Accidents were on the rise and the US Justice Department outlawed any further sales of three-wheel ATVs in 1988.īut, back to this one for sale here. But, trouble was looming in the industry. They were selling for $595 ($3,700 in 2016 dollars) and eventually sold about 150,000 of them in 90cc, 70cc, and 110cc sizes by 1978. Honda’s PR department even went as far as getting it into Diamonds Are Forever, a James Bond movie, to add some much-needed exposure for this new vehicle type. In late-1970 it became the ATC90 with Honda trademarking the name “All Terrain Cycle”. This machine was originally called the US90 because it was mainly designed for the US market. The three-wheel configuration all makes sense to us now, but the Honda team tried several different configurations, after seeing the handful of all-terrain vehicles available with big, low-pressure balloon tires, and they settled on the triangular configuration of the three-wheel ATC90. The three-wheel prototype caught the eye of the engineer in charge and the rest is history. In 1967, Honda’s “special vehicle” team was given the task to design something unique, but also both fun and functional, for American Honda dealers to sell in the winter months. Their DNA all goes back to the Honda ATC90. You can’t go more than a few miles on any highway anywhere in the US without seeing some sort of ATV on a trailer or in the back of a pickup truck. This red ATC90 sure is a beaut, you just do not find these things in this condition anymore unless they’ve been restored. Like the snowmobiling world back in the late-1960s and early-1970s, where there were so many manufacturers that it would take quite a while just to name them all, including a rare Honda attempt, a lot of manufacturers had something up their sleeves for the off-season that included big, balloon tires or some multi-wheel-drive configuration. Honda opened Pandora’s Box with the ATC90 in an era where anything and everything was on the table, as far as making off-road machines goes. This original, survivor 1970 Honda ATC90 was stored in someone’s office in Connecticut and is just now for sale. Your eyes don’t deceive you, this is just like the one that your neighbor had forty years ago and they would never let you ride it not that you’re still bitter or anything.
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