Early farm help. Back in the early to mid-1970s, ATVs like the Honda ATC 90 (three-wheeler) had yet to establish a firm target market, farmers began to take interest in using them to get around and handle farm work. A big part of the appeal was that they were quicker, cost less and used 8% […] More »

Putting the power to the ground. Nearly all of the ATVs sold on the market today come equipped with fully automatic transmissions (except for a small percentage of the market consisting of sport and race models that use a manual clutch transmission) but this wasn’t always the case. Throughout most of the 80s and on […] More »

Let the sky be your guide. The first ATV to come with integrated GPS navigation from the factory was from Honda over 10-years ago. The 2004 FourTrax Rancher AT GPSCAPE recognized the value of global positioning and probably couldn’t have predicted a few years later that nearly everyone of us would have GPS tracking in […] More »

First of its kind. A majority of the ATV manufacturers didn’t take development of four-wheelers seriously until 1988 when, after a lengthy investigation by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, it was deemed distributors would no longer be allowed to market three-wheel ATVs and manufacturers had to repurchase any unsold three-wheel models from dealer inventory. […] More »

To whom do the top honors belong? Polaris Industries Inc. is the largest manufacturer of snowmobiles in the world, but the second-largest maker of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The top spot still belongs to Honda. And though it may be best known as a snowmobile-maker, Polaris now generates only about 14 percent of its revenue from […] More »

Red means stop! While it’s easy to assume that the value of brake lights in the realm of ATVing was fairly obvious from the onset. After all, dim and low-light night riding is generally a staple in the off-roading arena. Not so! Tail lights were strictly optional throughout most of the 80s and brake lights […] More »

Can you name the first production ATV? Not so fast. The answer is more complicated than you’d think. Unlike the automotive industry, there is some debate about what really was the first production ATV. The general consensus is that the honor belongs to Honda’s US90 three-wheeler, which was exported to the United States back in […] More »