Honda the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer for example started in a 12 square meter shack where the founder of Honda eponymously named, started adapting 500 cc Philips radio power generator engines to bicycles to build motorcycles.
In the year 2000 I purchased my first motorcycle for $5,000, a 1999 Honda CBR600 F4, sold it to someone who tried to pass 4 cars on a blind highway curve and became part of the front of a class 8 trucks radiator, in what EMT's refer to as a donor-cycle accident (as in organ donor because the die in the accident) a problem with younger men riding overpowered sports bikes, which are really just road legal race motorcycles with turn signals, brake light, headlight and lightly detuned for better reliability, lower cost, and usually also slightly heavier.
When racing teams tune a sport bike for Moto GP racing they typically spend hundreds of thousands or even over a million dollars on a full TIG welded titanium tuned racing exhaust, blueprinted and honed, polished, CNC weight reduced forged alloy engine block, sodium cooled titanium exhaust valves, silicon sapphire valve guides, friction reduction and mass reduction, lithium aluminum alloy frames custom made, the best possible sticky flat tread racing tires, and much much more like custom fuel maps in the ECU dynamometer tuned, wind tunnel tested, telemetry data systems and more. A 600cc transverse 4 cylinder motorcycle engine tuned for Moto GP like the F1 racing of motorcycle racing, can produce in excess of 240 HP and well over 100 lb.-ft. of torque, able to easily wheelie in 3rd of 6 gears and can hit 75 MPH in 2nd gear, with a redline rev limit over 18,000 RPM.
Dirt bikes and trial bikes use longer suspension travel, lower mass engines, smaller frames, a more upright seating triangle, and are optimized for tail riding in dirty, mud, sand, and unpaved roads and tails. Dual sport bikes like the Suzuki DR400S or SM, offer a road legal dirt bike that works on trails and paved roads with less aggressive tire nobs that are more like a street tire but with enough traction nob details to have good traction on minimally improved road surfaces. Watch this video for an example https://youtu.be/ODencqydoF4?si=aJPAb3Cd3J_4a6xK
Image via YouTube video of 2024 NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally024 NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally
In 2007 I purchased a 2004 GSX-R600 that Meg' later renamed "Buzz" because it has been Stage 2 tuned by the previous owner who I purchased it from for $5K. This motorcycle was traded in for our 2013 Honda PCX150 in 2013 for a song an dance difference in cost :) We still have this Honda PCX today and ride it 2 up together in fair weather on the weekends for fun to go on mini-vacations to further out nearby locals where we patronize local businesses that are not available closer. It's able to go 55 MPH with Meg & I riding and returns 83 MPG or miles per gallon like that. When riding it solo it gets over 100 MPG.
In 2019 we purchased a 2019 Honda Grom SF. I personally tuned the engine called super tuning from 9.5 hp stock to over 12.5 hp dyno at the rear wheel, using every engine tuning trick I had learned over the years rebuilding engines and studying engine tuning technology. Much faster revving with free flowing intake and full SS exhaust, a power commander and O2 sensor added to the exhaust, custom fueling maps programmed on the dyno, and a bigger honed intake and ported exhaust textured output. It was expensive to tune like that, thousands, but ended up being much more fun to ride. Sadly with only 4 gears it was not good for highway speeds, but extra fun around town.
In 2020 we traded the Honda Grom SF in on our 2020 Yamaha MTO3 and thats my daily lane splitting commuter champion now :) I also take Meg's scooter the Honda PCX-150 to and from work lane splitting on the way home to save time in stop and go traffic, where I slip between stopped cars at 10mph to skip to the front of the line at intersections so I can breathe cleaner air instead of huffing the exhaust of all the stopped idling cars. Cars have terrible emissions or emit much more smog forming air pollution and idle than they do at cruising speeds when the engine is burning more cleanly in the power-band RPM ranges. Lane splitting saves me at least 40 min, making it take 25 min to get home instead of more than hour and 25 min in a car, stuck in stop and go traffic congestion.
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