Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 146 i Australian Road Rider

When Shahwar Hussein meets me at the airport in Guwahati, the gateway to India’s little-visited northeast region, it’s like being reunited with a long-lost friend. A one-time motoring journalist from New Delhi who gave up life in the fast lane to run motorcycle tours in the north-east, Shahwar and I met online three years ago when I expressed interest in exploring his part of the world. But every year something got in the way. Finally, in 2017, our stars aligned with the launch of the Himalayan — a new motorcycle by Royal Enfield, the company behind the Bullet, a single-cylinder bike designed in 1931 by a subsidiary of the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield in the UK. The Bullet was used extensively by the British army during WWII and…

So, you’re the adventurous type huh? In the mad scramble for buyers to toss their workaday clothes into the laundry, only to don their expensive new adventure wardrobe and clamber aboard something that looks like it should be part of the lunar module and costs about the same, it seems to me that the whole practicality-fad has disappeared up its own GPS co-ordinates. I love that we cannot punt a biggie down a dirt track. Don’t get me wrong. I just wonder if some of the folk that are convinced that a big chookie is the go, might be better served if they just get fair dinkum for a minute. I mean, all those zips, plugs, clips and batteries just to grab a pint of milk and a loaf of…

When the BMW R 1100 GS made its first appearance in Australia way back in 1994, it was met with a pretty universal frown based almost entirely on its weird looks. While we’ve become used to bikes with radical bodywork and futuristic stances, back then there was little that broke the mould quite like the “ugly duckling” GS. Pretty it wasn’t. It also had to invent a category for itself. Or so we thought here in Oz. At a time when “adventure touring” was in its infancy, here was a bike that laid claim to being as capable off-road as it was on-road. For a market that was used to the division between dirt bikes and road-going hardware being clearly defined, the idea was a little far-fetched. In fact, it…

ONE ON THE SIDE Dear ARR, Hi from Darwin. Help please! Where can I get hold of a sidecar to fit a Honda Shadow 750? It’s a 2004 model. Fact is, I’m getting a bit old to keep the solo vertical now. Great magazine and great reading. Blessings from a subscriber, Ronald James, email Greg: Thanks Ronald. Well, I'm hardly an expert when it comes to chairs and I have to say mates of mine that own them all seem to be a little touched. Let's hope you are indeed the full biscuit old mate. Now. In regard to the Shadow, I'm told the go is to opt for a lighter outfit. Good people to talk to are Melbourne Dusting Sidecar and they are to be found here:…

Dear ARR, With apologies to The Castle, your ARR for May/June 2018 is going straight to the pool room. The nostalgia is overpowering, right from the very first page. I opened the mag and there inside the front cover is an advert for Shannon’s Insurance featuring a Suzy GT750 water-bottle. At the time these were released I was the proud rider of a T500 Titan from the same stable, which for its day had the legs of a centipede, so I had ample opportunity to visit the local dealership. I admired the 750, walked around it, sat on it (but didn’t make ‘brmmm brmmm’ noises) and generally drooled over it. Sadly for me at the time it was out of my price range so I never had one in my…

Remember the mid-70s? Well, if you don’t it was a time of long hair, Gough Whitlam, Vietnam and the demise of the once great British motorcycle industry. Yep, the poms had pretty much had their chips as a major manufacturing force. By 1973 most companies had gone broke and only Norton and Triumph remained. Despite significant government assistance, they couldn’t find a way to turn a quid. Norton and Triumph merged with production to be consolidated in two factories: the BSA plant in Small Heath, Birmingham, and the Norton facility at Wolverhampton. Sadly, nobody thought to inform the workers at the small Triumph factory at Meriden in the West Midlands. With the threat of closure looming, the Meriden workers blockaded the factory in September 1973, effectively halting production for nearly…

Triumph’s Tiger badge has adorned many a model, giving it legendary status for the brand. Indeed, the Tiger range has a glorious history, starting with wins in the International Six Day trials way back in 1936. ISDTs are strictly timed tests of man, woman and machine over rugged terrain with no outside help allowed, and carrying everything you need to fix it yourself, just like you might have to around a big country like ours. Fast forward 40 years and a Triumph Tiger carried Ted Simon, author of Jupiter’s Travels — one of the great motorcycle journeys — around the world on his original odyssey in the early 1970s. In between, Bob Dylan piloted one for a while before coming to grief. Good thing he can write songs better than…

I first rode Aprilia’s ultra-techy streetfighter back in 2015 and came away thinking it was the best thing I’d ridden that year. Having just bid farewell to the 2018 version, I’m wondering if this might be the best thing I’ve ridden ever. Sitting on the bike squinting at the dashboard and its myriad rider-aid settings, it seems childish to me now how anti all that stuff I used to be. I remember being somewhat affronted by the introduction of ABS on bikes, as if it were a judgement of my own abilities. In truth ABS was pretty rubbish when it first appeared, so maybe I had a point. However, on the Tuono, ABS is but the tip of a huge electronic iceberg and when rider aids are deployed as cleverly…

