Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue#126 - July 2016 i Australian Road Rider

Austroads has published a major study into speeding which presumes that the public wants “safer speeds” that are lower speeds. The whole premise for the 161-page report seems to be that lower vehicle speeds means less risk. It recommends a wide range of campaign strategies including reducing speed limits, more signs showing your current speed, education campaigns and even changing the language of road safety messages such as referring to accidents as crashes. This change in terminology also reflects an experiment in Victoria to temporarily change the name of the town Speed to Speedkills. “Changing community perceptions about speeding is an important priority,” the study says. It claims the community wants safer speeds, but some parts of the community, such as motorcycle riders are “not yet” convinced. That’s about the…

“(The government) are closing down some inner-city streets of Kuala Lumpur for one or two nights to hold legalised races.” Tired of young riders holding illegal races in Malaysian streets, the government has decided that if you can’t fight them, join them. They are closing down some inner-city streets of Kuala Lumpur for one or two nights to hold legalised races. Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, or Dat for short, says the government realises it is cheap entertainment for youths. “They have no other way to entertain themselves because of the high costs,” he said. “We don’t want illegal racing but we want them to race in a specific place. If they want to race, it’s OK but we give them a place where we can…

“Organisers expect more than 120 teams, including 10 electric motorcycles, three university teams and two major car manufacturers.” Electric motorcycles will again be a major part of the sixth annual World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) Trophy, the world’s biggest rally for electric vehicles (EVs). The WAVE Trophy rally will cover 1600km across three Central European countries from June 11, 2016, says event founder, Louis Palmer. “After the signing of the Paris Climate Change agreement, we feel it is not enough to inspire,” says Louis who has been honoured by the UN Environmental Programme with a Champion of the Earth Award for driving two times around the world in solar-powered vehicles. “So through the WAVE international electric vehicle trophy and school’s initiative, we are acting. We urge society and leaders to…

Once again, motorcyclists seem to have been sidelined; this time in a long-awaited university study that experts believe would help one of the most vulnerable road users. The Australian Naturalistic Driving Study not only excludes motorcyclists, but also people aged over 70 and is restricted to people in Sydney, regional New South Wales, Melbourne and regional Victoria. Emeritus Professor of Transport Marcus Wigan says the study, involving the CSIRO and Monash and Australian National universities, has been eagerly awaited for decades. He says it is important because it doesn’t just concentrate on fatal accidents, but also injury accidents, incidents and motorists who have never had an accident. “The study is asking for volunteers to be involved, but when you go to volunteer you find it excludes riders and anyone over…

“Despite the road conditions going from wet to damp and back to wet again, everything associated with the Street mode made it just as easy to use but with the potential for a bit more fun when the road allowed” Cast your mind back a decade ago and KTM was just coming into the world of roadbikes. The original Super Duke was released in 2005 and it marked KTM’s first proper foray onto the tarmac after a hugely successful existence off-road and a dabble in single-cylinder machinery on the street — namely with the Duke. Nowadays, the KTM range is huge and it is also Europe’s largest producer of motorcycles. In addition to its range of MX, Enduro and Freeride machines is sportsbikes, supermotos, adventure bikes and nakedbikes. With a…

“It’s fun to do things on a big bike that people don’t think they are capable of. It’s new territory” Anyone can stunt a trials bike. The bigger the bike, the tougher the challenge, and Victory Motorcycles has developed a stunt team that not only features riders wheel-standing Gunner cruisers, but also drifting supercharged baggers. A video of the two American stunt riders drifting their supercharged Victory baggers around a Florida track has now gone viral and made stars out of the riders. Not that they weren’t already stars. Joe “Vertical” Dryden, 34, of New Orleans and Tony Carbajal, 28, of Southern California have appeared in a host of TV shows, movies, commercials and music videos. And now they are appearing at various motorcycle rallies, motorsports events and community days…

