Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 69 Issue 22 i Australian Motorcycle News

WHILE SIFTING THROUGH my brain for the Motorcycle of The Decade feature – see page 48 – a bike sprung to mind that reminded me of what a wizened old car journo said to me years ago; that the best cars aren’t necessarily the best sellers, because what makes people actually purchase something isn’t always clear cut. He was referring to a flawed ute of the time, that still somehow topped the sales charts, despite being universally outpointed in features, build quality and drive in most areas by other brands. This has happened with motorcycles, too, of course. It was the worst steering bike in its class – boat-like, even. Yet it sat on top of the sales charts One particular bike, and I won’t name it to avoid dredging…

AUSTRALIA’S MOTORCYCLE MARKET seemed to dodge a bullet in the first quarter, compared to the rest of the world. As we reported last issue, our overall market dropped just 2.5 percent. Figures provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the peak body for the automotive industry in Australia, also revealed strong demand for smaller-capacity motorcycles. Several manufacturers of these models choose not to be part of FCAI. These include CF Moto, Kymco, Benelli and Royal Enfield, to name just a few. Back in 2014, the FCAI represented 46 brands. Now it has 18 members. Admittedly they include all the industry heavyweights but there are brands on the rise that are flying under the radar. The most obvious example is Royal Enfield. The only figures AMCN can get on…

Susie came up to me and wanted to confirm something; “Is this a clothed shoot?” When I signed up to be AMCN’s Sydney editor, little did I know I would be organising photo shoots with Penthouse Pets… Even in the days before the internet, I didn’t get a lot of mail except for the odd press release or mis-directed Access letter. One day in May 1991, I received a hand-written letter from Susie Underwood, a Penthouse Pet who had just appeared in the April edition of the magazine. She wrote that she was now in the race to become Penthouse Pet of the Year, and was trying to attract as much publicity as she could for Penthouse, and for herself, to win the award. She was travelling down to Sydney…

HERE IS MY 1987 Yamaha SRX250. I have had this bike for eight years; it still starts and runs like... well, a Japanese bike. Having been stuck at home due to lockdown, I’ve had the opportunity to finally repaint the frame. It has an FZR front caliper, radial lever and Metal Gear disc and pads, which has improved braking immensely. The handlebars are aftermarket replacements after someone decided that the roundabout near my house needed a covering of diesel one rainy evening. The commute to work is made all the easier in Brisbane traffic, as this skinny bike filters through almost anything. Marc Drescher HERE ARE A few snaps of my first bike I bought brand new for $790 when I turned 17. It’s a Bultaco Lobito 175cc trail bike…

ENGINE Capacity 1768cc Type 60º V-twin, SOHC, 8 valves Bore & stroke 108 x 96.5mm Compression ratio 11.0 : 1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, Mikuni Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate Final drive Belt PERFORMANCE Power 91kW (claimed) Torque 178Nm @ 3800rpm (claimed) Top speed 180km/h (claimed) Fuel consumption Not given ELECTRONICS Type Bosch ECU, Bosch ABS, Ride-by-wire Rider aides Bosch Cornering ABS, Cornering Traction Control, Cruise Control, three ride modes (sport, standard & rain) CHASSIS Frame material Cast aluminium Frame type Cradle style Rake 25 degrees Trail 150mm Wheelbase 1668mm SUSPENSION Type Kayaba/Fox Front: 43mm telescopic nonadjustable USD fork, 130mm travel Rear: Monoshock, hydraulically adjustable preload, 114mm travel WHEELS…

DNF V ROSSI (ITA, YAM), F MORBIDELLI (ITA, YAM), J ZARCO (FRA, DUC), M OLIVEIRA (POR, QUITE CLOSE TO SPA, KTM). DN REALLY S C STONER (AUS, DUC) M HAILWOOD (GBR, HON) POLE POSITION A RINS 1m36.890s FASTEST LAP A RINS 1m37.559s STANDINGS AFTER 3 OF 12 ROUNDS 1 MIR 47, 2 VIÑALES 44, 3 DOVIZIOSO 44, 4 RINS 31, 5 CRUTCHLOW 27, 6 A MARQUEZ 26, 7 MILLER 24, 8 ZARCO 23, 9 P ESPARGARO 21, 10 A ESPARGARO 19, 11 BINDER 13, 12 MORBIDELLI 11, 13 M MARQUEZ 11, 14 QUARTARARO 10, 15 PEDROSA 9.…

