Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 73 Issue 20 i Australian Motorcycle News

“THE DEAL BEGS THE QUESTION: WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR MOTOGP AS A SPORT?” YOU CAN always count on MotoGP to grab headlines, even when there’s no racing on. News that Liberty Media, the owner of F1, has struck a deal to purchase 86 percent of Dorna, MotoGP’s proprietor, has set tongues wagging. If the deal plays out, it means Liberty will take over the rights to MotoGP. That begs the following questions: What will it mean for MotoGP as a sport? Will it become more of a show and less of a racing series? Will it even get the required regulatory approval? So long as people are talking about MotoGP, I guess the current series owner and the impending one will be happy. Of course, MotoGP wasn’t the only…

If there’s one thing Suzuki has become very good at in the last few years, it’s building unpretentious motorcycles which represent really good value for money. And while the new for 2023 V-Strom 800 hasn’t quite ticked all the boxes I’d expect and like it to, it’s still a well-appointed, practical and high-value offering. In my mind, a base-model adventure tourer – regardless of the brand – is the sports tourer for those who want a more upright riding position, less bodywork and a few more options on ways to get from A to B. More practical than a traditional sports-tourer, there’s more luggage options, more wind protection and, while the 19-inch front wheel doesn’t quite offer the same feel and feedback as a 17-incher would, they can generally be…

Creating a retro motorcycle is a tricky business. Nostalgia must blend with modernity. The past must be celebrated while designing for the fast-changing needs of today’s markets. And whatever balance of old and new the manufacturer comes up with, for every person who applauds its looks and style, another half dozen will fold their arms and say, no, that’s wrong. Enter BMW’s R12 nineT. The first serious update of the decade-old R nineT boxer twin, and perhaps the most satisfyingly blended retro yet to come from the German manufacturer. There’s a new, lighter chassis and thoroughly updated electronics, a sleeker look and generous scope for customisation too. The price is $26,495 – a fraction more than the older model’s – although most owners will undoubtedly bloat that figure by adding…

It may sound ridiculous to be praising a rider as sport’s next big thing with the season just two races old. But there has been enough in the performances of Pedro Acosta in 2024 to suggest he is already MotoGP’s newest superstar, and likely to leave a string of broken records in his wake. Not bad for a teenager with just two premier-class appearances to his name. But the rider from Murcia, in the south east of Spain, has been the standout story of the season so far. After a highly promising preseason, it took just one race for the 19-year-old to mix it with a number of the class’s leading names. By the second he had climbed a MotoGP podium, becoming the third youngest rider in history to do…

The outer shell on the Ixon Burning is claimed to be waterproof and I can vouch for its ability to keep moisture out, having ridden through several downpours on various bikes without getting wet. For those who like the tech jargon, the outer shell is made from a breathable material with an integrated XDRY membrane and taped seams. The outer shell’s breathability ensures that, unlike jackets with a separate plastic rain liner, you don’t get all sweaty when wearing the Burning. In fact, without the thermal liner fitted and with the arm vents open it’s cool enough on warmer days to confirm its all-seasons claim. There are also weather-protected exhaust vents in the back of the jacket for increased airflow. When the weather is cold, zip up the vents, insert…

It’s the Hammer’s looks that draw you to it. Its styling cleverly combines competing elements – the lovely flowing old-school ‘streamlined’ look with brutish hardware such as the monster V-twin engine, the massive chrome exhausts and the super-wide 250mm rear tyre. The air-cooled, 1731cc, 50-degree, V-twin powerplant totally dominates the available space under the fuel tank in the tubular steel frame. Modern with electronic fuel injection, and breathing through twin 45mm throttle bodies, it’s also a good old-fashioned undersquare design (bore and stroke are 101 x 108mm). Those are the vital dimensions of a serious torque-pump. And it does what it says on the tin – torque comes on strong from 2000rpm, maxing out at 153Nm at 2900rpm. Spin it up to 5000rpm and you access its maximum power of…

“THIS IS WHERE THE WHOLE ‘OLD BIKES ARE GREAT’ STORY ENDS ON THE TRAILER” THIS IS GOING to hurt. It’s never easy to make a big turn in life but when it’s at the soul scraping level, when your parameters pull a 180-degree swing, then it’s easier to’fess up and get on with it. I’ve been dragged to the New Bike Table. Up until now my life’s been spent massaging old machines into life before heading out and proving to the world there’s nothing wrong with old. Old is good, old with a bit of tweaking is really good and old beats new all day long. Problem is that mantra, like an old fibreglass fairing, has cracked with age. It started when I took the Norton to Tasmania for an…

