It`s interesting to note that Kenny Roberts , when looking back on his GP career , said that winning a world championship is only worthwhile when your main rival is someone of equal ability , otherwise it is meaningless ....... Guess who the rider of equal ability that he was referring to was ........
In 1978 , Roberts stood on the 500 cc podium 7 times ....... Sheene stood on the podium 6 times ...... 4 wins to Sheene`s 2 wins ......
In 1979 , Roberts stood on the 500 cc podium 7 times ........Sheene stood on the podium 6 times ...... 5 wins to Sheene`s 3 wins .......
Not really a case of the two of them being in different leagues ........
For the 1976/7 seasons , Sheene had mum , dad , girlfriend , and one mechanic ( Don MacKay ) ............and no works backing ......
The reason for this is that after spending lots of money on developing their new four stroke range of street bikes , Suzuki had virtually no money left to support a factory Grand Prix effort .........
What they did agree to do is supply UK importer Heron Suzuki with three XR14`s ......... one each for John Newbold , John Williams , and Barry Sheene ....... but that was it ..... no further factory support .........
Maybe partly because of this , Sheene began to experience issues with machine preparation .......... He was once sent out with no pad pins in the front calipers , finding himself with no brakes and narrowly avoiding a huge accident ,,,,,,,, another time the XR kept oiling up , the cause being starting / choke cables being routed incorrectly around the headstock , meaning they were permanently on ....... another time the front pads had their pins fitted , but the pads were fitted the wrong way round ........ Sheene apparently hit the roof over that ( but not the tarmac , thankfully ) .......
Much of the blame for these cock - ups was thought to be laid at the door of the ageing Franco ......... but Sheene was reluctant to break up the team that had been together from the very start , and worked his way through these problems ......... and won two consecutive world championships ...... despite customer RG500`s only being half a second a lap down on his factory XR14 at some circuits .......
Yamahas factory riders during the 1976/7 period were Giacomo Agostini , Johnny Cecotto , and Steve Baker .........
Agostini had now become a shadow of his former self , Cecotto was becoming more delusional , and seemed to be unable to come to terms with the 500 Yamaha , and therefore unable to stay with Sheene during 1976 ......... Baker won the 750 Superbike Championship for Yamaha in 1977 , but could only finish runner up to Sheene that year ........... Yamaha decided that Bakers services would not be required in 1978 .........
With Sheene and Suzuki winning the 500 World Title in 1976/7 , Yamaha needed someone to compete for the title in 1978 ........
They felt Kenny Roberts was being under used in the ` States ......... he was mainly a half or one mile dirt oval rider , and road racing only accounted for a small proportion of the rounds that went towards the AMA Championship , but seeing Yamaha were having trouble fending off the Harley Davidsons on the dirt ovals anyway , they felt Roberts would be better employed travelling to Europe to compete in the Grand Prix .......
Roberts wasn`t really keen on the idea at first , but after reading about Sheene`s dominance for the last couple of years , and being persuaded by mentor / guide Kel Carruthers that it would be a good idea to be the first American to take the title , he agreed ..........
Much is made of Roberts bringing the dirt oval style of riding to the GP`s , but when you watch and compare Roberts riding style to that of Sheene`s , or any of the top European riders at that time , the difference isn`t actually all that marked ......... any advantage Roberts had may have been more down to good tactical riding , possibly ........ Roberts never had that much of an advantage in so much as he left everyone wondering which way he went .... that never happened .......
One other advantage Roberts may have enjoyed was his close relationship with Kel Carruthers .......... Kel , with all his Grand Prix experience , would develop , hone , and adapt the factory Yamahas to Kennys requirements better than any Yamaha factory mechanic ever could .......
Meanwhile , Sheene now had factory Suzuki mechanics working on his bikes ......... at one round during in the `79 series ( Belgium ) , Sheene was within 3 points of Roberts Championship lead ......... a finish in front of Roberts would have given him the Championship lead .......... Sheene identified a noise in the engine during practice , which he reckoned was a crankshaft issue ........ He pointed this out to the Japanese mechanics and told them to change the crank ...... The factory mechanics refused , insisting there was nothing wrong .......... During the race , Roberts retired with machine trouble , which meant a finish for Sheene would have given him the Championship lead ..... needless to say , Sheene was correct about the noise , and he retired as well ...........
It was this incident , and Sheene publicly blaming Suzuki for having cost him the Championship lead , which was a factor in the split between Sheene and Suzuki at the end of the season .....
If someone like Carruthers had been involved , then that crank would have been swapped out , no question ........
The rivalry between Roberts and Sheene was always good for a laugh ................... Sheene`s " Roberts couldn`t develop a cold . never mind a motorcycle " , was countered by Roberts " If I`m as bad as he says I am , then why am I winning all the time ? ... ¬ ........
One last parting shot from Kenny Roberts ........ " If it wasn`t for Barry Sheene , I`d still be racing in America ......... " ....
Ha ha, Vince, but then what would happen to the forum?