Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 67 Issue 23 i Australian Motorcycle News

IN YEARS TO COME, this special issue of AMCN will be one I look back on proudly. The idea of a feature celebrating 40 years since Hailwood’s famous TT comeback was hatched more than a year ago. Over time that idea expanded to two features, and then into a themed issue. The original feature ideas were then scrapped when Hamish Cooper made contact with Jim Scaysbrook and Neil Cummins, and uncovered a cracking yarn behind the ’78 event. When Alan Cathcart sent through his track test of Hailwood’s TT-winning Ducati, we hatched a new plan and, thanks to the vision of the AMCN team, the result is what you now hold in your hands. Hamish uncovered a cracking yarn behind Hailwood’s famous TT comeback You would be hard-pressed to find…

GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH This year’s IOM TT battle between Ian Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop has all the ingredients to be one of the best ever. TARGET 135MPH 61 years after Scottish rider Bob McIntyre set the first 100mph average on the TT course, this year’s aces will be eyeing off the first 135mph lap. LEGENDS OUT Brit John McGuinness (23 wins) and Kiwi Bruce Anstey (12 wins) will be sorely missed at this year’s Isle of Man TT event, both on and off the circuit. 146 TOO MANY A total of 146 riders have lost their lives competing at the IOM since the annual event was first held in 1907.…

Congratulations Peter, you’ve scored a beaut Motul cap and T-shirt valued at $35, kindly supplied by our mates at Link International. Send an image and details about your two-wheeled pride and joy to access@amcn.com.au Giz a squiz Name: Peter Dicks Bike: Kawasaki ZX-10R He says I’m a 58-year-old bike nut. I’ve had my bike licence since I was 18, but started riding on an XR75 when I was 12 years old. I’ve owned dirt and road bikes since, including a CR500, KTM520, Husaberg 650, GSXR11OOK, ZX-10R and CBR1000RR just to name a few. I decided to buy a new Kawasaki ZX-10R in late 2012, and then I read in AMCN that the weight of the WSBK ZX-10R was 165kg, so I set myself the challenge to get the…

THE PLAN’S PRETTY simple. We asked Benelli Australia to throw us the bike which had the most kays on it in order to get a good sense of how this bike’s going to age and, to its credit, it did – happily. It’s just about due for a service, so we’ll go along and find out what it needs doing and what it’s likely to cost. We’re also pretty keen to unpick exactly what you do and don’t get with your two-years Roadside Assist as part of the bike’s warranty package. We’ve got a couple of trips planned; one of which is camping – that’ll let us trawl through the accessories catalogue and see what’s available, and another, which is 1600km over two days, so that will give us the…

FOR EIGHT SUCCESSIVE seasons the world’s first – and so far only – rotary-engined racebikes swept to serial success on British tracks. It all started in 1987 when Norton engineer Brian Crighton constructed a 120hp Spondonframed RC588 racer, weighing just 140kg. He used an 80hp air-cooled twin-rotor engine sourced from a crashed Interpol police bike – a model that was Norton’s lifeblood. After the test bike topped 170mph on the MIRA test track in July, Norton established a racing department, and test rider Malcolm Heath finished third on the bike’s race debut at Darley Moor, just six weeks after the project had started. Heath won next time out at Snetterton, then scored several more club racing victories, and Norton established a three-man team for 1988, with the rotary engine rated…

IT WASN'T JUST Hailwood's Formula 1 TT victory that was so incredible, it was the ease with which he achieved it in perfect weather conditions. Except for a few moments on the first of the six laps, Hailwood led the whole race, setting a new lap record in the process. He hunted down and actually passed Honda star Phil Read, the previous year’s winner, at half race distance. Hailwood had started nearly a minute behind Read and to overtake him on the road was extraordinary. Victory wasn’t a certainty, as Honda privateer Tom Herron was slowly reeling in Hailwood on the timesheets before his frame broke around the suspension mounts on lap three. After Read’s Honda blew up on lap four, Hailwood charged on at full pace, finishing nearly two…

