Rob Rhind-Tutt: Mr Wasp
The man who revolutionised Sidecar MX with his Wasp frame kits and later engines,
Charles Norman “Rob” Rhind-Tutt, died in UK on September 4th at the age of 78.
As a machine shop apprentice initially working for the Department of Defence, Robin was soon tinkering with motorcycles and by the mid 1960s was making frame kits for both solo and sidecar motocross racing, becoming known for the exceptional quality of his work. Customers queued up, so in 1968 Robin abandoned his position at the DoD and set up shop fulltime, initially working from home. Within two years, he had bought premises nearby, with the product now branded Wasp. This was the year of the inaugural European Sidecar Championship which was won by Dutchman Rikus Lubers on a Wasp. In Britain, Mike Guilford, who worked for Rhind-Tutt, became the ruling force in Sidecar MX. During his time in business, Robin built more than 5,000 frames for solos, sidecars and quads, competing in grass track, motocross, speedway and road race. The small company also made leading link forks for various models of road and off-road motorcycles, as well as replica Metisse frame kits. With the supply of Norton and Triumph engines drying up, Rob commissioned engineers John Hardcastle and Alan Baker to build a 1000cc parallel twin (180ø crank) engine, of which about 50 were made.