Its a Free Country!! (Unless you want to buy a 3-wheeler)

[69cruzer]

Ok i have been reading through these forums for a long time and first ide like to thank those responsible for these great 3wheeler sights.Ok here is my point. This is supposedley a free country where you can buy a gun,fast car and other very potentially harmfull equiptment But if me or any of you wished to go buy a brand new honda 250r or tecat-3 or tri-z or 350x etc. thats out of the question due to i guess laws put in place so that manufactures are not aloud to sell them anymore. Wouldnt any one of you all want to go to your nearest dealer and check out the trikes available? Now it seems that the titled racers such as the trx250r ,lt250r,lt500r,tecate-4 are fazed out due to being dangerous. cudos to yamaha for keeping the blaster and banshee in production inwich may soon also be an endangered species due to tighter emission laws. But now the atv sport is florishing with big bore four stroke quads. Is it only a matter of time before they are banned from the show room floors? is this just a vicsious cycle? Why not just put a stop to the tight rules and let the manufactures sell what the people like and just tighten down on training and age limits for certian horsepowered atvs. But i guess that might make too much sence. What are all of you thoughts?

[jeswinehart]

here again,,, economics + liability= cost effectiveness.
i am making my own brand new 350x (slowly),,, peice by peice.
will be better then new and alot cheaper too
big red is done and got another project trike going that is gonna be my beater.
i look at it this way,,,, we are no different then anybody else other then our choice of collectables is trikes. more then likely some of the folks on this site collect other stuff too and have a soft spot when it comes to trikes.

john

p.s.- they are not illeagle either,,, they just don't make them anymore.

[HemiChallenger71]

Selling 3 wheelers is not illegal, but dealership insurance laws won't allow them to sell them. If they take them on a trade in, they scrap them. Peopel however now want them, and the guy that designed the original 3 wheeler brought back some designs, and I even think possibly a prototype trike to test in I want to say 97-99ish? please correct me if I'm wrong. When the mom's of America got a hold of this information they batted it down so hard no-one else even herd about it and the project was scrapped.

[Joel85350X]

I think John hit the nail on the head. Or at least I read his post that way. :) The way I see it, the 3-wheeler would have been phased out even if their had not been a law suit against it. Right now manufacturers are making more automobiles and off road vehicles than ever, but they are making the vehicles that sell. That is the key. When something begins to sell less and less, the manufacturers are less inclined to make it. After the suspension of 3-wheeler production was lifted in 1998 manufacterers were too skeptical about how people would respond to the reproduction of the 3-wheeler, and this skepticism led to wonders about sales. It had been too long since the 3-wheeler was sold successfully, and manufacterers didn't have the balls to make the trikes again.

Unfortunantly, that leads up to today, where we are searching for parts to rebuild the oldies-but-goodies from the '80s. Truthfully, I don't see anyone ever producing the 3-wheeler again, simply because there probably isn't a big enough market out there to make it worth it. Seriously, how many of you would actually buy a 2003 Honda ATC 350X? It would probably be about $4900 and be lower on power than the 1986 model.

It is funny to me when talking with the average Joes out there how many of them think that 3-wheelers are illegal! I get that comment about every time I bring up a topic about my trike!

John, will your new 350X have a hula-hoop style roll cage for when you do your rollover tricks? :) Either that or a bulletproof headlight assembly. HA!

My $0.02.

[3WheelHouston]

If only one of us three wheeler freaks was rich enough to supply the capital for our own manufacturing company... one can dream.

[69cruzer]

You really think that a new trike would cost 4900? Isnt it cheap to mass produce a trike?Less parts up front. My guess is that you could buy a 400x(updated350x) for about 3500-3800 or around a blaster in price. I apollagize i did not know the ban was lifted in 98-99? Boy if i could just go back in time and buy all those cheap scraped trikes. Anybody got a time machine?LOL


Brian(atvdude,69cruzer)
86-350x
85- mint 250r
88-trx250r
99-400ex
83-200x(for sale)
86-250sx(for sale)
building 185/200
and mainy 110 and 200 parts

[350Xrider]

It would be bit of $4900 or more, I mean look at what dirtbikes are going for now.

[69cruzer]

yes it may be 4900 i guess but it better have top of the line technology like the dirtbikes in turn it would be worth paying that much in turn there would be a market for it? mainy drag racers would like it or sand riders. Guess i will just stick with the machines i have.


Brian

[BigReds Forever]

at the local artic carp dealership they always put out on the lawn to show people a few new modles and all the used ones they got, well i dont know how they aquired it (trade?) but theres a atc90 sittin out there. ive been meaning to go ask them about it.

[Joel85350X]

I seriously think that a trike set up like a old 350X would sell for around $5000. The 400EX is a less high performance engine than the 350X (as far as engine components) and it sells for $5000 and up. To make a machine that would cost this much but yet be skepticised by the media due to it's history would probably be far too much of a risk for a company to achieve.

[HemiChallenger71]

I think that if 3 wheelers were stil laround they would be priced like dirt bikes, higher than quads, because more people desire them and are willing to pay more money. We would probably find quads being the cheepest, and quads gettign trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro on left and right like trikes do now. One can dream. Someone o nthis board needs to win the lottery and make their own plant, something like cannondale did and make on kick-ass trike, and make it as safe if not safer than a quad. We all know it would be faster.

[Joel85350X]

I'll do it if I win, but I've never bought a ticket. :)

You have to remember, trikes are only as safe or dangerous as the person riding them. You risk your life every time your drive you car down the road, yet that hasn't stopped manufacturers from producing cars. The deal is, that manufacturers are going to make them safer by adding what? Airbags? Rollover prevetion posts that spring out and stablize the trike? It's a vicious cycle. :?