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/128102
Parts Is parts. Three cylinders are ready to be placed on a rebuilt motor. we are and we 're go ing into our fifth year. We 've bu ilt our own chass is and e ng ine s and the results haven 't been that great, but th e technolog y that we 're using and th e processes we 're using are of a h igh value and we 've brought th e bik e ba c k to the point where we have attracted a good rider in Jurgen , s o all of us are anxious to s ee what he 'll be do ing on it this yea r, Wh en we tested at Czecho last year, he was just full of pr aise for it. The lap times he ach ieved on it would have been the second quickest in the race. "Now we ha ve our cha ss is more or less ba c k to wh e re the o rig ina l con c ept wa s in 1997 , ve ry n imble bu t with reli ability an d powe r . No on e wh o 's ever ridden our b ike has c om pla ined th a t it's s low. We 'v e taken a few s teps forwa rds and b ac kwa rds, but witho ut that ex pe rience we woul d n't be at the po int we are now." Ma rk th re e , or at least th e very lat est ve rsion of it, com plete with yet more aero dynamic bod ywork and a flying Dut c h m a n , has been right in the t h ic k of the IRTA test action, p la ci ng well in each venue - s o the real -world indicators are th at the lat e s t creation from W ily Kenny 's motorbike factory ha s a golden ticke t. Or at lea st a fighting chance of gett ing one. My p e rs o n a l bet is that Ju rgen could we ll take more scalps than an Ap a c he ra id ing party but, if he and th e res t of the King 's men don't hang some important ha ir outside the ir Banbury tepee , it certa inly won't be for the want of the expe r ience , willpowe r and exp e rtise I saw on dis pla y ther e . Build ing a GP bik e sounds , amaz ingly , quite simple, and fo r Team Roberts , with their tie up with Mala ys ia n car giant Proton, they are a head of the game in some key fac tors . Turnaround time, for one. Take , for in s t a n c e , the Proton Rapid Prototyping facil ity in Malaysia . S a y Bud ba ck in America , or one of team Roberts ' CAD design team in Banbu ry , comes up with a comp lex new part a nd want to see if it flies , then , as Chuck ex p la ins , the initia l process is aston ish ing ly fas t. Lik e next day , if necessary . "We ' ve been very lucky to have th e sponsors that we do in Pro t o n , who can see the va lue in what we 're do ing for the future : Ak sland sa id . " Fo r examp le , we s e n d all our des igns to the m for rapid prototyping. Ve ry s imply we design a com po ne nt on our CAD systems, send th e design to them bye -ma il and very soon after tha t we get the finished co mponent ba c k from them in plastic fo rm . It could be anything . For example , we can make a new c ylinder in clea r plastic, put it onto th e flow bench to see how it performs , then we can modify the [ele ctro nic] dr a wing , s end that e -mail back to them, get a modified plastic one and try it again . "We do the main engi ne develo p ment wo rk a nd flow- benchi ng in Cali forn ia , with th e p las t ic pro toty pes m ad e in Ma la ys ia . In th e o ld da ys , yo u would draw it , cast it in m e tal a nd , if it wasn 't quite righ t , yo u woul d s pe n d a lot o f mone y a nd ti me t o ha ve somethin g th a t didn 't wo rk. S o now th e c h ances of desig ni ng and makin g a p ro d u c t that is made to wha t you want, and ge ts yo u the pe rforma nce level you want, are much better. "The pla stic engine cases we have on o ne of the engines out back were made well befo re the alum inum cases were cast, so we could have it actual ly fitted in the chassis , making sure the water p ipes and so on all went in the proper places. So, when the real engine cases came, everyth ing was plugged in and fitted perfectly, ready to run ." No matter the design of any c o mponent, the fabrication techniques used by te am Robe rts are generally tried and trusted , if a little slow and expensive. Making the frames themselves, for example , in vo lve s leve ls of d irect human intera ction and m anua l dexterity that a n ancient go ldsmith wo uld understand, even if the finished part looks so trick and im possi bly ch ic that it could well have been reverse engi neered from a captured spacecraft. Each chassis spar, for instance, is made from a s im p le sheet of a llo y, cut and bent into strips , we lded to make a long box section, filled with molten alloy , the ends welded up, the whole th ing bent into shape, th e end plates cut off again , and the filler alloy melted until it runs out; with the tr immed s p a r finally sent off to be welded to the rest of the frame . So si m p le, so be a ut ifu l when fin ished, yet a created by one s ingle artisan in the field of metalwork. The completed components, wel ded to gether with