Company Profile: Meet TPC Trikes
What would the world be like had the 3-wheeler never been banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission? Until now, this was a hypothetical question at best. For those who weren’t around to experience it (or those who were but didn’t appreciate the magnitude of what went down); ATVs as we know them were quite a bit different back in the 1980s. Not only were they leaving the factory short a wheel compared to what we have now, interest in the whole concept was exploding in leaps and bounds. Like most things seemingly too good to be true, the whole industry was brought to its knees when slanted media exposure and a domestic legal system with some serious errors in reasoning began intervening. Long story short- A 1986 investigation headed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) into the potential dangers of ATV operation followed. The resulting “Final Consent Decree” would be passed into action on April 29, 1988 and would ban the 3-wheeler despite CPSC findings that stated improper rider behavior and disregard for manufacturer warnings were the reason for a majority of the injuries being reported.
As a result of this decree, manufacture, sale and support for the 3-wheeler was banned for a 10 year period. In that ten year span the four wheeler took off and continued to evolve and flourish as it does to this very day but anyone who read the fine print in the decree would surely realize that as of April 29, 1998, production of the factory 3-wheeler would again be legal.
Sure the big manufacturers never gave the concept a passing thought, having established unprecedented success with the sale and production of four wheeled ATVs; the situation created a unique opportunity for smaller brands looking to carve a niche in the industry. Enter TPC Trikes out of Endicott, NY; one of few builders in the world who can claim to legitimately answer the question, “What would the world be like had the 3-wheeler never been banned?”
Their bread and butter is a machine known as the Honda TPC 450R, a custom built combination of Honda products. Its story begins Way back in September of 2003, when Honda announced that they were releasing an all-new high performance quad, the TRX 450R. It didn’t take long for TPC’s founder, Bill Casey, to realize that this was the quad that he’d been awaiting for nearly 20 years. As soon as he saw it he knew that this was the quad that he would use as the foundation to create the first truly brand-new performance trike to be built in decades. He immediately went to work sketching concept drawings and doing initial design work.
In January of 2006, Casey announced his plans to the world by revealing that he had purchased a brand-new ’06 TRX 450R with exclusive plans to convert it into his dream trike. Once the finished 450R was revealed, it was clear that all those dark years of 3-wheeler stagnation were zapped out of existence in one fell swoop. Since it’s well-received introduction, the TPC 450R has competed successfully in numerous motocross races bringing home wins in multiple classes. It has also traveled to many different riding areas where dozens of test riders have been awed and amazed by its versatility, durability, and comfortable riding position; many riders who, until then, had never even seen, much less ridden, an actual 3-wheeler.
Only this project was never meant to be an exclusive luxury afforded for Casey and his riding buddies to enjoy: TPC manufacturers and sells the 450R to any buyer with the funds and desire to experience something truly unique. And since the entire machine consists of modern, off-the-shelf parts, it means that the days of searching for hard to find vintage parts to keep a vintage 3-wheeler running are concerns of a bygone era. With the TPC 450R, replacement parts are readily available from any Honda dealer, aftermarket supplier or through TPC itself.
While it’s extremely unlikely that the world will ever receive a true factory 3-wheeler again, TPC comes about as close to delivering on that concept as possible and does so with an unforgettable riding experience in the forefront of its vision all the while.