Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue#125 - June 2016 i Australian Road Rider

An American rider who was rammed by an unmarked police car after a five-minute pursuit and then kicked in the chest has successfully sued the officer for $181,170 in damages. Aprilia rider Justin Wilkens filed a complaint against Oregon State Trooper Lieutenant Rob Edwards for excessive force, but it was dismissed by the district attorney’s office and the officer has since been promoted to captain. So Justin decided to sue for damages after paying $31,000 in medical bills from a broken clavicle and fractured rib. It all started in August 2012 when the officer, driving an unmarked black Camaro patrol car, saw Justin speeding and overtaking cars across double lines. He began pursuing Justin with his red and blue lights flashing, but no siren. Justin says he didn’t know he…

A turbocharged Suzuki Bandit 600cc engine has powered a mobility scooter to a new world record of more than 115km/h. It’s the work of Isle of Man mechanics Matthew Hine and David Anderson, who took a 12km/h Days Strider mobility scooter and updated it with a new chassis and kart wheels, but kept the shopping basket on the front as it needed to look like the original for Guinness World Records to confirm the record. Matthew set the record back in August 2014, but it has taken until now for the record’s confirmation. The little green machine smashed the previous record of 115.2km/h (71.59mph) set by Colin Furze with a sizzling 173km/h (107.6mph) over a quarter mile.…

The first Harley-Davidson hire company in Australia to offer learners and novices rides on their learner-approved Street 500 is WA Motorcycle Hire and Tours in Perth. Owner Paul Morgan says he set up the company from January 1, 2016, to help learners, novices and returned riders get some valuable road experience. “I used to be a tow truck operator and I was often called out for some nasty motorcycle accidents,” he says. “I noticed from speaking to coppers that the main victims were either very novice or elderly people. They haven’t ridden for 20 years and they go out and buy a big bike and hurt themselves.” According to Paul he has nothing against riding instructors, but he says they only teach riders how to pass their test, not how…

While MV Agusta will be sold through AMG/Mercedes dealerships in Europe and the USA, Australia will only display the bikes in the luxury car showrooms. MV Agusta importer Urban Moto Imports’ bosses, Joseph and Alan Elasmar, say MV dealers will supply the bikes and train some of the car sales staff, but interested buyers will be referred to the nearest MV dealer. At the recent launch of the new MV Brutale 800, MV Agusta boss Giovanni Castiglioni said Mercedes will start selling MV Agusta bikes directly from its car dealerships. This is unique and even BMW doesn’t sell bikes in BMW car showrooms. Despite Ducati now being owned by Audi, there are no similar plans for Ducati sales in car dealerships. The move comes after AMG/Mercedes bought a 25 per…

“Who would have thought that chopping the tail off a B3, whacking on a 200-section rear tyre and swapping out the ‘bars and wheels could create such a bold and mould-breaking look” You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t like the look of MV Agustas, and in my view the factory is currently at the very top of its game in the design stakes. At the recent Sydney Bike Expo, the MV stand was a vision of such outstanding beauty and sexiness it stuck out like a supermodel at a librarian’s convention — and that was before the actual models showed up. For a start there’s the range of F4s, things of breathtaking loveliness in themselves but surely taking top honours at the show in terms of utter…

The two bike-cops were having a good old stare. Even though I’d pulled up a foot in front of them and they were out of sight over my left shoulder, I knew they were. I knew, because it’s impossible not to stare at the Audace, and even after two weeks I still felt compelled to go and have a last lingering look at it every night before bedtime. I sat there, stock-still (apart from my arms which were shaking in sympathy with the significant vibration through the ‘bars), observing the first rule of the tinted visor which states you must never open it, and held my breath to stop from steaming up. I imagined the cops taking in the Guzzi’s immense blackness, the 200-section rear tyre, the massive tank, the…

As a father, I can tell you that nothing marks the passage of time quite as definitively as having to give back a long-term test bike. Oh sorry, you were expecting something about watching the kids grow up? Well yeah, that too. In the time I’ve had the Moto Guzzi V7 in my care a lot’s happened. It’s got taller, noisier and changed its look a few times. It’s more useful around the place and together we’ve had a lot of laughs and a few adventures. In fact, almost exactly the same as what’s happened with the kids. Alright, I might have stretched that analogy a bit far but in truth the V7 has changed considerably, and all of it for the better as far as I’m concerned. Giving it…

