Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~ Team Roberts of c ourse . With t his package, we have am idst the hurly burly of a v ibrant 5 0 0 c c r a c e scene - the m or e you some a d vantages. The new t h r ee will apprecia te the mountai ns they have ha v e a di f ferent e ffect on tire li f e, moved j u st to get to this poin t. have s ome a d va n ta ges for brak ing, a n d c orner exit a c c e l era tion - t h at 's if In some w a y s , all th at' s missin g i s t h e r esu lts . And t hey do need t he m i t wo rk s . If it d o esn ' t work , we 're n o w , mor e th a n ever b efore . M in dful gonn a lose. But w e 're going to be dif- of th e ir c ha nge i n status, from the ferent." biggest , w in n in g est t eam in the pad - F r a n k l y s poke n , and spea k ing dock to mid- pack st ru g g le r s , Aksland frankly , t o describ e th e last few Mod- corrects me when I mentioned that enas years as a roller-coa ster wou ld the Team Robe rts three -cylinder con - b e so m ewha t in a p p ro p r i a t e , due to cept h as at le a st proven it se l f v iable , t he st a t i s t ic a l fact of their being more tro ug h s t h a n peaks but , a s Chuc k if only fleet ingly so . " I woul d n't s a y that its been hi mse l f says , it has maybe all been for a purpose . p roved v i ab l e y e t , to b e h o n e s t , because i t hasn't b e en given a fair " We 've l earn ed a h ell of a l o t. If ch a n c e ," sa i d A k sl and . " T o h a v e tha t anyone told m e 10 y ea rs ag o that w e fa i r c h a n ce you have to h a v e th e w ou l d b e over in Eng l an d , b ui l di ng w hole pa cka g e. W e still b e li ev e in it, o u r o w n m o t orc y cl es , well .. . B u t h e r e Is all that has been missing is an experienced GP rider to race the newer KR3 - especia lly in 2001? We spoke to guys like Jurge n last yea r, but we kn ew tha t th e new bike wasn't ready yet for a guy like J urg en who wants to go o ut and win race s. So th at 's why we opted fo r Davide De Gea, to work th rou g h t he initial issues and get some reli ab ility o ut of it. Davide was a strang e choic e, with his lack of exp erience. We took the very first bike we ever had and did some testing on it, and th en took it to the French GP. Th at was all the miles we had on it. Sure Davide didn't have the experience, but he co uld circu late and go around th e rac etr ack, so all th e time he was do ing that we were learn ing about our eng in e. When we sta rted getting some problem s, as his feedback in En glish wasn't so good, so t hat's wh y we wa nted mor e experience, wh ich we got with Luc a [Cadal ora J - and [Anthon y J Gobert was a one-sho t deal. Every rider who 's ridd en it has his feedback taken into view to m ake th e bi ke better. If I had the money to pay for it all , and want ed to run a KR3-equipped team in SOOGPs this or next seas on, could I do it? If someone wa nted to do it - and do it properly - th en certai nly we wou ld loo k at it. And how much would t hat c ost? We ha ven 't really looked at the prices. It depen d s o n what kind of program the gu y would wa nt. We loo k ed at va ri o us w ays of doing it la st y ea r a nd it wou ld p ro bably in vo lve more t ha n givin g a guy a b ike in return fo r his m oney. We wo uld want to provid e so m e sup port. To ti e it all in , you've got to look at how much th e bik e is worth , how m uc h our e xpe rienc e is worth , parts ba c kup an d so on . You kno w Hond a and Yamaha charge quite a lot of money fo r tha t and , in o ur op inion, o ur bi k e is not really any wor se tha n theirs. It wou ld be what th e ma rk et co uld bear. But th e m ain th in g is t ha t , if we wer e to do that , we be li eve t hat the c usto m er sho uld have t he equip m ent in the end . No use paying a fee and th en g iving it back . We wou ld rat her he had it for what ever purpose. A couple of high- profi le guys have m oved on from t he initial proj ect , so who is left from t he original crew? K enny , obviousl y , m y father , Bud , who is our devel o pm ent