Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 70 Issue 06 i Australian Motorcycle News

The right bike would be easier – but it’s not about easy is it? “NAH, MY BIKE won’t do that. It’s got the wrong tyres/throttle grips/ insert excuse here.” Are you sure about that? The internerd is full of blokes and women hitting double jumps on roadbikes, dragging a knee on a Vespa, wheelieing a cruiser for kilometres – so your bike, any bike, can do most things, it just depends who is riding it, right? It’s the same as what Marc Marquez has done for those of us who assumed a front-end tuck meant a sure crash. All you had to say at a ride day or race meet was, “I lost the front” and your listener would nod knowingly – there was nothing you could do and we…

THE CHINESE MOTORCYCLE industry works in an unfamiliar way, with engine manufacturers often supplying a host of different companies and many bike makers using engines from multiple sources. So while the name Weisenke (or Vicenke, depending on the translation) may not be a familiar one, it’s a company which designs and builds engines offered under several other company’s brands. It’s just patented these designs for a new 800cc inline four that will be the biggest Chinese-made four-cylinder motorcycle engine when it reaches production. Right now, the 600cc Qianjiang four, as used in various Benelli models, is the only four-cylinder bike engine made in China. Soon a 700cc four is due to be launched by another Chinese firm, Benda, with a design that appears to be based on the Honda CB650…

60 RIGHT NOW AT LEAST THIS NUMBER OF AUSSIES ARE CURRENTLY RACING IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE CHAMPIONSHIPS AROUND THE WORLD. BOOT SCOOT’N BOOGIE Vespa has collaborated with American youth fashionista Sean Wotherspoon to create this flamboyant version of its 150cc Primavera model. Vespa says Wotherspoon is guiding the famous scooter brand “towards a new, brave, irreverent and fun style”. Wotherspoon has been described as “one of the most famous sneakerheads on the planet” after designing the popular Nike Air Max 97/1 in 2018. “IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW MANY WINS YOU’VE HAD, THEY’RE ALL JUST AS HARD AS EACH OTHER AND I HAD TO FIGHT HARD FOR THAT WIN” Josh Brookes describes his 50th BSB win after a tough weekend at Snetterton LITTLE MARVEL Tiny British brand CCM continues its…

When it was announced Aston Martin was linking with Brough Superior to develop a motorcycle, it seemed almost too good to be true. But when we saw the AMB 001 adorned with Aston’s winged badge on its flanks unveiled at last November’s Milan Show – suddenly it all made sense… Designed by Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman, the turbocharged direct-injection 997cc AMB 001 V-twin is a radically innovative motorcycle which has actually been undergoing development for the past decade. That’s how long Brough Superior Motorcycles CEO Thierry Henriette has been working on such a bike. The original prototype made its public debut at the 2011 Paris Show under the Boxer Superbob label, named after Thierry’s late father Robert, who supported his son’s decision to drop out of medical…

“MV COMPLETELY modelled the bike from a 3D perspective inside the computer. With a virtual prototype, you put on virtual reality goggles and you can walk around the bike, you can see how the light reflects off it, you can see its shape and form and almost touch the bike, and you feel almost like you can hop aboard it! “Using virtual design technology means that in addition to cutting down on the significant cost of making a clay model, it’s like hitting the gas pedal on the design process, so you can jump through iterations and go down a bunch of rabbit holes very quickly, and then take one step back and say, ‘okay, this is the direction we want to go’”.…

ENGINE Capacity 798cc Type Inline triple, DOHC, four valves per cylinder Bore & stroke 79 x 54.3mm Compression ratio 13.3:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, 3 x 50mm Mikuni throttle bodies Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 108kW @ 13,000rpm (claimed) Torque 88Nm @ 9750rpm (claimed) Top speed 240km/h (claimed) Fuel consumption 6.4L/100km (claimed) ELECTRONICS Type Eldor ECU Rider aids Traction control, Bosch 9 ABS with Race mode and RWL, quickshifter Rider modes Race, Sport, Rain and Custom CHASSIS Frame material Tubular-steel Frame type Trellis Rake 24.5º Trail 99mm Wheelbase 1380mm SUSPENSION Type Marzocchi/Sachs Front: 43mm USD fork, fully-adjustable, 125mm travel Rear: Monoshock, fully-adjustable,…

arry Sheene very nearly didn’t become a B motorcycle racer. When he was a teenager he was happiest with a spanner in his hand. By the time he was 14 he was already on the grand prix trail, bunking off school to join the Continental Circus, fettling a Matchless G50 and AJS 7R belonging to American privateer Tony Woodman. “The pull of racing was never strong in those days,” he wrote in his 1977 autobiography The Story So Far… “Contentment for me was simply to make ready or put right interesting motorcycles.” Sheene spent much of his youth tinkering with bikes in his dad’s workshop, which came with Frank’s job as maintenance man at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Frank had raced Nortons at Brooklands in the 1930s…