“The variety of road kill was impressive. On a short stretch of road the fatalities included seven large kangaroos, a wild pig, a possum and a kookaburra, in addition to one live snake” It was an easy day’s riding into Nebo via the Fitzroy Development Road. The long straight stretches allowed us to appreciate the contrasts and vastness of this part of Australia. We arrived in Nebo about 5pm looking for a campsite and found the Nebo Hotel. Some country pubs call out to you and this was one of them. With a handful of locals sitting around the bar and a pervasive publican keeping the beers flowing, it was an easy decision to stay the night. The advantage of this pub stayover, besides the obvious rehydration process, was that…

ROCC 550 CARBON HELMET Unless you’ve been living in a cave you’ll be aware that motorcycle helmet laws have changed recently. It’s now legal to wear helmets that do not carry the usual Australian Standards approval sticker. (You know, the red one with all the ticks on it.) All helmets sold in Australia can now comply with either the Australian Standard or European UNECE22.05 Standard and need to be marked accordingly. This is not before time and will hopefully make helmets more competitively priced against overseas products and also broaden the range of what’s on offer. With that in mind, ROCC may not be a brand you are familiar with; its helmets have been non-compliant for use in Australia until now, simply because they have never been submitted for the…

NOT A CROCK From the mid-1930s until 1942 in Los Angeles, Al Crocker was building motorcycles. The post-depression to WWII era was a tough time for motorcycle builders, but Crocker did it better than the rest. After previously building OHV conversions for Indians to match the performance of the Harley-Davidson knucklehead at the time, and a stint creating single-cylinder speedway bikes, Crocker started building V-twins that were significantly more powerful than the Harleys and Indians then. Every one of the 125 units built before closure of the factory in 1942 were built to individual customer specifications. As such, capacity varied from bike to bike, as did basic running gear and tank size. This expensive and time-intensive approach to manufacturing meant quality remained high but production output low. Of the 125…

Riders will be able to import a new motorcycle or car from 2018 without having to deal with a dealer as long as the model is not already imported into Australia. They will also be able to import used vehicles more than 25 years old without having to pay the $12,000 duty. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has warned that the Federal government move will take out the “buyer beware” sentiment, leaving motorists exposed to “high-risk situations”. Private low-volume importing of motor vehicles was popular a few years ago, but has dropped off, with the massive decline in the Australian dollar making it uneconomical. The new government move will allow riders to import motorbikes that are not brought in as long as they have comparable standards to Australia,…

“Brenden was judged best-of-the-best for 2015 and has been appointed as a national ambassador for Australian Apprenticeships” Motorcycle technician Brenden Williamson is the Australian School-based Apprentice of the Year. Competing against a field of more than 200 school-based trainees from around the country, Brenden was judged best-of-the-best for 2015 and has been appointed national ambassador for Australian Apprenticeships. Brenden works at Kawasaki and Yamaha dealership On Two Wheels Motorsports in Campbelltown, NSW. He also mentors new recruits to the Yamaha Student Grand Prix Partnership, a program which aims to connect school students and younger people in the community with a workplace or business, and helped set up his employer relationship. The 22nd Australian Training Awards, presented by the Federal Department of Education and Training, are the peak national awards for…

“Bosch technology for more efficiency and safety should be part of any car and in the future the same will go for motorcycles” Bosch has established an independent supplier business for motorcycles, the Two-Wheeler and Powersports Division. It is based in Yokohama, Japan, and includes branches in the USA, Europe, India and China. It will also serve special-purpose vehicles such as quads, personal watercraft and snowmobiles. “Bosch technology for more efficiency and safety should be part of any car and in the future the same will go for motorcycles,” says Dr Dirk Hoheisel, member of the Bosch management board. “We are aiming to become a leading supplier in the motorcycle market, too. The portion of the market relevant for Bosch which covers driving safety systems, powertrain technology and infotainment systems…

Helmet cameras may not be the safety risk in a crash that has previously been suggested. The BBC and UK Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has performed impact tests on climbing helmets with cameras attached and found they didn’t increase the risk in a crash. They say that their test results may transfer to other types of helmets, such as motorcycles. In Australia, police in some states have been fining riders for wearing cameras on helmets, claiming they are a safety risk and contravene the Australian Standards which do not allow any helmet modifications. The latter issue has been disputed by experts as a misreading of the rules and that as long as holes are not drilled in the helmet, sticking a mount for a camera or Bluetooth unit should be…

