Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 71 Issue 21 i Australian Motorcycle News

WELL THAT’S GOT to be one of the busiest weekends of road racing this year, with MotoGP at Portimao, WorldSBK at Assen, ASBK at Wakefield Park, MotoAmerica at Atlanta and the 100th anniversary of the Cookstown 100 in Ireland. And that’s off the back oflast weekend’s 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans and Round 1 of the British Superbikes at Silverstone… All that racing means a bloody busy deadline Monday for the AMCN team, and while I reckon we’re all due for a Bex and a lie-down, there’s no rest for the wicked. We’re already well into producing content for the next issue of AMCN, as well as in the thick of the planning stages for some big upcoming feature stories and shootouts, including the ride for our annual adventure…

NEARLY 50 OF its cities may be in Covid lockdown, but the Chinese motorcycle industry is quickening its transition to bigger motorcycle models. Using its links to big European manufacturers, significant new models are on the horizon, along with the possible revival of at least one famous old brand. Several could end up on the world market, sparking a price war with existing industry giants. The emergence of CFMoto as a major player in the Australian market is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a roundup of recent developments.…

MEANWHILE QJMOTOR is taking aim at Yamaha’s R7, which has recently been successfully launched onto the Chinese market, in which the demand for middleweight sportsbikes is growing. Leaked via their type-approval filings are details on the 701 and 701R models, which could be the highest-end sports machines from QJMotor yet. Both use a 693cc parallel twin that’s virtually identical to CFMoto’s 700CL-X engine, which itself is descended from the 650cc Kawasaki-copy that CFMoto has been using for several years. QJ’s is manufactured by Qiajiang, though, so it’s not simply bought in from elsewhere. It’s a slightly unusual choice for QJ, as the company already has its own 754cc twin, which is good for 60kW, and used in its own adventure bike as well as Benelli’s 752S, Leoncino 800 and the…

Access, AMCN, PO Box 6, Bittern, Vic, 3918 access@amcn.com.au Letter of the issue Hopeful plea Thanks for your editorial (Bad reception, AMCN Vol 71 No 19), it cleared up a misunderstanding. I was under the impression that Fox Sports had obtained exclusive rights to MotoGP at the expense of Network 10. However, your editorial indicates Channel 10 dropped MotoGP, so in theory, another free-to-air broadcaster could obtain the rights at some time in the future. Your suggestion that ASBK could be a beneficiary of no free-to-air MotoGP is true in my case. I tuned into ASBK on SBS for the first time last year to see Jack Miller race and was impressed with both the racing and the broadcast. I’ve since seen the first two rounds of ASBK this year…

I DON’T LIKE the parallel-twin sports bike zeitgeist; I reckon it’s driven by manufacturers rather than demanded by the buying public, and without a 270-degree crank giving a parallel-twin some character they’re about as interesting as a beige Volvo. I’d like to say the engine in the YZF-R7 changed my mind about parallel twins, but it hasn’t. It’s a sweet engine – no doubt, with excellent fueling and a predictable spread of power and torque right across the rev range that will allow some riders to use the 689cc engine to its full potential, but it’s never going to scare you, nor enchant you with its soundtrack. The R7’s power output is on the modest side, but that lets you focus on stopping and cornering and that’s the R7’s forte.…

01 MotoGP, Rd6 Jerez, LIVE Videopass, Kayo, Foxsports 1 MAY 7pm Can The Beast take another win for Ducati or will it be Miller-time at Jerez? Check out the action live on Videopass, Foxsports or Kayo, with the Moto3 race starting at 7pm AEST, Moto2 at 8.20pm and MotoGP at 10pm. 02 AMA SX Rd16, Denver, LIVE Videopass, Kayo, Foxsports 1 MAY 5am Get up early and you can catch AMA Supercross live from Denver, Colorado on Foxsports or Kayo. This is the penultimate round and Eli Tomac goes in with a commanding 450SX lead. 03 Fast Track – Jack Miller Red Bull TV ON DEMAND Any time This 10-minute episode on Red Bull TV examines whether Aussie Jack Miller can get off to a flying start and cement his…

