Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 70 Issue 01 i Australian Motorcycle News

WE AIN’T 70 yet, but with this issue we are officially in our 70th year. That’s a lot of motorcycling, when you understand we have cranked out as a fortnightly (mostly) since then. I say mostly because the Green Horror began as a weekly, shifting to a fortnightly when the weekly deadline become problematic. Thank god George Lynn made that call… In 1951 you could buy a brand-new AJS Vincent Comet, Geoff Duke was the 350cc and 500cc World Champ and I was 22 years away from being born. The title has been through recessions, bike sales booms, the arrival of the internet and, most recently of course, the cursed year of 2020. This time next year, we will be celebrating wildly This time next year, we will be celebrating…

YAMAHA TÉNÉRÉ 700 Rally Edition recalls the first machine to wear the Ténéré badge and is on the shopping list of any so-called Ténéré Tragic. But we won’t be getting any. Instead Yamaha Australia advises owners here to devise their own Ténéré 700 Rally Edition-spec using the firm’s range of accessories. “The Rally Edition has been designed for the European market to celebrate the Ténéré’s rally-bred heritage,” a Yamaha spokesperson told AMCN. “Rally Edition specifications are unchanged from the Ténéré 700 that has been on sale in Australia since December 2019.” The colour scheme and other minor upgrades help the Rally Edition to reflect the 1983 Sonauto Yamaha Paris-Dakar racers ridden by Serge Bacou and Jean-Claude Olivier, as well as the 1983 XT600Z Ténéré adventure bike.…

Mythical effort Mythbusters star and keen motorcyclist Jessi Combs has been awarded the title of world’s fastest female. She suffered a fatal crash achieving this feat last August. Tougher laws The parents of a 22-year-old SA motorcyclist killed when a driver failed to give way are pushing for far tougher consequences for anyone charged over a fatal crash. Grim lesson The potential dangers of returning to the racetrack after a lay-off have been highlighted by the death of popular BSB racer Ben Godfrey in a ride-day collision at UK’s Donington circuit. Gutless pot shot Retired AMA champ Miguel Duhamel has been shot in the head by a car driver with a BB gun while riding his bicycle in the desert outside Las Vegas.…

001995 PEOPLE BORN IN 1995 are celebrating their 25th birthday this year. Makes you feel old, doesn’t it? Ah, the mid-’90s, when Japanese sportsbikes ruled and those plastic-clad missiles were festooned with pinks, purples and aquas. Dirt bikes were no better, with butterscotch KTM and Suzuki RM Slingshot riders showing a particular penchant for the above colours. And while some of us picked out our new-season colours, 300 truck drivers and 2500 timber workers rolled into Canberra to tell PM Paul Keating to bugger off, while in Sydney, 2000 people gathered to have a massive whinge about the noise coming from Sydney/Mascot airport. Sounds very much like people that move next to race tracks and then complain about the noise. And while we’re on the subject of flying stuff –…

ENGINE Capacity 847cc Type Inline three-cylinder, DOHC, four-valves per cylinder Bore & stroke 78.0 x 59.1 Compression ratio 11.5 : 1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, Mikuni throttle bodies Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper-type Final drive chain PERFORMANCE Power 84.6kW @10,000 rpm (claimed) Torque 87.5Nm @8500 rpm (claimed) Top speed 250km/h (est) Fuel consumption 5.5L/100km ELECTRONICS Type Yamaha Rider aids ABS, ride-by-wire traction control Modes A, standard and B CHASSIS Frame material Aluminium Frame type Twin-spar Rake 25º Trail 103mm Wheelbase 1440mm SUSPENSION Type KYB Front: 41mm USD fork, fully adjustable, 137mm travel Rear: Monoshock adjustable preload and rebound, 130mm travel WHEELS & BRAKES Wheels Cast aluminium…

