Innholdsfortegnelse for May 28, 2015 i Australian Motorcycle News

VICTORY MOTORCYCLES HAS decided a softly, softly approach to electric motorcycles is just not the way forward. Scant months after parent company Polaris purchased electric motorcycle manufacturer Brammo Inc, Victory has announced Isle of Man racer William Dunlop will ride a prototype electric motorcycle in this year’s Isle of Man TT Zero event. The American company, more famous for V-twin cruisers than high-tech racers, has confirmed it will campaign two Brammo-developed Empulse RR machines under the Victory banner at the Isle of Man TT which gets underway on Saturday, 30 May. The power and torque output of the electric bikes has been purposely reduced from 129kW and 225Nm to 112kW and 219Nm to improve efficiency over the daunting 37.75-mile Mountain course. Shock? Risk of electrocution in a crash will be…

Top T-Shirt “If you can't ride the one you love, love the one you ride” IF YOU LIVE within 100km of Sydney’s CBD and you weren’t at The Vic in Enmore for this year’s two-day Throttle Roll event: why not? That’s where all of your riding buddies were. In just its third year, Throttle Roll blew everyone’s expectations away, packing the streets of the inner city suburbs with bikes of all shapes and sizes. Local traffic was gridlocked as an estimated 1000 motorcycles converged on the lanes around The Vic to celebrate the booming custom bike culture. While the event has a café racer theme, Throttle Roll is a celebration of Australia’s motorcycle culture as a whole. Inside The Vic’s modestly sized beer garden, a collection of invited exhibitors displayed…

SPEEDWAY STAR JEFF Munro wasn’t the first motorcyclist to circumnavigate Australia; however he intended to have his ACU card stamped in all mainland capitals to secure the record. On 17 July, 1928, Munro, riding his 500cc Model ‘B’ Ariel, optimistically boarded the Wisemans Ferry and headed north. Three days later, lying under his machine on the freezing New England tableland, Munro had his first doubts. And, having vulcanised his first flat tyre while enduring a winter downpour, no doubt he entertained many more. Tumultuous rain on the glutinous black soil of the Darling Downs brought the journey to a standstill. Munro was utterly exhausted and when he fell off, he simply turned off the petrol and lay in the mud until his strength returned. In his weakened condition, he wasn’t…

WELL, BUGGER ME, the Kawasaki guy was right: the engine does want to please me. A LAMS-spec 249cc single pleasing a fully-licensed rider? Sure. Within reason. We get fed all sorts of guff when we pick up test bikes, so I wasn’t surprised when one of the Kawasaki staff handed over the bike with the comment: “The engine’s a beauty – it just wants to please you.” But please me it did as I hauled serious arse through traffic time and time again, the little single singing a merry song of pious pity to the car drivers stuck in crawling grid-lock. It pissed them off no end when that tiny bike slid to the front of yet another queue, then screamed off in a cloud of adolescent joy to find…

KTM 1050 Adventure Engine 1050cc V-twin Wheels F 19x3, R 17x4.5 Price $17,995 (+ORC) Suzuki V-Strom 650XT Engine 645cc V-twin Wheels F 19x2.5, R 17x4 Price $11,490 (+ORC) Honda VFR800X Crossrunner Engine 782cc V-four Wheels F 17x3.5, R 17x5.5 Price $14,499 (+ORC) Yamaha MT-09 Tracer Engine 847cc parallel twin Wheels F 17x3.5, R 17x4.5 Price $13,990 (+ORC) BMW F700GS Engine 798cc parallel twin Wheels F 19x2.5, R 17x3.5 Price $16,690 (+ORC)…

CFMOTO IS KTM’S Chinese partner, assembling various models for the Austrian firm in its Hangzhou factory, 160 km south of Shanghai, for sale in China. It says something about the operation, that KTM trusts them to build bikes living up to the badge on the tank in terms of quality. In the past four years, CFMoto has also expanded sales of its own range of 650cc parallel-twins around the world. Its 650NK nakedbike and 650TK hard bagger tourer are racking up sales in Australia, Europe and many Asian markets, as a well-priced product that’s 40 percent less expensive than the equivalent Kawasaki in Australia, for similar performance and comparable quality. CFMoto Power Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Chunfeng (meaning gentle breeze and hence CF) Holding Group, an engineering…

