Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 73 Issue 13 i Australian Motorcycle News

“MY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE DROWNED OUT BY THE SOUND AND FEEL OF THE BIKE” THERE’S ALWAYS a lot going on at AMCN but never more so than at this time of the year, when we have just finished the Yearbook issue and then knock out most of the first issue of the following year (this one) before Christmas, hopefully giving us a few days of downtime before the fortnightly production cycle begins again. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that… As is often the case at AMCN, we are currently undergoing a period of staff turnover. Just before Christmas our Road Test Editor Pete decided it was time to look for greener pastures – ones no doubt with less deadline pressure than the Green Horror,…

THE 1200 XE and the new 1200 X version get a new 50mm single throttle body, reprofiled exhaust headers and revised engine mapping, which shift maximum power and torque down by 250rpm while leaving the peaks the same. The off-road-biased XE also receives an additional mode, Off-road pro. Like the 1200 X, suspension is new for the XE. A Showa fork and twin Öhlins shocks have been replaced by similar Marzocchi units, still fully adjustable and still with 250mm of suspension travel. Suspension may have dropped in spec but stopping power has been increased to Brembo Stylema radial four-pots in place of the previous Brembo M50s. Style changes are minimal; just tweaks like the reduced size indicators and rear tail light. Overall, the level of finish is very high and…

Glenn Curtiss was a man possessed by speed, who became a giant of early motorcycling before setting the aviation world on fire. The legend began in 1907 when he thundered his self-built 4400cc V8 motorcycle on a sandy beach in Florida to 218km/h, an inconceivable speed at that time. Medics had told him the human body could not cope with that velocity and spontaneous combustion was likely… he did it anyway. Curtiss designed and built the first-ever American V-twin, which had its 120 year anniversary last year (AMCN Vol 72 No 15), but he’s also responsible for the rotatable throttle, the first modern carburettor and the first modern ignition coil. Glenn Curtiss was born on 21 May 1878, the decade of the Jesse James Gang and Custer’s Last Stand. The…

9-10 FEBRUARY 2024 Redback Rally, Charlton, Victoria. Presented by Sketa Grimshaw Tourers Motorcycle Club. Follow the signs in town to the rally site, 7km out along Boort Rd. Entry $30 at the gate or $25 prepaid, includes badge. Gates open noon Friday. Fully catered, live bands Friday and Saturday nights, entertainment, trophies and gymkana. No BYO, No Glass. See the website at www.redbackrally.com.au for details. 10-11 FEBRUARY 2024 Karuah River Rally, Frying Pan Creek campground, Chichester State Forest, near Dungog NSW. Back-to-basics rally with awards Saturday afternoon. BYO everything. Entry and badge $30. Nearest supplies available in Dungog with directions signposted in Chichester Forest involving about 14k of reasonable dirt roads. Check the Bank Hotel, Dungog for a map nearer the date. NB: if fire or weather risks close Frying…

1 HIGHLY ALARMED Moto National From $49.95 (07) 3120 4228 motonational.com.au Lok-Up’s CE-certified alarmed disc lock features a movement and shock sensor that triggers a 110dB alarm system that automatically resets after 10 seconds. The lock boasts a 5.5mm pin to maximise security, offers easy replacement of the long-life batteries and is available in red, blue and yellow. 2 ASTRO BOYS Ficeda Accessories $329.95 1300 437 711 ficeda.com.au The Astro summer jacket from Bering features a Fibretech 600D outer construction with a fixed mesh liner and Shelltech removable liner. Astro boasts CE shoulder protectors, adjustable CE elbow protectors, multiple inner and outer pockets, dual front zips, hip adjustment and trouser connection zip. 3 BAGGY LEGS Link International $69.95 (07) 3382 5000 macnaridinggear.com.au The Leg Bag Basic from Macna provides a…

“WATCHING SENNA AGIUS GET RESULTS ON THE CBR600RR HAS INSPIRED US” MY PARENTS run MotoCity in Wollongong and my dad bought me my first dirtbike for Christmas when I was 10 years old. I fell I love with it straight away – I felt that connection. We rode to have fun but eventually I wanted to race. I remember being in dirtbike gear on the startline at Kembla Grange for the first time and absolutely loving it, and then in 2020 I began on my first roadbike, which led to competing in the Oceania Junior Cup. Now I’ve wrapped up a great two years in Supersport 300, capped off by winning the ASBK Supersport 300 title for 2023 after a nail-biting final round at The Bend. I’ve learned so much…