Lachlan Epis WorldSSP Grid 19th, Race 1 DNF, Race 2 DNF, no score yet “It just seemed to be one of those weekends for us. We had strong pace even after some hiccups on Friday. We were competitive in both races but luck wasn’t on our side this weekend. In the first race I was forced to retire and in the second I was just too eager to regain positions after a poor qualifying. Good thing is we don’t have to wait long to fix our mistakes before Aragon 2 starts on Friday.” Tom Edwards WorldSSP300 Grid 20th, Race One DNF, Race Two DNF, 20th overall, 9 points “Disappointing. Aragon is a track where I always have high expectations. I love it, and I am always fast here, but qualifying…

Supporting slicks MANY WERE AMAZED last year when it was confirmed Pirelli would be running slicks in both the WorldSSP and WorldSSP300 this season. Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli’s two wheel racing boss, explained why it took a while to get everyone literally up to speed in the smaller classes, as it wasn’t really until Motorland’s two race weekend doubleheaders for records to be really overhauled. “We forced the change just to bring the WorldSSP series to the more professional level from a tyres point of view,” he said. “According with the experience we had in Superbike, we decided to make a bigger-size Supersport tyre, so in Australia we got the size we usually get for all of the championship.” It took the teams time to get used to the physically bigger…

FORMER GRAND PRIX racer Anthony West has had his competition ban extended by six months after the FIM International Disciplinary Court deemed his inclusion in the non-FIM affiliated Brazilian Superbike Championship a violation of his suspension. In a statement released by the court, it said it “considered the participation of Mr West in the aforementioned motorcycling competitions constituted violations of the prohibition against participation during ineligibility. [The court] has imposed to Mr West a new period of ineligibility of six months starting from 15 September 2020 and ending on 14 March 2021.” The announcement follows a controversial and exclusive column written for Australian Motorcycle News accusing the FIM of corruption which appeared in AMCN Vol 68 No 20. West announced he was quitting the sport in June last year.…

The first Polish rider to ever claim the World Speedway Championship, Jerzy Szczakiel, has died aged 71. Not only did Szczakiel surprise by outscoring his more fancied countrymen at Katowice back in 1973, he claimed the crown when Ivan Mauger fell while trying to pass him in a run-off. Szczakiel had previously won the 1971 World Pairs Championship, partnering Andrzej Wyglenda with maximum points. Poland had to wait another 37 years for its next champion when Tomasz Gollob won in 2010.…

THERE’S A GROWING acceptance that when e-bikes hit the mainstream it’s the slower, cheaper models that will make the breakthrough. Last issue we reported on Honda’s battery-powered version of the CB125 and now Husqvarna’s parent company – Pierer Mobility – has revealed plans for a similar machine, the e-Pilen. It features Vitpilen styling, with neo-retro elements and a dummy ‘tank’ that matches the existing petrol-powered machine’s style. However, despite its muscular looks, the investor report that confirms the bike’s existence also reveals it will be a low-powered, low-priced offering. Two versions will be made, both built in India by Bajaj, which is collaborating with KTM and Husqvarna on a common electric bike architecture that will be used on both scooters and small motorcycles. The lower-powered model will make just 4kW,…

Hook, finish line and … … trophy! Josh Hook helps Honda France win the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. Live, at last Ewan and Charley's long-awaited LiveWire Long Way Up ride through South America will finally screen on Apple TV+, starting September 18. Hard to believe… It’s 50 years since Barry Sheene, who died in 2003 aged 52 years, began his GP career. Read about it on Page 70 Hell on wheels Shocking dashcam footage of a pick-up truck slamming into a motorcyclist in Colorado goes viral on the internet.…

The year was... 002006 THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR of Deserts and Desertification was a bit of a glum year in Australia with the loss of some big names such as Steve Irwin, Peter Brock and Australia desert racer extraordinary and all-round good bloke Andy Caldecott in the Dakar rally. The late Nicky Hayden took out the MotoGP World Championship, Troy Bayliss took out the World Superbike Championship while the world laughed and gasped in shock at Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The Xbox 360 was released by Microsoft, the dreaded WorkChoices reforms came into effect and the Beaconsfield mine tragedy unfolded. Police Minister Carl Scully was punted for misleading parliament and Greg Page, one of the guys responsible for filling the head of millions…

ENGINE Capacity 997cc Type 88º V-twin, DOHC, four valves per cylinder Bore & stroke 94 x 71.8mm Compression ratio 7.8:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling GDI Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 117kW @ 8500rpm (claimed) Torque 124Nm @ 3000rpm (claimed) Top speed 275km/h (est) Fuel consumption Not given ELECTRONICS Type Bosch Rider aids Traction control, RBW Rider modes None CHASSIS Frame material Carbon fibre Frame type Monocoque Rake 24º Trail 117.3mm Wheelbase 1493mm SUSPENSION Type Fior-type / Öhlins Front: Cast aluminium wishbone fork with twin articulated titanium triangular links, 115mm travel Rear: Öhlins monoshock, fully-adjustable, 120mm travel WHEELS & BRAKES Wheels Forged aluminium…

ENGINE Type Internal permanent magnet synchronous motor Controller IGBT Cooling Water jacket Transmission Single speed Clutch Not applicable Final drive Belt BATTERIES Type Lithium Ion Capacity 15.5kWh total, 13.6kWh min. usable Recharge time Wall charge: Full 12.5 hours, 80 percent 10 hours DC fast charger: Full 60 minutes, 80 percent 40 mins PERFORMANCE Power 78kW @ 1rpm(claimed) Torque 116Nm @ 1rpm (claimed) Top speed 185km/h (measured) Range City: 235km, Highway: 110km, Combined: 152km ELECTRONICS Type Not given Rider aides ABS, traction control, anti-wheelie and rear-lift mitigation CHASSIS Frame material Cast aluminium Frame layout Perimeter Rake 24.5° Trail 108mm SUSPENSION Showa Front: 43mm USD Separate Function Big Piston fork, fully adjustable, 115mm travel…

MV AGUSTA’S COMPACT, potent DOHC 12-valve three-cylinder engine powering the Superveloce 800 weighs just 54kg, with its slant-block closed deck cylinders inclined forward at 35°. Its 120° plain-bearing crankshaft runs backwards – an unusual feature shared with most MotoGP bikes. This is made possible on the MV by the use of a counterbalancer shaft weighing 1.88kg driven directly off the crank, which also saves space and weight by performing several other tasks. The forged steel conrods carry ultra-slipper lightweight forged pistons with very short skirts, delivering a 13.3:1 compression. These run in the Nikasil-lined bores of the cylinders cast integrally into the upper crankcase half, with just 4mm wall thickness between them, to minimise the width of the engine. The wide diameter bore means there’s plenty of space for large…

“WE BUILD IT TOGETHER WITH OUR ENGINEERS, AND WE THINK THAT THE NEW CHASSIS MUST BE A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT” THROUGHOUT ITS TIME in MotoGP the project has continued with its steel chassis and WP suspension. “This is the philosophy of our company,” Beirer said. “We learned how to build motorcycles with this material, and we have the knowledge for this material. And we invented together with Pankl the printing process to print parts of the frame with the highest technology. “Steel is three times harder than aluminium, it allows us to build the chassis three times smaller in dimensions than in aluminium. It’s lighter than any other chassis out there. So it’s not about the material, it’s more that you really have to understand what you have to do…

THE RT67 WAS the final iteration of Suzuki’s first truly excellent race bike: the rotary-valve 125 twin that won the 125cc world championship at its first attempt in 1963. The RT (R for Racer, T for twin Cylinder, 67 for 1967) changed its model name each year, all the way from RT63 to RT67. Suzuki created the twin to beat Honda’s four-cylinder RC146, which it did first time out with New Zealander Hugh Anderson. Two years later Anderson won the title again with the RT65, defeating Honda’s five-cylinder RC148. Miniaturisation and multiplication were the name of the game during this epic battle between four-stroke and two-stroke: smaller cylinders for more revs and more gears for narrower power-bands. Suzuki’s 125 twin was preceded by a single and was due to be…

