Dirt Wheels Highland ATV Review

[admin]

Looks like Highland will be selling a single cyclical 450 and 507 quad in the US...

It seemed like they came out of nowhere. One day we got a call from U.S. Highland and some guys from Oklahoma announced they had an American-made ATV with some very impressive performance numbers. Within a few weeks, we had one to test.
      U.S. Highland didn’t  spring into being overnight. The story begins almost 20 years ago with a Swedish company called Folan. In the years after Husqvarna motorcycles was purchased by Italians and moved out of Sweden, a handful of former engineers started on a new project. The result was a V-motor that was light and made crazy horsepower. The history after that gets so complicated that we couldn’t begin follow it. Cannondale, ATK and a new company called Highland were all involved. But the bottom line is that now the tooling for the V-twin motor as well as a single-cylinder version is in Oklahoma where they are preparing to produce a line of ATVs and motorcycles. The single-cylinder motor will be available in a variety of configurations, depending on what the customer wants. It can be a 450 with mild output or a 70-horsepower 507. It is a six-speed with EFI and a very complicated electronic brain that keeps track of every rpm that the motor turns from  the first time it’s started. It even has a G-meter that remembers how hard it landed from each jump

Read more here...

http://www.dirtwheelsmag.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=EF1E7275A01745AAA41D9793FCF25626

[jesshamner]

Love it! Might it be possible for a heart transplant for a Cannondale owner? 

[admin]

whoa, is that a Cannondale ATV frame? Sure looks like it. Is there a dale / Highland tie? Did they buy the Cannondale ATV rights?

I used to own a Cannondale e440 so this is pretty exciting.

Saw your Highland pics on the Quadzone forum. Can you post them here? Or I can just snag them if that is cool.
http://www.quadzoneforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36927&page=7

[jesshamner]

They weren't my pics but I don't think Popo would mind.  He usually watermarks his pics so if they're not, then he probably doesn't care. 

Yes it is a complete Cannondale chassis.  The only difference is the powerplant and the modified framerail.

If you go to www.cannondaleriders.com and search "Indy Dealer Show" you can see a lot of information. 
Yes there is a tie but not Highland to Cannondale.  It is Highland to ATK.  The investors from Highland were looking into ATK's line of American quads.  They wanted to come in and take over.  Frank White of ATK is an "all promises and no results" type of guy.  He didn't follow through.  These investors apparently worked out a deal with ATK on frames and suspension parts I guess. 

Now to fill you in on how ATK ended up the Cannondale stuff.  They bought all of the leftover quads and parts from Cannondale in the liquidation.  The intellectual rights were sold to a Taiwan company called Dinli.  ATK was basically building quads out of the parts that they had.  They would sell us parts and would use some to build quads that customers ordered. 

[admin]

ATK is working a deal with Hyosung right now to rebadge the Quad I think....
http://www.othermakes.net/2009/11/12/harley-davidson-dealers-to-sell-atk-branded-hyosungs/

Wonder if that will fall through.

Also, I think Highland got ATK's Race Engineer, Richard Harrison. Know anything about that?

I knew Dinli bought the Cannondale rights to the ATV at bankruptcy but was wondering how ATK got their hands on it. Does Dinli still own the Intellectual property?

[jesshamner]

Not sure what was going on with this site but I wasn't able to post again until today.  I took a look at the link you posted.  That sounds like another one of these complex deals that Frank White of ATK likes to do.  I'm not sure what any of it means.  And if there is actually a new product out, I would be surprised.  ATK was supposed to symbolize american made and now they're working with S&T.  Not that they are necessarily a bad company. 

Then I took a look at the Highland category and noticed some false info about the Cannondale.  It isn't really that big of a deal but Dinli bought the intellectual rights only.  Which means designs, and make/model names, ...etc. At the same time, Frank White tried for it but was only able to secure the parts and leftover quads from the factory.  There were truckloads and truckloads of stuff hauled out of the liquidation of Cannondale motorsports straight to Utah. 

In 2007, there were some talks between investors and Frank White about the ATK company.  Some of these guys were racing the ATKannondale bike at supermotos and wanted to get something going.  At the 2008 Indy Dealer Show, they had a great display booth that was unfortunately in the center of all the exploding chinese (mostly junk) scooters, bikes, and atvs.  They had a dirt track bike, the highland motor that was empty inside, the ATKannondale supermoto bike that was being raced, an ATK with the 750cc 2 stroke Maico motor and a MX bike. I was actually at this booth for a while taking a look around while some other associates were getting the scoup. 

Not sure about Richard Harrison because I chose not to deal with ATK.  I went through some other Cannondale parts sources that are more dependable.  There are several people that are more informed than I am on the cannondaleriders.com forum.  There are Cannondale factory engineers, ex-dealership employees, 2 people with strong ties to ATK, a couple people that know the Tulsa, OK team that raced the ATKannondale supermoto, and Scooter from Optimum Control, the source of the FI system for Cannondale.  There is tons of history on the forums, from the time Cannondale started (with pictures) up to the latest reincarnation of the quad, Highland ATX??? I think that's what they're calling it.