's for Honda before moving to the Red Bull KTM Factory team. A move that must have buckled Honda's knees a little.