SO IT GOES. When the old order changeth, it changeth properly. It took a snapped bone to dislodge Marc Marquez from domination. But it took their own missteps (compounded by cost-cutting rules that hamstrung development) to unsettle the dominant Honda and Yamaha and open the doors to KTM and Suzuki. This is as Dorna intended, but the two big guns have inadvertently helped out. For some years now, Honda’s weaknesses, often the consequence of restless over-ambition, have been masked by the ability of Marquez to overcome them. Others found the RCV a real handful – take Cal Crutchlow, who is brave enough to keep trying to repeat his occasional successes, but too often crashes out. Or even more trenchantly Jorge Lorenzo, the master craftsman who was driven into premature retirement…

WorldSSP300 Wrap Superpole qualifying in the 300 class was taken by Bahattin Sofuoglu (Biblion MotoXRacing Yamaha) who was an amazing 0.659s ahead of Hugo De Cancellis (Team Trasimeno Yamaha). Two Yamahas on top is also unusual after so much recent Kawasaki success. Sofuoglu was the seventh different pole sitter in the past seven races. The first 300 race was quite astounding. Victor Rodrigues Nunez only made the main grid after winning Friday’s Last Chance race. From 30th on the grid his Kawasaki 2R Racing Ninja streaked through the pack to catch the leaders with five laps to go, and snatch the lead in the final corners, beating Sofuoglu by 0.042s. Dutchman Jeffrey Buis was third on his MTM Kawasaki MOTOPORT entry, and he backed it up on Sunday with a…

THE 2020 SGP series sees a number of changes, the most significant of which concerns the scoring. In the past riders have scored points from every race – heats, semis and finals, meaning the winner of the final may not take the most points away from the round. This year will see every SGP winner take 20 championship points, the other finalists 18 for second, 16 for third and 14 for fourth. Third place in a semi-final will earn riders either 12 or 11, depending who was the best in the heats, while fourth place in a semi-final will earn 10 or nine on the same basis. Already after two rounds, Fredrik Lindgren is a big fan of the new pointscore structure. The bottom eight riders in the line-up, who…

NO FEWER THAN 11 new trademark registrations suggest BMW is planning two distinct ranges of electric motorcycles. Registered with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, most indicate that the Vision DC Roadster we reported on last year could lead to a toned-down production spin off. At the time we received behind-the-scene images of the effort BMW’s design staff was putting in the Vision project. So it’s no surprise BMW has registered nine trademarks around the ‘DC’ branding. They start with ‘DC 01’ and run to ‘DC 09’, with each one specifically intended for use on motorcycles. So expect multiple machines guaranteed by BMW owning the rights to all these names. While the Vision DC was overtly futuristic, BMW also revealed its E-Power Roadster prototype last December. This was a…

MODEL Triumph Street Scrambler 2019-2020, Triumph Street Twin 2019-2021 IMPORTER PS Importers NUMBER OF AFFECTED MOTORCYCLES 217 ISSUE Misrouted harness wiring may become damaged by the lower lug on main frame headstock when the handlebars are rotated. POTENTIAL HAZARD Damaged wiring harness may cause the engine to stall, and increase the risk of an accident. MODEL Triumph Tiger 900, GT, Rally, GT Pro, Rally Pro, GT Low IMPORTER PS Importers NUMBER OF AFFECTED MOTORCYCLES 74 ISSUE The motorcycle’s rear reflex reflector may become loose or fall off. POTENTIAL HAZARD The missing reflector may make the motorcycle less visible to drivers of other vehicles, which could increase the risk of a crash.…

American-born development engineer Brian Gillen, 46, is MV Agusta’s R&D Director “THE SUPERVELOCE IS a bike that Adrian Morton first started sketching almost five years ago as a one-off concept model based on the F3, which we were going to build for a Japanese customer, who wanted something really unique. We were looking at doing a neo-retro bike, a mix between classic and modern. But the more Adrian developed the sketches, the more all of us in MV Agusta management decided, I want one too! So the idea went from being conceived as a one-off Giacomo Agostini 500GP tribute model, with modern dynamics combined with classic styling cues, all the way to a volume production model. However, it’s not a completely neo-classic bike, because there’s a lot of retro in…

BEIRER HAS SAID Brad Binder is “a man with two faces… the most gentle, easy guy you can have. But when it comes to the race he’s a fighter like there’s no tomorrow.” It was that bloody-mindedness that carried the South African to a Moto3 world title in 2016. And it took him to within three points of the Moto2 title last year aboard what was a dog of a chassis. His first steps in MotoGP were tentative. But it all clicked when he stepped onto KTM’s 2020 bike in Malaysia in February. “This bike is insane,” he told his mechanics. Soon his speed picked up. From 23rd and 22nd fastest at Valencia and Jerez last November, he was ninth quickest in Qatar. His aggression and late-braking prowess appear a…