BACK IN THE early 2000s, I had a pair of Teknic sports gloves that I loved dearly and wore well past the point of them being viable hand protection. The Kevlar-knuckled, kangaroo leather gloves were by far the most comfortable ones I’d ever owned. Finally, 20 years later, I’ve found a pair of gloves that feels just as good. The Mission is Argon’s premium sports glove and features a goatleather construction with kangaroo leather palm that not only offers great abrasion resistance but gives the Mission its super-soft and comfortable feel. Also assisting with the good feels are accordion stretch panels in the wrist, thumb and fingers. The gloves are lined with a protective tech fibre plus a strategically placed polyester lined area with 2mm foam padding for additional protection.…

IN RECENT YEARS the best way for manufacturers to increase performance has been through the ECU. Engine development is almost at its peak and the ASBK is production-based, so the superbike you purchase off the showroom floor is already very, very capable – to the point where engine builders are nearly obsolete. But lap times continue to tumble and it is mostly due to fine tuning parameters via the ECU. After Wayne Maxwell totalled his Ducati V4 R at Round 1, Boost Mobile team boss Craig McMartin told me he didn’t need to set the fueling up on the new bike. What was once a laborious process on the dyno is now done automatically by the Magneti Marelli ECU. It self-learns as you put hours on the engine, and McMartin…

JOE ROBERTS (ITALTRANS Kalex) claimed a debut GP victory in bizarre circumstances after red flags were shown due to a multi-rider smash-up that claimed 11 riders. Rain started falling three laps into the final race of the day, and gradually intensified from there, making the victory fight between Aron Canet (Pons Kalex), Cameron Beaubier (American Racing Kalex) and Ai Ogura (HTA Kalex) all the more nerve-racking. Eventually the rain was such that all three, plus eight others – Marc VDS Kalex teammates Tony Arbolino and Sam Lowes, Ajo Kalex’s Augusto Fernandez and Pedro Acosta, Somkiat Chantra (HTA Kalex), Simone Corsi (MV Agusta), Albert Arenas (Aspar Kalex) and Zonta van den Goorbergh (RW Kalex) – crashed at Turn 2 on lap 9. Aside from Canet suffering the misfortune of breaking his…

A RED FLAG IN WorldSSP Race 1 was good news for Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Yamaha) and terrible timing for long-time leader Glenn van Straalen (EAB Yamaha). Tom Booth-Amos and Martin Brenner crashed, bringing out a red flag that saw the race classified after 13 laps, plus one sector. That meant that van Straalen was second, and not the winner of his home race. Third place went to one-time leader Nicolo Bulega (Aruba Ducati). Jules Cluzel was fourth, ahead of another Federico Caricasulo (Althea Ducati). Race 2 started with a hard pass on Aegerter from Kawasaki rider Can Oncu, and then two crashes at the first corner. Cluzel and van Straalen were both out almost before the second 14-lap race had properly begun. Aegerter’s drop in early positions saw Caricasulo…

PECCO BAGNAIA RETURNED to the paddock after a FP2 crash in wet conditions at Turn 3 and handed team manager Davide Tardozzi a handful of gravel from the outside of the track. It was, he said, because of concerns regarding the size and shape of the stones. “There are three tracks in the championship where the gravel is like this: Jerez, Mandalika and here. We were complaining already last year when [Jorge] Martin crashed. “Every crash at this track, when you arrive to the gravel you start to rumble a lot. This means you can get hurt by the gravel. So it’s not so safe.” Teammate Jack Miller had similar concerns. “You saw a couple of guys today really get shit-whipped going through the gravel. And it destroys the bike…

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. Even if that gear comes in the form of Pete wearing a 15-year-old Joe Rocket two-piece leather suit, that is roughly three sizes too big for him because he’s grown too fat for his current suit. So voluminous is the JR suit that Deano is convinced Pete’s knee slider was simply dangling on SMSP tarmac rather than Pete actually getting his knee down.…

