Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127244
ยท By Henny Ray Abrams e n n y R oberts ha s neve r been acc used o f being shy. T he o u tspoken young ride r wh o went to Eu rope in 1978 and won th e fir st of three World Ch am p ionshi ps in th e p remier 500cc class is now the o u tspo ken head of th e most pow erful GP road racin ~ team ever asse mb led. But Rob erts Isn't si tting back a nd p reparing to just enjoy th e fru it o f victory th is season , he 's look ing ahead .. In the followin g interview , cond uc ted a t h is northern California ranc h by long-time GP foll ower H enn y R a y Ab ra ms, Rob ert s speaks o u t on wha t he feels is needed to keep G P roa d raci ng al ive and wel l. K cylinder motorcycle tha t ru ns, tha t's competitive. And we're not talking about leasing, we're talking about buying. What sort of price are we talking about? I would say in the range, give or tak e $20,000, probabl y $50-$60,000 tops. What's the advantage of having that in the 500cc class, if they can be competitive on a 250? So me whe re a lo ng th e line we have to esta blish wh a t' s the number o ne class a nyway. Obviousl y it 's th e 500. And riders wh o just bu y mo to rcycles just because th ey ca n mak e a livin g running third or fourth I' m not real interested in any way. We're interested in teams tha t want to bu y eq ui p me n t to build team s. To put good riders o n, so they can ru n in th e front of the pack in th e 500 race. An d with establis h ing that team , th en they ca n go on and o n a nd o n and o n. Firs t we have to mak e a 500 team profitab le. And wh en you pay one milli on do llars to lease two 500 mot or cycles from a j apan ese factor y, o bvio us ly your cost goes up treme ndo us ly. If you co uld have a bike cos t o f $500,000 a year th at wo uld incl ude your deve lopme nt, whee ls, every th in g a fter five years th en you can start ana lyzing. The p roblem with th e japanese co m pa nies now, as I listen to th e priv a te teams, is that they have to spe nd a m illion do llars for a 500 a nd they have to g ive the m back at the end of th e year. T hey spe nd another mill ion - th at 's not cou nting wheels, spare par ts - tha t's too big a ch unk of mo ney, If they co uld cu t th at down to a th ird, which they co uld easily, an d sti ll run the sa me q ua li ty o f team, th en th ey sta rt to mak e so me money a nd they can p u t it back into th e motor cycle in th eir ow n development, or work th e sponsorsh ip u p and work th e team u p and say okay I want to bu y j apanese mot or cycles or I wa nt thi s o r I want th a t. . Have you had any talks with an y factories about doing this? Well , just Yam ah a. They're very interested in doing it. Trouble is th e manpower is a ll trying to do wh at -we're do in g now a nd to add more manpow er to do somethi ng else is not a n easy thing to do. And to be honest, I don't work o n it every day.