The international motorcycle market is seeing a shift in players as Honda, a manufacturer with the longest history in India, takes its own road and ends a long-standing partnership.

According to reports, Honda Motor Company plans to sell its stake in India's top-ranked motorcycle maker, Hero Honda Motors, instead focusing on its own wholly owned subsidiary.

In a remarkable move, Honda will sell its entire stake in Hero Honda Motors to the Hero Group's founding family and investment funds by as early as March, and will no longer provide technical support to Hero Honda.

Hero Honda was founded in 1984 and the partnership has helped Honda sell a third of its motorcycles worldwide. The sheer numbers can be appreciated by noting Hero Honda sold 4.5 million Honda-brand motorcycles in 2009 in the growing Indian market.

Honda is giving the need for full control in the future subsidiary and the ability to respond quickly to market changes. A dispute taking place in Vietnam could be coloring the conversation as well where Honda is working hard through a country’s legal system to stop a small, independent motorcycle manufacturer from making claims its model uses an engine built by the famous Japanese country.

However, international attorneys caution if the local manufacturer can prove it bought the engine through a Honda authorized company, the claim can be made.

Also, looking for better control as well as being closer to India’s prosperous economy could be a response to the other major motorcycle manufacturers establishing not only a network of dealerships but also assembly plants in the country.

The move will bring an influx of capital to Honda with the Japanese automaker earning up to 100 billion yen (1.2 billion dollars) from the sale of its shares in Hero Honda.

Honda plans to build a new factory in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh for the wholly owned subsidiary, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) while speeding up its development of new sales outlets.