Addicted to Track as a business caters for a particular niche, how did you get started? I’ve got a technical background, having started a technical/manufacturing business in the mining and telecommunication industry. Although I’m still involved in those businesses, I sold part of it to Telstra in 2016. Like every business owner you put 100 hours a week into it, and then suddenly I had some time available. I got bored within a month and started Addicted to Track. Basically, we’re a transport and logistics company and we specialise in moving unregistered vehicles. If it’s a race or track bike, we can move it. It was through my work in the mining industry that I learnt a lot about logistics and moving stuff around the world, so it’s about leveraging…

It was only a few months ago that KTM took the wraps off the 890 SMT as the final addition to the ‘890’ range of 889cc parallel twin bikes – but already it is working on the next generation SMT powered by the new ‘990’ twin that debuted in the 2024 990 Duke. This prototype, still clearly in the early stages of development, is mixing and matching components from the 2023 890 SMT with parts from the 2024 990 Duke but, far from being a criticism, that’s a reflection of the clever way KTM has designed its new 990 engine. Despite being completely new it’s dimensionally similar to the older 799cc ‘790’ and 889cc ‘890’ twins. This makes it relatively easy to combine the new engine with existing chassis parts…

Its name might not have changed but 2024’s KTM 390 Duke is a completely redesigned machine with a brand-new engine and chassis – and now it looks like the 390 Adventure is getting the same treatment. Our bust of a test mule comes hot on the heels of the recent launches of Royal Enfield’s all-new Himalayan and CFMoto’s 450MT. KTM is taking a practical approach based on the close relationship between the 390 Duke and 390 Adventure in the past. The steel-tube frame seen in the spy photos appears to be the same as the 2024 390 Duke’s, as is the engine – a 399cc DOHC single that replaces the previous 373cc motor, with a 64mm stroke instead of the previous 60mm and a carried-over 89mm bore. In the Duke,…

Rarely has one rider shone so brightly on one motorcycle for so long: 11 seasons, six MotoGP world championships and 59 grand prix victories. Only Giacomo Agostini and Mick Doohan come close. Ago rode MV Agusta 500s for nine years, taking seven world titles and 64 wins. Doohan rode Honda NSR500s for 10 years, five titles and 54 victories. But what made Marquez's star shine so brightly was the strength of his rivals. The MotoGP grid of recent years has been much stronger than the 500c grid in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s - and especially how he changed the art of riding a GP bike: tucking the front at every other corner and, when he surpassed the limit, avoiding disaster by using his elbows as outriggers. Not always of…

Italian engineer Gianni Mariani’s Milan-based company CGM was founded in 1978. Since then it has become the leading Italian engine emissions expert. Here he talks about taking on Ducati – both off the track and on it! Gianni, when did Moto Morini first contact you to start work on this new engine? Well, my contact with Moto Morini goes back to the early 1980s [but] I got re-introduced to Moto Morini in 2018 when JD, one of my customers in China, wanted to buy the company. But Mr Chen Huaneng of Zhongneng was very quick – as soon as he saw another Chinese firm coming, he put a big cheque on the table and said, “It’s sold.” We sat down in Mr Chen’s big office and I said, “Congratulations, you…

*Provisional **Subject to homologation ROAD RACING ST GEORGE MCC SUMMER NIGHT SERIES Rd3 15 Dec, SMSP, NSW Rd2 13 Jan, SMSP, NSW Rd3 26-27 Jan, SMSP, NSW Rd4 9-10 Feb, SMSP, NSW 2024 AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Rd1 23-25 Feb, Phillip Island GP Circuit Rd2 22-23 Mar, Sydney Motorsport Park Rd3 22-28 Apr, Queensland Raceway Rd4 12-14 Jul, Morgan Park Raceway Rd5 7-8 Sep, Phillip Island GP Circuit Rd6 4-6 Oct, One Raceway (formerly Wakefield) Rd7 8-10 Nov, The Bend Motorsport Park 2024 AUSTRALIAN OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP Rds1-2 2-3 Mar, venue TBC Rds3-4 20-21 Apr, venue TBC Rds5-6 18-19 May, venue TBC Rds7-8 27-28 July, venue TBC Rds9-10 24-25 Aug, venue TBC Rds11-12 14-15 Sept, venue TBC 2024 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP* Rd1 10 Mar, Losail, QA Rd2 24 Mar, Portimao, PT Rd3…

