A lot has been written in the magazines lately about the new Motoczysz bike (both Cycle World and Roadracing World have done recent articles) and the bike is also generating a lot of buzz on the blogs and motorcycle news web sites. Add in the recent magazine articles and books about John Britten’s bikes in the early ’90s and the buzz Kenny Roberts is generating with his KTM engined Proton MotoGP bike and you have full blown resurgence in underdog appreciation.

First, let me say that the MotoCzysz project is very cool. Any time someone goes into their garage and comes out with something that is new, interesting and more importantly that actually works, it is worth celebrating. That this team have put together something on their own is fantastic and I wish them all the best.

However, with that said, I think much of the buzz is more wishful thinking than honest appraisal. Everyone wants to see the underdog succeed. Lots of folks want to see someone stick it to the man. We grew up with fairy tales about the little people accomplishing the impossible. How can you not want to see Motoczysz come up with a viable MotoGP bike? Not to throw a wet blanket on the excitement but lets look at the three most recent examples with a critical eye…

First, I’ll commit the heresy of actually criticizing the Britten. The bike was many thing…innovative, beautiful, soulful sounding, creative and powerful. But as a race bike, it still needed a lot of refinement. I saw the thing race two different times: First in ‘92 at Daytona with Andrew Stroud and then again a year later at Road Atlanta with Nick Ienatsch. Both times the bike was stunningly fast but its handling characteristics were scary to watch. At Daytona, the bike had a high speed weave so pronounced it was visible from the pit area. Likewise, at Road Atlanta I talked with Nick in the pits and he mentioned the Britten he was riding had a head shake on the back straight which was causing him to roll off the throttle before the old “Gravity cavity”. To paraphrase Rob Muzzy “underpowered bikes always handle well”. Its getting them to handle well with power that is the trick. Additionally, the Britten suffered from reliability issues. The 1992 Dayonta Twins race came to an end with a failed electrical connector. Ienatsch’s Road Atlanta race ended even worse when one of the cam belts broke and wrecked the motor. The extreme of this is the 1994 Isle of Man disaster where a carbon fiber wheel came apart resulting in the death of rider Mark Farmer. The Britten was revolutionary but even after years of development was far from a finished product.

Second, the TeamKR Proton which hopes to start its ninth year of GP competition next season and has long been touted as the ultimate “David versus Goliath” story with Mr. Roberts and his gang taking on the might of Japan. While the image has a grand romantic story book quality too it, the analogy isn’t very accurate unless David’s main job was harassing Goliath with spit balls. The V3 version of the Proton had great promise but other than a few odd rain races or heroic qualifying sessions, the bike failed to live up to its lofty goals. The V5 four-stroke had an even more abysmal record despite having even more hype surrounding it. Initial reports of the new KTM motored version indicate their back sliding may have stopped but it has a long way to go in both reliability, power and rider results before the project can truly be considered an effective alternative to the power of Japan, Inc.

Finally, no Grand Prix underdog article can really be written without at least mentioning the WCM Grand Prix machine. So there, I’ve mentioned it. Nothing more really needs to be said…

I’m excited to see another person enter the fray that is roadracing competition with their own bike and I think the project may generate more interest in the Laguna Seca round of the 2005 MotoGP season since it is certain to continue to get more press. That is also a good thing. But I’m very skeptical that they’ll make the race or, if they do, that they’ll qualify. Its a long way from a garage in Portland to a garage in the big leagues of MotoGP. Still, skepticism be damned, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for them since I like to cheer for the underdog too…

[image from USA Superbike web page]