Were trikes the sacrificial lamb?

[Grizzlypeg]

Just thinking about how an agreement was entered into by the manufacturors to stop making 3 wheelers. If you were a company like Honda or Yamaha, and saw the potential of the burgeoning atv market, threated by media and safety group concerns, would it not make business sense to blame the 3 wheel design, rather than risk the whole future ATV industry? So you conveniently throw the lamb to the lions, appease the safety critics by agreeing it was the 3 wheel design that caused injury (not the whole motorized Joe Public off road concept), and carry on making profits. So in the end, Honda, Yamaha and others profit from the myth, that 3 wheels are inherently dangerous, and 4 wheels are so markedly different. Here we are, 25 years later, quads are everywhere, people still die (3 or 4 every year in our province on quads), and yet what do I hear when people see my three wheeler on the trailer? Don't you know those things are dangerous?

[84honda200s]

people are afraid of what they dont understand .i get people tellin me im going to kill myself on my trike. then they dare tell me to get a quad . some people also believe 4 wheels are safer than 3 . i beg to differ . i think when someone jumps on a quad they forget they are on a machine and think they are harmless because they have 4 wheels and not 2 or 3 . ill be honest i feel safer on 3 in the sense i realize im on a machine and not a toy . for once im not going to say 3 wheels are safer or 4 wheels are safer .. a machine is a machine and should be rode like one. it doesnt matter if it has a track 2 wheels 3 wheels or 4 wheels they all can hurt or kill someone . they are what their owners are . if you ride deadly then that machine will become deadly . that being said i think it was wrong of the government to strong arm honda and others into stopping the production of the 3 wheeler .

i think they threw the 3 wheeler to the wolves because they had no choice in the matter . just my 2 cents

[oldtoys72]

I cant tell you how sick of hearing "arent they outlawed? Be carefull, those things are dangerous and your gonna kill yourself" Dont get me wrong, I feel for all those who have lost a love one. The thing is though, the ATC is no more dangerous than say a stock Hyabusa that goes 200mph or a dirtbike,car,boat,jet-ski, snowmobile or any other damn thing! bureaucratic BS it what it all was! It just seems to be that by now they should be able to lift the ban since there are plenty of stats out there for say quads and casualties! just my opinion i guess

[SWIGIN]

I was there when this all went down and I was a hardcore triker back then. You guys are not going to like this but trikes were not selling due to the new quads being the new thing. Trikes were dead or dying anyway and the agreement was a easy way out.

ban or no ban trikes were dead.

[oldtoys72]

They sure arent dead now! Either way, Im just happy that we have this site where we can all swap stories, ideas and general knowledge!

[Thorpe]

Society needs to be protected from themselves.... Or so our government would lead you to believe...

But half the morons I run into on a daily basis, probably do need a bit of extra help in that dept.

[Xpress]

Ban or no ban trikes were dead.

Not now! ;)

[84honda200s]

Not now! ;)

its soooo true .. i wouldnt trade mine for nuttin !!

[Xpress]

its soooo true .. i wouldnt trade mine for nuttin !!

I'd trade mine for a 250r. :)

[Chillian]

Unfortantly most of our society are followers not many leaders. At that time when four wheelers started to come out they were catching on, and 3 wheelers were getting a bad rap. Main stream media for ya. However everyone followed like sheep(except for all of us smarter people of course lol). I do kinda agree that it gave them a scapegoat to appease people. However facts are facts people die on horses or are severly injured every year. Yet it is still a huge thing, and prestigeous. Just 1 example, The followers in this country are the ones behind it all. People with some common sense and who arn't sheep know the truth, No matter what you ride you have the potential to kill yourself. It's all on the rider. Maybe someday it will be prestigeuos for us. However i still love making people's head turn at the the old ATC's. Better looking and still in the mix....

[Vealmonkey]

I don't know if trikes were really considered the sacrificial lamb, but I think manufacturers were gearing up to push quads anyway. I think trikes were really being phased out.

[oldskool83]

i think trikes were gonna be phased out either way, prob sooner in the highperformace area quicker then the utility world but i dont know anything.

i mean honda did have quads back in 84 and so did suzuki, it was what 2 years later and every manufacture had some type of quad, and a year later trikes were banned. i think its all safe to say its was simply going to happen and they might of been selling trikes yet to just hang on to see how the market really went.

im sure one day out quads could be fazed out too, there was a ban trying to be placed on them back in 2005 i think it was when i signed a petition at a dealer to let them keep selling them. i have nothing about quads but if i can ride a 3wheeler i would, its just a week spot for me.

[haggard 2hundie]

great article ! i am so sick of people asking me " aint that thing illegal " i think most people think they are even illegal to own and operate a three wheeler its just like the saying goes guns dont kill people people kill people , you cant blame the machine its human neglagence , ignorance and in competance that outlawed trike production LONG LIVE 3 WHEELERS

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I think it did appear trikes were losing interest. But I think people are missing the fact that stuff runs in cycles. The next new thing is what everyone wants. It's only a matter of time before people revert to what they used to have and i think trike sales would have gone down a lot if the government left their nose out of it, but I think they would have survive and found a resurgence at some point. Think about it, how many of you realize that the color brown was the most popular color choice for cars in the mid 80's? That didn't last. In the early 80's I had people tell me a million times that if i want a fast car i have to buy an old muscle car because the days of american car companies producing big horsepower muscle cars are over. One look at the dealer shows how that went. I do believe trikes would have went through some tough times without media/government intervention, but I honestly believe they would have made a comeback at some point. Maybe they would be dead again by now but they still would have made a comeback. The bottom line is, I'm sick of the government telling me what I can and can't ride for my own good. I hate democrats.

[SWIGIN]

They sure arent dead now! Either way, Im just happy that we have this site where we can all swap stories, ideas and general knowledge!

I have not seen one sold new at a dealer since 87-88..........thats what I mean by dead.

[vl5150]

I was riding back then and remember it well. The news media took this story on and it was all over TV all the time about the dangers of 3 wheelers. The misinformation spread was insane.

The same thing happened in the 90's with the assault rifle ban. All you saw on TV were clips of full automatic assault rifles, which were illegal already.

I'm sure the power increase in the mid 80's didn't help things. If only 200s and big reds were being made, it probably would have slipped under the radar IMO.

[Grizzlypeg]

I'm just tossing out there the possibility, that it made business sense to agree and comply with a prohibition in order to allow trikes to be the lightening rod for the media comtempt. It allowed quads to be seen as so much safer and not be prohibited or overly regulated. If you argued it was mostly driver carelessness and an inevitability where kids, drunks and fools drive power machines, you would be saying nothing is going to prevent the same thing from happening with quads. Blame the trike, roll out the quads. Public likes newer and better anyhow, and its good for sales. Why would the industry fight it?

[jonathandexter]

Its the same void filled argument as guns. Fear mongering Repeaters. Repeat. Repeat. someone elses statement.
More than "Two hundred and fifty thousand" / 250,000 people die in Hospitals from Doctor Malpractice every single year!!!
Its a fact, look it up.
Quick everybody - we need to warn people, and tell our senators and take videos to dateline and 20/20 OH hurry please my child could be next if someone doesn't outlaw the Doctors!!!

This is just how ignorant, and how low on the food chain. Joe public really is.
Nuff Said

[pmktm]

Three wheelers were not banned. The manufactures said they would not make any more of them if the government did not pass
any thing against said three wheelers. Unfortunately all the idiots did not kill them selfs off, as there are still enough to go around.
Sorry if that upsets any one. Rag away:mad: