Three-wheelers had given way to four-wheelers, and most enthusiasts were naive enough to think that was that there would be no more outside interference in the sport. At the time, all guns were blazing in the ATV world. Yamaha’s was the Big Bear 350, the first of the Yamaha bears. That was when the 4×4 concept was initially applied to ATVs, first by Honda in 1985, then by Polaris, Suzuki and Yamaha in 1987. To understand the Grizzly breakthrough, you have to understand the rather short history of 4×4 ATVs. The Grizzly 600 was the first of the “Mega ATVs,” a category that’s still being stretched today. “Given the politics of that period, it’s amazing how easy it was to talk them into it.” At Yamaha, in 1998, the visionaries got their way, and the upper boundary for utility ATVs was shattered. “We had some very bold management at the time,” says a Yamaha engineer who was working on the project. As it turns out, it was brought to life with very little internal corporate struggle. With all that going on, it was downright amazing that the first Yamaha Grizzly 600 could be conceived and built. The ATV industry was emerging from a cold war of sorts, embattled by lawyers, hamstrung by legal departments and harassed by the mainstream media. The 1998 Grizzly 600 was the first of its breed. But years ago, there was no Grizzly in fact, there were no large-displacement ATVs of any kind. The Grizzly is such a basic pillar of the ATV landscape that it seems it’s always been here. It’s the focus of clubs, the centerpiece of a subculture and a fundamental part of American outdoor life. Today, the Yamaha Grizzly is an institution.
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