NOT LONG AGO we saw patents from Benelli’s Chinese parent company Qianjiang for a parallel-twin engine that looked remarkably like KTM’s 799cc LC8c design, but with Benelli TNT branding on the cylinder head. Now patents have been filed for a V-twin that looks identical to KTM’s 1301cc ‘1290’ engine, without the slight changes we saw on the earlier patents for the smaller paralleltwin design. While there are plenty of examples of Chinese companies copying rival engine designs, that isn’t necessarily the case here. Qianjiang already has ties with western companies including MV Agusta (for which it makes the new Lucky Explorer 5.5 adventure bike) and Harley-Davidson, which has been working on a Qianjiang-based parallel twin for several years. It also has connections with KTM, not least in the Moto3 World…

PIAGGIO’S JOINT VENTURE with China’s Zongshen has already confirmed plans to launch a 900cc V-twin. Now there’s growing evidence that it might be marketed under the Gilera brand name. Zongshen hinted at the machine last year, showing the Cyclone RA9 concept at the CIMA show in China. That was basically a rebodied version of the old Aprilia Shiver, borrowing both its V-twin engine and trellis frame but wrapping it in eye-catching bodywork. However alongside it stood another version bearing Gilera badges. Now Zongshen-Piaggio has filed design patents in China for the same engine, protecting its visual appearance, and once again the design sports a Gilera logo. Given that Benelli has been having huge success recently in the Italian market, topping the sales charts with its Chinese-manufactured TRK502 adventure bike, there’s…

ROTON TO THE CORE Following its whirlwind inclusion in selected rounds of the 1991 500cc championship, the rotary-powered Roton completed three days testing in Australia – two days at the Creek and one at Oran Park. The bike was piloted by team rider Steve Spray and Ducati Dealer Team rider Roy Leslie, as well as Roton team backer Chris Oldfield. CARRARI The much-rumoured Ferrari-powered Cagiva Superbike exists! Well, it did exist, and then it didn’t. Never mind, it’s complicated. Anyway, Alan Cathcart spotted the Ferrari Testarossa themed Cagiva undergoing testing in Japan at the Tsukuba circuit on 1 April. The exotic machine was expected to arrive in Australia just in time for the Australian GP with Australian and south-east Asian distributor, Mr Benn Dohva, saying “we see the Australian Grand…

Facebook Post of the issue As expected, the Harley-Davidson Nightster has caused quite a stir Instagram Don’t Forget #amcn_mag Comment of the Issue Leo Nardo is clearly a titanic supporter of Jack Miller at Ducati Corse “Good work Miller. Showing up that Italian teammate once again” Reaching out Want to see your pride and joy featured in AMCN? The only thing we love more than writing about bikes is looking at your bikes. Tag your social pics with @ aumotorcyclenews on Facebook or @ amcn_mag on Instagram, or fire them off in an email to amcn@amcn.com.au And don’t forget to tell us why you love it. Get it off yer chest! Got something funny, new, old or wise to say or share? Do it! Head to www.facebook.com/aumotorcyclenews AMCN’S WEBSITE IS…

ROAD RACING MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Rd6 1 May, Jerez, ES Rd7 15 May, Le Mans, FR Rd8 29 May, Mugello, IT Rd9 5 Jun, Catalunya, ES Rd10 19 Jun, Sachsenring, DE Rd11 26 Jun, Assen, ND Rd12 10 Jul, KymiRing, FI Rd13 7 Aug, Silverstone, UK Rd14 21 Aug, Red Bull Ring, AT Rd15 4 Sep, Misano, IT Rd16 18 Sep, Aragon, ES Rd17 25 Sep, Twin Ring Motegi, JP Rd18 2 Oct, Chang International, TH Rd19 16 Oct, Phillip Island, AU Rd20 23 Oct, Sepang, MY Rd21 6 Nov, Ricardo Tormo Valencia, ES SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Rd3 21-22 May, Estoril, PT Rd4 11-12 Jun, Misano, IT Rd5 16-17 Jul, Donington Park, UK Rd6 30-31 Jul, Most, CZ Rd7 10-11 Sep, Magny-Cours, FR Rd8 24-25 Sep, Catalunya, ES Rd9 8-9…

