A Conversation with Bill Casey of TPC Trikes

TPC Trikes is a company with a mission to offer custom-built products based on ideas from the past but created using the designs of today and visions of the future. Its founder, William Casey, is a throwback to ATV racing in the mid to late 1980’s. A time when he was just about to launch what he had hoped to be a promising career on the professional ATV racing circuit. At that time racing ATVs meant racing 3-wheelers. Unfortunately, the CPSC and the “Consent Decree,” which was signed by all of the major 3-wheeled ATV manufacturers, ended Casey’s dream before it even had a chance to take off. His interest in quads was, and still is, non existent. His passion for the sport and for riding 3-wheelers has never dwindled, however.

That’s why, in 2006, he, along with two others, formed TPC Trikes LLC and began, in part, to pursue his dream again. Casey had noted that, with the advent of the internet, there were pockets of 3-wheeler enthusiasts scattered about several websites on the ‘net. These websites were also attracting members from all over the globe. By this time, of course, the only machines available for these old-school traditionalists were 20+ years old and finding them (and their replacement parts) was becoming more and more difficult. And, Casey notes, many of those machines were cobbled together in a manner that, more times than not, turned a blind eye towards any concerns for safety and reliability. He has (reluctantly) admitted that “I’m getting older and my riding days are soon to be limited.” He says that now he would like to “sit back and build THE sickest 3-wheeler for others to ride and enjoy.” Therefore, he set out to create an all-new 3-wheeled ATV custom built mostly from current OEM parts and existing machines. And that’s EXACTLY what he did….

So Suzuki’s invention of the fourth wheel didn’t impress you much?
No, not at all. Growing up on 3-wheelers I never saw the need for a fourth wheel. To me it just seems like the front end is always in a fight with itself, especially in the woods and over rough terrain. Since you only have one front wheel with a trike, that’s 50% less stuff you’re going to hit. Also, the front of a 3-wheeler is much lighter so you can float it across many obstacles. Sure, in some cornering situations the 4-wheeler can be more stable and/or faster, but for every situation where a 4-wheeler has the advantage I can find just as many situations where a 3-wheeler has the advantage. One sure thing about a 4-wheeler, however, is that they are “lazier” to ride. By that I mean that, compared to a 3-wheeler, you can get away with a lot more “sloppy” riding on a quad and you tend to ride with less body movement. Personally, I won’t even ride quads anymore because it actually dulls my 3-wheeler skills. I also know several quad racers who practice on 3-wheelers just to improve there quad skills.

As a former 3-wheeler rider and racer I think you’re spot on with this. So tell me more about TPC. What does it stand for? When and why did you create a quad to trike conversion business?
Well, the initials “TPC” come from the name of my first born son, Tyler. After he was born, I decided it was time to retire from racing bikes, something I had done since I was forced to quit racing 3-wheelers in ‘89. I wanted to stay in the sport and I had always worked on bikes and ATVs for local dealers and shops, as well as working part time in my own garage. When I decided to start my own business in ’98 it was an easy decision; I simply named it after Tyler . It was around ‘02 that I decided to focus exclusively on 3-wheelers since that was my main interest and no one else out there was really doing anything with trikes. At this point I was still only working on vintage trikes, and doing it on a part-time basis. In 2006 I purchased a brand-new TRX 450R with the intent to build an entirely new modernized trike, and on Jan 6th, 2006 I posted my intentions on the internet for the first time. In 2007, after seeing the TPC 450 under construction, several of my friends decided that we should see how far we could take it so we gambled our pooled resources on the future of TPC Trikes. In late 2008 we went public with our plans to produce a conversion kit. In 2009 we started showing up at 3-wheeler rides and MX races to put the trike through a public torture test to prove its worth. On Jan 6th 2010, after four years of development and testing we started offering the TPC 450 and we have been on a wild ride ever since, traveling across the country several times and winning an impressive 50% of the races the TPC has entered, including winning the 2011 CRA Open Class Championship!

