During the 1950s, huge all-enveloping fairings were used across all GP classes.
These so-called ‘dustbin’ fairings were painstakingly constructed from hand-beaten aluminium and increased speeds significantly. But they were banned at the end of the 1957 season because they were blamed for causing numerous accidents, especially in side winds.
In 1974 MV Agusta attached winglets to Phil Read’s 500 at super-fast Spa-Francorchamps, but they were never seen again.
Four years later New Zealand bike racer and astrophysicist Rodger Freeth created huge Formula 1-style wings for his Yamaha TZ750 (photo left). The rear wing was about 70cm wide and was quickly banned.
Around the same time, Suzuki fitted smaller winglets to the RG500s used by Barry Sheene and Pat Hennen. These increased front downforce and thus front tyre temperature, which was sometimes an advantage and sometimes a disadvantage. However, Suzuki soon gave up this avenue of development.
Wings returned in the early days of MotoGP, when Aprilia and Ducati briefly tried them, but once again they didn’t stay around for long.
