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/958653
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE R ob Muzzy is a problem solver. He studies a racing machine and, along with his riders, deter- mines its shortcomings and makes improvements. Its sounds like tuning 101, but that kind of methodi- cal approach to building racing mo- torcycles served Muzzy well over the years. At times his conclusions and solutions went against con- ventional thinking, and might have even rankled engineers in Japan, but more often than not Muzzy was proven right. His machines carried a number of riders to scores of vic- tories and championships—national and world—and along the way Muzzy became one of the all-time legendary tuners and builders in motorcycle racing. Muzzy's experience with tuning motorcycles goes back to his youth when he delivered newspapers in L.A.'s Balboa Peninsula on a Whizzer motorbike. Not satisfied with the performance of the little Whizzer, a 12-year-old Muzzy milled the head, welded and then ground down the cam. It was the start of a lifelong pursuit of performance. Like many kids of his era, the motor culture of Southern Cali- fornia in the late 1950s and early '60s shaped Muzzy's life. He first started getting paid for his passion of tinkering on machines when he began building chassis for drag manufacturers and got back all these nice, cheery return letters saying 'no thanks, we don't have anyplace for you,' which I kept and hung on my wall." Then Muzzy saw an ad in Cycle News that Kawasaki was looking for a road race technician. "I knew Steve Johnson and called him and asked him if they needed a real mechanic or just a parts changer," Muzzy remem- bers. "Johnson said, 'Holy crap, you're just what we need.'" After interviewing with a couple of folks from Kawasaki, including racing boss Gary Mathers, Muzzy got the job. Eddie Lawson was plenty fast on the factory Kawasaki KZ1000 P114 bikes. In addition to working on cus- tomers' machines, Muzzy also raced himself. He did everything from drag racing to off- road, dirt track and even speed- way racing. In the early 1970s, he moved to Corvallis, Oregon, and after briefly working at a motorcycle shop he opened up the first Muzzy's in 1974. "At first, I was building hand- made exhaust systems for dirt track guys and it went from there," Muzzy said. But by the early 1980s the economy in Oregon was suffering a serious downturn and Muzzy, hoping to find a more stable income, began applying to the various motorcycle compa- nies. "I thought that would be some- thing that would be more secure," Muzzy says with a sarcastic laugh. "I sent out my resume to all the MUZZY'S MIDAS TOUCH: PART 1 Wayne Rainey and Rob Muzzy talk at Daytona in 1987. Rainey would go on to win the AMA Su- perbike Champion- ship that season. It was the second time the Rainey-Muzzy combo won the title. PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM RILES