“At the start there were four of us, an international crew of highly experienced off-road adventurers with a plan to ride from Hanoi to Kathmandu — an epic 4000km-long journey through seven countries over three weeks” This is a story about a motorbike ride that should never have happened; about an epic solo journey on an inappropriate and underpowered road bike along a frighteningly bad road that cuts through the deepest ravine in the world to reach the foothills of the highest mountains in the world; about a trip riddled with so many false starts, obstacles and challenges — in addition to a diplomatic crisis — that I still have trouble believing the universe let me get away with it in the end. At the start there were four of…

“Most importantly, the video quality is very clear. So clear, in fact, that you can get a good still shot straight off a video, although you can also choose to use it as a still camera” TomTom Bandit The new TomTom Bandit action camera allows riders to edit and share video while out on their ride, rather than waiting until they get home then spending ages downloading and editing. The $579 action camera operates with a free app to allow you to highlight and edit video on your phone, then share it with your social media followers. It’s easy to use, doesn’t require any cables and the unit rotates 360°, so you can wear it on the top or either side of your helmet (so long as it’s deemed legal…

WAR: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? Iver Johnson was the US version of BSA. Founded in 1871, six years after the end of the American Civil War, Iver Johnson was the name of the Norwegian immigrant and gunsmith by trade who moved to America at the height of the Civil War and later founded the company. His company built firearms and, after his death in 1895, the business was taken over by his three sons. Their expansion phase saw the company diversify initially into bicycles and then into motorcycles. From 1907 to 1916, Iver Johnson built highly innovative machines featuring dual-cranks, chain drives and multi-speed gearboxes, which appeared in the company’s designs well before they became commonplace in motorcycles. With increase in demand coming from World War I, the company…

Motorcycle theft rose just one per cent in 2015 to 8205, after dropping slightly the previous year. Short-term thefts, usually for joy rides, were down six per cent to 3556, while profit-motivated thefts, usually by organised gangs, rose a whopping eight per cent to 4649, according to National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council figures. While Western Australia still remains the worst state for thefts, with 2306 representing 28.1 per cent of all motorcycles stolen, it was down 7.5 per cent for the year. However, Victoria was up 18.7 per cent to 2135 and South Australia was up 18.4 per cent to 573. South-East Queensland remains the hotspot for motorcycle theft with Brisbane and the Gold Coast first and second and Logan City fourth. The most common brand stolen was Honda,…

Motorcycles could help prevent the spread of the dangerous mosquito-borne Zika virus by attaching a special citronella can to the end of their exhausts. Thai advertising agency BBDO has come up with the idea to create Moto Repellent and is helping local charity Duang Prateep to spread the word … and the smoke. The can is filled with citronella oil, which turns to smoke when the exhaust gets hot, keeping mosquitoes at bay for up to 3m. Citronella can explode near a naked flame, so there may be some safety concerns. There is also the pollution problem of adding citronella smoke to the already abundant motorcycle and scooter exhaust and choking two-stroke fumes. However, it seems the people of Thailand are more concerned about the fact that mosquitoes are spreading…

Mini or pocket motorcycles are fun and cute, but they are a potential danger and usually illegal to use anywhere except on private property, according to the chief motorcycle industry body. FCAI motorcycle spokesman Rhys Griffiths says most minibike importers are not members of the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and their only control is through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). “We don’t want to be involved with them or encourage their sale,” he said. “They are not made to any standard and therefore potentially dangerous.” This point is driven home by the ACCC’s recall of the Mirza Miniature road and dirt style motorbikes with model numbers SKD-PB06 and SKD-MD02 sold in Victoria by Domeit Pty Ltd. “The ‘minibikes’ do not comply with the requirements set out…

“…there is a growing movement toward “more freedom” for riders with a strong civil liberties lobby actively fighting the laws.” The US seems to be gradually moving toward more liberal motorbike helmet laws allowing adult riders to choose for themselves whether they wear a helmet or not. It seems strange to Australian riders since we were the first nation in the world to make helmets compulsory in 1961. Most states in the US introduced compulsory helmet laws in 1967, but there is a growing movement toward “more freedom” for riders with a strong civil liberties lobby actively fighting the laws. In recent years, states such as Michigan have relaxed their helmet laws and the latest to consider the move is Tennessee, despite the overwhelming evidence that helmets save lives. According…

