 With a staff of 12 men working in a shack, they built and sold improvised motorized bicycles, using a supply of 500 two-stroke "50 cc" Tohatsu war surplus radio generator engines.When the engines ran out, Honda began building their own copy of the Tohatsu engine, and supplying these to customers to attach to their bicycles.This was the Honda A-Type, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made.