In December 1962, American Honda held a gala event for dealers and VIPs at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The event was attended by dealers, celebrities, Honda employees, and members of the media.

Mr. Honda was in a particularly gregarious mood that evening. A photo published in the February issue of CYCLE magazine captures this perfectly: Mr. Honda, wearing a ten-gallon Western hat, stands at the center of the group, flanked by J.C. "Aggie" Agajanian, his wife, and other notable figures from the event. The hat, a playful nod to American culture, symbolizes Honda's embrace of the U.S. market. It is an unfortunate reality that the fun side of Mr. Honda's personality has been largely erased in the last 30 years.

Floyd Clymer wrote the story on the gala honda meeting. Clymer was both the editor and publisher of CYCLE magazine.
Floyd Clymer is one of the most infamous characters in the history of the motorcycle industry. Clymer knew everyone, from the original Harley-Davidson crew to every Daytona winner through 1965. He was never shy about informing CYCLE readers of his connections to seemingly every notable event in motorcycling for more than 45 years.

(Incidentally it was during this trip that Mr. Honda toured Johnson Motors, a dealership that had been the mecca for British motorcycles in Southern California for decades. After seeing the archaic bikes, leaking oil on the showroom floor, Honda thanked them for the tour. On the way back to American Honda's headquarters, Mr. Honda laughed and shook his head nearly the entire ride, knowing his motorcycles could easily outsell anything from England or America.)

This photo and the accompanying report, however, reveal a different side of Clymer. In the final paragraph of the story, Clymer reflects, after, of course, detailing how CYCLE was the first to report on Honda and his motorcycles: "I felt from the start that the Honda machines would have a worthwhile market in the U.S., but I never dreamed they would be so successful—and I'm sure no one else here did either."