In 1925, Mr. Shojiro Ishibashi pioneered the mass production of rubber soled Japanese footwear in Kurume City in the southern island of Kyushu. Five years later he established a tire factory in Kurume, naming the company Bridgestone Tire Co., Ltd. Bridgestone is a literal translation into English of his own name, "Stone Bridge". By 1960 the company had grown to a massive manufacturing concern with factories in Kurume, Yokohama and Tokyo producing a complete spectrum of rubber products besides tires. The company was also Japan's leading manufacturer of bicycles, was a fledgling manufacturer of motorcycles, and also had an auto production company called Prince Motors, Ltd which was then producing over 5,000 passenger cars and trucks per month.

From my own meager historical information, it appears that Bridgestone entered the motorcycle market about 1960 with their 50cc, fan-cooled, single cylinder motorbike, sold in the US as the "Bridgestone 7". The significance of the number "7" escapes me. I would imagine the motorcycle company was an outgrowth of their existing bicycle manufacturing capabilities. Plus, I understand that they produced a clip-on micromotor for bicycles.

Bridgestone forged through the 1960's with an expanding line of technologically advanced motorcycles that set the pace in their respective displacement classes, but never got the marketing machine into gear to compete with the other fast rising manufacturers. This may have been the fault of the American company that Bridgestone contracted with as the sole US importer and distributor: Rockford Motors, Inc. of Rockford, Illinois. A first rate dealership network never was effectively established in the US. The bikes, being a notch above the competition in finish, technology and performance, also cost more on the showroom floor and this probably hurt sales. I've heard and read the stories about Bridgestone being forced out of business by a conspiracy of the other large bike makers, telling Bridgestone to stop making motorcycles or their tires would be boycotted. Personally, I discount the conspiracy theory. I expect that Bridgestone, being a huge company outside of the motorcycle business, simply made a business decision to abandon an unprofitable branch and devote those plants to proven capabilities. Probably they read the handwriting on the wall concerning the future of two-stroke road bikes and didn't want to invest in a whole new line of four-stroke machines for a business that was already lagging. At any rate, Bridgestone quit the motorcycle business in 1971. Rockford Motors tried to carry on by securing the rights to the small Bridgestone engines and having some Japanese company produce a line of three small bikes: the 60cc "Chibi" minibike; 60cc "Tora", a half-sized dirt bike, and; 100cc "Taka", a full-sized trail bike. This line-up was a pale imitation of the Bridgestone brand and didn't last but a couple of years.