Freedom Riders Australia has raised thousands of dollars for charity and attracted more than 2500 spectators to their Johnny the Boy Lives Tour 2016 to honour the 1979 Mad Max film. Spokesman Dale Maggs says the January event was a huge success for their chosen charities and for attracting new members. Freedom Riders, which rides for charity and political causes, now has more than 4000 followers around Australia. The event at the Victorian gold-mining town of Clunes was the “ultimate Mad Max experience since the filming of the epic Australian film. Riders attended from as far afield as Queensland and even Japan. We had more than 500 riders who booked camp sites,” says Dale. “They were treated to a tour of the region to locations within the area where scenes…

Yamaha has hinted that the leaning MWT-9 trike shown at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show will go into production at the launch of the MT-03 in Spain. There has also been talk of a four-wheeler leaning bike known as the OR2T prototype. Both leaning multi-wheelers follow on from their Tricity production three-wheel scooter launched in 2015. Yamaha Australia marketing guru Sean Goldhawk admits Tricity sales have been disappointing. “But it is always challenging when you are introducing new technology,” he says. “We have traditionally struggled to get a foothold in the scooter market, so whether Tricity sales are a factor of it being in the scooter category or whether slow response to the new model is down to the new LMW technology is hard to tell. “One thing is certain…

There are all sorts of ways to get from the coastal plains to the heights of the Great Dividing Range but not all of them are obvious. This one’s the kind that many people overlook until they’ve used it as a transport leg heading north or south, when they realise what a gem of a road it is. The Grafton-Armidale route is one you have to do. It’s one you’ll come back for again and again. Mind you, for all my enthusiasm it’d been a long time since I’d been there. So long, in fact, I’d forgotten the way out of Grafton, so I paid close attention to the TomTom as I left the servo in South Grafton with a full tank. A quick right off the highway, a left…

“After the small talk, paperwork and customary beer that should always accompany a bike sale, I sadly watched my beloved ride go away for the last time” How do you sell a bike when you have crossed a continent on her, been living off her back for months at a time with limited supplies, just the two of you and the endlessness of the ultimate freedom, the open road? When I had nothing, I had that bike. She was there, she was what I chose and I never regretted it. I loved my V-Star for years and rode her fiercely and proudly down any road that we chose. I connected with her so much that any difference she made in the sound of her running engine was instantaneously recognisable. Who…

New bike prices can go up and down like the stock market, so in every issue we’ll bring you the sticker prices. To be completely up to date with things like factory discounts and incentives, check the Road Rider website (www.roadrider.com.au) where we will bring you all the special deals, bonus offers and cashback promotions we can find. We have included the importers’ websites, which is the place to go if you’re looking for more information. You’ll see that we haven’t listed every bike on the market (yet) but we aim to get there with all of them. Sometimes even we struggle to find the details of the smaller, newer importers. Meanwhile, enjoy this most meaningful of Australian bike listings, covering the bikes you’re interested in. The prices are the…

REWIND We ride Triumph’s Speed Twin and find out what the new water-cooled Bonnies are like and how Indian’s entry-level Scout Sixty stacks up — and is the smaller 1000cc engine a good thing? We’ll also sample KTM’s hooligan Super Duke GT sports-tourer and finally farewell the Moto Guzzi V7 long-termer. RIDDEN Ride from Alaska to Argentina with an Aussie couple who prove you’re never too old to learn to ride, and ride anywhere! There’s an epic adventure in Nepal as Ian Neubauer gets caught out by fuel embargoes and chaotic conditions, with only his wits to get him through. There’s also a two-day adventure ride out of Brisbane on big-bore bikes that are bigger fun on an inland escape from the city. NOT FORGETTING All the other beaut stuff…

“Wheelies, lane splitting, overtaking on unbroken lines including when traffic is passing in the opposite direction, and speeds of 190km/h in country lanes and a top speed of 245km/h on a highway” A60-year-old British motorcyclist has been sentenced to two years’ jail for dangerous driving based on evidence from his action camera SD card. Robert Hammond was arrested by two Sussex police after he was seen popping a wheelie on his Honda Fireblade and travelling at 130km/h in an 80km/h zone. The police seized his motorbike and his camera’s memory card, which included 150 clips that led to further offences. They included many more wheelies, lane splitting, overtaking on unbroken single and double white lines including when traffic is passing in the opposite direction, speeds of 180km/h in a 50km/h…

“A careful balance must be achieved in training to ensure riders do not develop unrealistic confidence in their ability” On-road motorcycle training does not reduce the risk of crashing but makes riders more cocky, leading to higher risk behaviour such as speeding, an Australian university study has found. It also reported that these riders spent more time riding, which means they are longer on the road and therefore statistically more likely to be involved in an incident. The study of 2399 newly licensed provisional riders recruited in Victoria was conducted from May 2010 to October 2012. It was funded by the Victorian Government Motorcycle Safety Levy, paid by all state riders in their annual registration fee. The riders were put through a VicRide coaching program put together by the Monash…