IN PREPARATION FOR AMCN’s big Adventure Issue, we thought we’d treat the big cat to some new trail shoes and see how this elder statesman of soft-roaders handles having a bit of gravel thrown at it. We chose Continental’s Trail Attack 2 tyres, to see if these Dual-Sport hoops are up to the challenge of hauling our long-term Triumph Tiger 1050 on its maiden off-road journey. The Trail Attack 2 tyres are designed for heavyweight adventure-touring bikes such as the KTM 1190 Adventure and the BMW R1200GS, but they also come in softroader-friendly 17-inch sizes for bikes such as our long-term Triumph Tiger 1050 Sport and Ducati’s Multistrada. They offer a multi-grip surface using only a single compound rubber thanks to the temperature controlled curing of the tyre during the…

Topsy-turvy qualifying meant this was bound to be a thriller. Precocious rookie Fabio Quartararo (E-G Honda) was on pole for a second successive race, team-mate Jorge Navarro alongside for a first front row, then Mapfre Mahindra’s Pecco Bagnaia likewise. Superfast Enea Bastianini (Gresini Honda), however, was in 18th. The top two in the championship, triple-winner Danny Kent and Efren Vazquez (both Leopard Honda) were officially unqualified, racing under special sanction, and starting 31st and 29th respectively. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) was 25th. Vazquez and Binder would not survive the first three corners; the latter taken out (along with Remy Gardner, CIP Mahindra) by crasher Gabriel Rodrigo’s sliding KTM, Vazquez crashing independently yards later. Up front, the usual tooth-and-nail. Niccolò Antonelli (Ongetta Honda) led away, with Bagnaia and a determined…

Michael Blair (Yamaha/Blairbuild/ Campbell Home Hardware/ARAI/R Statchi) came out on top of a rough and tumble Supersport scrap that delivered three different winners in three races. Blair seemed to get his Yamaha dialled in to the circuit over the weekend, placing third in race one and second in race two, before gapping the field in the final for a convincing win. Second overall went to Callum Spriggs (Yamaha YRD/ Allsite Concrete Cutting/HydroConstruction/YMI). He lacked the outright pace for a race win but used his head to claim a 2-3-3 scorecard. Round-one winner Brayden Elliott (Hankook Tyres/ Royan Truck Repairs) looked ready to repeat the feat with victory in race one. However, seventh in race two crushed his round victory chances. The youngster fought back, second in race three delivering third…

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) wants to wrap up the title quickly. He rode free from an early fight with foes old and new, to record his fourth straight win, as he goes for his fourth world crown. It was the Turkish rider’s 31st career victory – extending his own record – but he had the attention of Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) for most of the race, with the less predictable push of wildcard Kyle Ryde (Pacedayz European Trackdays Yamaha) harrying him for the first few laps. Sofuoglu’s win wasn’t as clear as he expected. He knew he had to keep his pace up and led Cluzel by 0.891sec at the end but said he was keeping something in reserve, just in case. “From the first day at…

JACK MILLER WAS “pissed off” he missed an opportunity to claim his first top-10 MotoGP finish at Le Mans. Miller crashed out of 12th place, ending a chance to make a claim on one of his rookie season goals. “For sure 10th place was on the cards at Le Mans, I was running a good pace with Petrucci and Hayden who were just ahead of me and normally I'm stronger at the end of a race,” said Miller who started 18th. “But it didn’t get to that point. “It was a bummer, I had great pace. I’m pissed off to throw it away like that, because I was in there for some decent points. “But a positive is I have improved my consistency and qualifying, plus I made another good…