New stuff 1 COSY COAT Zarkie $299 (03) 9820 0667 zarkie.com.au The Bluetooth Heated Jacket Liner is the latest addition to the Venture Heat range and allows you to adjust the jacket’s heat settings via your smart device using the Venture Heat app. The 12-volt heated liner features heating panels on the front, back, sleeves and collar, with 10 different heat settings. 2 K FOR KICKS Kawasaki Australia $280 (02) 9684 2585 kawasaki.com.au The Kawasaki and Adidas Original collaboration ZX 5K BOOST sneaker boasts a black TPU overlay and eye stays, Kawasaki green accents, a semi-transparent Black ripstop vamp and a Kawasaki Ninja logo on the toe-box. The ZX 5K BOOST is available only for a limited time in adult sizes 6-UK to 12.5-UK. 3 IT’S WARM Cassons Australia $399.95…

RACING, LIKE ALL sport, is better when you don’t know who is going to win. My question is this: Is it still better when you literally haven’t got a clue? When it could be almost any one of the 24 on the grid? Or does that reduce it to the level of an egg-and-spoon race? MotoGP, this year more than ever, has become just such a lottery. Four races so far and three different winners. And for the first three races, nine different riders on the podium. Bike-wise, all six manufacturers have made it into the top three. Even Aprilia, until now the poor relation. Carry on like this, and the same could be true of the championship. Anyone could win it. Although probably not, as happened in 2013, one…

SERGIO GARCIA (ASPAR GasGas) held his nerve in a tight last-lap fight for his second victory of the year, which was enough to reclaim the championship lead after Dennis Foggia (Leopard Honda) endured a rare off day. The 19-year-old shrugged off three crashes in a 15-minute qualifying session to dictate the pace from the front. No one could live with Garcia early on. By lap five, he was threatening a rout, leading his pursuers by 1.6sec. But a fast quartet – teammate Izan Guevara, Ayumu Sasaki (Max Racing Husqvarna), polesitter Deniz Oncu (Tech 3 KTM) and Jaume Masia (Ajo KTM), who had enjoyed an all-action start from 15th on the grid – began to reel him in. Five laps did it. Guevara took the lead, drafting by toward turn one,…

SUPERPOLE WINNER VICTOR Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) was the Race 1 winner at his home circuit but only after an epic fight with Samuel Di Sora (Leader Team Flembbo Kawasaki). After no Kawasakis on the podiums at Motorland, those two riders ran away from the rest in Race 1, with another Kawasaki rider, Yuta Okaya, ambushed late on to give Mirko Gennai (Team Br Corse) third place on his Yamaha. For the third time in succession, we had two riders way ahead of the rest in a WorldSSP300 race. In Race 2, one of the best WorldSSP300 races ever, saw 17 riders fight it out for the win, a remarkable feat given the Race 1 progress of Steeman and Di Sora. Finally a new winner in this class, as Hugo De…

AFTER ANDREA DOVIZIOSO said he would turn to video analysis to improve his riding technique in Austin, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro confirmed Aprilia has found small gains in recent weeks by having a rider coach and video camera standing trackside. “They can find the (correct) gearbox (setting), the line, the time per corner, everything,” said the Catalan. An example he gave: “in America that was a difficult circuit for me, I spent a lot of time analysing a lot of small details, comparing telemetry with Maverick, many things. [Matteo] Baiocco – (Aprilia’s rider coach) arrived with many videos, because in Turn 4, just Pecco [Bagnaia] used the kerb completely inside, a lot. “He showed this to me, we were on track and I started to see this, and Maverick and I,…

Aussie ECU plot thickens AMCN understands the Superbike teams and ASBK management held a private meeting over the Wakefield Park race weekend, and sources have told us they loosely agreed that no new models will be allowed to homologate an ECU. This means any new Superbike model introduced to competition will have to run a MoTeC control ECU, the exact specification of which hasn’t been decided yet. Teams currently running homologated units will still be able to do so until that model bike is superseded. MO Three out of four Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) made it a hat-trick of wins in the MotoAmerica Superbike championship when he won the opening race during Round 2 at Road Atlanta, but it was former Moto2 rider Jake Gagne (Yamaha) who stopped the Italian’s run…