ALL THREE of the Pierer Mobility Group’s off-road brands have withdrawn from the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship’s entry list, leaving only 11 riders to fight out the remaining four rounds, all on either Honda or Hero machinery. The parent company of KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas, the Pierer Mobility Group, told AMCN its decision to withdraw from the 2024 Rally-Raid Championship was made in the third-quarter of last year, citing safety concerns as one of the drivers behind the surprise move. “This decision, reached in the Autumn of 2023, was not made lightly,” the response to our inquiry read. “The World Rally-Raid Championship, although a commendable platform for the sport, is still in its early stages. Recent events in the championship have highlighted several safety concerns which, despite the best efforts…

THE 53RD running of the iconic Australian enduro Kamfari will be held on the Northern Territory’s Cox Peninsula on Sunday 5 May. Held 80-odd kays south of Darwin, the bikes will leave the startline at 10am, 10 minutes before the quads, which will race on a separate route. While the course always offers up plenty of challenging mud and water to navigate, there are long sections of hard-packed track to give riders a break. The enduro runs for four hours and the loops are approximately 12km. At the end of each lap, riders can choose to pit for fuel/drinks/repairs or continue on. THE NT’S KAMFARI ENDURO TRULY IS AN EVENT TO EXPERIENCE EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT COMPETING It truly is an event to experience even if you are not…

There’s never been any doubt that after its debut in this year’s 1390 Super Duke R, KTM’s new-generation LC8 V-twin engine will filter through to further models – and now it’s clear that the next machine to get it will be a completely revamped Super Duke GT. Despite its name, KTM’s new ‘1390’ engine is just 49cc larger than its ‘1290’ predecessor. The older engine is actually 1301cc and the new one is 1350cc thanks to a 2mm increase in bore. But the power increase from 132kW to 140kW is much greater than that capacity boost would normally allow and comes thanks to the introduction of KTM’s first variable-valve timing and lift system, using a cam-shifting design borrowed from Audi that’s very similar to the ShiftCam VVT that BMW employs…

The new-for-2025 Indian Scout line-up consists of essentially clean-sheet designs that replace Indian’s best-selling model range, making it the biggest launch since the brand was revived in its current form. Unlike the previous generation, the new 2025 line-up doesn’t have a basic ‘Scout’ variant. The replacement for that version is now called the Scout Classic. It gains a more traditional style with wire wheels. The Scout Bobber – which has become both the entry point and the best-seller – keeps its name and carries over key styling elements. Then there’s the Sport Scout, which replaces the old Scout Rogue and features a nose cowl and 19-inch front wheel instead of the 16-incher. Those models are direct replacements for the existing three-bike range, but Indian has also added two high-end models,…

$8490 CFMoto has released its first LAMS-approved cruiser to the Australian market. Powered by a 449cc 270° crank parallel-twin engine, the 450CL-C boasts ABS and traction control, as well as a 3.5-inch TFT dash with phone connectivity. It’s got an upside-down fork, J.Juan brakes, a 690mm seat height and a three-year warranty. LIVEWIRE KYMCO TIE-UP A new patent from Kymco points towards a platform-sharing future for its RevoNEX electric roadster, which uses the chassis and electronics from the LiveWire Arrow platform. In 2021, when Harley-Davidson spun off LiveWire as a separate company, it confirmed that Kymco had poured $US 100 million into the project, with the Taiwanese company taking a four percent stake in LiveWire. BP “I am going to continue my adventure in BLUE!” Long-suffering 2021 MotoGP world champion…

LEAD NEWS DOOHAN PULLS THE PIN After months of will he or won't he?, Mick Doohan finally brought the curtain down on his illustrious racing career just before Christmas. Above: Doohan - flanked by old adversary Kevin Magee - is all smiles as he announces his retirement on the Gold Coast. MOTY: R1 DOUBLES UP The Yamaha R1 is AMCN’s Motorcycle of the Year for the second successive time. The one-litre rocket came up trumps in a field of seven finalists, which also included Yamaha’s R6 and WR400, Aprilia’s RSV1000, Triumph’s Sprint ST, Suzuki’s GSX1300R Hayabusa and Ducati’s 996SPS. SPORT AMCN Vol 49 No 12 GASSIT ED’S DESK…