A CURIOUS FACT has emerged at the near midway point of the 2015 season. Now everybody is getting used to having bikes with anything from 10 to 20bhp less than last year because of regulation changes, the best riders are still making improvements on the previous season’s pace, sometimes in lap times and sometimes in race times. Jonathan Rea is at a loss to explain why, except for the obvious reason that racing improves the breed, no matter what rules are introduced. “I dunno why we are going faster; the bike is the bike. We are certainly going faster, and faster than last year. In Imola I think the race was eight seconds faster than last year’s. I expect Donington’s race will be faster than last year. The problem is…

REIGNING AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S Motocross champion (WMX), Victorian Madison Brown (Yamaha), made a huge impression at the Women’s World MX Championship third round at Matterley Basin in the UK on 24 May, taking fourth overall in a field of 37 starters. This bumper grid is indication of the growing strength in women’s motocross, and particularly impressive in contrast to the 26 starters for the men’s MX1 races, and 27 on the grid for MX2. World WMX number two, Australia’s Meghan Rutledge, missed the round due to hand injuries sustained in training earlier in the year, while Australia’s other top performer at the WMX opening round, Western Australian Jessica Moore is also still out of action with a shoulder injury sustained at round two in Thailand. Australia’s two Husky-mounted World Motocross Championship…

WHAT IS THE significance of the Central Coast Cup meeting for dirt track, or to be precise track racing, staged recently for the tenth time? It is run by the Central Coast Junior Motorcycle Club – originally formed as the Central Coast Mini Bike Club in 1972 – which operates at the club’s Allen Park Complex near Gosford, NSW. The Club’s 40th anniversary celebrations in 2012 coincided with receiving the Club of the Year award from Motorcycling NSW, after president David Smith was named Official of the Year in 2010. Juniors and seniors are catered for in dirt track; since 1999, junior speedway is also part of the club’s activities, and there have been Australian and NSW Championships for all three disciplines staged there. Over the years many current and…

What got you interested in bikes? My dad was the Tassie importer for Hodaka, the dirtbikes with whacky names like Combat Wombat and Dirt Squirt. They were too big for me, but I managed to ride them around the local oval. When I was 14 or 15, I had a Yamaha DT125 that I rode on local trails then I got an IT175. I also did a bit of motocross and did pretty well in enduros. I later got into cars, then one day in 1985 I walked past the Suzuki dealership in Launceston and saw the brand-new GSX-R750 and thought, ‘I have to have one of those’. I sold all my car crap and got one. That led you straight into racing in 1986, right? Yeah, it was funny.…

FOR THE PAST few months Suzuki has been taking the unusual step of filing patents for elements of its GSX-RR MotoGP racer. The move has led to speculation it’s planning a roadbike spinoff using the same technology (AMCN Vol 64 No19). Now new documents confirm this, with elements specifically designed to be adapted for road use. The majority of Suzuki’s new innovations on the GSX-RR MotoGP bike have revolved around its airbox and intake system. The compact design allows the frame rails to run over the engine rather than around it, pitching inwards at the top (New Tech, AMCN Vol 64 No16) This latest patent is specifically about the air intake, which runs from the droopy mouth of the MotoGP bike, straight through the headstock, around an aerodynamically-sculpted channel and…

NEW ZEALAND START-UP company Ubco has revealed the prototype of its first electric motorcycle – the Ubco 2x2. Designed as a farm bike, the Ubco features a tubular alloy frame, swappable Li-ion battery and unique hub-mounted motors at both ends, providing the Ubco with two-wheel drive. With a four-hour charge time and a range of up to 150km on flat surfaces, it’s not aimed as a replacement for conventional bikes but as a new type of go-anywhere machine. Top speed is only 45km/h thanks to maximum power of just 2kW, but there’s 90Nm of torque so while it may be slow, it should be virtually unstoppable. Power comes equally from two 1kW air-cooled electric motors mounted in the wheel hubs. The battery pack can also be used to run power…

