End of the future

With the sport dominated by four-stoke powered bikes since 1949, Newcombe and the Konig 500 introduced the first four-cylinder 500cc two-stroke into Grand Prix, ushering in the two-stroke racing era that would last until 990cc four-stroke Motogp bikes took over from 2002. Newcombe had planned to produce up-rated Konig’s for 1974 based on his successful 1973 machine. Superior disc brakes would replace the now well outdated drum units. The weight was to be reduced significantly as the large brass radiator was very heavy. From a portly 138.6kg, the 1974 Konig was to be reduced to just 114kg thanks to a number of technologies that included magnesium wheels, an alloy radiator, alloy disc brakes, and electron-coated cylinders. The Konig factory pulled out of Grand Prix racing at the end of 1975 after its last serious effort. Frenchman Christian Leon signed up to race Konigs used by the late Kim Newcombe for the 1975 season, equipped with two 500cc bikes and two spare engines, plus a 680cc Konig with one spare motor.the final 500cc version had the exhaust pipes exiting under the seat – now a common practice on today’s machines. Leon’s 680 machine sported some of Newcombe’s planned updates, including triple Brembo disc brakes front and rear running on magnesium wwheels, and Marzocchi froont forks. Reliability problems plagued the team,t who went on to recordr three top-10 finish hes with a best of seve enth, against some by no ow much improved coompetition from the facto ory Suzukis andyama has.