Motorcycle ATV Technology

Video Honda Trail Origin Story Herb Uhl

I’m Herb Uhl, let’s start off in Boise Idaho. My wife at that time got hit by a car when she was riding her motorcycle and we got about 800 bucks for the damage. I fixed the motorcycle for a couple of hundred and the other five I put into the motorcycle business.

That was the start of the motorcycle business, 500 bucks. I opened my own dealership. I wanted off-road motorcycles because it was Boise Idaho, and very few people ever rode a motorcycle on the highway except to get to the hills in Boise Idaho at that time.

I wanted off-road motorcycles and so I took on Maico (m-a-i-c-o) and I they had Enduro motorcycles at that time. I know years later, Yamaha thinks they invented the name but Maico Enduros were available in 1955 – 56.

Herco h-e-r-c-o (Herb’s company) engineering was in Garden City, part of Boise. If you’re looking North it’s on the left. Simple as that.

I ordered a motorcycle, and I guess I sold a couple of them. Then the importer, Nicholas Gray, the importer at that time out of Detroit, came to see me, and he offered me motorcycles on consignment, which got me in the business. So, my total investment was $500.00.

You could ride from your house to the hills on a motorcycle without license plates. Nobody paid any attention. That’s what everybody did. Very seldom, anybody ever rode a motorcycle on the road. Well, there were a few road riders but not many.

There were a lot of dirt riders because the foothills were right there and so everybody went to the hills, and that was my interest too, I didn’t care about riding on the road. You can drive on the road, you don’t have to ride on it. And there were lots of old logging roads and old mining roads because there was a lot of mining that went on in that area. So, we explored all those old roads and rode in all kinds of places.

I ordered the first Hondas from Japan. In fact, I think I got the first Hondas that came into the U.S. A guy down in San Diego with the name of Sailor Maine also ordered about the same time. We both went into the motorcycle business.

They were actually off-road motorcycles. There was a little bitty article in Cycle World, I think at that time, that had a picture of this motorcycle. Honda, out of Japan, and everybody was wondering if the thing would be any good if it would be junk, or what it was?

It looked good to me, so I ordered a pair of them. I got them in and sold them almost instantly. I ordered more, and they wouldn’t sell me anymore because they weren’t serious motorcycles. Those were built in their race shop, and they didn’t realize that that’s what we wanted. They didn’t get the message for several years. They couldn’t understand it because we wanted motorcycles for off-road use.

When they moved to Los Angeles and set up American Honda, I was the first American dealer to contact them. That was when they were in an apartment house out on Sepulveda Boulevard. They were trying to figure out how to set up a distributorship in America. They were up in this big apartment in the apartment house.

The first bikes I got, I forget what the model was, but it wasn’t a series model. As I said, it was special. Then they came out with the CB 71, 72, and of course, the C-100, the Honda Cub. That was a little 50cc, and so as soon as they got set up on Sepulveda with American Honda in their little building front, I went down to see him. I ordered some of the Cubs and they had a little 150 as well, so I ordered some of those 150s, a couple of them, and ordered a couple of CB-72s and two or three Cubs. When they came in at Boise, I looked at those Cubs and wondered how I was ever going to sell them in Boise.

That’s when I started looking at them as, what I could do to them to make them so that people would want them. I got to looking at them and every time I walked by them, I looked down a little more and I decided that they would make a way better trail bike than the tote goats and so forth that people were using at that time.

There was a guy in Boise that built sprockets and had a machine to make sprockets. I ordered a sprocket to stick over the other one as an overlay. Then I ordered knobby tires for them because that would be necessary. It took several months for knobbies to come in for it.

I tried it out in the hills and found out that it actually worked really well, so I started building them and ordered them in. I guess I sold several hundred of them before Honda noticed that I was selling way more Honda Cubs than all of their dealers in the Greater Los Angeles area together. And these were city bikes, where they should have sold there but here I was selling them out in a little town in Idaho.

Jack McCormick from American Honda called and wondered what I was doing to sell all those little cubs because they weren’t moving. I told him to make them into trail bikes and so he said, “Send me one of them, so I can see what you’re doing.”

I sent it to him and he looked it over. They rode it around and played with it. Then they sent it on to Japan and told Japan that they wanted the exact same thing as a separate model. That was the start of the Honda Trail Bike. Of course, once Honda started building them, then all the other motorcycle companies copied Honda, and there was trail bike Yamaha, and Kawasaki, and everybody had a little trail bike of some kind. That started the ATV motorcycle business.

