BACKFIRE S MORE KR “Holy Hell” indeed! To date, this was the best issue of American Motorcyclist I have received. Kenny Roberts and the “Yellow Peril,” Steel Shoe Stories, Left Turn Ladies and The Class of 79 — all top drawer writing and subject matter. Thanks for the transformation of American Motorcyclist! James Withrow, AMA #3086687, Linglestown, PA EVEN MORE KR I just read the “Holy Hell” article about KR’s TZ750 at Indy. Love the historical articles, and hope you folks never run out of them. I know the younger generation is all about digital everything, but those of us that grew up when things like Kenny running the TZ at Indy were actually happening still like to sit down with a stack of glossy paper and enjoy the pictures
and the words. It’s just not the same reading these great pieces hunched over a computer or squinting at a phone. Thanks for making American Motorcyclist a great magazine, a magazine the AMA deserves to have. Rob Sigond STILL MORE KR Loved the latest issue with King Kenny’s TZ miler on the cover. I got to watch him race it at San Jose against Scott Brelsford on the Kanemoto Kawasaki H2 750 and a few other “strokers.” Such amazing sounds! I also got to sit on Kenny’s TZ in A&A’s showroom several years later (Ray Abrams was gracious enough to give me permission). I was struck by how wide the thing is, and the brake and shifter are both on the right, as well. I raced
against Rick Hocking many years ago and always remember that he was actually the first person to ride the TZ miler for [Doug] Schwerma. What a machine! Eric Bickel, AMA #313522 BICYCLE FORKS, YEAH, BABY! While holding a copy of the latest AMA magazine — and looking at the spread showing Kenny Robert’s Yamaha two-stroke flat tracker at speed — I walked to our garage and held the photo next to my daughter’s 400cc Super Motard Suzuki. Just as I thought. The forks on her bike are easily twice as thick in diameter! In addition to all of Kenny Robert’s skills, how on earth did he control a 100-plus miles-per-hour dirt tracker that had, essentially, bicycle forks? Amazing. Brian Halton, San Francisco, CA
LETTER OF THE MONTH KENNY ROBERTS AND THE TZ750 AT INDY he magazine is rockin’! From On Any Sunday to King Kenny on the TZ at Indy, and all the lady racers, too. I got to see KR manhandle that TZ at San Jose on the Mile back in ’75. Down on the ground in the middle of Turn One, looking through the fence and watching him come into the corner at speed and run so wide you felt sure he was going to blow right through it and take us out. We were only inches away, and instinctively, the crowd would back away from the fence every time. He rode it like he rode Indy, right up against the straw bales, whacking each one hard with the rear wheel in a near full-lock slide just to make the corner. And who could forget that TZ wail, with one cylinder blubbering in the corners until he took his finger off the limiter switch, after which it absolutely exploded to life as Kenny
T
struggled to get it to hook up. But get it to hook up he did, even if it was halfway down the straight, and KR and the TZ would get shot like out of a cannon down the back chute and into Turn Three. You’d swear no mortal human could get that bike slowed down and make the corner. But he did, again and again, right up against the berm of bales, with the Harleys down low getting the better initial drive. I can’t recall if he won that day [he didn’t —Ed.] but we’ll never forget the show. Thanks, Kenny. Thanks, AMA. Robert C. Wilson, AMA Life Member #464265
Letters to the editor are the opinions of the AMA members who write them. Inclusion here does not imply they reflect the positions of the AMA, its staff or board. Agree? Disagree? Let us know. Send letters to submissions@ama-cycle.org or mail to American Motorcyclist Association, 13515 Yarmouth Drive, Pickerington, OH 43147. Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity.
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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST • NOVEMBER 2021