Were you the first to create such a machine?
Yes and no. Since the beginning of trikes, people have been making conversions. Bob “Ace” Williams, Sam Coe (brother of team Honda rider Mike Coe), Nick Nicholson, and Kelvin Franks were just some of the more famous trike builders/pioneers back in the day. But all these guys converted motorcycles since quads had not yet been invented. As far as quad to trike conversion, it is hard to say who did it first. There is always someone tinkering somewhere that we may not even know about. I know one guy cut a banshee and put an old TRI-Z 250 front end on it, but it was more for show than go. I know another guy stuffed a CRF 450 engine in a 350X frame. What I can say is that we were the first to take a modern quad (TRX 450R) and a modern bike (CRF 450R) and build a completely brand new trike from just those two models with no vintage parts and then offer a kit or complete trike from that combination.

What was your first ATV?
The first one I actually owned myself was a 1982 ATC 110 that I bought brand new. I worked odd jobs and saved up about $600 and my Dad paid off the balance as an early Christmas present. A few years before that my cousin, who was more like a brother, bought a 1979 110 and took me riding on the weekends and in the summer.

You being the 3-wheeler enthusiasts that you are, I bet you have a few machines in your garage worth noting.
Not really, I am not a collector. If I can’t ride it and ride it hard then I have little use for it. That’s the main reason I built the TPC. After I retired from motorcycle motocross racing I decided to do full restores on my 8
6 Mugen/HRC ATC 250R and my 85 ATC 350X. I was also in the middle of building a custom 450X made form a combination of 350X 250R and TRX 250R as well as some rare NOS Mugen parts. As I was nearing completion I sat one day and looked at them all, thought about all the money I had tied up and came to the realization that I would never ride them the way I wanted and what they were built to do for fear of damaging them. So, I bit the bullet and sold them off to finance the TPC 450. I haven’t looked back since. The only Vintage ATCs I have are my ‘82 110, mainly because it was my first, and an ATC 250SX that I use for yard work, track maintenance (and my son likes to ride it!) Other than that, all I have are my ‘06 and ‘07 TPC 450’s and an XR 650R.

We share a passion for the early days of ATV racing. Who was your favorite 3-wheeler racer?
Well, I respect all the pioneers and racers in the sport but Dean Sundahl was probably the first “big name” guy I heard about, so he kinda sticks out. One thing I really respect about all the old school racers was their versatility when it came to riding and racing. They didn’t just excel at one type they did it all. Dean (Sundahl) Mark ‘Wax’ (Weixeldorfer) Mike (Coe) Marty (Hart) Steve (Wright) and the majority of Team Honda could and did win in Baja, MX, TT, SX, you name it they did it. Today’s riders are more specialist and concentrate on one form of ATV racing. This is something the OTC wants to bring back and in 2012 there is talk of a 3-wheeler series that will include hare scrambles, MX, TT, and some other events. It should be very exciting.

Wow this sounds very cool. As a guy that raced the Blackwater on a 200X it’s nice to learn that motocross isn’t all that’s going to be offered to today’s trike guys. Tell me more about OTC.
It is an Ohio-based group that focuses on a safe, fun, family environment for all to enjoy. Tim Stefenko is the driving force of the group and has worked very hard over the last 10-12 years to break down the stereotype image of 3-wheelers. Without him and the members who have helped it grow none of this would be possible. Sometimes his actions might not be popular with some people but he has the best interest of the sport in mind and has a proven track record that no one can match. It has since grown much larger than the Ohio area with riders coming from all over the northeast and Canada. The Ohio regulars have welcomed us all with open arms and sometimes, even opened up there homes to far away racers. It really is a great group of racers and families. There is a forum that provides information to trike riders. People can announce places to ride, races, and events that permit and welcome 3 wheelers. Check it out  here

Have any of the old racing legends checked out the TPC450R? What did they have to say about it?
Yes, quite a few actually; Micky Dunlap, Mike Coe, Tommy Gaian, Allen Fox, Carmen Cafro.

Micky Dunlap was the first I spoke with and he said it looked nicer than any of the factory trikes he ever raced. I was pleasantly shocked when he said that. Micky had quite an extensive career and rode for Team Powroll, Team Honda and Tiger. He was a development rider for all of them as well, and played a part in the prototype 350X and the later model Tigers. So for him to say that was way cool!

