I'll agree with some of that. They ALL made 3 wheelers at some point in time, but Honda had the most $$$$ so people went after them. 60 minutes was flawed journalism, but it did the trick. Yes atv's seem easy to ride and it's a shame that most people didn't have the common sense to see that rolling one onto yourself is like a refrigerator landing on you at 30 or so mph. They had the "common sense" to sue Honda tho(or at least their lawyers did) for their own stupidity. I live in OK, not CA, so our tree huggers are 98% deer hunters that are out hunting LOL. Killing 2 strokes for global warming? Do you really believe that? The amt of emissions from 2 strokes HAS to be a very small percentage of the total emissions. We were the easiest group to pick on. They aren't gonna go after the real culprits which have a lot of $$$$ and lobbyists. I know the facts... I was there too, but I didn't work for Honda. I was in school and then college during those same exact years. You worked for them during their greatest years. That's cool. I used to be brand loyal to Honda. Not anymore tho.
Honda ALWAYS was a 4 stroke company tho. The original Mr. Honda hated 2 strokes. Engineers there developed Honda's 1st 2 strokes on their own time,after hours. They started making them so they would be competitive again. Anyways enough history...
To the OP, sorry for mucking up YOUR thread. I hope you sell a bunch of hoods and I'd bet that yes Honda's patents did expire. Just like the one they had on how they routed the front brake line on dirtbikes. I have the 1st year YZ250 that has the the Honda style routing. That would be 2005, in case anyone cares