I was just selling motorcycles. It was just the way things were, you know, I was just selling lots of motorcycles.

(It didn’t bother you that they took your designs and made their own bike?)

No, really because it didn’t even occur to me that it was a big deal but that actually started the motorcycle-derived ATV. And that’s made the motorcycle companies more money than anything else that’s ever been done to motorcycles. That’s where it started, then the three-wheelers came, and from that then four-wheelers, and now side by sides.

In fact, if it wasn’t for that (Uhl’s trail bike design) the side-by-sides would probably say Chevy, Ford, and RAM instead of Kawasaki or Yamaha. So, that really started the off-road motorcycle business.

Getting to a little lake or something up in the mountains required a horse or a hell of a long walk. They were building little scooters with Briggs and Stratton engines on them with no suspension on either end so that they could go up into those places. They called those things “tote goats” which became a brand the company started up to build those little things. They had a piece of plywood on there with a little padding on it and covering for a seat and so forth.

I looked at that Cub and I said, “This will do a better job than that.” it was simple. Really, really simple. It was just looking at it and seeing another use for this piece of equipment that nobody was covering. There wasn’t anybody covering a proper trail bike, so I built a proper trail bike. Just by modifying that Cub and that’s all that was.

Honda never really understood the trail bike. They still don’t. And that you can tell by what they’ve done. In the first place, they didn’t realize that the seat height on the Cub had a lot to do with its appeal. The first thing they did when they designed their own, after copying mine, was to raise the seat height by about three or four inches. So, they never understood it.

They did finally understand that. Somebody told them they needed a high and low-range gearbox and they did that but they dropped it. That was the only thing that they contributed to the trail bike that really improved it, was a high/low-range gearbox.

This new one doesn’t have it. So, the new one is not a good road bike or a good trail bike. It’s neither one. What it is, is an off-road fun bike. That’s all it is. But if they’d left the high low-range gearbox in it, it would be a really good trail bike.

I made a bigger sprocket because it needed to have a lower range of gearing. I made a big sprocket that slipped on over the original and that made it a high/low-range gearing so that it could be used on the trail and that’s the way we sold them. If they wanted to use them on the road, they simply slip that sprocket off and put the chain down on the original sprocket and away you’d go. That was the main thing.

Then they had a leg shield on it and I took all that off. I took their bigger muffler off and put on a small pipe, again for clearance, and so forth. I moved the shock. The shock had to be moved at the top of the shock to give room for the sprocket to clear. I simply did that, moved the bottom of the shock out to the outside of the swing arm instead of the inside, and that gave clearance. Really, that’s all I had to do. And added the knobby tires.

They already had the trail bike. It was already in that design. They just didn’t know it.

The feedback I got from my customers was the best you can get. They were loving it and they and their friends were coming in and buying them too. Now that’s the best feedback you can get.

Special thanks to Callum Blackmore, Eric Stoothoff, and Adam Bale for helping to get the word out. Maybe someday, someone will make an even better trail bike.

Herco Engineering Boise Idaho

“It’s a modern Sportsman’s best friend all the way!”

says Idaho sportsman, “Never, never… will I go hunting without my new Trail ’50’. Recently I packed out two strapping deer from Idaho’s toughest timberland and witnessed two more hunters bringing in four more – also on Trail ’50’s (one of them was a 5-point 250 lb, trophy buck). I was able to scout ten times as much hunting area as on foot, also used my ’50’ for hauling water, dragging firewood logs, and general around-camp errands.

“This year’s hunting was the best yet… thanks mainly to a little critter called a Honda Trail ’50’!”

Herb Uhl, President
Herco Engineering Co.
Boise, Idaho

Mr. Uhl’s enthusiasm is typical of the many hundreds of outdoorsmen who have purchased and hunted with a Honda Trail “50”.

Trail “50”s are sold in America by the American Honda MotorCo., Inc.

Bill Uhl, Evel Knievel and Mike Uhl prior to the Snake River jump in Twin Falls, Idaho

Evel Knievel Snake River Jump September 8, 1974

First ATVs Honda Trail 50 Honda 55 Trailmaster

Even by the time the trail 50 transition to the new trail 55, Honda still didn’t understand who the customers were for this ATV. This is a copy of the brochures we developed and had printed to give our customers an idea of the trail and ranch model’s overall usefulness.