ENGINE Capacity 1103cc Type 90º V4, DOHC, 16 valves Bore & stroke 81 x 53.5mm Compression ratio 14.0:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, twin injectors per cylinder, elliptical throttle bodies. Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 153kW @ 12750rpm (claimed) Torque 123Nm @ 11,500rpm (claimed) Top speed 290km/h (est) Fuel consumption 6.4L/100km (measured) ELECTRONICS Type Not given Rider aids Riding Modes, Power Modes, Cornering ABS EVO, Ducati Traction Control (DTC) EVO 2, Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) EVO, Ducati Slide Control (DSC), Engine Brake Control (EBC) EVO, Auto tyre calibration CHASSIS Frame material Aluminium Frame type Front frame Rake 24.5º Trail 100mm Wheelbase 1488mm SUSPENSION Type…

The Senior TT on the Isle of Man in 1992 was voted as the greatest TT that ever took place on the Mountain Course. It’s a debate that’s since raged throughout the years, but the 1992 duel between Steve ‘Hizzy’ Hislop and Carl ‘Foggy’ Fogarty will forever go down as one of the greatest. There are many good reasons for it, too. Hislop rode the Norton NRS588 rotary, an impressive machine with a somewhat hesitant road holding ability and a majestic howl exiting its exhaust system. It was at the time 31 years since Norton had celebrated a Senior TT victory with none other than Mike Hailwood. Fogarty attacked the Mountain Course with a perfectly prepared Yamaha FZR750R OW01. Also with an impressive exhaust howl, but it didn’t touch the…

DURING THE 2000 British WorldSBK race at Brands Hatch, Hislop crashed heavily when Colin Edwards hit him in the fast 150km/h Paddock Hill corner. The Scot lay unconscious before being transported to hospital. After being released from hospital, he returned to racing but realised there were issues with his left arm, which wasn’t reacting the way it should. He was found to have a broken vertebra and damaged nerve pathways. After his recovery, he finished second in the British Superbike Championship the following year, before going one better in 2002 to loft the BSB trophy for the second time on a Ducati. A switch to Yamaha the following year didn’t work out and the team let him go mid-way through the season. The reigning British Superbike champ lost his life…

THE YEARS SINCE the release of the first Sprint ST 1050 saw only minor changes made in the name of evolution. The 2007 model was the biggest leap forward, with a new ECU, a redesigned exhaust system to comply with Euro-3 emissions laws, and a few creature comfort changes like slightly higher ’bars and a taller screen for touring, a new seat pad and new panniers. It also came out red, and it came with the option of ABS. The Sprint was discontinued at the end of the decade, but the engine lived on in the firm’s Tiger 1050.…

I’M REALLY EXCITED the ASBK season is restarting, especially since the first round after the Covid-19 break is at Phillip Island. After completing the official test at Phillip Island in January, I was feeling pretty confident going into the first round, however I couldn’t have imagined doing as well as I did in the Supersport 300 class (pole position and three wins) there in late February. Considering that only six weeks later I was due to start racing in the 2020 IDM Championship in Europe with Benjan Racing Team (on a Kawasaki 400) my confidence was sky-high. My 2019 season finished early after I crashed at Hockenheim, Germany, where unfortunately I broke my arm, requiring surgery. With nine weeks off the bike and missing the final two rounds of the…

Circuit length 4.554km Race distance MotoGP 118.404km 2019 winner MotoGP Marc Marquez 39m36.223s The King and Him What does Mongkut of Siam have to do with the Thailand GP? As King Rama IV he found the time to have 32 wives and concubines, and father at least 82 children. He died in 1868 and his life is celebrated in the musical The King and I, in which he is played by Yul Brynner. What does all this got to do with motorcycles? Mongkut was the first monarch to open the country up to western influences, including 19th century science and technology. Now, in spite of an expected near-20 percent drop in sales, Thai motorcycle factories are expected to build 1.4 million units in 2020.…

PETRUCCI’S SIGNING IS just the first of a handful of cards still needing to fall ahead of the 2021 season. Ousted Repsol Honda rider and MotoGP rookie Alex Marquez is expected to be defected to the LCR Honda satellite squad, and with the sponsorship associated with Taka Nakagami’s Idemestu seat, it leaves LCR and HRC-contracted rider Cal Crutchlow out in the cold. Andrea Dovizioso is yet to sign for 2021 and his Ducati Corse seat has been linked with both Johann Zarco and Jorge Lorenzo – and Jack Miller Espargaro ’s current , inset, is Pramac Ducati stayi seat g ut is still but what up for grabs wil b . No decision e of Iannone? to retain his teammate Pecco Bagnaia has been made and, while Aprilia’s test rider…