Talk about an unexpected flashback! As I throw my leg over the latest version of the Himalayan, Royal Enfield’s do-it-all adventure bike, I am instantly transported from outer Melbourne carpark to upper India mountain pass. It is truly a transition from the suburban to the sublime. The feel of the bike underneath me is just so familiar, so evocative, that I am taken straight back to 2018, which was the last time I rode a Himalayan… fittingly, in the Indian Himalayas. And it was a decent ride too – many days of high-altitude culture shock, with some of the most amazing mountain roads and mind-bending views you could imagine. It was magic and I fell in love with the Himalayan during the trip, as it felt like the perfect…

Indian’s hulking, matt black, antisocial, licence-shredding Sport Chief is the most recent player in that oversized hooligan bike sector perhaps started by the Yamaha V-Max back when Super Mario Brothers hit gaming consoles for the first time. It’s a sector where the language is in Newton metres rather than kilowatts and whose participants get invited to the Christmas parties of their local tyre retailer whom they’ve made wealthy thanks to their frequent custom. The Sport is the, well, sporty version of Indian’s updated Chief line-up, which came out a couple of years ago and sits among the Dark Horse, Bobber Dark Horse and Super Chief Limited. These models are the brand’s boulevard bashing cruisers and are a big-engined step up from the 1133cc Scout range. They are minimal in equipment…

1 BOOT SCOOTIN’ Link International $349.95 ☎ (07) 3382 5000 🖰 tcxboots.com.au TCX Explorer 4 Gore-Tex Boots feature a microfibre upper and high-tenacity polyamide fabric, Gore-Tex membrane, reinforcements on malleolus, shin, toe and heel, shift pad, side closure with elastic zip and Velcro, OrthoLite footbed, wear-resistant rubber outsole, and rear reflex insert. Sizes 41-47. 2 TRACK YOUR BIKE Whites Powersports Australia $279 ☎ (03) 8720 6000 🖰 whitespowersports.com The Monimoto Smart Motorcycle GPS Tracker provides full control over your bike’s security. It alerts you if someone’s tampering with your motorcycle or preparing to steal it, and it has its own battery that lasts up to a year. It becomes active once the key fob is out of range, and you can view the tracker’s location in real-time within the Monimoto app. 3 ON THE FLIPSIDE Monza Imports…

“I KNOW I NEED TO BE SMARTER THIS YEAR TO TAKE HOME THE TITLE” MY INJURY AT Suzuka last year really threw me a curveball. There was a lot of ligament damage and the doctors wanted to fuse my wrist for 12 weeks. The penultimate round at Phillip Island was 11 weeks away and I really needed to know if I could ride before that. Two weeks out and my fingers still weren’t operating properly. It was my 10th year racing the Suzuka 8 Hour, but I was feeling like I shouldn’t have raced there at all. Overall, I felt really stressed with thoughts I had let everyone down by racing at an event that I loved. It was one of the most difficult times of my racing career. Still, I…

LIBERTY MEDIA, the owner of Formula 1, will take over the rights of MotoGP at the end of 2024 assuming the deal satisfies the competition and foreign investment watchdogs in various jurisdictions. The news comes following a $A7 billion handshake that will see the American mass media company acquire 86 percent of Dorna Sports, which is currently in control of both the MotoGP and Superbike world championships. Dorna will still run the series under the new agreement with current CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta remaining at the helm of the organisation, which is promising to remain independently run. As well, Ezpeleta and his Spanish management team will retain a 14 percent share of the business. Ezpeleta, who will turn 78 this year, described the agreement as the “perfect next step in the…

CFMoto’s tie-in with KTM has been bearing plenty of fruit recently – notably with the 800MT adventure and 800NK nakedbike – but there’s more in the pipeline including a Super Duke-style V-twin. The Chinese company first hinted at such a model way back in 2017 with the V.02-NK concept, which packed a KTM LC8 V-twin engine into a radical-looking naked roadster with unusual engineering, including a rear-mounted radiator. It became the design study that laid the template for the range of ‘NK’ naked models available in showrooms today, but we’re still waiting for one with the full-fat KTM V-twin engine. Recent patents have shown just such a bike in considerable detail, revealing that the rear-mounted radiator of the concept has been swapped for a conventional, front-mounted one, but that the…

Tom Gibson’s flat track style was deemed too dangerous for Mount Panorama: ‘Motorcyclists in two race crashes!’ screamed the headline of Brisbane’s Sunday Mail newspaper on 2 September 1967. It was a real beat-up. No press snapper captured either crash and the nonsensical caption under the front-page photograph read: ‘Competitors flash past the wrecked motorcycle of Terry Gibson, which stalled at 100-miles-an-hour on the Surfers Paradise Circuit yesterday.’ Had the reporters been doing their job, they’d have known the T. Gibson listed in the race program was none other than the Lismore Flash, Tom Gibson, having his first outing on the fledgling International circuit. Fortunately Tom suffered no worse than a broken leg when his engine seized entering the fastest corner in Australian motor racing. Just six weeks later he…