Herb Uhl

By 1962 Honda’s literature started to catch up, but they still didn’t understand how useful these machines are on the farm and ranch.

1st honda imported to usa

215 honda

deer hunting with honda

Father & son competing at the same time 1969 six-days 1

Motorcycle Suspension Revolution… It’s time

By Herb Uhl

Right now in 2015 there are basically two kinds of motorcycles:

1) Those most people can ride and stop with both feet flat on the ground.

2) Those that sit so tall most people can’t touch the ground unless they slide most of the way off the seat and touch one toe to the ground.

The reason for such a ridiculous situation is that the design of motorcycle suspension took a wrong turn. Every time some designer tries to correct the mistake it looks enough different that it bothers someone’s sense of what a motorcycle should look like.

Let’s face it – the almost universal telescopic fork just plain looks cool. The drawback is that a telescopic fork requires way to much travel to get the compliance needed to keep a motorcycle stable over rough and uneven terrain. Of course on a cruiser or some other bike built for use on smooth highways, where you can get by with 3 to 5 inches of travel, the telescopic fork is no big problem, it’s only a safety and comfort issue.

No real adventure bike has been built for the short statured people

Right now there isn’t even one adventure bike, real enduro bike or motocross bike a person 4’6” to 5’6” tall can touch the ground flat footed on. These people have an inseam length that averages about 26″ to 29″, effectively eliminating them as customers for today’s all purpose motorcycles. That equals roughly 60% of the world’s population who can’t really enjoy a good trail or off highway motorcycle ride. Besides spoiling the fun for a heck of a lot of potential enthusiasts, that business model really sucks. The current premium rough country motorcycles are not available to 60% of the potential customers!

It’s as if the motorcycle manufacturers don’t believe a person of short stature could even want a premium quality off highway motorcycle. The motorcycle experts who write for the bike magazines often wonder in their articles why so many cruiser bikes are sold rather than higher quality sport or adventure bike models at about the same price point. We must remember that most of those experts are over 6 ft. tall and besides that, they are “enthusiasts” who would climb a ladder to get on a bike if necessary just to get another ride. They just don’t get it that most people will not buy if they can’t comfortably touch the ground.

So what can be done about it?

Dan Gurney figured out how to do it with the current suspension technology by putting the seat down between the engine and the rear wheel. I’ve also experimented along those lines but it’s not the real answer because you end up with a long wheelbase – that can be unwieldy in the rough.

What is the situation?

To cure the problem we need to go back to where motorcycle suspension designers took a wrong turn. To that end we can redevelop suspension we bypassed at the time because we lacked the proper materials and technology to perfect them.

What we need to do

The most viable among them all is the leading swing arm front fork. The first multi-cylinder motorcycle was designed and built in 1895 by Felix Millet and it had swing-arm suspension front and rear. A design so far ahead of its time that even swing-arm rear suspension didn’t become universal till over 50 years later.

Swing arm front suspensions are still not in general use even though they’ve been used in one form or another by most of the manufacturers. The largest selling motor vehicle ever made, the Honda Cub, used both a leading swing arm front suspension and a trailing swing arm rear suspension similar to Millet’s bike (Over 50 million Honda Cubs sold by 2006).

The absolute best handling highway motorcycle I ever owned was a 1929 Indian model 101 Scout. It had a form of trailing arm front suspension. Even then Indian understood that for superb handling you need to have a low center of gravity and be able to put your feet flat on ground. I recently sat on a 2015 Indian Scout and they still understand it. Prior to my Scout I’d had a 1929 Harley model J.D. it was so tall I couldn’t start the engine or stop for a red light unless I was next to a tall curb. They later figured it out and their success is largely because of their sensible seat height leading to the formation of the huge Harley family. In the early days H.D. used a form of leading arm front suspension. Even today many rides still prefer that springer front fork.

Your suspension will take you over larger obstacles

Greeves 250 trail cut out fork motorcycle — Greeves

Over the years I’ve used a lot of different leading arm front suspensions on my off-highway competition bikes because I could hit bigger obstacles without crashing even though they only averaged about seven inches of travel. To get that same level of off road safety and comfort it seems to take twelve to fourteen inches of travel with a telescopic fork. The leading arm forks I’ve used have been from B.M.W., Maico, Greeves, Dot, Sachs and Honda. I imported a couple of RC-70 Honda off road bikes from Honda Japan in early 1959 and they had excellent leading arm forks. The Greeves, Sachs and Honda were the best because the weight of the suspension components was more centered. If the weight hangs out too much in front or behind the uprights it has sort of a pendulum effect as you steer requiring more effort to maintain your chosen line of travel.