engi neer , Nick Davis th e crew chief , myself, Howard Gregory, one of the m echanics. A s part of th e race team at least, but we hav e some peo pl e here in the factory wh o have been with us since '96 o r '97 . Th ere has been a lot learn ed in four years, definitely . Mike and Wa rren an d th ose guys leaving? Well , th ere were circumstances around why each one left . but we 're still here, we still survived it. and I th ink th ey are still fa ns of th e proj ec t to this day . They p robably still believe in wh at could be achi eved with a lightweight th ree cylinder around th ese race tracks. What a bo ut fo ur-stro k es ? Obviously, th ere will be changes when f our- st r ok es c am e in . What if it event uall y go es all four -stroke? Will it be an adva nta ge beca use you build everything here in house or is it a problem bec ause everything is cent ered on t he KR3 engine? I think we're pro bably in a bett er position than any body else because of ou r ca pabilities of design and m anu fact ure. The engine sid e we do have ex peri enc e of the type of character of engine that likes to get arou nd the rac etra ck . With some o f t he ru m ors of For m ula O ne guys wan ti ng to bu ild 34 MAY 2 , 200 1 • e y e I e n e VII' Si A ne w f airing in the design and fabrication process. eng ines and stuff, we belie ve we co uld help them to build a • How mu ch of you 200 1 res ults will be provided by Jurgen and how much will be provided your backroom st aff? better eng ine, so we 'll j ust ha ve t o see wh at co m es along . I To me the rider is sti ll 60 perc ent of the equation. He's the thi nk we would have a lot to giv e to a project like th at, but it guy wh o 's go t to tra in. got to adapt to circumstances on the woul d need somebody who wan ts to do it properly and co uld mach ine. find th e funding to do it right. Does it help the development curve ha vi ng such a direct Cross fertilization of supplier s. Obviously , t hey must have relati onship wi t h your father? stuff over there that mo torcycl ing hasn't even touched yet. It' s good in a couple of wa ys . It help s bec ause m y da d No t nec essa ri l y , be ca use c o m p a nies li k e C o sworth , ha s got so muc h ex p erience in t he de velopment of tw o IImore, TWR, all t hose guys are four-st ro k e. T hey're not str o kes. Th ere are very few guys in the world wh o have don e tw o - str o k e people. So, when we ask ed them to b uild a tw o what he has done, tried and exp eri m ented with th em . It' s not strok e eng ine, we had to do som e ed ucati ng th er e. Where j ust th e co m fo rt k nowing th at you hav e a good guy work ing th eir st rengths are is in th e use of ma teria ls and havin g th e on you r engines , but it's a priv ilege to wo rk with your own stuff m ade for us. When w e arri ved here in th e sum mer of father. We do ge t to spend a lot of t ime together. We' re 199 6 , w e w en t arou nd w ith th e id ea of building a t h ree focused o n th e same thi ngs . O ur wh ol e unit with Kenny and c y li nde r, w e didn 't k now anybody her e in Engla nd, th e my dad and myself goes back a lon g time. Most people don 't m ach ine shops, the supply chain. We needed someone lik e kn ow, but m y father was Kenny 's fi rst spo nso r - wh en he was TWR to sho w us th at . 14 years old. No possibility of a t wo- rider team? Have you spo ke n t o F- I t eam s or other po te ntial partWe'd like to have tw o riders, we've al ways believ ed a ners about buil din g a GP four- stroke? team is two riders. Bu t with th e budgets th at are available We'v e had discussio ns, j ust initial di scu ssions with a few right now, we can't do it. In 2002, I' d like to get bac k to two , people, who ha ve sho wn an inte rest but it' s just initial stuff. b ut it's a q ues t ion of dollars and wh il e we' ve been going In t he new GP order, will Honda and Yamaha build one throug h all t hese p ro c esses of de velop ment o u r resul t s good bike eac h and then everyone els e will ru n t w o- st ro k e haven't been tha t good. SOOs or