The Ubiquitous Yamaha TZ Grand Prix Racing Bike

The photo below is not the best, but it tells a story. Lol. the bike behind me (Not mine) is a TZ J model straight from the Factory. The crates had arrived two week prior and the bike had been shacken down and setup a week before this meeting at Adelaide International Raceway. shakedown and setup had been facilitated by two Yamaha Factory Works engineers coming over to help them get it right. competing against these, and later the K and L models on my D model chassis, with F model engine made for interesting times. Lol. The tyres in the front corner of my trailer were some slicks they had finished with and gave me. Nothing like racing against a J model on your old D model frame and F model engine, using the slicks they gave you because they reckoned they had gone off. HaHaHa. That is how I learnt to go into very fast corners open and as the front end started to slide I would start to spin the backend to steer the sliding front end. The method of doing that became more common when radial slicks became available but on crossply slicks was very very dicey thing to be having to do. And trtaction control wasnt hear of in those days!!! Traction control was in your throttle hand! :-)




The big roll of Duct tape in my hand is about to be applied to my right racing boot. I had a beutiful set of tailor made Rossi soft leather racing boots that I loved. the problem was I had ground a hole through the little toe part on each boot as I used to scrape my rear set pegs and at times in huge powered slides the exhaust headers would scrape as the front wheel folded under, which was a point at which I became bothered. Lol. I used the tip of my boots as an indicator of how far before the headers started scraping. I used to cut up coke cans and wrap around them and then duck tape them up before every race. worked perfectly. but the scrutineers gave me a really bad time over them regularly and it got very animated at times. eventually my dad ended up taking everything through scruteneering for me, which seemed to work better for all concerned. Lol. I had a massive argument with them which they never got over, as they were making a big deal about these little holes in my boots that might result in my toe nails getting trimed. They has put a passed sticker on my bike, and I went off, as the bike had a dummy back wheel in it, missing many spokes, with an old street tyre that was flat and the axle wasnt done up tight and it didnt have a chain on it. It was just there to hold the bike in the gutter on the trailer as I didnt like putting my race wheels in the trailer gutter. I expressed my disbelief at their stupidity in passing the bike, yet hassling me over the little hole. Anyway, dad heard and saw all the noise going on and sent me off and sorted it out. Lol. Scrutineers!!! Man drove me mental, but, that said, they were voluteers and without them I didnt get to race, just like flag marshals..... etc. but I refused to appologise over that incident. It was just one too far. I kept using duct tape on my boots all through my racing career and stewards and scrutineers around Australia new about it, and ended up just laughing, seeing the joke that they are my toes, and let it go. I needed a Duct tape sponsor. Lol.

Ive ridden all sorts of modern and old bikes, street bikes, race bikes...... but to me nothing beats being on a piston ported TZ exiting a corner cranked over hard,crack the throttle and the jigger starts wheelstanding whilst your still cranked over. Piston ported TZ engines were the real deal!! reed valve TZs were much calmer things. riding them in the rain was always exciting.

The factorys and association brought the two stroke grand prix erea to a close due to declining grids. That wasnt a money issue, or bike availability issue, or the factories wanting out, the things had become so insanely powerful, with such brutal near uncontrollable power bands, that they struggled to get people who could actually ride them and stay on them two times in a row, and maybe go fast as well. Its a shame. But, I think its a decision that probably saved many lives. Riders regularly died racing these jiggers in the 70s and 80s, and after that erea things improved in that respect.



Yabby