Back when I was racing cross-country events I rode a 305cc Honda Super Hawk fitted with a Greeves Fork. In a major Northwest U.S. 100 mile desert race with approximately 200 riders I finished 2nd overall regardless of engine size getting a 1st in the 500cc class and only 3 min behind the winning open class rider. The superior safety and comfort of the Greeves leading arm fork had a lot more to do with that class win than my skill level.

I let a customer try my bike out on the highway in front of the store one day and he came back with the front wheel rim bent in so far we could see the inner tube showing on each side of the tire. Some construction guy had lost a piece of square cut 4×4 lumber off his truck. The rider had hit it at 60 to 70 miles per hour and not only didn’t crash but was really surprised when he saw the wheel rim. He said the bump didn’t feel that bad.

What’s the best leading arm fork?

Probably the best of the leading arm forks I’ve ridden so far is the one built by Sachs and used on their 6 day enduro competition bikes from about 1964 through 1974. In September 1969 my son Bill and I got a Sachs factory ride to compete in the 44th running of the International Six Day Enduro. It was held that year in the Bavarian Alps at the site of the 1936 winter Olympics. We were the first father and son team to ever compete in the event. 1969 was the year I’d turned 40 and Bill was 19. Bill got 1 of only 2 American gold medals that year and I got a silver medal because I was 12 minutes too slow to get a gold over the 6 days. On day three a car backed out in front of Bill and bent his front fork. With a telescopic fork he’d have been out of the race instead of finishing with a gold medal. That superior front suspension also helped secure me a much better finishing position than most older riders manage.

Sacks leading arm fork 125cc motocross motorcycle — Sachs

The Sachs leading arm front fork was constructed out of heavy mild steel tubing with ordinary coil over shock spring units to control the bumps. If that simple design were built from titanium tubing for strength and light weight and modern computer controlled shocks that adjust themselves many times per second there should be way more plushness, control and safety out of that seven inches of travel than they get out of the best 12 to 14 inch travel telescopic forks. Then all of us could touch the ground when we get in a tight spot or want to stop the bike.

Of course top quality materials cost more. With the current level of suspension technology it doesn’t matter how much you spend you can’t buy a plush suspension and a low seat height for off highway use.

The manufacturers seem to forget that the 6’2” guy that just bought their latest premium adventure bike probably has a 5’2” wife who has the exact same credit rating and would probably buy also if there was a premium quality small adventure bike built to fit her.

Pricing? There’s no reason a small person’s premium bike should sell for less than a large persons (size versus pricing has never been a problem for fine watches).

No one has ever built a quality small persons bike. So far if a bike is built to fit a small person almost every part of it is sub-standard. As if small persons don’t appreciate quality!

The Gear Spread

The next thing we need to address is how much engine do we need to haul that short person down the freeway at a 70 to 80 MPH cruising speed. They will probably average somewhere between 100 to 180 lbs. and being smaller there will be less wind drag. A modern 350cc to 450cc should easily do the job, if we have at least a 3.5 spread in a six-speed gearbox. To do the job properly we also need a high or low range lever so we can have a lower 6 speeds to crawl around in the forests and deserts and move the lever back for a high speed cruise when we come to a highway just like in a jeep so you can go most anywhere in the world with ease. The technology has already been worked out and used on several models. It simply needs to be scaled up.

Properly done with quality materials the machine we’re talking about should weigh in at 250 to 280 lbs. fully equipped and fueled ready to ride most any place for almost any adventure. A bike like this should get 70 to 80 M.P.G. economy on the highway. Good mileage, not because of fuel expense, but because it can be a long way between fuel stops in out of the way places.

Now the question is who’s going to build it?

They will be tapping into a whole new motorcycle market that’s never even been touched. For whoever does it it’ll be almost like when Honda came to America. They found a whole new market here that was several times bigger than the entrenched manufacturers knew from experience was the maximum.
Will it be Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, KTM, BMW or will it be a new player we’ve never even heard of before.

One thing for sure the demand has been there for over 50 years and no one has satisfied it. If done properly who ever builds it will be the new big dog on the block.

Remember approximately 60% of the population has never even had the chance to purchase a premium quality motorcycle that fits them.