“One of the many changes to the Triumph Bonneville is that its crankshaft now has 270-degree firing intervals, just like the America, the Thunderbirds and most of the other parallel-twins from Hinckley” The Black Spur is one of the perfect roads for a Bonneville. Tight, twisty, and neither fast nor slow but somewhere in between. The new Street Twin hooked in, its Arrow slip-ons singing with delight and the footpegs adding their rough screech to the tune every time they clawed the tar. It’d only taken me a few corners to ditch any attempts to muscle the little bike as if it were a modern machine, and now I rode it like the old bike it mimics. Smooth, flowing. Sympathetically. And as a result, fast. Well, fast enough. It felt…

“Our journey went through so many different climates and cultures, the landscape constantly changing as we travelled steadily south” I am 61, have had my bike licence for about six years and in 2015 I completed my first overseas bike trip where I had control of my own handlebars — more than 41,000km in five-and-a-half months. Because I had previously done no more than about four days riding consecutively, I really didn’t know how I would go so the idea was I could ship my bike home early if it was more than I could manage, and pillion behind my husband, Charlie. I just wanted to have a go to see how far I could get, and in the process surprised even myself. To be honest, I didn’t have all…

I’ve been a SPOT Tracker user since 2011 when I left home for a six-month solo motorcycle trip from Switzerland to Mongolia. A satellite phone was out of my budget and the SPOT system seemed a pretty reassuring device to have with me. This little orange device allows you to send pre-defined messages, to share your GPS position with your friends and, most importantly, to ask for emergency help, simply by pushing a button. It’s only a one-way communication system so you can’t know for sure what is going on once you press the SOS button until somebody comes to pick you up. As you will read, the SPOT device does work. Depending on where you are, it may take hours or days until a rescue team will find you,…

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…

Ridden We ride a big, bold and beautiful Super Ténéré that is now fitted with electronically adjustable suspension. Go back in time with a nostalgic ride on Moto Guzzi’s Eldorado. And get back to basics with no loss of excitement on Ducati’s delightful 821 Monster. Rides We head to the world’s latest exotic touring destination, Mexico, follow the great Northern NSW waterway the Clarence River, and do the ultimate outback trip, all the way from the eastern extremity at Byron Bay to as far west as you can ride at Steep Point. There’s also two-up touring: tips from a couple who’ve done the long rides. Not forgetting All the other beaut stuff and regulars you expect to see in each and every issue of ARR. See you next month!…

“His racing style and partying lifestyle was credited with bringing motorcycle racing to a more mainstream audience.” The wild and crazy life of two-time world champion motorcycle racer Barry Sheene is being developed into a feature-length film by a joint British-Australian film production. Simply titled Sheene, it should be a funny, dramatic and exciting film depicting the funny, dramatic and exciting life of the racer. So far only a teaser video has been released on YouTube. Filming has not yet started, there is no timeline for the film’s release and no announcement has been made about who will play the lead character. Sheene is based on his biography Barry: The Story of Motorcycling Legend Barry Sheene, written by his teammate Steve Parrish and MotoGP commentator Nick Harris. IO Films Australia…

The world’s most popular two-wheeler, the Honda Cub, will soon have an electric version. Announcing plans to go into production of the EV-CUB within the next two years, Honda CEO, Takahiro Hachigo, said two of every three vehicles the company makes by 2030 will be electric, plug-in hybrid or have a fuel cell. The EV-CUB concept was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show last October. It has a detachable battery that can be recharged with a domestic wall socket. “We are planning to introduce the EV-CUB, a mass-production model developed based on the EV-CUB Concept electric motorcycle, to the Japanese market about two years from now and then subsequently in main ASEAN countries, which have been the largest market for the Honda Cub Series,” he said. “Building on the Cub…