The scene was set. Not only was one of the Mountain’s most adored devotees set to make his highly anticipated return to the Isle of Man TT for the first time since 2016, but John McGuinness was returning with the marque that claimed the very first twin-cylinder race at the inaugural Isle of Man TT in 1907. Add to this the fact McGuinness was paired with Australia’s bright new TT hope, Josh Brookes, in the factory Norton squad and the 2018 Isle of Man was set to be a cracker. But sadness struck early. Two months out from the event, news broke that TT legend Bruce Anstey was battling cancer, which will sideline the popular Kiwi and 12-time winner from both the TT and the rest of the 2018 season.…

The ancestry HARLEY-DAVIDSON EL 1936 – The Harley EL’s release sets the low, sleek styling-template for cruisers that’s still seen in today’s cruisers – including the California. MOTO GUZZI 700CC V7 1967 – MOTO GUZZI’s 700cc V7, its first V-twin, was developed as a police bike for the Italian domestic market. Civilian versions followed. MOTO GUZZI 750CC V7 1969 – MOTO GUZZI’s 750cc V7 developed for the LAPD was followed by the California, a challenger to Harley-Davidson for civilian sales.…

I GET REALLY cold hands. Even when I’m driving a car. Add to this the fact that my hands aren’t much bigger than a child’s and I can’t tell you how diffi cult it is to find a pair of gloves thick enough to keep my hands warm while still offering enough movement and feel to control a motorcycle at speed. Many years ago, when FIVE was finding its feet in the Australian marketplace, I was given a pair of mid-length so-called winter gloves. I say so-called because at the time I couldn’t see that they’d be warm enough for my frog fingers. But it turned out they boasted 150g of Thinsulate insulation, which is up the toasty-warm end of the scale. Less than 60g is sorta-warm, between 60g and…

A satellite phone and EPIRB are essential, as is plenty of water. Check the weather forecast and, when possible, travel in a group of three or more. Make sure you also have an up-to-date first aid kit. If things go really bad, your best bet out here is the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Medical Emergency – Port Augusta. (08) 8648 9555 Fix It Mechanical service is available at the Birdsville Roadhouse. The roadhouse acts as the local RACQ agent and is the contact for remote and desert recoveries. (07) 4656 3226. The Mungerannie Roadhouse should be able to hook you up with transport to Maree if required. (08) 8675 8317. Sleep Mungerannie Hotel – (08) 8675 8317. Cabin accommodation is available at the Oasis Motel and Caravan Park, Marree (08)…

It bemuses me when road-safety campaigns feature racers as their ambassadors YOU CAN NEVER be too good at riding a bike, and only stuntmen crash on purpose. For the rest of us, crashes can just happen, even if we really, really don’t want them to. Anyone unfortunate enough to hang around me for any length of time would have heard me sprout these lines, perhaps (and probably) more than once. That’s because they are true. It’s these two lines that motivate me to keep thinking about my riding, even at the ripe old age of 45, and why it blows me away when someone on their L plates tells me they have “mastered” it. I work in the rider training field now and I hear it regularly. Some are indignant…

STOCK 1000 Matteo Ferrari from the Barni Racing Ducati team took a wildcard racing win in the Superstock 1000 race at Imola, victorious by just half a second from Roberto Tamburini (Berclaz Racing Team SA BMW), and over a second from pole man Maximilian Scheib (Aprilia Racing Team). Championship leader Markus Reiterberger (alpha Racing Van Zon BMW) was fourth, and now leads Tamburini by just one point, 61 to 60. WorldSSP300 Trailblazing female rider Ana Carrasco (DS Junior Team) won her second career WorldSSP300 race from pole position by an unthinkable 13 seconds, after she made an early break from the pack and several potentially chasing riders fell behind her, adding to her already clear advantage. She was two seconds ahead after just one lap! Borja Sanchez (ETG Racing Kawasaki)…

Dovi stays Andrea Dovizioso is to stay with Ducati, bringing to an end faint rumours that last year’s title runner-up was flirting with the Repsol Honda and Suzuki teams, and extending their partnership until the end of 2020. Now in his sixth year, Dovi is already the longest-serving Ducati MotoGP rider, and (after 23-times race winner Casey Stoner) the Bologna marque’s most successful, with eight wins. Mir and Rins? A new rumour surfaced at Le Mans that the second factory Suzuki seat alongside Alex Rins is earmarked for his highly fancied Spanish compatriot, Joan Mir. Already Moto3 champion and easily this year’s top rookie in Moto2 to date, the 20-year-old from Majorca is tipped for a big future. An early switch to the premier class could be part of a…