It’s no secret that the Harley-Davidson X500 is based on the same platform as the Benelli Leoncino 500 and is built for H-D in China by Benelli’s parent comapny QJ Motor. Unlike Harley’s ‘other’ new LAMS-compliant bike, the unique to H-D X350, the X500 is an out-an-out badge-engineering exercise, so it’s not surprising that (other than bodywork and logos) it looks and feels much the same as the Leoncino 500 it’s based on. At the heart of the X500 is a 499.6cc parallel twin with a 360° crank that makes a claimed 35kW (47hp) at 8500rpm and 46Nm at 6000rpm. The engine makes decent torque throughout the rev range and, thanks to a counterbalancer, it feels quite smooth and vibe-free at lower revs. But start to explore the upper third…

Like a lot of good ideas, it got dreamed up over a drink of or two, consolatory ones the Taylormade team had at Zeltweg’s Österreichring circuit – now the Red Bull Ring – in the summer of 1993. We were drowning ike a lot of good ideas, it got our sorrows after I’d earlier DNF’d in the Austrian round the European Thunderbike series with a blown engine in Paul Taylor’s Saxon-framed 1137cc Motodd Laverda triple, on which I’d won Europe’s most prestigious event for such machines at Assen the previous year. “I guess this is going to have to be it,” said ARCO oil geologist Taylor in a resigned tone of voice. “We have to accept that any air-cooled three-cylinder engine with Laverda on the sidecases is basically yesterdays’ papers,…

TESTED VOL 70 NO 15 BIKE SPOTLIGHT KAWASAKI ZX-10RR ENGINE 998cc inline four POWER 157kW (210hp) @13,200rpm TORQUE 115Nm @11,400rpm WEIGHT 207kg (kerb, claimed) PRICE $26,749 (plus on-road costs) “Like the race-ready engine, the aggressive seating position has you hunting for action” TESTED VOL 73 NO 17 BIKE SPOTLIGHT BIMOTA TESI H2 ENGINE 998cc four-cylinder POWER 170kW (228hp) @11,500rpm TORQUE 104.5Nm @11,000rpm WEIGHT 207kg (dry, claimed) PRICE $85,000 (ride away) “Supercharged engine, technically intriguing hub-centre steering… requires a brain recalibration” WEB HOT! Check out the website for the latest reviews at amcn.com.au…

“SEEMS ANYWHERE IN THE US IS REALLY SPECIAL FOR MARC. PROBABLY CANADA TOO, IF THEY WERE TO HOST A GP” HAIL TO THE chief. Wave the flags. Marc’s coming home. Not so much a case of MAGA but MMaGA (Make Marquez Great Again). Because that’s what happens when he goes to the United States, making this potentially the weekend that he reminds his rivals exactly what he is made of. And that he is ready to become unbeatable again, on his new Ducati. That’s what the statistics say, anyway… though there may be a few riders (and fans) with a different view. It will certainly focus the attention on the coming weekend at COTA. Marc’s dazzling US statistics encompass two out of three classes as he was a mere top-10 finisher…

THE WANNEROO 3 Hour was won by the pairing of Ben Stronach and Warren French in perfect conditions at the Western Australian Circuit on 24 March. Healthy fields populated both the 3 Hour and supporting 24-lap Production on GP, with 11 riders lining up for the PGP, which opened the day’s racing. Later 28 teams battled it out for the podium in the endurance event. Luke Warner (Metro Motorcycle Training Kawasaki Ninja 400) took pole position in the Production GP, ahead of Joel Jenzen (Streetwise Transport Yamaha YZF-R3) with Jason Keenehan (Trakdayz Kawasaki ZX-4R Ninja) completing the front row. Jenzen lead for the first couple of laps but was passed by Keenehan and from there he led until the chequered flag in a time of 27m16.6207s. Warner was second, just…

The whole junior scene has changed a lot since you started MotoStars? Yes, we started MotoStars back in 2016 when there wasn’t much in the way of junior road racing in Australia. During that time a lot of kids tried it and liked it, and that led to us establishing a race series. Then Covid happened and everything was shut down. It really killed the momentum of the racing side of MotoStars but, at the same time, other series started to pop up. All of a sudden people were spoiled for choice, so we decided to leave the racing to everyone else and move back to where we started, which is coaching. What are you running in terms of coaching now? We do monthly days at Port Macquarie kart track…