Mike Coe called me one night when I was watching TV and at first I thought it was a friend playing a joke. I had emailed him and sent him a link to my website. Funny thing is, when he found out about it and called, he thought Curtis Sparks was playing a joke on him. Anyway, Mike and I talked a few times about riding it and eventually he came out to the 2011 Imperial Invasion 3-wheeler ride in March. It worked out really well as a friend of mine in San Diego (Mike Dunn) grew up with Tommy Gaian and they are still good friends to this day. Anyway, Tommy is also good friends with Mike Coe’s brother Sam and, between Mike Dunn talking to Tommy and me talking to Mike Coe, the three of them got together and drove the three hours to Imperial Dunes. Tommy and Mike brought a bunch of stuff from the ‘80’s, including old videos of races and commercials and shared them with everybody. What was really cool, and unexpected, was meeting Sam Coe. While Tommy and Mike went around signing autographs, Sam and I talked about ATCs he built back in the day for Team Honda, and we also talked about the TPC. Afterwords I asked Mike if he wanted to take it for a spin and I could tell right away he had been waiting for that. To my surprise he went over to his car, got his helmet, goggles and gloves and took my personal TPC for a ride, and I have to say I was impressed! I expected him to take a few runs back and forth and leave it at that. But no, once a racer always a racer! He didn’t hold back at all and had it ripping through the dunes and the whoops almost immediately. Other than my personal suspension setting being too stiff for him, he liked it a lot and asked a lot of questions about how to get one of his own. In fact, I still have to get back to him about that.

Carmen Cafro also came out to the Imperial Invasion in Glamis to meet up with us. I had been talking to him for some time about possibly running a TPC in the Baja 1000. So we decided to meet up at Invasion, and after Invasion head down to Mexico and pre run a portion of the San Felipe 250 course. That was the best ride experience that I have ever had…on 2,3, or 4 wheels – bar none! You can read more about his impression of the TPC here. Ultimately SCORE won’t allow trikes, but NORRA, who puts on the Mexican 1000 will. In fact they changed their rules this year to allow modern trikes (previously only pre 1990 trikes could compete). So Carmen and I are putting together a team to run in the Mexican 1000.

Before Carmen and I went to Mexico, we stopped by Allen Fox’s place so we could mount a GPR stabilizer and Allen took it for a spin. He was impressed with it as well. [Laughing] I think he wanted to go with us. I know he has stated he wants to be part of the Baja team as well. I also know Lance Schoonmaker has expressed interest.

 You’re catering to quite a specific market within the ATV industry, which is struggling in these challenging times. So how have you managed to keep people interested in spending hard to come by cash on a TPC conversion?
Well, we are lucky in that we cater to those who have been starving for a new trike for over 20 years. We are also the only real option as far as a professional business, so it comes down to the fact that demand is actually higher than supply. I have been booked up since we initially made them available and there is currently a waiting list. Additionally, with the bad economy quads are selling cheap so that makes it easier to come up with the donor quad. I just purchased a 2007 TRX for a customer build and I only paid $2,200 for it. It had a lot of new parts as well as aftermarket front end parts that I can turn around and sell. That, in turn, makes the initial investment even less. Another thing that makes the TPC appealing is while the initial investment might seem large, it pays off over time. The average cost of a vintage 250R or 350X is around $1,500 and up. But, it is usually worn out in one way or another and need lots of new parts, and that’s only if you can find them – and if you can they’re usually very expensive. Sometimes you will end up paying three times as much for used 250R/350X parts then you would for a new 450R part. By the time you’re done restoring a 250R and making it rideable and reliable you’re going to invest the same amount of money as you would on a TPC. Now, after putting all that money into a vintage bike, you are scared to ride it because you know how hard it is to find parts. With the TPC you can wreck it on Saturday then go to your local dealership on Monday get parts or order parts and be back riding the next weekend. The only thing you can’t get from your dealership is the frame, triple clamps, and front hub/axle. We have crashed them pretty hard and we have yet to damage any of those parts. I know some TPC customers have since parked their vintage trikes just so they can preserve them.