FOR MORE THAN a year Honda has been working to bring us a new Africa Twin, and after teasing with its True Adventure concept bike at EICMA in November, it has now released the first official images of the production version. While Honda is still too shy to reveal the Africa Twin in full, releasing two closely cropped and deeply shadowed images, we have been able to get hold of another set of pictures from the bike’s design patent which shows the entire bike in detail. The Africa Twin name will be used along with the title CRF1000L, aligning the new bike with the CRF250L to emphasise its intended real off-road capabilities. Honda has also confirmed the Africa Twin will be on sale in Europe before the end of this…

2015 Suzuki GSX-R600 Now in its 23rd year of production, Suzuki’s GSX-R600 has managed to step out of the shadow of its 750cc and 1000cc siblings and establish itself as a genuine supersport machine. Originally, it shared its chassis with the GSX-R750 but soon received its own unique frame. An all-new engine was introduced in 2007 as the package was steadily made lighter and faster. What’s it got A 599cc liquid-cooled, DOHC, 16-valve, inline four-cylinder engine provides power through a six-speed gearbox and slipper clutch. Fuelling is by Suzuki Dual Throttle Valve \ injection and the Suzuki Drive Mode Selector (S-DMS) offers two engine control maps. Front suspension is a fully adjustable 41mm USD Showa BPF (125mm travel) while the Showa rear shock is externally adjustable for rebound, compression and…

Letter of the issue Well done, sir! Paul Maloney… We who are about to rock salute you! What a completely ridiculous and necessary motorcycle you have built. The story of concept and delivery is as interesting as the motorcycle itself and this is something that should be shown (off) in engineering schools across the country and then to the greater motorcycling world. It is an example of design and proportion, as well as ambition and talent. I read the article about the PGM 2.0L V8, looked over the pictures with the lens from a projector beam head light to magnify the detail and then re-read the article again. It’s beautiful! It is insane! Well done, sir! One suggestion if I may? Change the name of the beast to PGM-1? As…

JUSTIN CHISHOLM’S LOYALTY to the Yamaha tuning fork logo stretches all the way back to when he was a kid, bashing around the local minibike tracks on a bright yellow GT80. As an adult and a custom bike builder, Chisholm has been given the opportunity to become reassociated with the Yamaha brand and channel his creative juices into the newly released Bolt C-Spec, a café racer version of Yamaha’s popular Bolt model. “I already had a soft spot for the regular Bolt, and the C-Spec has been done in such a cool way, I got one to customise when it was released,” Chisholm said. At the heart of the project is a bright yellow paint scheme based the GT80 he owned as a kid. The paint work was done by…

Triumph Tiger 800 XR Although it is the base model of the range, the XR still as comes standard with traction control, ABS, sump guard, 12v power supply, adjustable seat height, and is fitted with the same chassis, suspension and braking package as the XRx and XRT, and has the same engine peformance. Triumph Tiger 800 XRT The soon to be released XRT has the same spec as the XRx, with the addition of fog lamps, heated seats and grips, uprated 650W alternator, rear rails for the optional aluminium Expedition panniers, GPS mount, tyre pressure monitor, CNC'd brake reservoir, and aluminium radiator guard.…

WE RECEIVED RIZOMA’S Proguard Lever Protection System (brake guard) which offers protection against your brake lever from getting clipped and sending you over the handlebars should you get up a little close and personal during a race or you miss-judge that gap in traffic and clip a car’s mirror. Assembly and fitting is as easy as removing your original bar end with an allen key and replacing it with the Rizoma Proguard. There are adaptors in place to ensure there’s enough gap for your throttle to snap back in place plus you also have the option of purchasing a single Rizoma bar end for the clutch side for a more uniform look. All up the installation takes no more than 15 minutes and you’ll be ready to rub shoulders at…