wha t? What would the next thing you would have at Banb ury Th e rules, or lack of ru les, basically lea ve it wide o pen , that you don't have already? and although Honda is say ing t hey w ant to keep th e co sts Th at 's hard. In an ideal world I'd ha ve everyth ing. Carbon do wn bel ow t hat of a Su perb ike, I don 't see how t hey ca n auto claves and better CNC equi pm ent . Bu t it's not just th e m ain tain th at in the premier category of Superb ike raci ng . equipment, it' s th e people behind it . Especially if Yamaha or som eo ne else co m es alon g and utiHas the whole KR3 philosophy been designed with the lizes Bery llium o r wha tever. Ho nda is probably th e lead er in knowledge that circuits have been getting t ighter and slowall th os e areas of dev elopment right now, or at least very er in recent yea rs? near th e to p , so it's hard to say . Initia lly, y eah , you'll see Certa in ly , part of the visio n is th e fact th at raci ng is movHonda and Yama ha with tw o bikes, and a period of fours an d ing away from th e vis ion of o ld Hoc k enheim and Salzburtw os intermixing , Bu t it's going th at way and end result will gring to tighter ci rc uits. Th e three 's got a lot of torque and be four-strokes filli ng the grid. accelerates hard . If the co m er exit doesn't hav e a two -m ile Are you m em be rs of the MSMA, who seem to be m ap str aig ht at the end of it. th en acc el eration is going to help, pi ng out everyone's future now? and th e weight differ ence is going to he lp on braking and It would be now they've changed it. We looked into it when getting through th e comer. it was run by th e GPMA, but we decided not to. The c ost of Ho w many peo ple wo rk for Team Roberts? joini ng w as qu it e high, so we ba sic ally dismissed it. Bu t I Seventeen or so on site here, plus the rac e team. World thi nk it is an orga nization th at should not restrictthe oth ers wi de, we'v e got about 40 people. . and hav e som e understanding of wh at everyone is thi nkin g of Yo u have o bvi ously paid attention t o aerodynam ics in as a group . But today, we have nev er been invited to a m eet th e past . What about t he new bik e? in g and get very little in formation fro m th ose m eetings - so we Fro m Nov ember to Dec ember we'v e been in th e wind t un feel a litt le bit restr ic ted to be hon est with yo u. But m em bernel tw ice. We'll probably go aga in in Ja nuary. This will be a ship is someth ing tha t only a factory cou ld affo rd . vari ation on what we did last ye ar , but all th e ind ica tio ns are th at th ere will be improvem ents . We use MIRA . th e British Motor Industry Resea rch Area. What about the legendary KR3 engine vibration? Is t hat all sorted by t he new bike? We've got to the point wh ereby it's not the number-one thing the rider co m p lai ns about. It' s got a balance shaft, the crank is balanced pretty spot on . When Jurgen rode it bac k in Au gu st he had one crank go, whic h was near t he end of its wor k ing life. but since he's ridden the new one he hasn't said a wor d about it. It's at an accep table level for a rider, but we're wo rk ing on it bit by b it. And to improve the perform ance of it as well. How does the three's eng ine compare t o t he four-cylinder Mu Z engines you tho ugh t about basin g a new four on? Th e three is not mu ch sma lle r t han a four cylinder. Basi ca lly, thi s chassis is a diffe rent co nfiguratio n than the MuZ wa s runn ing so we wa nted to see how it went. Al so to allow us to keep our options o pen fo r nex t year. In the end, we Kenny Roberts and new rider J u rgen van den deci ded that if we took th e next step with the th ree, to see Go orbergh discuss things at the Japanese Grand Prix, wh ere it ended up , tha t would have been best. It would hav e a raee in which van d en Goorbergh fi nis hed 11th on been a shame reall y to swi tc h fro m th e triple without realizin g the newest ve rsion of the Proton (nee Modenasl. what th e po te nti al reall y wa s.

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