Kenny Roberts and the Indy Mile 2009 video

30th December 2009

Our vote for the big balls motorsport experience this year. Forget F1/WRC even Moto GP - Kenny Roberts riding a 150 mph flat tracker at Indy on the dirt - 25 years after his historic win was the highlight of 2009.

Kenny had not even ridden a bike for a year - did not bother practising beforehand as he claimed nothing simulated the experience of the 4 cylinder 2 stroke on the dirt.

In 1975 after his historic win - King Kenny claimed that "Yamaha don't pay me enough to ride that thing"

Anyway with Valentino and his dad at the Indy Mile for the US Moto GP - Yamaha saw a great marketing opportunity and got the "King" to put his race suit back on to demo the bike - watch the video...

Valentino was scheduled to do a few a demo laps on the bike that night - but after watching Kenny - wisely deferred - saying "This is your night.."

Fast facts on the bike:

125 bhp "peaky" motor
150 mph top speed on dirt - 30 mph faster than the competing Harley XR750..
No front brake
Not very heavy....
AMA banned it after 3 races - concerned about riders getting hurt..

In the modern era in road racing of electronics/traction control/GPS mapping on specific corners etc - this is really evocative of a different era.

It's great that Michael Schumacher is coming back to F1 - but now he rides race bikes - I am sure that he would recognise that to have not ridden a bike for a year and put on this kind of performance on this evil bitch - really shows big balls.

Final word goes to Kenny when asked how he remembered his old steed:

"You had to throw it sideways to get it slowed for the corners. There weren’t a lot of riders who could throw it sideways at 240km/h.’ Amen…

For more info on the bike - go to:

http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/classics/bike.asp?id=42

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