There are several fantastic deviations along the south coast below Sydney, many of which involve running up and down the escarpment via glorious mountain passes just made for motorcycling. We took a run south from Sydney on the Princes highway recently and found a couple of less obvious detours that hug the coastline, and provide some respite from the heavily trafficked main roads. The Royal National Park is always a good start to a ride south and an early start often rewards you with a clear run through some great sections of corners in the park on the ride down to Stanwell Tops. Heading down the hill past the Scarborough Hotel leads you over Sea Cliff Bridge and out to Bulli, where you can choose to make up some time…

Yamaha’s Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance) has sent a clear signal to his rivals, including teammates: he’s in contention to secure his third consecutive Australian title (for three different manufacturers). He did that by claiming the overall win at the second round of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at Mallala Motorsport Park in SA. The win was far from a formality for the reigning champ, with Team Honda Racing Motologic riders Jamie Stauffer and round-one winner Troy Herfoss each getting a hand on the winner’s trophy, as the trio claimed a race victory apiece. But Maxwell’s consistency (1-4-2) accrued the winning tally ahead of Stauffer (5-3-1) and Herfoss (4-1-4). Herfoss, however, still holds a six-point lead in the championship over Maxwell, with Yamaha pilots Glenn Allerton and Cru Halliday…

Kicked hard out of his saddle, he broke his left heel guard clean off as he came back down and contact on the tarmac at Coppice bent his rear brake lever, which helped slow him down, as did some rear tyre feel issues. “Somebody was looking down on me because I accepted at one point that I had crashed and then landed perfectly back on, had a bit of a wobble and thought: ‘Okay, let’s go again.’ It was really lucky,” Rea said. He was happy to keep his dream season start going, still having no result lower than second. Beaten by Sykes, he knew his team-mate would be a threat after recent improvements, as well as riding at his favourite track. “Massive thanks to Kawasaki because this weekend we…

Kawasaki racer ‘Mad’ Mike Jones (Australian Outdoor Living/ Cube Racing) is well on his way to claiming the 2015 Australian Superbike championship. Jones put in another faultless performance at WA’s Barbagallo Raceway, setting the pace from Friday’s first practice session and claiming pole position during Saturday’s Superpole, just 0.071sec ahead of Yamaha rider Daniel Falzon (JD Racing/Caterpillar EPSA/ Yamaha). At the start of Race 1, Falzon got the jump on Jones, leading for three laps before Jones moved ahead and led to the chequered flag. Despite the win, Jones didn’t dominate in the fashion he did at the previous round in Queensland, Falzon crossing the line just 1.5sec behind. Local BMW rider Anthony McFadden (MCB Sports/Boreclean/Hydroquip Pumps/ Steves M-cycles) took third. Falzon again got the holeshot in race two and…

IN WHAT IS always a favourite circuit on the MX Nationals calendar, Murray Bridge again turned it on at round four in one of the most exciting weekends of racing this season. Monster MX1 In the Monster MX1 class, South Australian home-grown talent KTM Motocross Racing Team’s Kirk Gibbs proved why he continues to lead the MX1 championship, taking the opening race win ahead of CDR Yamaha teammates Kade Mosig and Daniel Reardon, who claimed second and third places respectively. In moto two, it was Gibbs who claimed his second hole-shot for the day and exit the first turn with a handy lead. However in race two, Gibbs’ lead was short lived: NPS Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Adam Monea found his form in the sand, snatching the number one position from…

THE JUNIOR CUP was a thriller with Billy van Eerde making a great start and then riding smart to hold off an ever-pressing Max Whale, with Mitchell James third. Van Eerde and Whale are the only two dirt track riders included in Motorcycling Australia’s inaugural Elite Performance Academy squad for 2015. There is plenty of similarity about them – both had birthdays in April, Whale turned 14, van Eerde 13, both started riding as four year olds, have ridden dirt and speedway while Whale has sampled supermoto and van Eerde motocross. Max lives at Coondoo, Qld, which means frequent trips down to the Hunter region in particular, while the van Eerde family moved from Townsville to Singleton last year so Billy now has the chance to ride, in some discipline,…

