Long Live 3Wheeling Magazine

[oldfart]

Hello, for those of you that are old enough, you might remember a publication entitled 3Wheeling Magazine, published by Wright Publishing Co, of Costa Mesa, CA. This magazine started in March 1980 with its first issue devoted to the ATC/3-wheeler market. At the time, I was the Associate Publisher/Advertising Director and co-creater of this idea (with Tom Chambers). We actually started covering the ATC market in issues of Hot VWs Magazine, back as far as 1976. We even covered ATC90 flat-track racing in the San Diego area during the late '70s.

My first "ATV" was a 1975 Honda US90, with steel front fender, and folding fork assembly. My last ATV was an ATC350X.

Up to about 1988, I can safely say that I rode nearly every production ATV that was produced up to that time, and many prototypes that never were built for production. I rode the Honda ATC200R, Honda ATC450R and many other "secret" projects. The 1987 ATC250R with white plastic? Yup, that one too.

Since the last issue of 3Wheeling/ATV Sports was published, I have not been on an ATV.... After spending the majority of my time riding, testing, building and loving 3- and 4-wheelers (nearly ten solid years), and seeing the ATV industry turn upside down by some legal morons, I could no longer enjoy my sport.

I got rid of all of my spare parts, riding apparel, ATVs and so on, in the late '80s. The only treasure I still hold on to, is my collection of factory rider helmets. This includes helmets worn by Dean Sundahl, Stevie Wright, Tracey Dickson, Mike Hallet, Mark Wiexeldorfer, Jimmy White and Mike Coe. I only wish I had one from Bob "Ace" Williams...

That is for now. I just thought some of you might like to hear from someone that was there in the beginning... before the CPSC, and lawsuit city. Sincerely, Dean Kirsten

[Rod]

Welcome to the board! I can bet you will get LOTS of questions to answer if you are up to it so get ready! Again, welcome to the best 3 wheel site on the net.

[J.D.]

Cool, sounds like you had one hell of a time doing all this stuff huh? Lucky guy!!!

[MIK6]

WELCOME TO THE SITE!!!!
This site has a membership of almost 3000 members. From the young, just getting into ATVs , to the older members that remember the day when you could just go buy a NEW trike. It has people restoring, collecting, and customizing trikes. We also hold "TRIKEFEST" in Indiana atleast once a year w/ site members attending from all over the world. Have a blast here, I hope you stay around. I am looking forward to your stories and input.

HAVE FUN
MIK6 / Mike

[ScottZJ]

WOW! Glad to meet ya. I am slowly trying to get my collection back in order. I just read an article and remember those days like it was yesterday............peace

[3WheelsForever]

Welcome to the board. Im also hoping you stick around. So there was an 87 250? Do you have any 3 wheeling magazines that youd be willing to get rid of?

[Curtis-Tecate3]

Dean (AKA-Oldfart), Welcome to the site. It is nice to see someone visit from the origin of our sport and especially from the cherished 3Wheeling magazine. There are quite a few guys on here that remember your name like I do as this board has members from every age bracket. I hope that you will visit and post here often as I am sure that many people on this board will have lots of questions that only an ex-insider will have answers for. By the way I was a subscriber to your magazine from the days when it was a quarterly publication all the way until the end with ATV Sports. Yes I still have every issue as well.

Well instead of bombarding you with questions right away I would just like to extend a warm WELCOME and hope you visit us again soon.

Curtis aka tecate3@aol.com

[sportvette]

Welcome to the site! Glad to have you here.

So what is the scoop on the 87 atc250r?

thanks,
mark

[Trikeaholic]

Welcome aboard! I remember those days as well. I hope you will stick around and possibly get back into the hobby. It would help "legitimize" the 3 wheeler as a "real" ATV, a fact that seems to have been forgotten. I personally dont own a quad, and have no desire to.....EVER. I will keep my trikes running and in mint condition as long as i am on this earth. :-D

[Kevin in Ohio]

Some of the scoop on the '87 250R was that it was only available for sale out of the United States. I actually saw one in person at Haspin Acres in '87. As Dean said, all white and looked similar to the '86 350x. If he doesn't reply I'll dig out my old issues and see if there were any changes done to the bike. Kevin

[250rAL]

Cool! Nice to hear from you Dean. I was a subscriber from '85 til the end then had to switch to Dirtwheels. I much prefered 3Wheeling/ATV Sports though. It was months before I found out what happened to the magazine; no internet back then you know. Maybe you could fill us in on what happened to the other staff members and what they're doing now.

[Howdy]

Welcome aboard!! We all hope you enjoy the site ( and visit a bunch too ).
I am sure you will get a ton of questions. lol

This should bring back some memories:


Larger version:

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/MagScans/C3Wheeling1980m01SpringPage01Cover.jpg

Howdy

[Jeb]

Great Post Dean! We've been waiting a long time for an editor or pro racer from back in the day to post here and acknowledge our existence on the web!

I, like many of my fellow posters here, have a couple issues of 3 Wheeling and ATV Sports left over from the 80's. I've been 3-wheeling myself since 1982 when I got my new ATC70 for Christmas (and I still have it!). I've ridden dirt bikes and 4wheelers and would have never guessed I'd still be on 3 wheels in the 21st century!

Welcome aboard! Hope you stick around.

[Yamahammer490]

Welcome to the board and thanks for bring back a few memories. I purchased my first 3 wheeler in 1982 and read most of your mags.

Those early days were so cool. There was so much innovation. Now all we get are quads with bold new graphics...

There are a lot of great guys here keeping trikes alive. Please jump in often.

[ATC crazy]

Hey! :-P Welcome to the board Dean. I hope you stay around a while and check in often (dont forget chat too )

You wouldnt happen to have any pictures of the prototype ATC's left over would ya? I'm sure we would all love to see them. Any info would be great.

Thanks for checking out 3ww :-D