The ROADSMITH Story
Passion. Innovation. History.
The Trike Shop
In the early 1970’s The Trike Shop was established as a VW powered trike kit manufacturer in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. They started as a part time gig at first, but things changed quickly as the word spread of a new kind motorcycle/ recreational vehicle was emerging. Other brands started in California, but they had a better quality kit than what was available through the Cali guys.
By the early 1980’s they began building most of the trikes complete instead of DIY kits. There was a growing group of owners/ friends that would go on rides every year with the owners Dick and Helen Lindholm who would put on there own rides and organize groups heading out to Sturgis. The trikes continued to evolve to more touring machines including unique options like automatic transmissions and larger engines.
In the 1990’s things were about to change big time. The Trike Shop moved into its current facility, but only utilizing a small footprint of the available space. The company could see the future in trikes was looking bright and this new idea of motorcycle trike conversions looked exciting. They were quick to look at what was coming out and how to make them better. The obvious flaw in what was available from other was they had a solid axle suspension that road rough. So, they took designs from their current independent rear suspension (IRS) in the VW powered trikes and developed a motorcycle trike conversion with IRS for the Honda Goldwing to start. They even offered and auxiliary fuel tank which was unheard of at the time.
In 1997 Dick and Helen Lindholm moved to Daytona Beach Florida to open a dealership to have more southern exposure than just the upper midwest. Doug Lindholm (son) and Jim McGurran (friend) took over operations.
In the 2000’s The Trike Shop saw exponential growth year after year. The VW powered trikes were selling very well and the trike conversions were selling even better. The Daytona Beach store and added dealers around the country were having tremendous success. By 2008 they were selling about 80 times more trike conversion kits than VW trikes so they made the decision to focus on what certainly looked like the future for them.
In 2001 Honda came out with the GL1800 Goldwing and the HT1800 was introduced, that was a big hit in the Touring bike community. The dealership network continued to grow.
2007 was the year that the name” Roadsmith Trikes“ was developed as a brand name for The Trike Shops’ line of trikes. “Trike Shop Trikes” just didn’t describe the business anymore as a manufacturer.
In 2011 Roadsmith was awarded V-Twin Expo’s Motorcycle design of the year for its new HDTR model featuring the new Accuride auto leveling system for heavy loads.
In 2012 The VTR trike conversion for the Victorys’ was introduced to an excited new audience.
In 2014 the Indian Chieftain was introduced and the ICR kit was immediately developed, followed by the Roadmaster model the next year.
In 2018 Honda introduced the long awaited new GL1800 with the manual and DCT automatic transmission. They developed and received a patent on the there reduced trail modified fork the makes Hondas’ unique front suspension work perfectly as a trike.
In 2021 The ICC trike conversion for the Indian Challenger is being developed for Spring production