Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue#129 - October 2016 i Australian Road Rider

Kawasaki Motors Australia has donated a 2015 Kawasaki Ninja 300 to TAFE NSW. The donation is one of many that Kawasaki Motors Australia has contributed to various TAFE institutes around Australia. Technical Service Department assistant manager at Kawasaki Motors Australia, Jeremy Fuller, says they have developed a strong relationship with TAFE through product donation and support over the years. “We aim to provide the latest products and diagnostic service tools so that apprentice technicians can benefit from learning on modern machinery as opposed to dated products,” he says. Kawasaki has also trained several teachers in diagnostics on Kawasaki products. Head teacher of Automotive Technology at TAFE Sydney, Peter Denison, welcomed the donation. “It means that our students get the latest and greatest to learn on, which is a benefit to…

The biggest motorcycle museum in New Zealand has been rescued from closing down and being split up and sold off to overseas interests. New Zealand Classic Motorcycles opened in late 2014 in Nelson on the north coast of the South Island with an enormous private collection of about 300 machines from more than 60 manufacturers. Businessman Tom Sturgess and his wife Heather collected the bikes over the past decade, but they decided to close the doors after Tom had major cancer surgery last year. Now the collection has been rescued by Bill Richardson Transport World of Invercargill on the southern tip of the island and home of the World’s Fastest Indian rider Burt Munro and the annual Burt Munro Motorcycle Challenge. Director Scott O’Donnell says the collection will be housed…

Aftermarket automatic SOS emergency beacons have been available for some time for riders, but now BMW says it will fit an SOS button to some of its motorcycle handlebars. SOS buttons have been available in cars for some time and are now being mandated throughout Europe. Even though it’s not yet mandatory on motorcycles, BMW will fit the buttons to their motorcycles in Germany and throughout Europe before offering it to other markets. Apart from the button alerting the emergency services and providing GPS co-ordinates of your position, it will also be connected to various sensors on the bike which will detect whether you have crashed. In that case, the button will activate automatically without it being pushed. That’s a great safety feature for solo riders who may spear off…

The chaotic situation after a motorcycle crash outside Grey Gum Cafe on the famed Putty Road has inspired the cafe owner to offer free First Aid for Motorcyclists (FAFM) courses. Owner Kim Grace described the accident scene as “horrifying”, with one rider even offering the crash victim a beer. She now plans to offer free courses to riders when the FAFM trainers return to Sydney in October after their nationwide tour. “Nobody knew what to do,” she says. “I’m just so glad it happened straight out the front.” Kim now wants to promote first-aid courses to the many riders who frequent her popular cafe. “Any motorcycle club that registers 10 people for the course, I’ll pay for the 11th person,” she says. “I haven’t done an official first-aid course and…

Two new innovations from Toyota and Honda have impacts for future motorcycle powertrains. Toyota engineers believe they can replace the lithium in rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles with magnesium. Magnesium is more stable in the atmosphere than lithium and more potentially energy-dense, which means it will store bigger charge in the same capacity. That means electric motorcycles using these batteries will need smaller and lighter batteries that have a bigger charge for a greater range. The discovery has been made by engineers at the Toyota Research Institute of North America, but they believe it won’t be available in mainstream batteries such as electric vehicles and smartphones for another couple of decades. Meanwhile, Honda has patented a variable-displacement engine. While several car makers have variable capacity engines that simply shut…

Ride a Royal Enfield through the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, with ARR and World On Wheels in March 2017. We’re fulfilling a dream by booking a trip to Bhutan and we’d love you to join us and be part of the story. We’re teaming up with World On Wheels again, after riding with them many times when they were still called Ferris Wheels. We’ve ridden an Enfield in the Himalayas with them before, into Ladakh and Kashmir, and have wanted to return to this awe-inspiring part of the world ever since. The tour starts in Kathmandu with a scenic one-hour joyflight to view Mount Everest, and then the first few days are spent exploring Nepal. We cross the border into northern India to discover…