SEVERAL WORLDSBK BIG hitters took to the track for a two-day test at resurfaced Misano over 24-25 June, ahead of the season restarting on 31 July. The pace was quick, even with restrictions in place to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 inside the paddock and Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing Ducati), a triple podium finisher in his three WorldSBK races so far, was fastest of all. His 1m33.067s was well under the track best, while Jonathan Rea (KRT) was said to be the fastest on race tyres, before going second quickest overall on qualifiers with a 1m33.206. Rea had escaped a very fast fall at Turn 11 on day one, to finally get comfortable on day two and almost keep pace with the impressive and focused Redding. For his own part,…

FORMER WORLD CHAMPION Jason Doyle has been the stand-out among the group of Aussies currently based in Poland having recorded double-figure scores in all three of his league matches to date. Max Fricke has failed to score in two of his matches, Brady Kurtz had two quiet meetings before he was replaced by Jaimon Lidsey. Troy Batchelor had one outing, running last in the opening heat and not appearing again. Meanwhile Chris Holder may soon join the Wroclaw team if rules around guest riders are relaxed. He’s contracted to Torun who were relegated to the second-tier league which is yet to commence competition.…

Since Motorcycling Australia took up the reins as promoter of the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship everyone must be pleased with the growth of the sport? Certainly, though we’re never complacent. Over the past few years our focus has been to develop professional and applicable events for all riders; from ‘small-wheel’ Juniors to Senior Professionals. And to build consistent and measured growth. The increase in entries has been a reward in itself and we believe the championship will continue to grow to the highest levels across all classes. The inclusion of Tasmania to the AORC schedule seemed inevitable given the success of the 2015 Australian Four Day Enduro? Tasmania has such a diverse landscape, perfect for Enduro racing. So when two-time World EnduroGP Champion Matthew Phillips returned to Australia we had…

BARRY THOMPSON WAS Australia’s top sidecar international of the 1960s and only the second Australian to score world sidecar championship points. The now 80-year-old was ninth in the 1965 title with a long-stroke BMW Rennsport engine manufactured in 1954. Only the top six Grand Prix finishers scored points until 1969. Thompson has lived on the Mornington Peninsula for the last 30 years. He still “plays with motorbikes” and raced a sidecar as recently as last year’s Southern Classic. The only broken bone he sustained in six decades was in his foot, from being run into at the Winton Historics. Raised in Coburg, Thompson was introduced to motorcycles by his uncle at age four. Years later, he learned his father had ridden speedway. He started racing at 16 as a scrambles…

Our test this issue put two big bruisers from Yamaha and Suzuki up against each other. Choices of damn fast bikes were pretty good in ’95, with the likes of the FZR1000 and new GSX-R1100 joining the top speed dog ZZR-1100. The new Gixxer packed more horsepower than the ZZR while the FZR was just shy of the Kwaka’s power figure. But these two are lighter and sharper handling, and sportier. Our tester decided he’d throw his cash at the Fizzer due to its lovely chassis and better bang for buck, but admitted that the GSX-R’s 114kW of power was pretty bloody addictive. VITALS FZR1000 → Engine 1002cc 20-valve inline four-cylinder → Power 107kW @ 10,000rpm → Weight 214kg (dry) → Then price $15,449 + ORC GSX-R1100 → Engine 1074cc…

FOGARTY CONTINUED in WorldSBK after 1992 and would rake in world title after world title as a factory Ducati rider. Hislop swapped his Norton for Honda’s RC45 and raced another two TTs. “I honestly didn’t think it was a nice machine,” Hislop told AMCN in 1998. “It was unpredictable in terms of handling and the engine reacted less well to the throttle than the RC30 and certainly the Norton. After 1994 Hizzy made the switch to the British Superbike Championship, which he won in 1995. Then followed a turbulent period in which he participated for several teams in both the BSB and WorldSBK championships.…