What would you say your machines are mostly being used for, racing, rec riding or are people buying them because they’re simply a unique novelty to have sitting in their garage?
All of the above. I think it’s pretty even across the board. For legal reasons our products are labeled “FOR COMPETITION USE ONLY”. But, in reality, they get used in many ways in many areas. We have TPCs as far away as Australia , up north in Canada, as well as all over the USA. I have one customer in Virginia with several hundred acres and he likes to ride with his son who rides quads. He grew up on 3-wheelers and even raced them in the ‘80’s. For him, it is nice he can ride his preference (3-wheeler) without having to worry about a vintage machine breaking down. They recently went to a riding spot with a drag strip and he raced his TPC against the quads, and was beating them. I have another customer in New Hampshire who bought one as more of a showpiece. He rides it every now and then but not too often. Then we have Fred Morrell, 2011 CRA open class champ. He bought his exclusively to race. He never rides it otherwise. He used to race in the ‘80’s and he wanted to relive the experience. Now he gets to do it with his son, Justin, who just happens to be the 2011 CRA vintage class champion. What a great father and son experience that they will cherish forever! To know that I had something to do with that, well, I can’t explain how awesome that feels. I never really had a good relationship with my father so it was very special for me to be a part of that.

Riders that got their start on three wheels are getting older and may no longer be interested in riding (or purchasing a new TPC 3-wheeler). Do you see a limited window of sales?
Our customers’ ages range from young 20’s to late 40’s. While most people are more into the quads, many just prefer the 3-wheeler experience. The numbers may be down, but I don’t think trike riders will ever go away completely. We are there for those die hards.

You’ve said there are two types of 3-wheeler riders now days. Those that have ridden them since the “pre-ban” and those of the next generation. What have you noticed as the main difference between the two groups?
[Laughing] Yeah I guess the biggest difference is that a lot of, but not all, newer riders don’t really know what a trike is capable of. They grew up with the stigma that trikes are not as good as quads, so they tend to not give them, or three wheeled riders credit. This is mostly observed on the internet forums. I know when I first joined them I posted some rather mild pics and was told by many that they were fake and photoshopped, because there was no way that anyone could do that on a trike. It’s not as bad nowadays as it was in the early 2000’s, but I still get some young rider or some backyard builder telling me that I don’t know what I am talking about or, better yet, “You don’t ride them like we do”. I had one guy who customizes vintage trikes and converts bikes tell me that his riders are hard on their equipment in ways that “I had never seen.” I really had to laugh at this – and then I reminded him that not only have I, but my riders have been beating his riders for the past three years and not one TPC has broken nor mechanically DNF’d a race.

Last year we ran a feature on a competitor of yours, Tionesta Trikes. We probably should have featured TPC first, since you have pioneered the quad to 3-wheel conversion, sorry on that Bill. Is there anything that you want to clear up from that feature?
First off, I like Tim. He is a good guy and I would really like to see them succeed. The more of us out there, the better it is for the sport. But, sometimes he fails to give credit where credit is due. When the TPC came out Tim actually contacted us about building him one. He said we were too expensive and that he would try it on his own. Since then he has come to us for help many times, and even changed their second version to look more like ours. The whole time he said he was not going to offer kits
. Reading that article was kind of irritating when a lot of what he said was just repeating what I tell my customers. I swear his whole marketing speech was just repeating what I have said for years. He also failed to give credit to the people behind the race scene who put the races together. Truth is, Tionesta plays a very small role in the racing circuit and even bailed on the CRA series midway through the season. The really sad part was when Tim mentioned Mike and Tommy checking out their trike. What he did not say was, when he saw Mike and Tom at our pits he rushed over to get his bike in the lineup of TPC’s and get his picture taken as well as his trike. Then, to see that a pic of our trikes was used in his article, well that’s not cool at all. Would Honda wheel over one of their machines and put along side a bunch of Kawsakis and use it for an article on Honda? I’m glad he got some recognition for his efforts, I just wish he didn’t ride our coattails to get it.

