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/127830
and his with the introduction of the Honda NSRSOOV V-twin, has their position as the choice of privateers been challenged. Since deciding to go forward with this project, Roberts has been a very busy man. Though he occasionally gets back to his ranch in Hickman, .outside of Modesto, California, he spends most of his time in Banbury, about 70 miles northwest of London, in the cradle of Formula One country. That's where he has chosen to design and build his race bike, mainly ~ause of the nearly limitless supply of outside contractors with automotive experience. The day Cycle News visited Roberts was the day of the official electronic press launch, photos and interviews unveiled on the Marlboro and Roberts group websites (http://www.robertsgroup. com). A more formal launch had been planned that day in London, but it was inexplicably canceled by Marlboro. Instead, Roberts had the day free to discuss the onset of a new era in racing. When did you actually get serious about doing this? The problem has been with Yamaha. It's been very bumpy negotiation. The trouble with Yamaha is very much of a .... well, to get what Phillip Morris wants &(jm them was sometimes difficult for them to understand. So you're dealing on a year-to-year contractual basis. And there's been bumpy years where my sponsors requested me to go to Honda. Well, then you go to Honda and they say you can't come here because we'd love to have you, but Yamaha would quit. The biggest team can't run the best bike type of thing. So I was trapped. Obviously, Lucky Strike is with Suzuki so [ had no trump card. So every time you're telling people that it's got to be this way or nothing, it gets a little hairy. Especially as the financial commitment to racing gets bigger, from whoever you're dealing with. So for three or four years we have, off and on, when negotiations would get really bad or the people would start letting us down, we would get JlIore serious about domg our own thing. Kenny Roberts at age 45 - businessman, team owner... now embarking on his biggest project to date, the ModenllS KR3. (Below) Juat last week, Kenny Roberts Jr. rode the new bike for the first time on a race track In Shah Alam, Malaysia. By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Abrams and Gold & Goose and Lou Martin ~ N ,....... ...r:: u :a ::E . 20 enny Roberts has always done things his way and he's always prevailed. From his distinguished career as a racer to his current vocation as a team owner, he's usually managed to ~tay one step ahead of the competition. You don't win two AMA Grand National Championships, three SOOcc World Championships, then three more as a team owner, plus a 250cc title, without some degree of knowledge. It didn't always work, and there were some magnificent failures, but, on balance, he's far ahead. Now, at the age of 4S, he's taken on his most ambitious project ever, the creation of a SODcc World Championship-<:ontending three-cylinder two-stroke, the Modenas KR3. To those who know him it doesn't come as ~ surprise. For some time he's been an advocate of a reduced role by the Japanese factories in Grand Prix racing. He successfully convinced Yamaha to provide competitive YZRSOO engines to privateers and, mounted in Harris and ROC frames, they've filled much of the GP grid for the past five years. Only now,