Setting an average speed of 117km/h, Californian Carl Reese has broken a 23-year record for crossing America on a motorcycle. The 47-year-old rode his BMW K 1600 GT 4552km from LA to New York in just 38 hours, smashing George Egloff’s 1983 record of 42 hours. Carl is no stranger to records, having set six in seven months last year, including a Guinness World Record (GWR) entry for the least amount of charging time in an electric vehicle while crossing the country in a Tesla Model S. He also set a record on that trip for the shortest driving time, but GWR quit recognising transcontinental records in 1966. “I would read through the Guinness book when I was in elementary school and tried to figure out how I could be…

“There are now 46 HOG Chapters in Australia with 24,357 members, and six in New Zealand with 3305 members” Australian HOG membership has surged off the back of record motorcycle sales and a “new era” of inclusivity, according to Harley-Davidson Australia customer experience manager Garry “Gaz” Luxmore. The 46th HOG Chapter began in January when 164 members signed on for the new Bayside Chapter at the Adelaide Harley-Davidson Bikeworx dealership, which opened its doors just before Christmas 2015. Gaz says there are now 46 HOG Chapters in Australia with 24,357 members, and six in New Zealand with 3305 members. “The growth lately has been phenomenal, going from 24,000 at the start of December to over 27,000 (by the end of January),” he says. Sales have been a big driver in…

"Canberra Motorcycle Centre joins four others as independent Victory and Indian dealers in Australia" Victory and Indian Motorcycle have increased their dealership network to eight with the Canberra Motorcycle Centre at 30 Ipswich St, Fyshwick. Parent company Polaris owns and runs the stores in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, while Motorcycle Territory in Darwin, Adelaide Motorcycle Centre, Rising Sun in Townsville and Brisan Motorcycles in Newcastle are independent dealerships.…

The rider death toll on the Gold Coast hinterland has been steadily rising since the council-subsidised motorcycle roadcraft course was axed, leading to calls for it to be reinstated. The Safe Motorcycle Advanced Rider Training course was cancelled in 2012 despite winning the inaugural 2011 Australian Road Safety Awards. It was axed over financial concerns and complaints that it was subsidising riders who were not ratepayers. However, critics didn’t recognise the economic benefit of riders coming to the area as well as the financial impost caused by those out-of-towner riders crashing and requiring emergency assistance and local infrastructure. Despite the financial arguments, a senior police officer, five-time world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan and at least one councillor now hope to reinstate the training courses. The courses cost $45 and were…

“With the ‘A’ version of the Tiger, Triumph has circumvented you spending all your after-sales cash in online lolly shops” Hands up if you have that friend who never gets rolling along with the story. Between the umms, ahhhs and the long-winded preambles, you sit there, not so patiently, waiting for the meaty bits or the punchline. I admit to being one of the world’s worst joke-tellers — long-winded and wrong-winded. It comes from years of facilitating dry subjects like rider safety, how to use a torque wrench or how to count the till at the end of a shift. Not any more: there are likely to be only three things preventing you from selecting the Tiger 800XCA as the best mid-sized adventure tourer, if not the best serious adventure…

“Those chairs spend a lot of time at full throttle and full revs, and Moly likes lower gearing than most, sacrificing top speed for acceleration, so his Suzuki failed under the pressure during the first race” To spectators who watch on TV, the Isle of Man TT seems extremely fast and dangerous, and it is. To those on the island, it is mind-bogglingly thrilling. I’ve been there eight times and have volunteered as a flag marshal in 2014 and 2015. The circuit is 37.73 miles (about 60km) around, so to have all the track in view needs many marshals — over 550 per day from a pool of about 1500. I took on the role of marshal to help make the racing as safe as possible. It can never be…

“If you are able, you can plan the trip during festivals when the suburbs come alive to celebrate whatever they are celebrating” Pick up a magazine or turn on the TV and you are flooded with pictures and stories of exotic places to visit and ride through. Different cultures to experience and languages to listen to, streets full of foreign people going about their daily lives or haggling on the footpaths, shop fronts with foreign signs, exotic foods in the windows, the smell of spices and sound of music drifting through laneways and arcades. Spruikers call out, selling their wares hoping to bring in customers. Not all of us are in the position of being able to pack up our gear, load the bike and spend our days exploring foreign…