MOVISTAR YAMAHA DUO Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales are stalled in a perplexing losing streak which resemble some of Yamaha’s lowest times in MotoGP. More misery came in the French GP with a third place little consolation for Rossi, who still dreams of adding to his 89 MotoGP wins. Viñales was a distant seventh, a considerable 23 seconds behind Honda’s race-winner Marc Marquez. Viñales, touted by pundits as a world champion one year ago, has now not won for 18 races. His most recent win was 12 months ago, the French GP, at a time when he won three of the opening five races of the 2017 season. Rossi is on a 15-race losing streak with his last win the 2017 Dutch TT, an anniversary looming next month. Fifteen years…

SIX-TIME BRITISH Superbike champion Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne has undergone surgery to his back and neck after he suffered a big crash during the BSB series’ official test outing at Snetterton on 17 May. While full details of the 41-year-old’s injuries are not known, a statement released by his Be Wiser Ducati squad confirmed “a range of injuries” including multiple fractures in his back. “A surgical procedure to stabilise spinal fractures is planned for the beginning of next week, with treatment for other injuries planned thereafter,” the statement said. Byrne’s participation in the Snetterton round of the British Superbike Championship on 16-17 June looks doubtful.…

Not just Moto3… The WorldSSP300 Championship’s first season went so well it was voted an instant success, albeit in a low-key kind of way. But for a few incidents of rule-breaking, sometimes inadvertently, it was close, competitive, and new. This year, however, the technical and sporting rules have reached a new nadir. The mandatory rev limiters on some of the bikes have not been working at all in previous races, and hordes of riders have been sanctioned for slow riding in practice, or not meeting the technical rules. The final blow was changed results at the previous Assen race, announced on Sunday. GORDON RITCHIE Seeing red If Ducati retains the services of Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri in 2019 – and that does not appear to be a given –…

YAMAHA RIDER DEAN FERRIS continued his winning form in rounds three and four of the MX Nationals held at Wonthaggi, Victoria, winning two motos from two starts to secure a commanding 45-point lead in the standings. Ferris ran away in the first moto, finishing more than 35 seconds clear of KTM duo Kirk Gibbs and Luke Clout, who crossed the line second and third. Ferris’s second win was almost as effortless, this time riding his Yamaha to the flag 15 seconds clear of Mitch Evans (KTM) and Caleb Ward (Husqvarna). Despite Gibbs finishing last in the second moto, five laps down on Ferris, he retains second overall in the standings, equal with Clout. The MX2 category saw Penrite Honda rider Kyle Webster take the win in the opening moto from…

Carl Cox Motorsport has been around for a while but not a lot of us know about your connection with Michael Dunlop. Please explain? Yes, we’re getting a bit of a profile in Australia with our sponsorship of some classic racers and teams, but Michael Dunlop is taking it to another level. He actually came to me. I seem to be a collector of people. I guess through my work (groundbreaking DJ of the 1980s and early 1990s), I’ve opened the door for a lot of people. I’m a leader, not a follower but I’ve got an open ear to everything. So what’s Michael Dunlop like? He’s brilliant, very much misunderstood and also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He has a real sense of humour but it…

WE’VE HEARD RUMOURS that Suzuki will join the ranks of Supersport 300 manufacturers in 2019 with a new GSX-R300 sportsbike, and this patent could be the first sight of its new challenger. Sure, Suzuki already has a small sportsbike, the GSX250R, but it is a low-performance machine that’s little more than a GW250 Inazuma with a fairing. What this patent reveals is a very different proposition. The new bike will be powered by a parallel-twin engine that is surely around the 300cc mark, and possibly higher. It’s clearly a machine in much the same mould as the 321cc Yamaha R3 or Honda’s 249cc twin-cylinder CBR250RR. Given that Suzuki developed new 124cc and 147.3cc single-cylinder engines for the GSXR125/GSX-R150 models, it’s likely the new parallel twin will share similar internal dimensions.…