a similar leve l of care and devotion by a nother crafts m a n, go to m a ke up a complex object of desire to anyone who understan ds engineering, o r just loves b ikes, La b or inte n sive? You b et c h a , he nce Team Roberts latest sideways m o ve , ma ki ng complete 125cc GP chassis for privateers (a nd for profit) , which will utilize some cast and some extruded s ect io ns to keep costs down and generate some cash for the team to use in other areas . "T h e re is a real market there : Aksland said. "Also, we wa nted to gai n some experience in utilizing casting methods, mix ing casting a nd fabrica t ion, be cau se casting is les s ex pe nsive a nd faste r. In m y opinion , if th is is successful, th en th at gives us the confidence to m a ke a s treetbike chassis. It woul d b e no prob le m , y'know? "To make a 12 5 chass is the way we make a 500 chassis just wouldn 't be cost effective be ca us e the p ric e of the final product is nowhere nea r as much as a 500 chassis wo uld be . To produce 20 125 GP chass is would take us all yea r the way we do our 500s . There's no way we could do it" The la s t points made by Aksland br ing us neatly into a final and true understanding of what Team Roberts in Banbury is now , and will be capa ble of being in the next few years . It is , on ly part ly , a 500cc race team . Go ing racing may be the rea son the facility ex ists in the first place, and may be the ma in focus of everyo ne' s attention even now , but Te am Roberts is exactly what it looks like - a factory , prod ucing high -tech specialized equipment. The y could be making computers , or washing mach ines , or caramel wafe rs, but they aren't, Lucky for those who want to break the techn ical monotony of GP racing, th ey a re making bikes and b ik e com p o n e nt s , Fo r thems elv e s and others, All the normal parts of a factory are in p lace . the R&D department , the management structure , the parts suppliers - almost everyth ing , There is , however , a cons p ic uo us lack of a sales team or a marketing strategy . Aksland aga in e x p la in s , "Our goal short-term is the 500 GP bike. We haven 't re a lly promoted th e fact th at we can do additional work, bu t a n y income that we are abl e to generat e no w we take in and us e to ex pa nd our en g inee ring ex pertis e . We invest that m on e y in people . We a re do ing specia list projects now, but our number-one pr ior ity is always to bui ld a 500 that will finish high up in GPs . But we have an open door, rea lly, so if a ny on e wa nt s to do a fo ur- stro ke project with us , and sta rt a streetbike spin-off of th a t - you cou ld very ea sily see th a t happe n ing ," Co llaboration with ot hers has obviou sly a lready happened with the like s of Derbi ( now Gilera) and MuZ , a nd word of mouth alone has already seen great interest in their 125 chassis. But as Aks land kee ps remind ing me , a s if any note memoirs were needed , the focus of Team Ro be rts th is year is simple - get com petitive with the rest - a sentiment all ne utra ls involved in GP rac ing would have affin ity with . "I th ink even the Japanese want to see it happe n." elabo rates Aksland . "T he y like competition . We h a ve n 't been m uch competition for them , bu t ho pefully that'll get better this year. Hopefully , we can get up the re and have them race aga inst us ." May b e t h ey will , may be th e y won 't, b u t looking at the wa y the pieces ar e fitt ing together thu s far , I think the darkest of GP horse s ju st got a bit more of an attractive bet for measurable su ccess in 2001 . CN U@G:)OW W0G@UU0g History In Metal Within the bounds of Robert's pristine and impressive industrial facility, there sits a collection of leathers, as wom by every Single Team Roberts rider since the beginning of the adventure in 1984. Oh, and upstairs there is also a row of gleamingly pristine motorcycles. Not just any old bunch of iron, but one of each of the entire Modenas series, as built downstairs. Plus a couple of Roberts' old dirt trackers, not to mention a huge amount of his trophies. A serious amount of alloy, plastic, gold, marble - and history. As a single example of all this technological excess , Chuck Aksland singled out the bulbous 'Lotus Variant' that had a massive seat unit to help diffuse the drag behind the machine. "This was very good for top speed, but it didn't suit the rider and upset the bike a b it in corn e rs ," he ex plai ne d. "It did work on th e st raig hts, as it was 10 kmph [6 mph] faster than anything we had. We were also trying to develop the bike at races then , and in 1998 Kenn y [Robe rts] Jun ior had one bike and he wanted to stick with something more conventional. But for the bike next year, some of the ideas will be incorporated into it. Not the seat, though!" cue I e ne"".