The Empire Built In Two Weeks

ADMIN

• November 08 2005
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Aki Goto, Designer of the First Quad

Story by Cassandra Clawson

Portrait by Keith Mulligan

Everyone knows Rome wasn’t built in a day. But in 1980, one man was given two weeks to create an industry. The task at hand for Suzuki’s Aki Goto wasn’t building an empire city, but an empire on four wheels. The tight time frame was due to Suzuki’s production schedule. “The three-wheeler was ready at the time,” Goto said, “and we had to bring the four-wheeler.” He’s one of the few men who can make all those Romans look like slackers.

Goto, the product planning manager for motorcycle/marine operations at Suzuki, is a humble man. He neither seeks nor expects adulation for his four-wheeled creation-he was simply doing his job when he revolutionized our sport. In his own words, “Someone had to come up with the four-wheeler sooner or later.” The first QuadRunner LT125 hit dealership floors in 1983. Perhaps four-wheeled ATVs were inevitable, but Goto’s quick thinking, stable design, and hand-fabricated prototype parts revolutionized the off-road industry.

Goto began working at Suzuki in 1973. “I wasn’t involved in designing the first three-wheeler. That was in Japan,” he said. “My boss asked me to get away from three-wheelers, because Honda had a patent on them. Honda’s patent was a triangle and the footpegs had to be outside of the triangle. Yamaha tried to make a longer triangle and put the footpegs inside, but the stability wasn’t good, so Yamaha made longer footpegs. Honda sued Yamaha, and Yamaha lost. It was pretty hard to get away from Honda’s patent.”

Due to Honda’s monopoly on the most logical three-wheeled design, Suzuki decreed that a four-wheeled version should be invented. “Suzuki Japan gave me two weeks to design the first four-wheeler,” Goto said. “They asked me to give them any ideas for a four-wheeler. I took the ALT125 three-wheeler to start with. At the same time, Suzuki Japan was making a four-wheeler, too. Suzuki Japan’s four-wheeler wouldn’t turn. So, we made one and made it turn, and the maneuverability was good enough to go into production. They took my dimensions and started the LT125. I made the basic structure, the chassis.”

Goto’s greatest design challenge was finding the correct dimensions for the new four-wheeled ATV. “Figuring how wide it should be, the angle, the steering knuckles for turning and stability was hardest. I looked to the Honda Odyssey for inspiration.”

“I made it, and inside this company, people said ‘Why are we going to make a four wheeler?’” Goto said. “At the time, three wheelers were so big.” The four-wheeled ATV that, at first, struck people as odd caught on quickly. The Suzuki QuadRunner LT125 took market share from three wheelers the year it was released. “In 1980, I made that prototype just myself,” Goto said. “In 1988, I had six crews.”

After a number of major accomplishments, including the LT125, the QuadSport, the LT80, and the LTZ400, this design legend isn’t kicking back with his feet up on his desk. “After this interview is over, I have to change into my working clothes,” he said. “We (the designers) have to do everything, be a machinist, welder, etc. I do it all. I draw designs out on scratch paper and then build. We have six people in the shop. Every Monday we brainstorm. If all of us agree it’s a good idea, we build it.”

Reflecting on his first design more than twenty years later, he meekly stated, “I see I could’ve done a better job if I had more time.”