Reckon you’re pretty quick when it comes to two-wheeled trivia? Then have a crack at our who-what-where series. If you’re finding it hard, here’s a clue – all the images have appeared in AMCN at some time over the past 67 years. When you reckon you’ve worked out the bloke, the bike and the track, email your numbered answers to comps@amcn.com.au for your chance to win! 1. WHO? Who are the four legends of road racing in this classic shot taken at a time when wearing thongs and jeans in public was clearly acceptable? Clue Use a mirror to reveal one of the names. 2. WHAT? What make and model of bike is Gassit riding? Clue You could buy a car with one in the boot. 3. WHERE? This is the…

SINCE THAT FIRST test at Mallory Park back in 1998 on the 20th anniversary of Mike’s TT victory, I’ve been honoured to be asked by the current owners, the Aurianas and Steve Wynne, to demonstrate the Hailwood Ducati several times, at various events. One of the most poignant of these was in New Zealand, where Wynne now lives, at the superb Pukekohe Historic meeting held each February. In 2007, the organisers foretold the 30th birthday of Hailwood’s victorious comeback by reuniting Jim Scaysbrook with the NCR Ducati he rode as Mike’s teammate in the 1978 race, and asked me to ride the Hailwood machine, with none other than Paul Smart joining us on a 1975 NCR Endurance racer from which the two TT Formula 1 bikes were derived. Thundering round…

BACK IN 1982, a year after Mike’s tragic death with his young daughter in a particularly needless car crash he was in no way responsible for, I helped organise the Tribute to Mike Hailwood meeting at Donington Park on behalf of track owner Tom Wheatcroft. This brought massive support from star riders who Mike had raced with; men like Read, Taveri, Anderson, Surtees (for whom Mike raced cars successfully) and many others, as well as assembling a huge selection of exotic machinery that Mike had been associated with. But the one bike I tried hardest to get there proved the most elusive: you guessed it – the TTwinning Ducati, which stayed locked up tight in Japan. But two decades ago, thanks to the generosity of the Auriana brothers, the motorcycle…

Name David Johnson Age 34 TT starts 33 Highest TT finish 4th Fastest TT lap 131.595mph 2018 Team Gulf BMW “I did it one year just to tick the box, now I’m fricken eight years deep. That’s just how it is; it’s a drug. It gets stuck in you and you can’t get it out. This year, my bike’s pretty much an identical bike to what Loris Baz is racing in World Superbike.” Name Josh Brookes Age 34 TT starts 11 Highest TT finish 6th Fastest TT lap 130.883mph 2018 Teams Norton Racing & McAMS Yamaha “I don’t set goals at the TT. In short circuits and BSB I have loads of goals I want to achieve. But at the TT I’ll put everything on the line that I have,…

SOMETIMES, VIDEO GAMES come around that make you ask how far one event can be stretched and made into a video game. The Isle of Man TT is a world-famous annual event, so when Kylotonn Games announced the release of its newest title, TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge , I wondered how it could make an entire game from one race held on a single, albeit long, circuit. Kylotonn has not only managed to map out the 60.72km Snaefell Mountain Course perfectly, it has included nine other fictional street courses set across Europe, helping to bring to life the dreams of real road racing enthusiasts. What we liked The graphics and hyper-realistic controls make for some exciting gameplay that will challenge even the most experienced gamers. As…

GOOD NEWS! The latest FIVE WFX Skin gloves just lobbed at my place and I’m about to leave for a 1600km round trip through the Snowy Mountains. Where the old gloves had 150g of insulation, the tag says these new ones have 141g and I’m interested to see what a difference nine grams makes. They’re full-length, as opposed to the mid-length affairs of yesteryear, but protection and initial comfort levels seem on par. Stay tuned to see if FIVE has managed to improve what have been the best winter gloves for me to date. The new ones retail for $129.95.…

There is no simple detour option for the Birdsville Track, but there are several points of interest in the region worth looking at. Lake Eyre is a popular spot at the southern end of this route and there are a couple of access tracks to get you out to the edge of the salt pans, with the easiest being just north of Marree. At Birdsville, on the northern end of this ride, a well-established pastime is the 35km trip out to Big Red to either take a look at the massive sand dune, or have a go at riding over it.…