“Thailand is the first place the world to offer a two-wheeled Uber service.” Next time you visit Bangkok, you will be able to hail an Uber motorcycle taxi. Thailand is the first place in the world to offer a two-wheeled Uber service. It’s a long way from where Uber began as a limousine service in the affluent San Francisco Bay area. Uber will support rider safety and ensure riders and pillions wear approved helmets. ”Motorcycles are part of the commuting culture in Thailand,” said Douglas Ma, Uber’s head of Asia expansion. The Uber network is expanding in other Asian markets, including Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, but not yet with motorcycles. However, that may not be too far off.…

Charging times and battery range may not be an issue for electric motorcycles and cars with researchers looking at turning roads into electricity generators. The US government is funding research into kinetic roads that harvest movement to make electricity, and now installing solar panels on roads is being considered. Both systems would generate electricity for the grid, but also have the capacity to transfer charge to electric vehicles by conduction as they ride over the top of them. Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx, an independent research facility, says moving parts in the American kinetic roads experiment could be “potentially troublesome” and not commercial. However, he says in his report, High Power Energy Harvesting 2016-2026 that solar roads may be more valid. Installing photovoltaics (solar panels) may seem expensive, slippery…

“Going through the Alps on a motorcycle with my wife on the back on our honeymoon. We only crashed once. So, all in all, it was a great ride.” Former Friends star and motorcycle fan Matt LeBlanc is the new addition to the reformatted Top Gear in the wake of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond leaving the BBC show. Matt has long been a motorcycle fan and when asked by BBC’s Top Gear magazine for his favourite drive, he said: “Going through the Alps on a motorcycle with my wife on the back on our honeymoon. We only crashed once. So, all in all, it was a great ride.” Matt has been a motorcycle fan since he was a kid and apparently his father, Paul, upset Matt when…

“Only Indian fans will notice you’ve bought a Sixty if they see you on one, because the rest of the population probably won’t twig to the only real visual clue to its lower-spec build” The obvious question is whether the Scout Sixty is good value or not, because it really has no other reason for being other than to lower the entry fee for Indian ownership, but I forgot the question before I was halfway home. As the highways petered out into country roads, I ended up riding in company with a couple of young blokes on a Z750 who were travelling almost as light as I was; the pillion had a small backpack, while I carried nothing but a half-empty water bottle stuffed down my jacket. Soon we ended…

What was I thinking? It had been a year since I’d sold my big Bavarian bush-basher and I hadn’t ridden anything so big or powerful on the dirt since. Yet here I was, lining up against my hardened big-bore adventure mates for a free-for-all, 1000km, two-day dirt romp out to Goondiwindi and back. Was I serious? If anything was going to go wrong, it would likely be at warp speed on a fast, open, decomposed gravel skating rink in the middle of nowhere, out of mobile signal and a couple of hours from an ambulance. I’ve done that trick before and, believe me, it’s not something you want to repeat. Yet here I was at our usual Maccas meeting point with an unknown, untried and untested Aprilia 1200 Caponord Rally…

“It was like Mad Max on steroids. Everywhere you looked there was something going on” They rode through some of the most scenic landscapes of America, visited the biggest motorcycle rally in the world, and travelled on some of the best riding roads on the planet, but it was the people that impressed Rod and Debra McDonald the most. They were the lucky winners of our Route 66 Tours competition last year, which included a road trip for two from Las Vegas to the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and back again. The journey covered 4500 miles (7240km) of the most scenic, mountainous and exciting parts of the USA, including the Rocky Mountains, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, parts of the famous Route 66, Mt Rushmore and Crazy…

Don’t forget to write! We mean it. We love to hear from you and everyone else does too; these pages are among the most popular in the magazine. Preferably, keep letters under 300 words so we can fit more in, though we will allow the odd exception without taking to it with the editorial knife. Yes, we will chop ’em when we have to. Do include your real name and some contact details, just in case we need to clarify something. Please write to roadrider@universalmagazines.com.au or send mail to Road Rider, Unit 5, 6–8 Byfield Street, North Ryde NSW 2113 — Matho “Motorcyclists have always known that. There are plenty of situations where motorcycles can safely cross double lines to overtake” MOVING THE LINES Cars are now allowed to legally…