TWO WEEKS AFTER Alex Rins confirmed he’s staying put in the factory Suzuki squad until the end of the 2022 season, teammate Joan Mir has done the same. Both riders used a live video on the social media platform Instagram to share the news, as Spain remains in relatively heavy lockdown during the global pandemic. The 2017 Moto3 world champ had an impressive debut season in the premier class, which was overshadowed by a mid-season injury caused by a frighteningly fast crash during the Brno test. Despite the injury, Mir finished the season in 12th overall from 24 riders with 94 points. Compare that to the rookie year of his highly regarded teammate Alex Rins, who finished his debut MotoGP season in 16th place with 59 points. It’s potential of…

CHANGES HAVE BEEN locked in to various world championship competitions in speedway. Only the opening two rounds of the Speedway Grand Prix series have so far been moved – Round 1 scheduled for Warsaw on 16 May has been moved to 8 August, while Round 2 at Teterow, Germany is now listed as TBC. This year’s qualification series for the 2021 Speedway Grand Prix has been slashed, with the four qualification semi-finals scheduled for May and early June cancelled. The SGP Challenge Meeting at Zarnovica in Slovakia will proceed, but not on its original 11 July date. The line-up for the Challenge Meeting will be determined by national federations nominating riders, so from having three or four riders in the semi-finals there may well be only one Australian rider in…

BONNIE DOPPELGANGER They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This is certainly true in the case of Sino-European brand Brixton. Its upcoming rival to Triumph’s Bonneville is expected to be built in China. The 1200cc parallel twin has been created at a newly-opened design centre in Krups, Austria, where Brixton owner, KSR Group, is based. LAST OF THE BIG BANGERS We ride the Curtiss P40 Warhawk, one of the world’s wackiest and rarest motorcycles. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Bruce Springsteen are among the A-list celebs who have a Confederate motorcycle (Curtiss's predesessor) in their fleet, proving weird can sell. Read the test on this bangin’ brute from page 32 LOVED YOUR WORK AMCN is saddened to hear of the passing of Mel Baker, who devoted 20 years…

The year was 001991 THE SECOND YEAR of the nineties wasn’t the rosiest period in human history. There was an overabundance of tornados, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, countries shooting at themselves and each other, and far too much George Bush. It did however signal the end of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Good old Bushy boy kicked off Operation Desert Storm and started a fracas in the middle East that continues to this day. Not being content to smoke weed in cafés, a pack of light-fingered gents flogged 20 Van Gough paintings from an Amsterdam museum. The 500 million bucks worth of art was found about 20 minutes later. Back at home 1991 kicked offwith floods, the debut season of The Simpsons and was filled to the…

ENGINE Capacity 998cc Type Supercharged inline four cylinder, DOHC, 16 valves Bore & stroke 76.0 × 55.0mm Compression ratio 11.2:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling Mitsubishi EFI, 4 x 40mm throttle bodies Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 147.1kW @ 11,000rpm (claimed) Torque 137Nm @ 8500rpm (claimed) Top speed 299km/h (claimed) Fuel consumption 6.5L/100km (claimed) ELECTRONICS Type Bosch/Kawasaki Rider aides Cornering ABS, Cornering Traction Control, Launch Control, Cruise Control, Four ride modes (Track, Sport, Rain & Rider) and Quickshifter CHASSIS Frame material High-tensile steel Frame type Trellis Rake 24.9 degrees Trail 104mm Wheelbase 1455mm SUSPENSION Type Showa Front: 43mm USD fork, fully adjustable, 120mm travel Rear:…