Top 3 TV 1 WSBK Rd6 LIVE UK Fox Sports 26 & 27 May 10.15pm/8.30pm WSBK Rd6 will be aired live on Fox Sports or through WorldSBK VideoPass. Race 1 kicks off at 10.15pm AEST Saturday. Sunday’s action begins with Supersports at 8.30pm followed by Race 2 of Superbikes at 10pm. 2 MotoGP Rd6 LIVE Mugello, IT Videopass Sunday 3 June 7pm (AEST) Round 6 of MotoGP will take place at Mugello in Italy. The action will be aired live on Videopass and Fox Sports. Moto3 starts at 7pm AEST, followed by Moto2 at 8.20pm and MotoGP at 10pm. One HD will air the MotoGP race live but not the other classes. 3 MXGP Rd9 LIVE UK mxgp-tv.com Sunday 3 June 12.20am Motocross fans can catch all the action from…

Rossi is too important. He’ too popular. He is bigger than the team, and in many ways bigger than the sport I’VE BEEN AVOIDING this topic, because it is kind of scary. I know how fanatical Rossi’s fans can be, and they could interpret this as insulting if they wish. Then I’d be in trouble. So let’s begin by expressing the opposite: I have vast reserves of respect for Valentino – for his talent, his racecraft, his intelligence, his breadth of vision – seen in how he is training up the next generation of Italian stars. And most of all for his incredible, undying commitment to racing. And not only those things. I also deeply admire his ruthlessness, and his ability at the height of his powers to dismantle his…

Anthony West WorldSSP EAB antwest Racing Grid 17th, Race 6th, 9th “I am definitely happy to go from 17th on the grid to sixth in the race. Yesterday I was almost ready to not race, not take the risk, and then if I did race I would be happy with just scoring some points. At the end I was strong. I had an injection this morning for the pain in my wrist, but last week I was really sick with food poisoning. I have been feeling bad but today I was a little bit better. The other day I did a few laps and had to stop, with no energy. I also did not have a lot of power to stop, but today I was quite strong in the chicanes…

JACK MILLER’S TEAMMATE Danilo Petrucci exposed why both of them – apart from their talent – are on the reserve list for Lorenzo’s factory seat if the Spaniard departs for Suzuki, as rumours suggest. Ducati says a “viable financial solution” must be reached for a Lorenzo extension. “It is not a joke – our salaries are less,” Petrucci said. “It seems the bike does not 100 per cent fit Jorge, but I must wait for Ducati’s decision, they know me well. My target is the factory team but I have other chances.” Petrucci’s Ducati option is only for the factory team, otherwise he will pursue a deal with Aprilia to join Aleix Espargaro. Ducati has confirmed factory-spec GP19 machinery for Miller next year and will place him either in the…

AMBITIOUS YOUNG SPANIARD Joan Mir is hoping a factory MotoGP offer will be the excuse he needs to spend just one year in the Moto2 category. The reigning Moto3 world champ has little interest in hanging around for a Moto2 world title, he wants to play with the big boys in MotoGP. Mir currently has a multi-year deal with MarcVDS, but has an option to leave for 2019 if he gets a factory offer from a MotoGP manufacturer. Step forward Suzuki who is eyeing off Mir as a teammate to Alex Rins next year, notwithstanding that Ducati’s unhappy Jorge Lorenzo is also searching the market. Suzuki team boss Davide Brivio is currently a powerful man in the paddock, with a desired bike, factory resources and budgets, and at least three…

SHERCO’S CHRIS WARWICK has won a second consecutive four-hour Kamfari near his home town of Darwin, winning the 47th running of what is dubbed Australia’s muddiest enduro. The 2017 Baja 1000 campaigner rode his 300 SEF-R to a dominant win, almost 19 seconds clear of Bren Rodda (KTM), who scored his second consecutive second-place finish this year. Third went to Kamfari rookie Nathan Evans (KTM), whose performance was even more impressive considering his bike stalled on the startline and it took him some time to get it restarted. Warwick’s win makes him the first Northern Territory rider since Tony Morris in the early 2000s to celebrate back-to-back victories. “This year I was super-nervous on the line, despite having a brand-new Sherco and a win under my belt,” Warwick said. “Once…

