With the MotoGP Proton KRV5 project finished, Kenny Roberts came up with the idea of creating a very special bike with the V5 engine, the Roland Sands KRV5 Tracker.
When you first see it you think it’s just another crazy idea from American tuner Roland Sands, and it is, but if you look at its engine you’ll see that it’s very special.
This KRV5 Tracker is a handmade motorcycle, a style reminiscent of board racers -or board trackers-, competition motorcycles from the 30s that raced on wooden tracks, with large tires, minimalist chassis and designed around the engine, the absolute protagonist. .
Well, this is what this very special KRV5 Tracker is like, a motorcycle that King Kenny and Roland Sands agreed to create at the 2005 Laguna Seca GP, and which would see the light of day a year later, in July 2006.
It’s a crazy bike, because with 200bhp, a single front disc brake, no rear suspension and clip-ons, it shouldn’t be easy to ride.
Kenny Roberts Sr. commissioned Roland Sands to create this bike in 2005
Into Roland Sands’ trellis-tubular steel chassis they fit the V5 like a glove, custom-made, of course.
They added an inverted fork from a Suzuki GSX-R 1000, a huge 23″ Contrast Cut Judge Wheel front rim, plus a 21″ rear of the same make and style, with a chunky 250 tire.
In the first designs, the rims were lenticular, but with measurements of 23 and 21 inches they were like real sails, very sensitive to the wind, as well as heavy. So they forgot about them and mounted some alloy sticks.
Another crazy thing was to design the bike without a front brake, just a rear one, like the real board racers… But luckily they realized that it was not a good idea and they added a front disc…
It’s a tribute to the board trackers of the 1930s, but with an infinitely more powerful motor…
As for the V5 engine, from the defunct Proton KRV5, some telemetry components were removed, a cooling radiator also from MotoGP was added, and the original exhaust manifolds were kept, although slightly modified.
A minimal gas tank with the initials KR on its sides, a single-seater leather seat -which is like that of a bicycle-, a tube handlebar of sport position and a steering damper complete this beast.
Kenny Roberts rode with it at the 2006 Laguna Seca GP, the day the bike was handed over, promised by Roland Sands, and he was enthusiastic.
Being a motorcycle not approved for riding on the street, its destiny was to be locked up in King Kenny’s private museum, where one day it will come out again to thunder the world with its V5 engine.