Grid talk THE RESURGENCE OF Ducati Corse, in both MotoGP and World Superbikes is unmistakeable. The man behind many of Ducati Corse’s improvements is Luigi ‘Gigi’ Dall’Igna. We caught him at Imola WSBK for a chat. How much resource goes into MotoGP and WSBK? Some say 90 to 10 percent For me, 70 percent to 30 percent: 90 to 10 makes no sense. Ducati is probably the most important supersport motorcycle brand. So racing is important. If we take part in a championship we try to win. Was the main change in the MotoGP bike, chassis, engine or electronics? It was not just one big fundamental problem. The problems are many and you have to solve all these problems. It is not possible to make up half a second in…

ACCORDING TO OUR sources in Japan, the production version of Honda’s RC213V-S road-going MotoGP replica is set to make its debut at the Catalunya round of the MotoGP championship next month. Revealed as a concept bike at EICMA 2014, the RC213V-S was first announced back in 2012, with the plan being to incorporate Honda’s Grand Prix bike technology into a road-legal machine. Since then, it’s been a willthey-or-won’t-they affair, with warring factions within Honda vying to cancel or continue the project. Now it appears to finally have been given the green light, and cashed-up buyers will begin receiving their bikes in 2016. Specifications are believed to be virtually identical to the RC213V racer, with the addition of road-ready addenda such as lights, mirrors and an emissions control kit to make…

YAMAHA WILL LAUNCH its first full-production electric motorcycles next year, and they will be direct descendents of the PES1 sports and PED1 off-road electric concepts revealed at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. Yamaha has published a flurry of patents relating to the PES1 and PED1, revealing for the first time some of the technical details of these near-production machines. The two models share the same chassis, battery and motor unit despite their very different intended markets. The majority of the space inside the bikes is taken up by batteries – even the frame is referred to as a battery case. At the bikes’ unveiling, Yamaha mentioned the batteries would be swappable, and the new patents show that lifting the top cover of the frame reveals a pair of suitcase-style battery…

SUZUKI’S EXTRIGGER concept bike revealed in 2013 might be closer to production with new patents revealing details of the technology under its plastic skin. The Monkey Bike-style Extrigger is an interesting take on electric bikes, not attempting to replace traditional petrol-fuelled models and instead focusing on the fun of a small, short-range machine: it’s more of a toy than a serious mode of transport. But despite the playful façade, there’s little reason it couldn’t work as city transport – Honda’s similarly-styled but conventionally powered MSX125 Grom has proved a surprise hit, particularly in America, for the same reason. The latest patent revolves around the bike’s cast aluminium frame, which bolts together from a few simple pieces around the central electric motor and battery pack. Unlike Yamaha’s production-intended PES1 and PED1,…

SIDDHARTHA LAL’S PLAN to make Royal Enfield a serious global player by reviving its British heritage is continuing at great speed with the Indian-based company purchasing legendary British chassis manufacturer Harris Engineering. The deal includes Harris’ assets, employees, trade names, knowhow and intellectual property. Over the past four decades Harris Engineering, run by brothers Steve and Lester, has forged a reputation as master chassis designers. The company also developed the chassis for the Royal Enfield Continental GT. Royal Enfield is believed to have a number of new projects on the go, including an adventure bike (AMCN Vol 64 No 17) Royal Enfield has also been busy setting up a new R&D facility in the UK, employing former Ducati designer Pierre Terblanche, along with a number of ex-Triumph staff. Signing the…

WHEN TROY BAYLISS made a comeback to the World Superbike series this year, he was struck by the technological jump motorcycles had taken since he retired seven years earlier. The science of riding hasn’t changed a great deal in that time, but the number of buttons and knobs fitted to a modern superbike to adjust all manner of electronic settings has made the cockpit of a modern racer a very busy place. And electronic wizardry isn’t confined to factory racers – swing a leg over any of the latest road-legal superbikes and you’ll probably find yourself reeling from the technology on offer. However, a new patent by Yamaha reveals it has plenty more electronic gizmos on the go. What is it? It’s called a Rider Characteristic Assessment Device – not…

