Page 131 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)
P. 131
sport
Where are they now? Greg McDonald – The Aussie with a brain for frames
“Going feet-first into a wall taught
me bent bikes don’t handle”
IN JULY 1993, Greg McDonald McDonald raced a yacht racing.”
took his GMD Computrack variety of bikes, At 15, McDonald joined the
chassis measuring machine to including this TZ350 NSW railways as an apprentice
Japan, where he demonstrated electrical mechanic. He
it to Hideo ‘Pops’ Yoshimura. bought a Honda S90 to get
He was 42 and had poured 11 home to Villawood and found
years into the project, with he enjoyed riding more than
fellow ex-racer Dr Richard sailing. A second job cleaning
‘Fred’ Bassett writing the meant he could afford a Ducati
software. It was make or break. Desmo 250.
“I had $20 and a ticket back to He started watching races
Sydney,” McDonald said. “If it at Oran Park, upgraded to a
hadn’t worked out, I’d have had Kawasaki Mach III and began
to leave the machine and revert racing. A switch to Bryan
to pressing crankshafts.” Hindle’s Yamaha TD2 saw him
He measured an F1 win four races at Calder and
endurance racer and told Pop’s set a C-Grade lap record at
daughter Namiko the price: Oran Park.
$80,000. “I crashed at Oran Park,
“Pops said, ‘this is the new restricted aerospace laser going feet-first into a wall.
frontier and I want to be the encoders to provide the That taught me bent bikes
first’, so he bought it.” measurement accuracy he don’t handle.”
Four months later, wanted. McDonald spent nine
McDonald made his first Next, Greg started using months working in Kevin
sale in Atlanta, Georgia the prototype to measure the Cass’s shop in Wollongong,
to Kent Soignier, who still geometry of racing machines. where he learned to press
runs a licensed Computrack Based on those measurements, crankshafts. He rose through
workshop. McDonald went on he developed a list of eight the racing ranks on a Yamaha
to sell 56 machines, licence key set-up parameters for a TZ350A and his last racing bike
34 workshops world wide racing machine. When he was a Suzuki RG500 Mk I.
and install machines in 70 applied these in Australia, first He spent five years pressing
locations. with Tony Hatton then Peter articles, tutorials and a website. cranks for two-stroke engines;
Buyers ranged from Honda Goddard’s Suzuki Superbike He describes himself as “it was just production work.
USA, BMW, KTM, Yamaha and all the distributor Teams pedantic. He’s hard to keep up So I went into chassis repair
USA to Team Roberts, Suzuki for Yamaha and Kawasaki and with when he’s in full flight; the in a new workshop with an
GP to Harley-Davidson. H-D a multitude of private teams, thoughts tumble out on topics imported alignment machine.
bought six, one for the VR1000 the riders began describing such as chain-pull moment, “But the machine was junk
project and the remainder for how their bikes felt “sweet”. tolerances and stiction. and the manufacturer frame
its product development and McDonald’s settings became He makes some striking specifications were inaccurate;
production line audit. “sweet numbers”. observations… I needed something that could
In 30 hectic years attending Greg McDonald is now 69, “The first one or two measure a complete bike.”
trade shows, establishing living in Sydney’s Inner West millimetres the front or rear Eleven years later he had
workshops and consulting, he and still consulting on racing suspension has to move one. Once he could measure
logged a million air miles. chassis – remotely, as he determines whether it will slip chassis and collect feedback
Computrack was born out has been doing for decades, or grip,” he says. he could analyse and fix them.
of McDonald’s dissatisfaction because he is troubled by Interestingly, McDonald McDonald set up for local
with chassis-checking tools noise at circuits. He still has came to motorcycles via ocean Superbikes, then international
then on the market and several licensed workshops to yacht racing. enduro, endurance, MX,
wanting to measure a complete support and flies sport kites, “I was born in Sydney but Superbike, Supersport and
bike. He had a workshop in goes mountain biking to clear spent 11 years in Tenterfield, GP teams. Machines with
Revesby in Sydney pressing his head and does his own Queensland. I was into his input have won six world
crankshafts and doing crash mountain-bike anti-squat billycarts and pulling old championships.
repairs. He created a three- suspension with a ‘Greg- telephones apart to see how Along the way he won 1988
axis linear probe, with a ulator’ pivot. they worked. Moving back Australian Innovation of the
carbon-fibre main frame he McDonald spreads the word to the city was a shock for a Year, but he is largely unsung,
dubbed ‘Boris’. He bought on chassis geometry, via tech free-range kid [and] I found even locally. DON COX
amcn.com.au 129