IT’S SUMMER TIME, and the contracts are squeezy. Proof, if it were needed it, that it takes more than lockdown to stop the inevitable – in place of any racing, the who-goes-where silly season is at full gallop. Who indeed, and where indeed, when the only indications of current rider form can be found in the equally unreal worlds of PlayStation play-racing, or in the imagination? Nonetheless, contracts have to be contracted and deals must be dealt; although most of the major players are already settled. Marc Marquez was early done Honda, until 2024 forsooth; Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo were also signed preseason with factory Yamaha; Suzuki announced extensions for Alex Rins and Joan Mir during the lock-down. And the well-deserving Jack Miller is Ducati-bound. And so on, all…

French surrender? Fabio Quartararo’s maiden win at the top level – and his second overall – prompts a question; why aren’t the French better at road racing? There have been some decent riders, and Johann Zarco’s 16 GP wins suggest that he is no dud. France borders Spain and Italy, both countries that are racing mad, and Germany, which has world leading technology. Even Fabio Q had to go to Spain to allow his junior career to develop. Is it the country’s je ne sais quoi? We don’t know why. Is Honda planning an inline four? The lack of reliability of Honda’s V4 this #NoShowGP season has kicked up some interesting rumours. One is that the big H will revert to its ways of the 1980s, and ditch four-strokes for…

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. Especially if you’re trying to herd a dozen cool cats on a post-lockdown reunion ride to the Snowy Mountains. And if you decide to bring your new flame, and hers or your gear doesn’t turn up, and then your bike fails to show because the key doesn’t work in the locked panniers, you’ll probably be reaching for the Grecian 2000 well before you ever planned to, eh Sam?…

THIS ISN’T THE first time Boxer Design has been employed by a legendary supercar firm hoping to expand its reach to two wheels – the company was tasked with doing the same for Lamborghini 35 years ago. The fact that we’re not all riding Lamborghini bikes today (even though, after various changes of ownership, Lambo and Ducati are now sister companies) shows that the mid’80s attempt wasn’t a success. The bike in question was an alloy-framed, Kawasaki-engined beast with all-enveloping bodywork that mimicked the supercar fashion for straked intakes and outlets. Although some say as many as 50 were intended to be made when production started in 1986, just six were finished before Lamborghini pulled the plug.…

ONE OF THE world’s biggest and most highly-anticipated motorcycle shows has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. The massive INTERMOT bike show in Cologne only happens once every two years and it’s the event of choice for manufacturers looking to unveil all their latest wares – but for 2020 it’s been cancelled and replaced by a livestream digital internet event. Originally due to take place from 6-11 October, 2020, INTERMOT comes a month before the other major European bike show – November’s EICMA event in Milan – and for decades it’s been the springboard for a number of major new bike launches. With no end in sight to the need for physical distancing, the organisers have decided it’s impossible to meet the recommendations currently required by German authorities.…

Psyclone After getting into a bit of strife with a bank or two and the tax department and buggering off to France, Jimmy Barnes lobbed back in Oz with the release of his album Psyclone. The album was written at the height of the singer’s drug and alcohol addiction problems. Not a bad effort; we couldn’t make an album if we was sober... Bewitching At some stage or another everyone tuned to watch the nose twitching suburban witch Samantha Stephens, played by Elizabeth Montgomery, in the TV series Bewitched. Whether you’re old enough to have caught it when it orginally aired, or checked out the re-runs after school, we all remember Elizabeth, who passed away in 1995 in Beverly Hills, after a short battle with cancer. She was 62.…

THE MT RANGE is hugely important to Yamaha’s success and since the first model of the current range first appeared in 2013, the tuning fork brand has sold nearly a quarter of a million MTs. The four-tiered range includes the 321cc MT-03 parallel-twin naked, the 655cc parallel-twin MT-07, the 847cc triple-cylinder MT-09 and the 999cc inline-four cylinder MT-10. Both the MT-09 and the MT-10 versions are offered in an up-spec SP variant, the MT-07 comes in a High Output guise, while both the MT-07 and the MT-09 have spawned the retro-styled XSR variants, too. And of course they’d all sit around and reminisce about their long-lost forebear, the original torque monster, the 1670cc MT-01 V-twin, which was in production between 2005 and 2012.…

