“They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing” - March 2015

March 9, 2015 by Gillman Media

That’s what American motorcycle legend Kenny Roberts said straight after winning the 1975 Indianapolis Mile dirt track race on a unique Yamaha TZ750 flat-tracker, almost universally regarded as the most unrideable racebike ever built.

Before he won successive 500cc road racing world championships in 1978, 79 and 80, ‘King’ Kenny Roberts was a dirt-track champion in the USA. Riding for Yamaha, he had won the AMA Grand National Championship in 1973 and 74 (when the series contained both road race and dirt track events), but in 1975 the Yamaha was not up to the pace of the rival Harley Davidsons.

Before the Indy Mile, Roberts wanted more speed and in the space of five days his Australian team boss Kel Carruthers (son of the 1946 and 1950 Australian Speedway Sidecar Champon, Jack Carruthers) put together a dirt bike powered by the Yamaha TZ750 two-stroke engine taken from their road racing bike.

The bike pumped out 125 horsepower – 50 more than Roberts’ usual dirt-tracker – and was considered unrideable due to its excessive horsepower, but Roberts, who didn’t see the bike until race day, came from last place in the 25 bike final and overtook the factory Harley-Davidson duo of Corky Keener and Jay Springsteen on the final straight for one of the most famous wins in American dirt track racing history. Even Roberts regards it as his greatest ride.

Afterward, Roberts was famously quoted as saying, “They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing”. He admitted that the bike was too scary even for him. Roberts said “You had to throw it sideways at 240km/h to get it slowed for corners…”

He did race it twice more, although not in main events, before the AMA, with the blessing of Carruthers and Roberts, banned the TZ750 engine from dirt-track racing because officials were afraid it would kill someone.

That bike is now restored and in a museum in America so we’ll never see it in Australia, but thanks to former Broken Hill Speedway rider Chris Fraser, we can see the next best thing at Gillman Speedway this Saturday afternoon (14 March, 3 pm start) when Mildura’s Nic Waters will ride a replica of the Kenny Roberts bike that Fraser has built.

Fraser first read about the bike in 1975, aged 15, and has always had the desire to build one. “It took me 10 years to find an engine, then another 14 years to build it” says Fraser, “but I finished it this year and I’m proud to be able to bring it to Gillman on Saturday. I hope there will be a big turn out to see Nic ride the bike, and to see a replica Roberts XS750 which will be down there on display as well.”