O’Sullivans Retreat has good food, seven days a week, at the diner. They also have fuel, but only standard ULP. If you need PULP it is best to stop at one of the many servos along the main drag through Buladelah. The Plough Inn Hotel in Buladelah offers good accommodation. They also do homemade pies, bistro lunches, and dinners. The Plough Inn Hotel has ATM facilities. WHERE ELSE TO RIDE The Buladelah State Forest and Myall Rivers National Park cover a large area of the topography north of Buladelah. Several of the roads are well maintained and guide you through to points of interest around the area, while many of the fire trails are overgrown and excellent fun on a trail bike. NEED A HAND? Buladelah has a few auto…

ONE GOOD THING about Covid-19 – if that’s how you see it – another year, or at least part of a year, of Valentino. The great man had planned to use the first half of 2020 to check himself out, to measure if he was fast enough and keen enough to carry on. By the summer break at the latest, his results and his feelings would have revealed all. But there wasn’t to be that first half, and by now the second half is also in serious doubt. The latest cancellations are the German and Finnish GPs, and the Dutch TT. 200 doesn’t look like offering Rossi any period of grace With the Suzuka 8 Hours hanging on grimly to a deferred November date, and the other races all in…

Recipe: Paella del Stewards Mix 2tbs olive oil, paprika, oregano and season. Coat the chicken pieces and leave outside under a hot sun for 45 minutes. Heat 2tbs olive oil in a large skillet or paella pan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes and rice. Cook, stirring to coat rice with oil, for three minutes. Stir in saffron threads, bay leaf, parsley, chicken stock and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20 minutes. Stir in marinated chicken, sausage and onion, cook 5 minutes. Stir in prawns; cook and turn until both sides are pink. Serve with Gaviscon and a bucket.…

HERE IS THE bike on which we reckon Benelli’s new retro-styled Imperiale 250 model will be based. The QJiang QJ250 is an upcoming new machine from Chinese firm QianJiang, Benelli’s parent company. It’s been revealed in official type-approval documents filed with the Chinese government and it seems almost inevitable that the planned Benelli Imperiale 250 will be based on the same engine and chassis, perhaps even sharing the same styling. According to the type-approval information accompanying this picture, the QJ250 comes complete with ABS brakes and complies with China’s latest emissions limits. Its 249cc engine is an air/oil-cooled parallel twin. Meanwhile Zontes’s range of 312cc single-cylinder bikes has been one of China’s success stories. The export arm of bikes with the 310T, roadsters with the 310R and tourers with the…

THE WITHDRAWAL TOWARDS its core markets has echoes of Harley’s response to the 2008/9 financial crisis. Back then, it closed the Buell brand just as it was showing promise with its water-cooled, DOHC models. It also unloaded the MV Agusta brand for a token sum, ditching all its interests in non-cruiser models. That decision has been criticised by many, who see the reversion to traditional cruisers as the reason for Harley’s ageing customer demographic and the resulting slow sales decline. Fortunately, the ‘rewire’ isn’t expected to be quite that conservative. Zeitz is a proponent of renewables in business and was one of the driving forces behind the development of the Harley LiveWire electric bike, so Harley’s hard-won position as a leading light in the electric bike revolution isn’t likely to…

Action hero It’s been revealed that 100-year-old Captain Tom Moore, who has raised tens of millions of pounds to battle UK’s Covid-19 outbreak, was once a motorcycle racer. Read alright Phil Read, aged 81 and the first competitor to win world championships in the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc classes, recovers from coronavirus. Fired up fools Helmetless motorcycle punks break out of lockdown in Paris to let off fireworks against police. Dune death US MX legend Marty Smith and wife Nancy have died in a dune-buggy accident in California.…

1. Terminator 2: Judgement Day Arnie was true to his word when he said “I’ll be back”, returning to the big screen as the cyborg from the future in the second instalment of the Terminator franchise. This time around Arnie is the good guy, doesn’t kill a soul, and increases his dialogue from seven words to at least 20. T2 cost $102 million to make and made 517 million clams at the box office. 2. 1991 saw Grunge music make its presence felt, with the likes of Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden breaking big around the globe. As one door opens another closes, with the rock world losing one of the great front men when Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury loses his battle with AIDS.…

