Editorial ATV Ketchup

EDITORIAL ATV KETCHUP Or how did a leading ATV Manufacturer go from “Follow The Leader” to playing catch-up with the rest.

Let me start off by saying that I am a fan of Honda. I like their Motorcycles. I like their dirt bikes, and I liked their three-wheelers. But to be honest, their 4-wheelers (excluding the TRX450R) just haven’t cut it in a decade. Sure they have some models that fit their perceived market segment but that segment is no longer cutting edge or innovative. Remember the “Big Red” three-wheeler, Hi-Lo transmission and Reverse. Then came the legendary ATC200X. Everybody had one of those and beat them unmercifully.

Who can forget the first ATC250R three-wheeler in 1983, with its air-cooled motor pirated right out of the CR250 Motocrosser and an honest-to-goodness racing suspension with real forks! That thing would suck the stock balloon tires right off the rims!

Two years later they did it again with the ’85 liquid cooled CR engine in the updated ATC250R. And as an encore, they stuffed the same basic motor into a racing 4 wheeler chassis creating the revolutionary TRX250R that promptly blew everybody away, not only that year but for the next decade! A year later they set us on our ears again with the ATC350X with a high performance 350cc four-stroke motor and twin headlights!

Then the “Consent Decree” hit them. ATV’s were synonymous with Honda and they had 60% of the market so they took the brunt of the frivolous lawsuits from untrained riders who hurt themselves. It was the “Deep Pockets” theory gone amuck.

Honda recoiled in monitory fear and stopped production of all three-wheelers to prevent ATV’s from being banned. They even crushed dozens of crated 350X’s sitting in their New Jersey warehouse! The 200X, 350X, and 250R three-wheelers were gone in a heartbeat. Production was stopped on the TRX250R. Also gone forever was the ATC500R w/independent suspension that Marty Smith was rumored to be testing.

What was Honda left with for a model line for 1990? Not much They had the butt-ugly TRX200 Hump-back that was a de-tuned TRX200SX which was a de-tuned ATC200X. The carburetor was now the same size as the 1979 ATC185! Ugly and slow! They had leftover 1987-88 TRX250X’s that were not selling against the TRX250R. And we still had the now 3 year old TRX300 Utility. Admittedly it was a great little machine but 10 years later with nothing but a set of new shocks and multiple layers of “BNG”, (Bold, New Graphics) it wasfinally retired. Yes it was their biggest seller. Did it sell so well because it was the most competent in class or was it because if you wanted a full size utility Honda you had that or nothing.

The next year, 1991, we did get the now popular TRX250X back in actuation mechanisms in ATV history. It took years to unload the ’87-’88 production, with one of the most complicated lawyer-mandated reverse unsold units By 1991, things were different, if you wanted a new sport Honda it was the 250X or nothing!

During 1991 Honda showed its dealers and the Press two new prototypes, one the TRX90 and the other a TRX200X! The long awaited Honda answer to the immensely popular Yamaha Blaster! Well you can guess how the dealers would have voted, a machine to go up against the Blaster, that every kid seemed to have or the TRX90, designed for children. Well you know what happened. We got the TRX90, complete with its 1958 engine design and short stiff suspension that still continues to this day, unchanged! The TRX200X was never seen again in the US.

4 more long years of BNG (Bold, New Graphics) were endured before the TRX400 Foreman arrived. However when it arrived the chassis design was years old when it was produced, just a larger 300 Utility. Short, stiff suspension with little ground clearance, not to be used for anything resembling sporty or fun. If you must use it, please don’t have fun doing it! The thing is, the 400, along with its smaller sibling, the 300, sold well, again mostly because it was a Honda and it was that or nothing! It was three more years of BNG before the 450 Foreman arrived. Still old school, with all its inherent problems, but it too sold because it was a new Honda, not necessarily because it was what their customers actually wanted.