If you follow MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3, you may have seen the odd rider wearing an MT-branded helmet or even riding an MT Helmets-sponsored motorcycle. Arguably, the most notable of those riders was 19-year-old Pedro Acosta, who clinched last year’s Moto2 World Championship. What better time to stick my head in an MT Helmet to see what all the fuss is about. The MT Helmets KRE+ is one of the very few FIM-homologated helmets available off the shelf to the public. This means that if HRC give me a call to ride their bike and, let’s face it, they’ve called just about everyone else, my helmet will be ready to grid up for a MotoGP race. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the rest of me or my gear.…

“A CHANCE TO DISPLAY MY OWN PREJUDICE, BOOST RIDERS I ADMIRE, LET THE OTHERS SLIP” I HAD BEEN going to write about MotoGP’s 75th birthday, and how it had passed almost uncelebrated. Then I thought: heck – it wasn’t celebrated because nobody cares. Racing’s here and now is enough for the insta-post age, with its goldfish-shaming attention span. So we can look back at the past season just once. My yearly task for the annual Motocourse is to express some opinion, possibly completely shallow, via the book’s Top Ten. A chance to display my own prejudice, boost riders I admire and let the others slip down the order. So here goes. It’s not written in stone. But it is inscribed in a massive tome described by some as the bible…

THE BENEFIT of a full season of flat track racing in the US was on show for all to see as Forbes teenager Tom Drane became the standout performer at two major dirt track meetings that wrapped up the 2023 domestic season. He even beat ex-dirt-tracker-turned MotoGP racer Jack Miller, back from Europe. Drane won all his heats at the 32nd staging of the Trackmasters meeting at the Barleigh Ranch Raceway, and then the finals of both the Pro 450 and Unlimited Trackmasters classes. The Pro 450 win meant he added his name to the Rod Allen Memorial Trophy. He then finished the day by winning the deciding match race to win the Max Toth Golden Helmet, a trophy first awarded back in 1965. Other major winners at the Memorial…

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Oscar O’Donovan raced solo to the Tassie 2 Hour endurance race victory at Baskerville in December, beating some well established names of the sport. The unfortunate clash with the final round of the Australian Superbike Championship in South Australia cost the Sports Riders Club of Tasmania the chance to build on the great number of entries from the mainland the 2022 Tassie 2 Hour attracted. Kyle Buckley again made the journey south to team up with current Tasmanian Superbike Champion Brett Simmonds. Also making the trip was first-time visitor Mathew Tooley, with his brother Jake using their Yamaha R1 in the Over 500 Formula 3 support races as well as helping as pit crew for the 2 Hour. The event hasn’t been a particularly happy hunting ground for Simmonds…

KTM HAS ALSO been testing a variation on its parallel-twin Adventure model – with a prototype that looks very much like the 890 Adventure R but may actually be a mule for a future, cheaper variant. As well as expanding upwards with the 990 parallel twin engine, KTM has made the decision to create a downsized version of the old 790/890 LC8c twin, clocking in at around 650cc and to be manufactured by Bajaj in India. Although it’s impossible to tell the capacity of the engine in the Adventure testbike spotted at KTM’s facility, we can see that its covers match those of the older 790/890 LC8c motor rather than the new 990 version. Since KTM already has both a 790 and 890 Adventure and Adventure R in its line-up,…

THE F1-STYLE rear spoilers appearing in MotoGP are starting to make the transition from the track to the street, after Aprilia has taken the unusual step of filing a patent application for its rear-spoiler design. Patents are rarely used to protect racing developments as it would be unsporting to use legal protection to prevent rivals copying something that gives a competitive edge. There’s no such code of conduct when it comes to production bikes though, and Aprilia has already filed patent applications for several elements of its RS-GP’s aerodynamic package with an eye to adopting them on future production models. The rear spoiler is the latest. The patent application, which was filed in 2022 at the time the spoiler first appeared on the RS-GPs, but has only just been published, says…

Moto Parilla is one of those names that emerged in the postwar heyday of the Italian motorcycle industry but disappeared again a little over 20 years later in 1967 – but it’s back now with a range of power-assisted bicycles and may be set to reappear on motorcycles in the near future. The Parilla e-bikes are more radical than most, particularly the company’s Carbon and Ultra models, which feature carbon-fibre frames that stand out from the crowd thanks to a pair of large, circular openings through their main upper frames, ringed by alloy sections. If that design cue looks vaguely familiar, it’s because the bikes are direct descendants of the planned Caterham Carbon E-Bike that appeared a decade ago, when the tiny British sportscar brand had its name on a…

