1.) Soichiro Honda – Lesson: Find your own way

The son of a town blacksmith, Honda was exposed to the bikes when they were brought to his father’s shop for repairs. He only had a primary education, but he showed a remarkable aptitude for both engineering and business. Before starting the Honda Motor Company to manufacture motorized bicycles in post-war Japan, he had already built two successful businesses, one supplying piston rings to Toyota and another manufacturing propellers for the Japanese air force.

Mr. Honda was anything but a typical Japanese businessman. A staunch individualist, he refused to participate in “keiretsu” alliances between companies, which typically gave big banks strong influence in business decisions. When practically all Japanese bikes had noisy and smelly two-strokes, he decided to make a four-stroke. That typified a willingness to plan and invest for long-term success, even if it meant ignoring prevailing “wisdom.” One of the motorcycles that benefited from that idea was the Super Cub stepper. It was introduced in 1958 and is still produced almost unchanged today. Honda recently sold the 50 millionth Super Cub, making it the best-selling vehicle of all time.

2.) George Hendee – Lesson: You don’t need to know, you need to know what you need to know

Hendee was one of the most successful bicycle racers in Massachusetts at the turn of the century; at one point, he he won 302 races out of 309! He founded a company that made his own bikes, which sold well thanks to his racing reputation.

Many of the early motorcycles were “pacers” used to train riders. They were generally unreliable, but Hendee noted that Oscar Hedstrom worked very well. In 1901, Hendee approached Hedstrom and told him that his dream was to start a company dedicated to the manufacture of motorized bicycles. They called their company Indian, and before long it became America’s leading motorcycle manufacturer. In 1912, Indian sold more than 20,000 units.

3.) Arthur Davidson – Lesson: Support your product after the sale

While his friend Bill Harley and, to a lesser extent, the other Davidson brothers provided the technical know-how, Harley-Davidson’s early commercial success was largely due to Arthur Davidson. In 1910 he set out to enroll a national network of dealers. He also recognized the importance of factory training for dealer service personnel, and the importance of publicity if HD was ever to overtake India in annual sales.

4.) Vaughn Beals – Lesson: Quality Control Rules

By the mid-’70s, after years of mismanagement by AMF, Harley-Davidson had lost almost all customer loyalty and profits were in free fall. When a group of company executives led by Vaughn Beals offered to buy the division for $75 million, AMF quickly agreed.

After the 1981 leveraged buyout, Beals led a stunning corporate turnaround. He financed new product development and implemented world-class quality control. It’s impossible to know what would have happened to the HD brand if Beals hadn’t risen up to save it, but the truth is that no one else could have done a better job of rehabilitating it.

5.) John Bloor – Lesson: Never underestimate the value of your brand, never take it for granted

Like Harley-Davidson, Triumph was a company that had fallen on hard times, more than once. In the 1920s, the company made an ill-fated move to produce cars as well, and in 1936, a businessman named Jack Sangster made a tough deal and acquired the motorcycle business for a good price. Sangster’s business instincts almost earn him a spot on this list, too. He hired the brilliant Edward Turner and, after making a handsome profit on sales, sold the company to the BSA for another big payday in 1951.

From the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, Triumph died a slow, agonizing death. The brand would have disappeared entirely if John Bloor, a real estate developer, hadn’t bought the old factory in Meriden. Against all advice, Bloor decided to build a new factory in nearby Hinckley. It spent millions designing new motorcycles that were unveiled at the Cologne Motorcycle Show in 1990. While those first “new” Triumphs received mixed reviews, the company has shown a remarkable willingness to go its own way, producing a line of unique machines that have once again earned a devoted fan base.j

6.) Count Domenico Agusta – Lesson: Follow your passion

This Italian count ran MV Agusta during its heyday between the end of World War II and the early 1970s. During that time, the company was really a manufacturer of helicopters with a small motorcycle subsidiary. The road bikes they made would never justify including the Earl on this list, but thanks to their own fierce pride and his competitive streak, the company also financed the greatest Grand Prix racing team of all time.

When Japanese factories began to dominate in the late 1960s, they pushed out most of the Italian brands. By laundering funds from the helicopter business into his racing team, Agusta single-handedly preserved the honor of Italian racing.

7.) Malcolm Forbes – Lesson: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know

Forbes was the son of America’s first business magazine publisher. After heroic service in World War II, he returned home to work at Forbes magazine, though he almost became governor of New Jersey: he won the Republican nomination but lost the election. So what does the Forbes magazine publication have to do with motorcycles? Any.

Forbes discovered motorcycling in the 1960s. He bought a motorcycle dealer in New Jersey, which became one of the largest stores in the country. Using his high-level business connections, he worked tirelessly to establish motorcycle riding as a respectable hobby. He was an extremely effective political lobbyist, always ready to defend motorcycling from any legal assault. With his media background, he managed to plant dozens of motorcycle stories in the mainstream media. The social acceptability of motorcycles today owes much to Malcolm Forbes.

8.) Floyd Clymer – Lesson: If you succeed at first, try again anyway

Clymer was already famous as a young teenager: at age 13 (in 1909) he was the youngest Ford dealer in the country! He later became a motorcycle racing winner and soon owned a Harley-Davidson and Excelsior motorcycle dealership in his home state of Colorado. He was an innovative salesman and one of the first people to sell motorcycles to police departments and delivery companies. When he was in his early 20s, he began publishing his first motorcycle magazine.

His career was put on hold when he served a year in federal prison for mail fraud. He had been offered the opportunity to plead guilty and avoid prison altogether, but he always claimed that he was innocent and refused to admit to a crime he did not commit. When he got out of prison he took over the West Coast distribution of Indian motorcycles. Again, he had a background in marketing, arranging for Indian motorcycles to appear in movies and lending them to Hollywood stars. When Indian floundered in the ’50s, Clymer desperately tried to save the brand, but failed. He was also briefly the importer of the amazing Munch Mammoth motorcycle.

Last but not least, he was the editor of Cycle Magazine from the early 1950’s to the mid 1960’s and ran a very successful business publishing motorcycle repair manuals.

9.) George Barber – Lesson: Always remember where you came from

Barber was a sports car racer who left the track to take over the family business, Barber Dairies, based in Birmingham, Alabama. He built it into the largest private dairy in the southeast and then, at the end of his life, he amassed the largest collection of vintage motorcycles in the world.

When the collection outgrew its original home in one of the old dairy warehouses, it built Barber Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Birmingham. The park includes one of the best race tracks in the US and the best motorcycle museum in the world. The track and museum are located in a manicured landscape that puts any other U.S. race track to shame. After spending $60 million of his own money on the park, Barber essentially gave it to the city of Birmingham and the state from Alabama.

10.) “Big” Bill France – Lesson: If You Build It, They Will Come

France is best known as the father of NASCAR, the builder of Daytona International Speedway, France was also a motorcycle racer. The city of Daytona Beach convinced the AMA to hold the 200-mile national championship race there in 1937. After a few lackluster years, it looked like Daytona would lose the race, until France was convinced to become the promoter. He continued to promote the race until, realizing he couldn’t continue on the beach, he built the race track. He opened the track for him in 1959 and the AMA saw the light and moved the race there two years later. Under French control, the race became an international sensation.