Australian Motorcycle News road test photographs are posed for by skilled, professional riders under controlled circumstances. Attempting to imitate their actions may be dangerous. Australian Motorcycle News supports and endorses rider training and wearing protective riding gear. And never try to out-Youngy Youngy. Dobie was so proud of his the new shadow board he had built in his workshop to keep all his tools in order; he proudly sent a photo to Young. Youngy replied by advising he was well past shadow boards and now has laser-cut foam in his toolbox so every tool has a cosy home.…

SUZUKI ALSO PLANS to launch a naked GSX-S300 model. In issue 67-20 we revealed the Haojue HJ300 that might be related to that machine, but the HJ300 uses an enlarged version of the older parallel twin that has a relatively long-stroke, low-revving design. This GSX-R300 patent shows an entirely new short-stroke engine that’s likely to offer much more performance. Whether the eventual GSX-S300 naked bike turns out to be derived from the Haojue HJ300 or is a naked version of this higher-performance GSX-R300 design remains to be seen.…

THE ENERGICA EGO we campaigned in the 2017 Isle of Man TT remained fairly standard. All we did was change the tyres, fit a kill switch, and remove lights, indicators, mirrors and the sidestand for safety reasons. The Marzocchi forks and Sachs rear shock were left stock, as was the gearing and bodywork. Reliability wasn’t an issue, nothing vibrated loose and we always crossed the line with more than 15 per cent battery life in hand. It really is testament to the quality of the Energica that it took the TT in its stride. If we’d had more time testing we could have improved lap times further. Ideally we should have been crossing the line with just five per cent battery remaining. Fitting a larger screen and changing the gearing…

“I WAS RIDING my 350cc Aermacchi in the TT Formula 3 race, in which I would finish fifth later that week in my TT debut. After several practice sessions I finally felt I was solving the riddle of what back then was the bumpiest part of the TT course, which was also the hardest to learn because so many corners seem the same, without any reference points. “You skimmed past the railings at the famous old Ginger Hall pub, and then the really hard work began on the road to Ramsey with its unbelievably bumpy surface. It was a matter of letting the bike move around while trusting the steering damper and trying to lock yourself into the correct part of the road through the twisting, blind corners. “For the…

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER than words. Hailwood is celebrated this year for his famous comeback at the famed Isle of Man TT in 1978, but two incidents before that are an equal measure of the man. Hailwood’s last big TT victory had been in 1967 in an epic duel with Giacomo Agostini and his MV Agusta. But in 1970 and 1971 he had raced at Daytona on the full speedway banking, the world’s fastest top-speed circuit, and years before the world-famous Barry Sheene 1975 testing crash. Mike was among the frontrunners in the 1970 Daytona 200 before his experimental Triumph Rocket III overheated. He returned a year later to qualify on the front row and lead the race again before his bike broke down. So he had no fear of high…

THERE IS A lot of myth and legend about the Ducati engine that carried Hailwood to his 1978 TT victory. Did Jim Scaysbrook’s (below) mechanic, Neil Cummins, believe that race engine was the start of something new and special for Ducati? “Not really. To be honest, at that point the bevel engine was on its last legs, having started out as the 750GT roadbike and now growing to 900cc. Those sand-cast cases had a tendency to be porous. The belt-drive Pantah engine was the future.” HAMISH COOPER…

WHAT TO LOOK FOR The big Cali has a great reputation for being trouble free. The exception was the hydraulic valve-lifter models (2003-’05) that had cam-wear issues. These should all have been rectified by a factory recall at the time. Because cruisers are usually not ridden to their limits, a nice looking example with a good service record and reasonable kilometres is very unlikely to have hidden problems. Always remember to factor in the cost of consumables like brake pads and brake rotors that will soon need replacing. SERVICE HISTORY The California is a nice simple bike for routine servicing by DIY owners. Taking the sump off to change the oil filter seems odd, but it’s old hat second time around. Have an expert check the fuel-pump/ fuel-line connection. Some…