ENGINE Capacity 2163cc Type 56.25º V-twin, OHV, two valves per cylinder Bore & stroke 111.76 x 111.76mm Compression ratio 10.3:1 Cooling Air/oil Fueling EFI, 2 x 51mm S&S throttle bodies Transmission Five-speed Clutch Dry, multi-plate Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 116kW @ 5500rpm (claimed) Torque 217Nm@ 2000rpm(claimed) Top speed 275km/h (measured) Fuel consumption Not given ELECTRONICS Type Not given Rider aides Not applicable Modes Not applicable CHASSIS Frame material Machined aluminium Frame type Monocoque Rake 27.5 degrees Trail 106mm Wheelbase 1588mm SUSPENSION Type Racetech Front: Aluminium double wishbone parallelogram fork, tubular struts, 114mm travel Rear: Aluminium swingarm with cantilever monoshock, two-speed compression and rebound adjustment, 140mm travel WHEELS…

THE CHALLENGER DARKHORSE is a beast. Huge power, especially mid revs, but it has a fickle throttle and clutch on slow-speed switchbacks. Nowhere near the smooth low-end torque I’ve come to expect from large American Cruisers. The infotainment system kicks arse, as does the cornering ABS and traction control and sheer size of the panniers, but it’s let down by its cable-actuated clutch, the feedback from the throttle in low revs and poorly thought-out switch placement. When compared to bikes like the H-D Road Glide, the Harley has it in the bag with refinement, smooth low-end torque, sensible and user-friendly indicator switch (okay, it’s what I’m used to!) and cruise control. The Challenger, on the other hand, sounds better that the H-D, has more grunt, better weight distribution and you’ve…

A COMMON RELATIONSHIP every internal combustion engine shares is that of the combustion chamber and static compression ratio. The static compression ratio refers to the swept volume of the cylinder (displacement) plus the volume of the combustion chamber when the piston is at Bottom Dead Centre (BDC), divided by the volume of the combustion chamber at Top Dead Centre (TDC). It can be explained in simple terms this way, for example – if the piston in your engine’s cylinder is at BDC, you might be able to pour 1200ml of liquid into the cylinder (including the combustion chamber). With the piston at TDC, you would only be able to pour 120ml of liquid in. By calculation, that would make your compression ratio 12.0:1. but what does it actually matter? YEAH,…

“DON’T THROW FOOD in your mouth and chew it like a washing machine,” she snapped at me over the dinner table. Oh dear, just a couple of weeks into lockdown, social distancing and working from home were building personal irritations into a confrontation. Fortunately I had the workshop to retire to. Out there were the remains of a 1966 Triumph 650 twin I’d bought five years ago for a couple of grand. A Thunderbird from the last year of that particular model, some Seventies longhair had turned it into a fairly horrific chopper, a common fate for Sixties Triumphs. The tricks ofthe1970s andearly ’80scame flooding back A restored 1966 Thunderbird 6T is a rare beast but any plans of bringing it back to original were quickly dashed by the cost…

What has Yamaha done? Controversy aside, the speed of Viñales and his Yamaha was impressive, leading many to wonder what the team has done? Lin Jarvis was staying tight-lipped (no news there), but AMCN can report that Viñales alone had the use of a new package of tweaks, designed to make his M1 faster off the line and out of corners. Allegedly developed in Sydney, the package is expected to be permissible in future races as its primary goal is ‘tyre cooling’. Where’s Smithy? The latest debacle to befall Bradly Smith came when he arrived in Spain for the race – or, at least, tried to. Local authorities, tired by the long and drawn-out Brexit debacle, refused to let Smith into the country and detained and then deported him to…

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. We also endorse the use of name calling by the literate staff against the crayon-wielding art guys when they give them lip while in the throes of detoxing from the copious volumes of coffee and/or alcohol we’ve all been forced to consume during lockdown. At the very least we will sneak in under the cover of darkness and break the tips off your crayons as punishment……