WHEN SOMEONE MENTIONS Ducati, it’s hard not to think about its best seller, the Ducati Monster – an easy to ride nakedbike designed to appeal to young, style-conscious folk who want a bike that can be tailored to their own indivualistic needs. So by the late 90s Ducati had released several limited edition Monsters with a host of accessories. Sound familiar? The Scrambler is a re-fashioned take on a Ducati from the 1970s, the single-cylinder RT450, but with all the newfangled gadgetry of a modern bike. I tested the Ducati Scramber Icon, one of four variants available – the others are Urban Enduro, Full Throttle and Classic. The Icon is the base model in the Scrambler line-up. Powered by a tweaked Ducati Monster 796 engine, it’s got plenty of bottom-end…

1. Throttle role There are four throttle maps which can be selected on the new Tiger XRx, XRT, XCx and XCA models. All maps give full maximum power, but adjust the rate at which it is introduced via the flyby-wire control. The throttle maps, Road, Rain, Sport, and Off-Road, are tailored for varying road conditions, and range from sharp and responsive Sport, to more docile and tractable in Rain 2. Tanked up How do you increase your tank volume from 19 to 22 and a quarter litres without using compressed air or more metal? No need! Just use 17 percent less fuel. Triumph claim efficiencies have been found through the engine revisions and some very clever and careful emissions calibration work, which add up to the equivalent of an extra…

FURY ROAD IS two-hour nonstop vehicle chase that makes travelling home afterwards in city traffic a surreal experience. Director George Miller might be 70 years old and living well from the proceeds of films about talking pigs and dancing penguins but he proves he’s still a revhead at heart. Thirty years on, he has also proved Tina Turner was wrong when she sang “We don’t need another hero” in the last Mad Max film, 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome. Miller has Max Rockatansky MIA in the 2015 reboot of the Mad Max franchise. He loses his beloved Interceptor in the opening scenes and then takes a backseat to the feisty, one-armed trucker Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Miller has taken the spotlight off Max to create an experience that empowers women in the way…

IT’S HARD TO think of a bike that was so ridiculed on debut yet went on to be so successful that it started a whole new motorcycle genre. It wasn’t just the fact that BMW had shoe-horned a flat-twin shaft-drive powertrain into what looked like a trail bike with a disc front brake, but the rear wheel was only supported on one side and the whole thing was topped off with a stark white and two-tone blue tank and contrasting orange seat. It was the oddball trifecta: strange concept; strange engineering; and strange styling. The R80G/S wasn’t however the brainchild of a mad man, nor was it hastily cobbled together as a show special or ‘concept’ bike to get tongues wagging. Shown at Cologne and sampled by the motorcycle press…

Fortunes swing back and forth in racing, but for two years the pendulum’s been stuck in Marc Marquez’s pocket. For 2015, it’s been released. And its random swinging is making a compelling championship. For Jorge Lorenzo, good fortune and his impeccable accuracy served him at Le Mans, just as they did in Jerez. He didn’t quite make pole; a sensor problem spoiled his run. But he took the lead on lap one, and was never headed. Win number two. Fortune smiled also on Movistar Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi: a gamble on settings to improve braking paid off. “My bike was fantastic. I could overtake and ride as I liked.” In this way he could beat the factory Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso and heroic injury victim ‘Maniac Joe’ Iannone. But try…

A different race winner added a little spice to an austere Moto2 race, the front four settling the order early. It may have been at record pace, but the excitement was in the battle for fifth. Star rookie Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas Kalex) and Texas winner Sam Lowes (Speed Up) tied for pole, the Spaniard getting it on count-back. But Rins messed up his start again, finishing lap one in ninth. It was Johann Zarco (Ajo Kalex) leading from Lowes by the time they got to the end of the first lap, with Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Kalex) and defending champ Tito Rabat (E-G VDS Kalex) leading Taka Nakagami (Idemitsu Kalex). Luthi soon moved to second, and set about the leader. By lap five he was ahead; a new lap record…