However by the late 1990’s Honda was loosing their market share to other manufacturers that finally decided enough was enough. It was time to get progressive by providing features and models their customers actually wanted. Examples were disc brakes so you could actually stop! Longer travel suspension for a smoother, non-utility ride and lighter more responsive handling. You know the kind of things that make an ATV fun as opposed to just OK.

Finally after a decade of people crying for the return of the 250R we were given the “Parts Bin” ATV, the TRX400X. After 10 years with little if any money directed toward an exciting performance quad we received basically what the dedicated backyard builder had been constructing for years. Honda even had to purchase some Aftermarket chassis to see what the “State of the Art” was in the Aftermarket. This from the creators of the best handling 250 race quad ever. With their own copy of an aftermarket chassis in hand they apparently took a shopping cart and went down the isle of a parts warehouse and took a motor here and a shock there, wheels from here and the same tires the 250R had used. Tire technology hadn’t evolved in 10 years?

Where was their legendary engineering talent? For years ATV engineering resources were redirected towards their motorcycle and dirt bike divisions where new, improved models and innovative engineering was still rewarded. Did you know that during this time period that about every 9 months you could purchase a new redesigned CR125 – 250R. BNG doesn’t cut it even for 1 model year in motocross.

Was the TRX400EX a successful model? Yes! Why? Because it was the first new sport Honda ATV in 10 years! That’s why! And the die-hard Honda fans snapped it up. Was it a “Modern” 250R? Not by a long shot. Did the Press fall all over it? You bet! Why? Because they wouldn’t have to keep retesting the same old designs year after year with bold eye-catching headlines and rewriting last years copy. It wasn’t until the TRX450R arrived that we finally had a “cutting-edge” sport quad.

On the Utility front things are not so rosy. There are no Sport-Utility’s. What we have are kind-of-Utilities with a slightly sporting bent. We also don’t have any real work machines with receiver hitches, winch mounts and tall, aggressive tires either.

For ’05 the new 500 Foreman is a definite improvement over the 450’s they replaced. Most of the Editors at the Press Intro approved of the lighter handling, better suspension and Lineup-wide new looks. However guys, lets take the Honda name out of the picture for a moment and just look at the “new” 500 as a generic model from somebody else.

The new motor does have more power than the old 450 Foreman. However while it may be more powerful than the anemic Bombardier 500 Quest, it is not eye opening or outstanding. The ground clearance is nothing exceptional either, actually not even average. You will “high-center” following a number of other machines through the mud. The tires will let you down too. Ohtsu really needs to be allowed to spend some time and R&D money on developing tires that perform at least as well as 3 year old OEM rubber as used by some of the other manufacturers. Do you know anybody that actually replaces their Ohtsu’s with new Ohtsu’s?

Having a Utility machine that shifted smoothly and positively eluded Honda for years. Now they have one and are now equal to circa 2000 Utility Quads. Same with the much touted disc brakes. Their large Utility Quads have been overrunning their brakes since 1995, so it is a long overdue improvement.

The suspension, while certainly better than last year is not industry leading. While it is possible Honda can only give its customers a certain level of comfort because they do not want to install long travel shocks to keep the CG (Center of Gravity) low. A lower CG reduces the chance of rollovers. It’s interesting that other manufacturers have decided that more ground clearance is what the customers really want. Is Honda still protecting us from ourselves or protecting their pocketbooks from even the slightest chance of misuse?

Same would go for tall tires. However this is what a very large segment of the utility buyers want and spend large amounts of cash on with other ATV Manufacturers and the Aftermarket. Can aggressive tires that actually work in the mud be a legal liability? Does the ATV 4×4 community want “SUV” type machines or mini-Bigfoots? Time will tell.

Die-hard Honda customers will continue to purchase whatever “Big Red” chooses to let us have, (and you can count me as one too) while customers who are discerning about what features they deem as absolutely necessary will look elsewhere while Honda continues to play “ATV Ketchup”.