Honda stopped production of the 250R because of the costly payouts from lawsuits, which were being awarded by the court system who would not put fault on the responsible parties for injurying and killing themselves. There was absolutely no Govt. ban on them. How could Suzuki make a 250R up until 1992 then? I did extensive research on this, mainly because I started riding in 1984 and owned 250R's throughout the late 80's up until a few months ago and was curious about the same thing.
Most of the lawsuits that I researched showed irresponsible owners who would ride recklessly, let their kids or friends ride it recklessly, usually without a helmet (of course), and someone would end up getting killed or seriously injured. Guess who the injured party or thier family would blame? The deep pockets of Honda and other ATV manufactuers. Because the ATV had 4 wheels and looked "deceivingly harmless", it was the manufactuers fault for the roll overs and riders not being aware of how to ride it properly, and courts were awarding substantial amounts of money to victims and their families, who took no responsibility for what happened. The courts would not always rule that it was 100% the manufactuers fault, but would say that, for example, Honda was 50% responsible for what happened when someone was killed, which would still net huge amounts of money to the winner. Enough was enough, and Honda decided not to produce the 250R anymore. Kawasaki followed, and Suzuki stuck it out until 1992, and decided to pull production. I think Suzuki pulled production because sales were not that great, and practically no one raced the Suzuki on the Grand Naitonal circuit because the Honda was so much better. On top of that, during that time Import taxes skyrocketed, and the prices of the LT250R's were getting ridiculous for that time period, sending them out of production.
One of the lawsuits I remember pulling up in nexxus/lexxus regarding the Honda 250R involved a 15yr old kid riding a 250R into an intersection and getting killed by a car heading from the side. The court decided in the favor of the parents of the dead child, even though THEY were the ones who were neglegent to trust thier kid, who obviously didn't know how to ride, with a race type ATV.
I think its just as ridiculous as smokers sueing tabacco companies or fat people sueing McDonalds, but it happens, and it destroyed the ATV world at that time.
Thank god we're back into time of having newly developed, progressing technology, race bred ATV's!! Those of us who raced quads and lived performance ATV's in the 90's and early 2000's thought we'd never see the day!!
Most of the lawsuits that I researched showed irresponsible owners who would ride recklessly, let their kids or friends ride it recklessly, usually without a helmet (of course), and someone would end up getting killed or seriously injured. Guess who the injured party or thier family would blame? The deep pockets of Honda and other ATV manufactuers. Because the ATV had 4 wheels and looked "deceivingly harmless", it was the manufactuers fault for the roll overs and riders not being aware of how to ride it properly, and courts were awarding substantial amounts of money to victims and their families, who took no responsibility for what happened. The courts would not always rule that it was 100% the manufactuers fault, but would say that, for example, Honda was 50% responsible for what happened when someone was killed, which would still net huge amounts of money to the winner. Enough was enough, and Honda decided not to produce the 250R anymore. Kawasaki followed, and Suzuki stuck it out until 1992, and decided to pull production. I think Suzuki pulled production because sales were not that great, and practically no one raced the Suzuki on the Grand Naitonal circuit because the Honda was so much better. On top of that, during that time Import taxes skyrocketed, and the prices of the LT250R's were getting ridiculous for that time period, sending them out of production.
One of the lawsuits I remember pulling up in nexxus/lexxus regarding the Honda 250R involved a 15yr old kid riding a 250R into an intersection and getting killed by a car heading from the side. The court decided in the favor of the parents of the dead child, even though THEY were the ones who were neglegent to trust thier kid, who obviously didn't know how to ride, with a race type ATV.
I think its just as ridiculous as smokers sueing tabacco companies or fat people sueing McDonalds, but it happens, and it destroyed the ATV world at that time.
Thank god we're back into time of having newly developed, progressing technology, race bred ATV's!! Those of us who raced quads and lived performance ATV's in the 90's and early 2000's thought we'd never see the day!!
