Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• ssau t on t e pate • o erts By Bill Spencer The trials and tribulations of Ken Roberts' assault on the AMA number .one plate unfold into .a story right out of Dickens' "Great Expectations." The attitude of professionals differ and Ken Roberts is certainly different without being diffident. Part of the story unfolds at the temporary camp of Ken, wife Pat, and his business partner and friend Jim Doyle, Pan American Airways pilot and sometime motorcycle rider, set in the scenic foothills of the San Francisco peninsula. It makes for a far cry from what one migh t expect in the progress of a professional motorcycle rider, and how he got where he is today. Just East of Modesto, California, lies some of the finest bottom land in the world. Its uses in agriculture are many from food crops to grazing land for cattle to wine vineyards. The Cen tral Valley of California thrives on the uses of its land. The people of the Central Valley aren't much differen t from other people where agriculture is the dominan t economic activity and so the farmers, cattleman and vin tners are pretty much in control of what goes on in this little world. At age II, Kenny Roberts was working in a stable near his Dad's farm training Tennessee Walkers for some of the landed gentry. His lifestyle was centered around the farm and, while not wealthy by any stretch of the .imagin atio n , he didn't want for the necessities of life. • One day, one of the local youngsters showed up with a minibike, powered by a little Briggs & Stratton engine and Kenny thought that was just about the greatest-thing he had ever seen. "The weird thing about this contraption is that I thought that when -yo u got on and rode, the throttle should work the opposite of the way it did and so when 1 went to shut it off after my first thirty feet, I went the other way. It went faster and hit the house trailer. Really, if you don't have any idea of ,how it works, the logical thing would be for your hand to tum away from you to Shut off, n-ot on." Young Mr. Roberts had a logical and 'met hod ical mind and being creative and liking to work with his hands, he went home, took a lawn mower engine, put it on a World War II paratrooper bike frame, added a fan belt drive and had his own minibike to haul his skinny little body around. While his Dad wasn't too concerned with this toy, Ken's Mom didn't give it her blessing. Finally, one day, he got off pretty hard. ' "I got into a bad deal one day and had to lay it down and my Mom was .watch ing and so after I stopped sliding, I got up real fast to show her th at 1 was ail righ t and that motorbikin' was neat. I'he only thing was that I tore up my leg pretty bad. She was pretty cool about it all." Ken 's first real motor was a Honda 5 0. Together with his brother Rick. he used to ride the levees in the area. " I rode that Honda about a year and a half and never even took out the plug. I was one of the real great canal bank riders in those days, once I even went into the canal. By accident, of course. "I traded that Honda in on a Tohatsu 50 because it looked better. Even though it wasn't as good as the Honda, that's what I started racing on. I wasn't really interested in racing bikes 'cause I still liked horses but I used to go to the races with Merle Mills and his son, Dave . We went to Madera once and I couldn't believe how slow those guys were going. So, finally, after watching a couple of races I wanted to get my sportsman card. My Mom wasn't for it at all but my Dad signed for me and 1 got the number 133V from Len Allen." Kenny's first experience with racing is comparable to all histories of "the nervous kid out to set the world on fire. " "The track was up in Roseville, a grass track and really pretty neat. I got the bike out and went to mix my gas with Blendzall but had my problems "there, You're supposed to mix a can to four gallons. Well, I mixed four ounces to the can and, of course, it seized." On the starting line of the heat race, Ken lined up next to Merle Mills' Tohatsu and even before the starter could get to the flags, the young and very intense Roberts had his engine WFO and was planning strategy for the first comer. "I guess Merle finally got my attention and got me to slow down a bit. I was real nervous and wher. the starter would move, I would be ready. Well: it finally got under way and 1 passed everybody in the ' first tum and when I got to the second comer it seized." The' only consistent thing that Kenny did with that bike was to never finish a race. But things weren't all bad as Merle had a Hodaka 90 and he would let Ken ride it and Ken liked it so much that he hounded his parents into buying one. "I guess 1 was really heavy in the hounding department. They weren't for it at all but I was pretty persistent and finally they gave in. When I first started racing it, 1 really feU a lot. I even flipped it over backwards one nigh tat Lodi and still wound up second in the heat. In the Main, 1 was leading and this guy on a Honda was pretty close. You could hear it. We were running up on the bank then and when it came time for me to shut off for the comer, it sounded like the guy was right behind me, so I thought I'd be cool and gas it through the comer. Boy, that was the neatest endo ever done coming down that bank." Ken Roberts rode the LOcIi nigh t scene the summer of 1968 and, with a succession of second place finishes, he finished second in the high point awards and that was about the last time he accepted second as his best effort. "I started riding for this outfit in Modesto on -a 100cc Kawasaki and was winning but then they sold the bike, so 1 was out of a ride. I went to buy this Bul from a guy but it had transmission problems, so I went , over to Cliff Aksland's in Manteca and he put me on this Suzuki. It was a 125 and he let me ride it at Madera. 1 was about half a lap ahead in the Main when a little screw came loose and lodged in the rotary valve and instead of going through and jamming in the piston, it held there and started squeeking away until it chewed up the whole operation. I was real unhappy about that. But, that's when Cliff decided to sponsor me and so he built another one of those kits and 1 rode for him on that for about a year. The , 1969 season was favored to the fann boy from Modesto. District 36 had been producing some pretty good riders from the sportsman ranks with Jim Rice, Mark Brelsford, and Jim Odom hot on the pro scene. Ken finished that year with a nin th in the black plate contest. The top twenty riders get to put on black plates for the next season to show off just how good they are and in early 1970, Ken Roberts was just about ready to show off. . -'

• Cover