With bikes rented and accommodation sorted, we four mates arrived in Christchurch from separate directions for a week of riding the South Island. The plan was to see a bit of New Zealand, sample the odd wine or two, and get among it on the winding roads. Choice! Monday morning we met early at Te Waiponomu Motorcycle Hire to collect our rented bikes. Graham had decided to rent the same bike he has at home, an R1200GS. Phil had rented the model he plans to buy — an RT1200, while Dave went for the V-Strom for the same reason I went with the Triumph Tiger 800 — to ride something different for the week. The BMWs were late model and low kilometres, while Dave and I each had bikes that…

The three beefy blokes on big Oranges parked up under a tree on the road to Hell, looked at Liz’s puny DR650, her meshed soft luggage and said doubtfully, “You MIGHT get through…” The there-and-back dirt road led to an isolated outpost called Die Hel (literally, The Hell) 38km away, via some rugged South African mountains. P›. It was a piece of cake for this late-‘50s, asthmatic and slightly chubby woman. After all, she’d already ridden 5000km in three weeks, traversing not just South Africa, but also its landlocked neighbours, Swaziland and Lesotho, and mostly on dirt. Our route had taken us through Swaziland (where the king has 11 wives, and ergo, 11 mothers-in-law), Zululand and Lesotho, home to both the Roof of Africa Rally and the highest pub in…

So you’d like to see your beastie featured here? Only to happy to oblige... Send a good pic and a bit of a blurb on your bike to gleech@universalmagazines.com.au or message us on Facebook.…

GIVI BASHPLATES It’s worth protecting your adventure bike’s vulnerable underpinnings with an alloy bashplate. This engine protector, from Givi, is available for a wide range of popular dual-sport bikes including the BMW F 800 GS, R 1200 GS and R 1200 GS Adventure, Honda Crosstourer, KTM 1190 Adventure, Suzuki DL650 and DL1000 V-Stroms, Triumph 800 and 1200 Tigers, and Yamaha’s XTZ660 and 1200 Ténéré models. The bashplates will protect your header pipes, crankcase and frame rails from rock hits and bottoming out on bumps or holes. Smart money. The quids: From $259 Contact: ronangel.com.au VANCE & HINES If you feel your Indian Chief’s Thunderstroke 111 V-twin doesn’t sound like it’s ready to go on the warpath, then Vance & Hines has the pipes for you. These 4.0in round slip-ons,…

Hard on the gas coming onto the straight, the front gets light and a bit too twitchy as the cross-wind pushes me right to the edge of the track and the tyre comes back to earth still with some counter-steer on. I make a mental note to put a few turns into the steering damper. As I keep the throttle pinned and quick-shift up the box, I try to get low on the tank but the combination of the wide ‘bars and a torn shoulder don’t make it easy. From where I’m sitting, the noise from the Akra can is epic: from the edge of the track its screaming howl makes bystanders crack a smile every time it goes by. The veritable Christmas tree of shift lights on the dash…

Through the magic of the internet we’ve arranged to meet our good mates Ken and Carol Duval, but first we have to get back into Russia. Yet another border crossing where paperwork is filled in and documents stamped. It’s all very simple. What I don’t realise is one of the border guards here kept some of my original documentation from when we first entered Russia. It isn’t a problem now, but it would be later. We’re heading to Barnaul and a hotel recommended as “the place” to stay for overland bikers. Sure enough, when we get there there’s an old BMW R80GS parked out the front. Its owner, a kiwi, says it has a gearbox problem. We meet up with our friends and other bikers from UnZud, Israel, Italy and…

FUTURE CLASSIC? SNORT, GIGGLE… Hmmm… Poor old Honda CX500. Has there been a more universally panned offering in the history of modern motorcycling? Yep, the CX was Honda’s Edsel, and people still point and chortle when one trundles past. The CX had lofty beginnings. In order to continue to be seen as an innovative manufacturer, Honda came up with a water-cooled, shaft-driven V-Twin. The heads were twisted 22 degrees, which gave the engine a unique look. And that was the main criticism; the damned thing looked like an air compressor. It was all a little unfair because the engine was pretty much bulletproof and handled well, and the bike actually sold well on a global basis. And there is a bit of a cult following for turning them into pretty…

TRUTH AND JUSTICE THE ARR WAY Yep, we tell it exactly as it is. Honda’s hero just got the full treatment. Can the new Gold Wing take Honda to the top of the touring tree? Snag finds out. We continue our epic USA tour with Part II of Kealy’s massive journey, and the wonderful BMW R nineT Racer takes centre stage. AND, OF COURSE… A stack of maintenance tips, new products, gear on test, all brought to you with a sprinkling of silliness to keep you lot informed and entertained. Until then!…