Cecil Sandford held a unique place in motorcycle grand prix racing. The Englishman gave MV Agusta its first world title. Until his death on 29 November 2023 he was also the oldest surviving world champion. Sandford was born on 21 February 1928, in Blockley, Gloucestershire. He became an apprentice carpenter straight out of school and woodworking would remain a hobby throughout his life. Not long after World War II had ended, Cecil and his family drove past a scrambles event. Cecil’s father stopped the car to look, but Cecil wasn’t impressed. He wanted to go road racing. From that moment on he raced his Triumph in club events and, in 1950, entered his first grand prix (and his first race outside the UK). A year later he drew attention when…

Being forced to get a LAMS-approved motorcycle, when you just want the quickest or best-looking beast on the planet, can plain old suck but it’s the way of things. Suzuki gets it. It understands that most rookie riders are going to ditch that LAMS bike the moment they snag that full licence. Which means it also understands many of those riders aren’t going to want to cough up a bucket of money on a bike they’ll probably sell in the near future. So Suzuki has thrown a couple of LAMSapproved bikes into the mix that look the part, can do the business on the road and are wonderfully affordable, even compared to bikes in the secondhand market. Those two bikes are the new Gixxer 250 and Gixxer SF 250. The…

You either get Triumph’s 1200 Scrambler or you don’t. You either appreciate its uncompromising, slightly old-fashioned approach to its role as a dual-purpose retro bruiser, or you find its daunting seat height and lack of adventure-bike comforts and sophistication too much to contemplate, especially on dirt. You love the retro looks and Scrambler styling or you are perturbed by its weight and lack of tech. Triumph appears to have recognised this fact because the new and significantly reconsidered 2024 Scrambler 1200 X is the Hinckley factory’s olive branch to those who find themselves drawn to the Scrambler’s unquestionable charisma and charm while being slightly intimidated by its size and bulk too. Don’t worry, I was. With shorter-stroke suspension and a lower seat height, the 1200 X is more accessible and…

Historic Italian brand Moto Morini, founded in 1937 in Bologna, was a regular visitor to the last-chance saloon before its acquisition in October 2018 by Chen Huaneng, the owner of Chinese scooter and minimoto manufacturer Zhongneng Vehicle Group. In my exclusive interview with him that month Mr Chen promised to invest in the company by underwriting the development of a range of different model families, including updating the company’s existing 1187cc 87° V-twin CorsaCorta engine to be fully compliant with current noise and emissions norms via an RBW digital throttle and other solutions. Five years on, Chen has proved to be as good as his word, with the Moto Morini stand at EICMA 2023 bursting with dramatically styled and excitingly engineered new models which have been 100 percent developed in…

Vietnam is a country of almost 100 million souls blended from 54 different ethnicities. It is is awash with great foods, clashing colours, opulence, cluttered footpaths, squalor and more than 40 million motorbikes. Those two-wheelers are mostly scooters. They are everywhere. First time there we’d met a local in Nga Trang who sold us a five-day 9000km guided tour for d12,000,000 ($A750). It got us a 125cc Honda single to ride two-up, to which we tied three of our four soft bags on behind us while our guide Minh – on a similar Honda – carried the fourth. Once I’d used my Leatherman to adjust the clutch and brake lever positions, riding was simply a matter of following the leader and taking in the views – like hell! Sometimes after…

Aprilia’s Shiver 750 was an underrated model that deserved broader recognition than it achieved as a worthy competitor to the middleweight Ducati Monsters and Triumph’s Street Triple. It arrived in 2007 at a golden moment after the huge Piaggio Group had bought Aprilia. Using Piaggio’s resources Aprilia developed its own liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, V-twin engines, moving away from its reliance on supplies from Rotax. The Shiver’s then-new 749cc, DOHC, four-valve-per-cylinder twin-cylinder was the first roadbike engine born of that union. Producing a healthy 71kW (95hp) at 9000rpm, it was a free-revving powerplant that also had a user-friendly flat torque curve. On the road its response to a fistful of its ride-by-wire throttle was reassuringly linear until 6000rpm where the urgent rush to the 10,000rpm redline kicked in. The sweet engine and…

“THEY LOOKED AT DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS, LOOKED BACK AT THE CLASSICS AND SHRIEKED” ONE OF THE growing fears in the classic motorcycle world – in the entire field of classic vehicles, actually – is that our favourite old machines will be legislated off the roads, or perhaps forced off by the commercial self-interest of insurers. The writing is on the wall and there is a surge of active resistance mounting. It’s funny because on one hand we’ve got governments everywhere accepting that classic vehicles deserve special treatment and offering concessional registration based on limited use. On the other, we’ve got pressure to get these oily, polluting old dungers off the roads. The extraordinary advances in motoring technology have highlighted the horrors of classic vehicles. I could have told them that…