Posts
1621
Joined
8/15/2006
Location
Corona, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
5/17/2012 3:24pm
Just as the grim reality began to hit my brain that Turlock will be my home for the next several months, I got an email from an old NorCal friend of mine who is now living in Tracy, right up the road from me. He used to own a thriving Yamaha dealership in Silicon Valley and knows just about everyone in the industry...including Kenny Roberts, whose legendary Modesto Ranch is less than 20 minutes from me.
I think he felt sorry for me, because he hooked me up with Kenny and I'm going to spend some time next week interviewing Roberts at his home, checking out his museum and hopefully pinning his leg to his XR sidecase on his famous oval!
So I'm totally stoked and kinda nervous...Roberts was probably about the closest thing I had to a hero as a kid growing up. Before MX took off in America there was Class C and there was Desert. My class C heroes were Gene Romero, Gary Nixon, Dick Mann, Mark Brelsford, Ricky Graham, Dave Aldana, Gary and Hank Scott, and of course, Kenny Roberts. I got to know a few of them because a friend's dad built motors for a bunch of them at his house in Costa Mesa and they were always over there partying like a mofo! Those Class C boys did love to party...and didn't care who saw them do it. Every once in awhile I'd run into Weinert over there and it was our dirty little secret...LOL
In the desert I was all about JN Roberts, Rich Thorwaldsen and Larry Pfutzenruder. I got to meet JN a few times through my cousin, Jim Hansen, who was the publisher of Cycle World magazine.
My moto heroes were all Euros, with Marty Smith the only American rider I was in awe of, but it wasn't long before I was racing against him every weekend, so he lost hero status.
When Kenny moved to Europe to race the 500 RR GPs his legend just grew bigger. For you youngsters, I guess you could compare him to an American Valentino Rossi, with a Bob Hannah attitude, but surlier. Roberts was an unapologetic trailblazer and absolutely did not give a fuck what the sanctioning bodies had to say about it...sometimes it seemed like he would pull shit for the sole purpose of fucking with the AMA.
The sick part was that when his racing career was over he kept right on raising hell and ruffling feathers as a successful team owner and even as a manufacturer.
Sorry about the long post, but as you can tell I'm excited about writing his story. If anyone has any questions to ask him or topics to talk about, please write them here and I'll ask him. Thanks for reading, all three of you that made it this far!
I think he felt sorry for me, because he hooked me up with Kenny and I'm going to spend some time next week interviewing Roberts at his home, checking out his museum and hopefully pinning his leg to his XR sidecase on his famous oval!
So I'm totally stoked and kinda nervous...Roberts was probably about the closest thing I had to a hero as a kid growing up. Before MX took off in America there was Class C and there was Desert. My class C heroes were Gene Romero, Gary Nixon, Dick Mann, Mark Brelsford, Ricky Graham, Dave Aldana, Gary and Hank Scott, and of course, Kenny Roberts. I got to know a few of them because a friend's dad built motors for a bunch of them at his house in Costa Mesa and they were always over there partying like a mofo! Those Class C boys did love to party...and didn't care who saw them do it. Every once in awhile I'd run into Weinert over there and it was our dirty little secret...LOL
In the desert I was all about JN Roberts, Rich Thorwaldsen and Larry Pfutzenruder. I got to meet JN a few times through my cousin, Jim Hansen, who was the publisher of Cycle World magazine.
My moto heroes were all Euros, with Marty Smith the only American rider I was in awe of, but it wasn't long before I was racing against him every weekend, so he lost hero status.
When Kenny moved to Europe to race the 500 RR GPs his legend just grew bigger. For you youngsters, I guess you could compare him to an American Valentino Rossi, with a Bob Hannah attitude, but surlier. Roberts was an unapologetic trailblazer and absolutely did not give a fuck what the sanctioning bodies had to say about it...sometimes it seemed like he would pull shit for the sole purpose of fucking with the AMA.
The sick part was that when his racing career was over he kept right on raising hell and ruffling feathers as a successful team owner and even as a manufacturer.
Sorry about the long post, but as you can tell I'm excited about writing his story. If anyone has any questions to ask him or topics to talk about, please write them here and I'll ask him. Thanks for reading, all three of you that made it this far!
I think he was a dirttracker on an Orange Cappra as a kid.
If he did, and still has it, grab a few shots and maybe a dirttrack story or 2?
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Ask him:
1) Why the disdain for Barry Sheene, when Barry was always a class act and gentleman.
2) Does he remember the podium trophy girl when he ripped her top off? I have the video somewhere buried in a VHS packed box...
The museum is awesome. In fact, the whole place is just bitching...
Bring some mail and put in the Shobert mailbox. The story goes that Roberts got him the box because he was spending so much time at the place. I guess it was Kenny's way of saying "Get the F out"...
And if there is ONE thing you MUST do before going, get your hands on the the article written by Ken Vreeke and that appeared in Cycle Magazine in what I think was the October 1989 issue and titled "Hickman Haul Ass Club". That is required reading before visiting the place, and in order to fully understand just what that place was back in the heyday.
Prior to Wayne's crash, the Hickman Haul Ass Ranch was the private, exclusive center of motorcycle road racing - for the world.
Kenny Roberts TZ 750 Yamaha
http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/kenny-roberts-ranch-for-sale-video
Nothing quite like that one.
Kenny took it for a lap around the Indy fairgrounds dirt mile track 2 or 3 years ago, at the Motogp round.
They say even Rossi was spellbound.
Pit Row
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k8hJWKIVNs
Told me he tells everyone the same thing when they say "hey I saw you ride that on the miles in 75", he says "why the F#&$ didn't you stop me !"
Nixon and Donnie Castro rode Erv Kanemoto tuned Kawaski 750 triples at that time too. Sticking RR motors in dirt trackers was one of the last ditch efforts to do something about the Harley dominance of the Mile.
ask him if he remembers ray hook? he's famous for one thing and i bet you don't know what it is.
Post a reply to: So I weaseled an invite to Kenny Roberts' ranch next week...