Australian Motorcycle News Vol 73 Issue 17

“WE HAVE LOADS OF CONTENT DEDICATED TO THE UPCOMING MOTOGP SEASON” AND SO it begins! Thanks to a ripper weekend of WorldSBK and ASBK action at Phillip Island the 2024 racing season is well and truly upon us. Next stop? Qatar, for Round 1 of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship. After preseason testing it looks like the Ducati juggernaut will continue to roll on into 2024, but there is more anticipation around this season than many previous years thanks largely to Marc Marquez’ switch to the Gresini Ducati squad. Now while it was reigning MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia who blitzed the Lusail circuit in testing with a blistering 1m50.952s lap time – the first sub-1m51s at the circuit on two wheels – MM93 hasn’t taken long to adjust his riding…

Husqvarna’s upcoming Vitpilen 901 twin has been spotted on test several times before but the company has finally started to drop hints that it’s on the verge of launching it – with an Instagram teaser video that suggests a date of 5 March. The teaser uses the usual short snatches of video to prevent a good look at the bike, which also wears a disguising wrap covered in Husqvarna logos, but even so it’s clear that it’s essentially the same rebodied KTM Duke that we’ve busted on test in recent months. While there are obviously no specifications yet, there are details to be drawn from the teaser. For a start, it’s abundantly clear that this new Husqvarna uses the older 890 Duke as its basis, not the new-for-2024 990 Duke,…

WHEN IS A single-cylinder engine not a single-cylinder engine? When it’s the new design from China’s QJMotor, it seems, as the company is working on a single that actually has two cylinders. New patents from the brand show that it’s developing a single that takes some inspiration from the legendary Ducati Supermono of the 1990s, essentially creating a 90-degree V-twin with one cylinder blanked off to get better balance than could be achieved with a conventional, large-capacity thumper. Ducati’s design was based on its Desmo V-twins of the same era, with the rear cylinder lopped off but retaining the twin’s crankshaft. Instead of the rear cylinder, Ducati used an extra, weighted conrod attached to the normal rear conrod, rocking back and forth to mimic the inertia of a second cylinder…

TRIUMPH HAS type-approved two new Rocket 3 models both wearing the name ‘Storm’ and sharing the 134kW (180hp), 2500cc triple that was previously reserved for the limited-edition Rocket 3 TFC. Dubbed the Rocket 3 Storm R and Rocket 3 Storm GT, the two models look set to be upgraded versions of the current R and GT, sharing much of the same proportions as those machines but getting more performance. The type-approvals show that the new versions have 133.9kW (180hp) at 7000rpm and 225Nm at 4000rpm, up from 122.8kW at 6000rpm and 221Nm at 4000rpm for the standard versions of the Rocket 3. Those new numbers exactly match the ones that were previously achieved by the Rocket 3 TFC (pictured, above) from 2019, which was made in a limited run of…

Back in January we got the first clues that Harley-Davidson was to bring back the Hydra-Glide nameplate when American approval documents emerged for a 2024 ‘Hydra-Glide Revival’. Now there’s more flesh on those bones as new European certifications have appeared that include further specifications. The original Hydra-Glide, launched back in 1949, was Harley’s first hydraulic-fork model and also had the new Panhead engine with hydraulic valve lifters. As 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the Hydra-Glide, it’s logical the new model appears this year. The American approvals confirm that the bike uses the 1868cc version of Harley’s Milwaukee-Eight V-twin and aligns it with the Fat Boy and Heritage Classic in the company’s Softail range. That’s logical as the original Heritage and Fat Boy models, which both debuted in the late…

QJMOTOR – SISTER company to Benelli and the new flagship brand of the massive Qianjiang empire – is on a global push with an increasingly-impressive range of models and now it looks like a new SRT600 model is set to replace its current SRT550 adventure bike. Revealed in Chinese type-approval documents, the SRT600 packs the same 554cc engine used in the SRT550 but wraps it in a new chassis and much-improved styling. The 554cc engine shares its design roots with that used in the Benelli TRK 502 but with a 70.5mm bore and 71mm stroke instead of the Benelli’s 69mm x 66.8mm measurements. It’s a redesign that was originally brewed for the planned MV Agusta Lucky Explorer 5.5, shown back in 2021 as an entry-level sibling for the three-cylinder Lucky…