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LAST PAGE HONDA’S 3-WHEELED WONDER

Funky in the extreme, the 1970 ATC90 altered the motorcycle universe forever

Precious few vehicles in the powersports space can lay claim to literally altering the axis of the entire industry, but Honda’s fun and funky ATC90 — which debuted in 1970 — is a shoe-in.

Designed by an R&D team headed by engineer Osamu Takeughi, the US90 (the unit’s original name before the ATC moniker was trademarked) resulted from an innocuous, shot-inthe-dark request from Honda Japan upper management in 1967 that said, basically, come up with something for upper-tier North American dealers to sell during the winter months — motorcycle sales slowing to a crawl during that time.

Take’s team developed all sorts of non-traditional wheeled and tracked vehicles over the coming months, but not until American Honda sent him the balloon-type wheels and tires from a U.S.-built Amphicat sixwheeler did Take’s three-wheeled concept make the jump to lightspeed — or mudspeed — and morph into the machine that would become the ATC90.

From there it was full speed ahead, the team replacing the prototype’s 70cc engine with Honda’s 90cc unit for more down-low and midrange power (better for sand and mud) and doing tons of testing on those surfaces both here and in Japan to be sure performance was up to par.

It’s weird looking back with 20-20 hindsight, but Honda bosses were considerably unsure about the ATC and its chances for sales success, and insisted on keeping production costs as low as possible in case of a failure. Dealers were skeptical, too, and understandably so. This was, after all, a totally unknown and untapped market.

Of course, we all know what happened next. Despite only mediocre sales in the first year or two, the ATC90 — and its 70cc and 110cc variants that came later — exploded in popularity during the 1970s, creating an entirely new market that would become the billiondollar segment we now know as the ATV/UTV industry.

Stay tuned for a full-on ATC90 feature story in an upcoming issue. It’s good stuff! — Mitch Boehm

Inspiration for the ATC’s balloon tires came from the AmphiCat 6-wheeler.