RACE WINS BY CONFIGURATION V4 44 Inline-four 6 BY BRAND Honda 28 Ducati 16 Yamaha 4 Suzuki 2 BY RIDER Marc Marquez (Honda) 26 Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 12 Maverick Viñales (Yamaha) 3 Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) 3 Alex Rins (Suzuki) 2 Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1 Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1 Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) 1 POLE POSITIONS BY CONFIGURATION V4 33 Inline-four 17 BY BRAND Honda 26 Yamaha 17 Ducati 7 BY RIDER Marc Marquez (Honda) 23 Maverick Viñales (Yamaha) 6 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) 6 Johann Zarco (Yamaha) 4 Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 3 Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) 3 Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2 Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1 Jack Miller (Ducati) 1…

HIZZY KISSED the Isle of Man TT races goodbye in perfect style in 1994 by winning the Senior TT. “The 1994 TT F1 race, I left on slicks because it was sunny and dry. Halfway through the race, the rain poured down. I felt the bike slide more and more and wondered what would come first, crashing or flagging. Fortunately, it was flagged off. The race was rerun the following Sunday. I remember very well that Joey Dunlop was more than lucky during the race. He first nearly rode a stray dog in half, and shortly after that a construction worker turned his van up on the track not too far in front of him. At that stretch of the circuit you do 270km/h. “You have to imagine that at…

THE TRIUMPH SPRINT ST 1050 was generally a very well made motorcycle but there are a couple of things to look out for. The bike came in for a recall due to the rear suspension drag link drop bolt becoming brittle and fracturing. A quick call to Triumph will tell you if the bike you’re after is affected and if it has been fixed. The single-sided swingarm bearings need to be checked for any excessive movement – easy to do on a centre stand – and it’s important to have a charged, good quality battery to avoid any cold start issues. Finding examples with over 30,000km is not uncommon, but as long as they have been well looked after you won’t have many issues.…

IT TOOK MORE than 45 years for the truth to come out about who exactly built Peter Fonda’s flashy Easy Rider chopper. In the research for his excellent book The Chopper, The Real Story, American author Paul d’Orleans uncovered a tangled web of intrigue stretching back a year or so before the 1969 movie. What actually happened back then becomes even more relevant today as the Black Lives Matter movement gathers pace. Back in the 1960s chopper motorcycles were a statement of rebellion. One of their earliest exponents was Cliff Vaughs. An African-American, he broke several taboos in the early 1960s. Not only did he build an outrageous custom Harley-Davidson Knucklehead he called the ‘chopped Hog’, he started riding it around Alabama, one of the dangerous hotspots of the growing…

WHILE AN OFFICIAL test is slated for the Wednesday before the opening round of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship on 15 July, both concession manufacturers were joined by Suzuki and Ducati’s test teams for a three-day test at Misano. Adhering to strict physical-distancing and mask-wearing rules, the KTM riders Pol Espargaro, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira and Iker Lecuona, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith and test riders Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki) and Ducati’s Michele Pirro spent time reacquainting themselves with their MotoGP machines. With final specification required to be locked in by 29 July, the Aprilia duo used the time to confirm which engine the team will race this year and next. Guintoli was there to finalise the chassis spec on which Suzuki was working before the restrictions came into place,…

THE CALENDAR FOR the 2020 Speedway Grand Prix series has taken a hit, with the two rounds scheduled for Sweden cancelled due to ongoing health concerns and crowd restrictions. SGP organisers said they remained committed to staging a 2020 championship with a minimum of eight SGP events, but then the Warsaw round was also cancelled. That left five rounds, plus the German round for which no date has been confirmed. Unless there is a drastic relaxation of restrictions of travel between countries, it all points to a championship staged either largely or entirely in Poland. The World Under 21 crown will be decided in a one-off meeting, scheduled for 2 October in the Czech Republic. Australian Jaimon Lidsey is part of the selected line-up, which includes only two Polish riders.…