Promoters running under AMA sanctioning are not allowed to race 3-wheelers. Do you think that will ever change?
No, the AMA is dead set against 3 wheelers. Myself and many others have spoken with them several times and it never goes anywhere. They finally admitted that they sold out the 3-wheeler in order to save the quad. Now they use the excuse that their insurance won’t allow it, but that is just an excuse. They are the AMA, they “protect our right to ride” right? Non-AMA tracks have no problems with insurance but we are supposed to believe that the AMA, the biggest Motorcycle and ATV organization can’t get insurance? Who are they kidding?

Editor’s Note: Shortly after this interview was conducted Casey informed us about a recent OTC announcement that 3 wheelers will be making a historic return to racing in Ashtabula OH at Pine Lake on July 20–22 at the AMA Extreme Dirt Track National ATV Racing Series. This is a big step forward for 3-wheeler racing and he would like to give a big thanks to Tim Stefenko for all his hard work over the years to make this happen, to promoter Bud Fischer for all of his efforts to bring back trikes to legendary Pine Lake and to the AMA for giving 3 wheelers a second lease on life in the ATV racing world.

Where are TPC riders racing their new conversions?
Right now the biggest 3-wheeler race scene is in Ohio. Thanks to the efforts of guys like Tim Stefenko, Brian Chilenski and Mark Daizel. These guys are the core of OTC and were racing their trikes in the quad classes at some of the outlaw tracks like Smith Road Raceway and the county fair races years before a 3-wheeler class was re-established. From there it grew over the years to where we are now with the CRA giving us our own sanctioned series. From the success of these races it has spread to western NY, where we race at AIR MX several times a year and also in Earlywine’s in Kentucky, although TPC has yet to compete there. I have a customer in California who also races in a 3-wheeler class at flat track events. I also recently met with Howard Payne, the head of NEATV, and he has invited us to race is his series. Hopefully we can get something together for 2012. Even if it is just an exhibition class at a couple of events, just to get it rolling.

Fred Morrell’s CRA Championship-Winning TPC

I like to say Ohio is the heart of ATV racing. Kudos to the CRA (Competition Riders of America) for giving trike riders a legit place to race. Anyway, how does someone go about purchasing a TPC450R from you?
Well there are three ways one can go about it: We offer a basic conversion kit that includes all of our parts and from there the do-it-yourself builder can assemble the trike using readily available TRX and CRF 450 parts. Another option is to drop off your donor quad and we will do the conversion based on your desired set up. The final option is having us build the whole thing from scratch – a true “turn-key” build. With the latter two I will always talk to the customer and establish a budget based upon where and how they ride and then I will build the trike to their needs within the established budget.

Final words?
Well, first off I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity. I would also like to thank all those who have helped us along the way; Chris McNeal, Jeff Twoey, Kimmie Read, Chip Woods, Bob Wiess, Jeff Rudler, Eric Jensen, Fred Morrell, Mark Novak, Ted Krans, and Carmen Cafro. Plus all of our sponsors; Sidewinder Sprockets, PRM-ATV, Binghamton Honda, SixSixOne, Tag, Sunline, FTR Powersports, Lonestar Racing, Maier, One Industries, IMS, Elka Suspension, Roll Design, Boyesen, Pit Posse, Outlaw racing, the CRA and the OTC and, especially, all of our customers, and those who keep the 3-wheeler spirit alive!

In closing, I would like to say that if anyone is in the market for a 450 trike please remember this; just because it might look like a TPC doesn’t necessarily mean it IS a TPC – it might just be a copy. At TPC you get something that none of our competitors can offer – we have over 30 years of 3-wheeler experience…and yes, we were THE original. Our trikes have been tested and proven in MX, Freestyle, dunes, and the deserts of Baja by some of the best trike riders on the planet. We have more wins than all other conversions combined. None of our competitors can even come close to matching the amount of passion, dedication, time, and effort that we have put into our products. We are the only ones to use and manufacture all new technology and offer a complete kit with many aftermarket options. We feel that both our products and their success both on and off the track speak for themselves

www.tpctrikes.com

 

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