He loves Donington, and not just because it is his home track. He and his Kawasaki have become almost unbeatable as the schizophrenic 4.023km circuit, with the first corners all fast and the last bit all hairpins and chicanery. Sykes is at a loss to explain why he likes Donington or why it loves him back, but after starting the season looking like he may never win a race under the new technical rules, he won both 23-lap contests fair and square. It was a transformational day in many ways, and a weekend laden with much-missed success coming back to visit. “I didn’t realise that now I have the same wins at Donington as Carl Fogarty, so that is a little bit of history, and six wins on the bounce…

WITH HUGE chassis tolerances almost urging teams to go to go the extremes allowable, tighter WSBK chassis rules have been introduced, although some degree of freedom remains. Headstock bearings can be moved back and forward 6mm. The rear swingarm pivot can be moved within a 5mm concentric circle of the homologated pivot point, so geometry changes can be substantial, track-to-track. Otherwise, stock frames only, please. FIM technical boss Scott Smart explained there are lots of checks made to make sure everybody follows the new rules. “The first step is to confirm that the homologated drawings and what comes off the production line are the same. “We also have a measuring arm; on the end of it is a little metal ball with a trigger. You can put that ball on…

FIVE RACES GONE , 13 to come, and the 2015 MotoGP season has been dazzling. Close racing, unpredictable results. And a scenario hardly imaginable after two years of domination by boy wonder Marc Marquez and the near-perfect Honda. For 2015, there remain four realistic title candidates. The complete Yamaha YZR-M1s piloted by Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are riding high. And the biggest surprise, Ducati’s shiny new 2015 bike has come out of the pits fighting for victory. This is the last year of full factory bikes. This is a prize everyone wants. And while Marquez and his until-now mighty RC213V are at the back of the leading pack, only a fool would count the defending champ out. Mugello, the next round, is always a special race. Rossi leads on…

THE PREMIUM EVOLUTION of the 2015 Suzuki GSX-RR may not appear until the Indianapolis Grand Prix in August. That is when Suzuki hope its delayed seamless shift gearbox will be added to a more powerful engine spec and chassis refinements. The timing is not ideal but reflects Suzuki’s focus on adding a reliable 15-plus horsepower to its troubled V4 motor. While Suzuki’s precise handling chassis has been the mainstay of its return to MotoGP, the keenly awaited additions are top speed as well as a seamless shifter, like Honda and Yamaha. The ’box was anticipated for the recent Spanish GP at Jerez but was put on the back burner as factory engineers searched for reliable horsepower. Riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales have scored six top 10s in five races…

REIGNING MULTIPLE AUSTRALIAN dirt track and supermoto champion Troy Bayliss made his American AMA Pro Flat Track debut last weekend, 23-24 May, at the Springfield Mile in Illinois. Bayliss failed to qualify to the main event on the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Ducati, but was happy with his progress on what was a very steep learning curve. American flat track is a whole different discipline to our own home-grown dirt track racing, particularly the ultra-fast mile races held at fairgrounds across USA, where the twin-cylinder up to 1250cc machines of the GNC1 class reach speeds over 200km/h. Bayliss said, “I'm really pleased with the way things went. These guys are younger than me and they cut their teeth in this sport. They’ve been doing it year-in and year-out for years and…

FORMER CHAMPIONS LEAD the way after two more rounds of the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix series as inconsistency between meetings, and even during meetings, has seen most challengers falter. The Finnish SGP in Tampere on 16 May produced the first win in almost three years for Nicki Pedersen, while a week later Tai Woffinden won his third consecutive Czech Republic round in Prague to take the championship lead from Pedersen. Those two former champions, along with the most likely champion-in-waiting Jaroslaw Hampel, appeared in the final at both rounds and while another former champion, Greg Hancock, bowed out in the semis both times, he has scored consistently enough to sit in fourth place overall. Best of the Australian trio to date is clearly debutant Jason Doyle who really looks at…