Did you know? You did not! Kevin Schwantz very nearly beat the legendary Joey Dunlop in a round of the world TT-F1 championship, a support event to the future world champion’s GP500cc debut at Assen in 1986. See Page 60. “I NEVER THOUGHT I’D HAVE A CHANCE TO THROW A LEG OVER A GRAND PRIX BIKE AGAIN… AND SHARE A TRACK WITH KENNY, MICK AND KEVIN” An emotional Wayne Rainey talking about his upcoming ride at the UK’s Goodwood Festival of Speed with former GP rivals Roberts, Doohan and Schwantz. 80 ENNY, MICK AND KEVIN” Harley’s water-cooled Nightster 975 makes 66kW, which is 80 percent more power that the old air-cooled 883 Sportster ever did. Time has marched on. PRICE ISN’T RIGHT Elon Musk, whose Tesla corporation has just announced…

PREDICTABLY OUR FEATURE on the bikie ‘invasion’ of a New Zealand regional city in 1972 sparked some interesting internet chatter. Comments range from a cheeky suggestion that, 50 years on, the participants will be raising hell on their wheelchairs in nursing homes, to serious concerns that police strategies allowed the general gang culture to evolve into the drug-fueled, multi-national industry it is today. Other feedback I’ve received are queries about how, with the original biker movie The Wild One banned until the late 1970s, did the biker subculture grow so quickly in NZ. Also a request to explain exactly what it was like to live in this era, as I was a 17-year-old long-haired Triumph rider in 1972. Well, to the best of my fading memories, here are my recollections…

WHEN CONTRACT TALKS enter a crucial phase, it never hurts to remind the world of your talents. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) continued to make the case that he is indispensable to his factory as he dominated proceedings on the Algarve, for a first MotoGP victory since August of last year. The start to his title defence has been far from straightforward. A lack of winter development was to blame for disappointing results in three of the first four races and all the while, speculation mounted over his plans beyond this year. But here, Quartararo showed that when he starts well, and has minimum traffic ahead, he is still capable of performances that made him France’s first-ever premier-class champion. In fact, Quartararo has produced a few of those already this…

WORLDSBK GOT OFF to a great start at Motorland Aragon earlier this month, but it ended with a bang when two-time race winner Jonathan Rea (KRT) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx) collided and crashed in Race 2. In another race weekend when the 2022 ‘big three’ had it their own way when it counted for the podiums, Rea was the form man at what is statistically his most successful circuit. And it still is, even after that no score in the final race. With dry, sunny, if not really warm conditions forecast, and crowds back in the paddock at one of WorldSBK’s most iconic circuits, the prospects for a great second weekend of race action were very good. And it panned out that way from the off. The…

THE THIRD ROUND of the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship came alive at Wakefield Park, with Yamaha Factory Team rider Mike Jones clinching the round win with a stunning victory in Race 1 and second place in Race 2. After Friday practice, it was Wayne Maxwell (Boost Mobile with K-Tech Ducati) that had everybody talking, obliterating his lap time from last year and leading the field by almost half a second. On Saturday it was a different story – where Jones found pace, Maxwell lost it and the tension was beginning to show. Jones seized pole while problems with his Ducati V4 R left Maxwell third on the grid. More worryingly for Maxwell, Jones had completed a blistering race simulation and his teammate Cru Halliday was looking quietly confident…

COMING TO PORTUGAL, speculation was rife regarding the immediate future of Italian veteran Andrea Dovizioso. Adapting to Yamaha’s M1 has been a slog. Results have been poor. And the 35-year-old has been explicit that he did not return from nearly a year out to fight for places outside the top 10. Reports pointed to an imminent retirement. Yet on Thursday Dovizioso said that his aim, among other things, was to help Yamaha better its 2022 package through the year. “We have to do two things: first is to continue to try to adapt to the bike. The second is to work with Yamaha to develop the bike, because they realise how important it is to do during the season.”…