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27 - A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen |
Going onto 1977, did you feel as though there was a lot more pressure?
No, no. I put the pressure on myself. I remember in Switzerland and we had a meal and Oriel was there, Manuel was there and everybody was laughing and joking but I was very quiet. Oriel looked at me and said Vesty, what is the matter. I replied, everything is fine. Oriel said, but you are deep in your thoughts. I replied, yes, I was and Oriel asks me what about. I replied that I was thinking about the 1977 season, already this was at my evening meal in 1976 for winning the 76 championship. I built the pressure on myself.
Are you feeding back any bike changes you are making and information back to the factory or wasn't that how it worked?
I think at that time, the 1975 early bike had a new gearbox already, it look like a standard and normal bike but it had the new gearbox which enables us to go much faster on the road which is great. When time is tight as it's important to be able to go fast on the road without the risk of seizing the bike. You see, Bultaco had a habit of seizing up especially when doing the road work. Dave Thorpe and I was laughing about it because we're always hoping that the bike would seize up early on so that it is out of the way. Once the bike has seized up once and that is out of the way the bike is still running, it won't see that again so we had a new gearbox which was good apart from that we had a modified inlet port on the cylinder. We have become standard on the new bikes, it was a matter of getting the bike so it ran really well for instance. We will have to discard the factory exhaust packing because they were half empty or had nothing at all, they will never fall every bike was somewhat different so you need to find a good useful bike. In 1977, I have notably 2 bikes. One has the registration plate AS-1 and then also AS-325. The AS-1, I plan to use it for the world championship and made this the tool for the job, but the engine was that much worse and than AS-325. The AS-1 actually became my practice bike. Each bike varied greatly.
No, no. I put the pressure on myself. I remember in Switzerland and we had a meal and Oriel was there, Manuel was there and everybody was laughing and joking but I was very quiet. Oriel looked at me and said Vesty, what is the matter. I replied, everything is fine. Oriel said, but you are deep in your thoughts. I replied, yes, I was and Oriel asks me what about. I replied that I was thinking about the 1977 season, already this was at my evening meal in 1976 for winning the 76 championship. I built the pressure on myself.
Are you feeding back any bike changes you are making and information back to the factory or wasn't that how it worked?
I think at that time, the 1975 early bike had a new gearbox already, it look like a standard and normal bike but it had the new gearbox which enables us to go much faster on the road which is great. When time is tight as it's important to be able to go fast on the road without the risk of seizing the bike. You see, Bultaco had a habit of seizing up especially when doing the road work. Dave Thorpe and I was laughing about it because we're always hoping that the bike would seize up early on so that it is out of the way. Once the bike has seized up once and that is out of the way the bike is still running, it won't see that again so we had a new gearbox which was good apart from that we had a modified inlet port on the cylinder. We have become standard on the new bikes, it was a matter of getting the bike so it ran really well for instance. We will have to discard the factory exhaust packing because they were half empty or had nothing at all, they will never fall every bike was somewhat different so you need to find a good useful bike. In 1977, I have notably 2 bikes. One has the registration plate AS-1 and then also AS-325. The AS-1, I plan to use it for the world championship and made this the tool for the job, but the engine was that much worse and than AS-325. The AS-1 actually became my practice bike. Each bike varied greatly.
1977 and the Blackwater group of sections . The 2nd photo shows Vesty at Rubha Rudha.
A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen photo Iain Lawrie
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A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen photo Iain Lawrie
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Are you contributing towards the development of the bikes down at the factory or is that not really how it worked?
Yes, all the time, but they were normally subtle changes or maybe changes to make the bike that much stronger, like reinforcing the swinging arm. I think I was the first person to start reinforcing this area because it would flex the lower mounting points of the rear shocks with sag, so we put a gusset on the swinging arm, things like that, but the 1977 bike was a very nice bike, the engine of the bike was very nice and handling was good I was pretty happy with the bike to be truthful.
In the 1977 season, did you just ride the one bike?
No no no. I have records of it showing that I rode 2 bikes for the early part of the year. I rode the long stroke bike for Scotland and prior to that I used the bike which is registered as AR- 554, which is currently unaccounted for. I have been searching for it in Finland, but it hasn't surfaced. So in total I competed on three bikes and I also ran a practice bike. AS- 325 is the bike I used to win the Championship for the second half of the season.
Yes, all the time, but they were normally subtle changes or maybe changes to make the bike that much stronger, like reinforcing the swinging arm. I think I was the first person to start reinforcing this area because it would flex the lower mounting points of the rear shocks with sag, so we put a gusset on the swinging arm, things like that, but the 1977 bike was a very nice bike, the engine of the bike was very nice and handling was good I was pretty happy with the bike to be truthful.
In the 1977 season, did you just ride the one bike?
No no no. I have records of it showing that I rode 2 bikes for the early part of the year. I rode the long stroke bike for Scotland and prior to that I used the bike which is registered as AR- 554, which is currently unaccounted for. I have been searching for it in Finland, but it hasn't surfaced. So in total I competed on three bikes and I also ran a practice bike. AS- 325 is the bike I used to win the Championship for the second half of the season.
A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen
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A detailed career interview with 3 x World motorcycle Trials Champion Yrjö Vesterinen
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How did Bultaco respond to the fact that you won 12 championships for them? Did your pay go up, did you get some bonus?
Bultaco contracts always included rewards for results and I was pretty happy with the payout. I didn't know what the other riders will be paid and I never asked anything to that effect because I didn't want that to become an issue. I knew that reputedly Malcolm was earning more money and it was pretty clear that Mick Andrews was on more money. The others, I really don't know that. In hindsight, I would have ridden the bike for free with my own sponsorship, yes, I got that from the outside if I had needed to do this because I wanted to ride Bultaco, they didn't know that but if I did really have to come to that I would have done that and I would have been able to do that.
Do you look back at those times and wish that you might've had the opportunity to ride some of these other brands in competition?
No no no, because quite honestly I thought the other bikes were rubbish. I have the best bike in my opinion. I never compromise on the bike ever when I rode for Montesa in 1980. I have no other choice because the company had folded and I had nowhere else to go. But when I had the choice to ride our bikes even if he offered me double the money or triple the money, I wouldn't of taking it. When Bultaco folded, at the end, it all happened so quickly and so suddenly that I have nowhere else to go.
Bernie said the same thing that in 1979 and that when he was faced with an uncertain future with Bultaco and more of a future with Italjet so he went in that direction.
Bultaco contracts always included rewards for results and I was pretty happy with the payout. I didn't know what the other riders will be paid and I never asked anything to that effect because I didn't want that to become an issue. I knew that reputedly Malcolm was earning more money and it was pretty clear that Mick Andrews was on more money. The others, I really don't know that. In hindsight, I would have ridden the bike for free with my own sponsorship, yes, I got that from the outside if I had needed to do this because I wanted to ride Bultaco, they didn't know that but if I did really have to come to that I would have done that and I would have been able to do that.
Do you look back at those times and wish that you might've had the opportunity to ride some of these other brands in competition?
No no no, because quite honestly I thought the other bikes were rubbish. I have the best bike in my opinion. I never compromise on the bike ever when I rode for Montesa in 1980. I have no other choice because the company had folded and I had nowhere else to go. But when I had the choice to ride our bikes even if he offered me double the money or triple the money, I wouldn't of taking it. When Bultaco folded, at the end, it all happened so quickly and so suddenly that I have nowhere else to go.
Bernie said the same thing that in 1979 and that when he was faced with an uncertain future with Bultaco and more of a future with Italjet so he went in that direction.