WITH AN OFF-ROAD trip on New Zealand’s South Island and the annual AMCN mid-winter multi-bike adventure ride on the horizon, I was in need of a quality adventure suit that would keep me warm, dry and comfortable all day long. Ficeda Accessories offered the latest gear from Scott and, based on the long list of specification, I was keen to give them a run. The two-piece suit was delivered just as I was leaving for NZ, so I was pretty chuffed when everything fitted perfectly, and performed as promised. The Turn ADV Jacket is windproof and waterproof, with heaps of pockets and zip vents, removable lining, breathable mesh insert and elbow protection. The pants have all the same comfort features and knee protection. Both have a range of adjustability to…

There is a hot spring at Mungerannie warmed by an artesian bore. The 50-degree water is a bit hot during summer, but is a fantastic fix for tired muscles in winter. Marree sits at the intersection of the Birdsville Track, the Oodnadatta Track and The Old Ghan Rail Route from Lyndhurst. It is located at the base of Lake Eyre North which is well worth a visit only 90km from town. Halfway along the Oodnadatta Track between Maree and the Borefield Track you will see the Sculptures in the Desert – proof the locals have a lot of time on their hands. The history of the area is often visible with old homesteads and machinery scattered throughout the area, slowly deteriorating under the harsh desert sun.…

Show time 26 MAY Easyriders Motorcycle and Tattoo Show, Lakes Motel, 76 Robertsons Rd, Kalimna West, Vic. Old, new and classic bikes, trade stalls, children’s amusements, food and licenced bar. Prizes and trophies with judging starting at 12pm. Exhibitors $5; entry for adults $5, families $10 and under 14s free. Tattoo entry $5 per category or $10 for multiple categories. Proceeds to Legacy and local Scout groups. For information phone Dave on 0419 505 410 or email bairnsdale.easyriders@gmail.com. 16 JUNE Mountain View Hotel Bike Shown, Mountain View Hotel, 864 Gillies Hwy, Little Mulgrave, Qld. Event runs from 11am til midnight. Overnight camping, live bands, trophies, stalls, burnout competition, pub food and more. $1000 prize money. Raising funds for Cassowary Coast Domestic Violence Centre. For information phone hotel on (07) 4056…

The fast way is to roll off the throttle early and gently and don’t grab the brakes I’M WRITING THIS at BSB’s Round 3 at Oulton Park (two sixth places put him seventh in the Superbike points and the leading Yamaha rider), but it’s also only three weeks before I will be at the world’s most famous road race. The BSB is my primary focus this weekend, but the TT has such a strong draw it’s difficult not to be thinking about it every day and going through corners in my mind. Last year’s sixth place in the Senior TT on the developing Norton was great, especially as I hadn’t ridden the course for two years. As an added bonus, I was the fastest ever Norton rider with a 130.883mph…

THE 2018 INTERNATIONAL North West 200, traditionally seen as a precursor to the Isle of Man TT, was run and won over 13-19 May. The two Superbike races were won by Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Irwin in dominant fashion. Irwin took the opening race win by more than a second over Dean Harrison (Kawasaki Silicone Engineering Racing) and road racing veteran Michael Rutter (Bathams Racing BMW). Irwin went on to win the second Superbike race by almost 10 seconds ahead of pole man Michael Dunlop (Tyco BMW) and Lee Johnson, who gave the factory Honda team its first roads podium since 2016. North West 200’s most successful rider, Alistair Seeley (Yamaha - EHA Racing), took his win tally to 24 by claiming victory in both Supersport events and the opening…

THE 2018 STAGING of the Premiership Riders’ Championship at Poole saw Jason Doyle and fellow Aussie Troy Batchelor, both previous winners, topping the points from the heats before Doyle led home Batchelor, Danish rider Hans Andersen and another Aussie, Brady Kurtz, in the final. Australian-born Rory Schlein won the Scottish Open Championship for a record-equalling fourth time, then qualified through to the British final. In-form Ty Proctor won the Julie Lewis Memorial at Redcar with Jordan Stewart finishing third in his best showing to date in his debut UK season.…