Inventing Atk

INVENTING ATK

A LOOK INSIDE AMERICA’S OTHER MOTORCYCLE COMPANY

GIVEN THE HISTORY OF motorcycle manufacturers in the U.S., starting a motorcycle company is a notion that ought to be worth, at the very least, several bad cases of ulcers. After all, lots of Americans have done it. Most of them failed. Only Harley and the Davidsons have made a continuing impact.

The difficulties involved in motorcycle entrepreneurship, and the sorry histories of those who have tried and failed, seem not to have bothered any of those involved in the quirky voyage of the Good Ship ATK, however.

You remember ATK, America’s other motorcycle company? Founded in 1983 by amazingly creative engineer/enthusiast Horst Leitner, ATK quickly became known for its offbeat design. Where else, after all, would you see a rear-brake rotor mounted on the countershaft? Leitner, who now builds bicycle-suspension systems through his company AMP Industries, in Laguna Beach, California, came to attention in 1978 when he produced the drivechaintorquc eliminator that gave the company its name. Leitner says the device, in his native German, is called an antitension kettenantreib. Boiling that term down to its most essential consonants yielded the letters ATK, and they became the company’s name. Leitner produced the first ATK motorcycles in a small plant in Tustin, California. He says, “We did very good. We sold a lot of motorcycles, all on custom order.”

One of the enthusiasts who bought an ATK was Ken Wilkes, a businessman and entrepreneur who is also a motorcycle enthusiast.

Says Leitner, “He saw the potential to grow, so in 1987 we went into partnership and moved to the City of Commerce. I didn’t like it there-the commute, and all-so I sold him the rest of the company.”

That was in 1989, Wilkes recalls, though his involvement started in 1987. “1 created a business plan and invested more than $2 million to develop ATK motorcycles,” he says.

Those motorcycles saw considerable success, including four-stroke motocross championships and high overall placings in the Baja 1000.

“It worked quite well in the beginning,” Wilkes says of ATK, “but then the company needed another injection of money. In 1992, the Whites of Utah loaned ATK $100,000 to help pay bills and promised to invest at least $500,000 more. Instead, they called in the loan, and since all ATK stock plus my personal guarantee was pledged for the loan, I was forced to give ATK to the Whites.”

Frank White, who, with his father, Dale, bought the company from Wilkes, remembers things differently. They both rode ATKs, he says, and were enthusiastic about the product. “We got to know that group pretty well,” he says, “and one day when my dad was there he mentioned that Ken ought to sell the company. That’s how all this got started. That was January 1992.”

To the accompaniment of acrimony that continues to this day, the transfer of ownership of ATK was completed a year later. In March, 1992, the company was moved to a 14,000-squarefoot facility in Bountiful, Utah, with former Cycle World Senior Editor Ron Griewe shepherding development of a new line of bikes.

Frank White, who denies that he and his father ever promised any funds beyond their original investment, says of the change-of-ownership, “It was kind of like a soap-opera atmosphere, there were a lot of surprises,” not the least of which was a last-minute mutual decision to drop a clause that would have precluded Wilkes from competing against ATK. With that clause gone, Wilkes, who professes bitterness about the way the sale of ATK was approached and consummated, started the American Dirt Bike Company, which is producing an all-new machine he calls the Avenger.

Frank White says ATK America expects to have about 200 dealerships in operation by spring, and that the company will produce about 1700 machines in 1994, about 60 percent of those powered by Rotax fourstroke Singles, the remainder powered by Rotax two-strokes.

Response to the redesigned ATK has been very positive, White says, and he adds, “We can’t get them out of here fast enough” to satisfy demand. Asked if the company is going to make money, he answers, “Yeah, we are. The future looks great.”

So the voyage of America’s other motorcycle company may have had some course changes, but it continues nevertheless. -Jon F. Thompson