CONVINCING THE HIGHLY experienced Tech3 squad to use KTM machinery from 2019 onwards was another feather in the factory’s cap. Having a satellite squad provides more data for the factory to analyse and more seats where they can place its stable of young riders coming through the categories. As of 2020 the Tech3 bikes are identical to the RC16 machinery in the factory squad. And it’s spectacularly bore fruit, with Miguel Oliveira taking the factory’s second premier class win at the Styrian Grand Prix, and Tech 3’s first since joining the MotoGP class in 2001. “I was told many times that (moving to KTM) was the worst thing I had done and that KTM was never going to be in a position to win,” said Tech3 team boss Hervé Poncharal.…

IN THE 1990S, Bob Guntrip revised his written German skills to correspond with old soldiers and then holed up in Cornwall to write an historic novel. Message? The former AMCN editor and Revs staffer has impressive research and writing skills. He’s identified two largely untouched areas in motorcycle books. First came Racing Line, about British domestic racing with big singles in the 1960s and now, in Slow Burn, the two-decade racing saga of various categories for machines with modified production engines, culminating in 1988 with the inaugural World Superbike Championship. That journey included Formula 750 and TT Formula One, which was created for the Isle of Man TT when it lost world Grand Prix championship status in 1977. It grew into a multi-round championship in the 1980s, before being marginalised…

IT ONLY TOOK me 40 years of practice, but I can now poach an egg like a chef. Perfect runny yokes, delicate squishy whites. Six weeks locked down in the Melbourne suburbs gives you the time to learn new things and perfect old ones. To pass the time, I recently signed on for Apple TV+. Oddly enough, just Netflix, Stan, Amazon Plus and Kayo Sports were just not quite getting the job done. Apple’s programs look good, but there are little details that grate; just like how nearly everyone on a made-for-Netflix program smokes, everyone on Apple’s in-house series uses an iPhone, a MacBook or both. But I am looking forward to seeing Long Way Up, the latest two-wheeled travel series featuring everyone’s favourite Jedi Ewan MacGregor and his mate…

New WorldSSP300 leader The WorldSSP 300 category has a new star in the shape of 18-year-old Dutchman Jeffrey Buis (MTM Kawasaki MotoPort), who scored his first two career race wins from pole position and with it the championship lead. Second in race one was Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec) and third another Kawasaki rider, Mika Perez (Prodina Ircos Team Kawasaki). The second WorldSSP300 race saw Thomas Brianti (Prodina Ircos Team Kawasaki) second and day one faller Scott Deroue (MTM Kawasaki Motoport) recover to finish third and get to within two points of Buis. Rea meets Bayliss Jonathan Rea (KRT) set his Ninja to decimation mode in Superpole as he elbow-dragged his way to a new all-time Superbike best of 1m48.860s on a qualifying tyre. It was his 25th career Superpole win,…

Lachlan Epis WorldSSP Grid 15th, Race 1 DNF, Race 2 18th, 0 points “We’ve struggled again to convert our pace this weekend. We made a really good job in qualifying in 15th place but in the races I was losing almost a second in the long straights and burned my tyres trying to catch the group. Unfortunately we also had another technical failure that stopped us from finishing in race one. This will be my final weekend with the team, so I’d like to thank the boys for their hard work and wish them the best for the future.” Tom Edwards WorldSSP300 Grid 19th, R1 18th, R2 25th, 22nd overall, 9 points “After all the free practices I was in fourth so I was confident for the weekend and hoping…

Penrite Honda motocross star Brett Metcalfe has won 18 races from 18 starts racing in the South Australian state titles, picking up two championship trophies along the way. “Its been almost 20 years since I last competed in our state championship and to [do this] in front of my kids is priceless, to share it with them has been really special,” he said. “The last time I raced the championship I was just a kid so it’s really come full circle, as my kids also race in this championship. It has been an amazing time for my family and I.”…

“That was such a fun weekend! A big thank you to the club, volunteers and officials who made it possible. It just felt good to actually go racing again.” Mike Jones “It might not be an ASBK round but it’s racing and we are fortunate to be able to compete, so thank you to The Sportsmen Club, MQ and also Yamaha.” Aiden Wagner “Morgan Park is where I basically started my road racing career, and every bike I’ve ridden, I’ve ridden here first so it makes sense I get to race a Superbike here first too.” Oli Bayliss…