“Play around with acceleration in a few gears and you quickly realise the torque and power are both at their best in the top half of the 12,500rpm rev range” Can a 300cc motorcycle really qualify as a Yamaha MT? The MT designation has variously stood for Monster Torque, Mighty Torque, Massive Torque and probably other interpretations of what should by now be an obvious theme. Torque. Torque in a 1600cc V-twin — massive! Torque in a 900cc triple — for sure. Torque in a 700cc twin — indeed. Torque in a 660cc single — definitely. But torque in a revvy little 300cc twin? Yes, as it turns out. This is not torque as we know it in the 1600cc MT-01 that started this whole thing. Nor is it torque…

“The catalyst for their movement was Yamaha’s 1983 Dakar-inspired XT600 and its oh-so-familiar 23-litre fuel tank painted with Yamaha's familiar and somewhat emotive racing stripe” From the dawn of time man has been the hunter-gatherer of our society, and that free-roaming spirit is something that's built into our DNA. Now I'm not suggesting we load our dirt bikes with guns and hunt for food, however that thrill of discovery and purpose to explore seems alive and well in today's modern male. Could this be why adventure riding is becoming so attractive, or is it more escapism from today’s modern evils? To be honest there aren't many adventure riders who actually “discover” anything besides a new cafe or a dirt road that becomes the next Sunday morning shortcut. If that sounds…

“The Energator’s price puts it right up among the top-shelf riding suits but it will out-perform, outlast and out-do everything on the next shelf down, and is at least the equal of what’s level with it” There is nothing better than Rukka riding gear, in my book. My main touring suit for the past few years has been a Rukka one, and unless I’m putting something else through its paces I’ll usually go first to the Rukka gear when I’m off for a ride. I’ve had a few sets of riding gear over the years, including a few top-end suits, and Rukka’s stands out as the pick of them. So I’ve gone into the testing of Rukka’s Energator adventure-riding suit with very high expectations. Rukka markets this as an adventure-riding…

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…

A two-wheel equivalent of the popular Top Gear could soon be hitting TV screens with five-time world champion Mick Doohan as host, supported by Charley Boorman. The show is called Bike Torque and the producers are seeking $500,000 to film a pilot and $6.5m for the first season of 13 episodes. Producers plan to include a stellar line-up of guests including Tom Cruise, Eric Bana, Justin Timberlake, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Pink, David Beckham, Clint Eastwood, Ryan Gosling, Ewan McGregor, Ryan Reynolds, John Travolta, Hugh Laurie, Keanu Reeves, Jay Leno, Jason Statham, Wyclef Jean, Tim Allen, Orlando Bloom, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Jimmy Buffett. Whew! And then, of course, there will be the usual motorcycle and car racers such as Valentino Rossi, Casey…

Arider died without his family by his side six hours after arriving in hospital because the medical authorities had no idea who to contact. This was the scenario that inspired 40-year riding veteran Tony Walton of Perth to address the situation and save some lives. His invention is the ICEmergency USB key which goes on your key ring and includes vital medical and contact information that can be used by first responders and/or hospital staff. “About 12 months ago I had this idea. It came from a conversation I had with an emergency department nurse,” Tony says. “She was telling me how much time she wasted trying to track down the ID and family of a rider that had been involved in an accident and he wasn't able to be…

Future motorcycles could run on all types of fuels, including electricity, after US government defence contracts have yielded two prototype hybrid motorcycles. The bikes are the Logos Silent Hawk and LSA Autonomy Nightmare, whose engines can run on either spark or compression ignition, which means they can be fuelled by petrol, jet fuel, propane, diesel or any other fuels, including olive oil. At the flick of a switch they can also run in a quiet “stealth” mode on electric power a bit like a Toyota Prius. Just as military advances over the years have led to civilian use (think atomic bomb and nuclear power), these motorcycles could point the way to the future. They are the result of a competition started in 2014 by the US Pentagon’s future research wing,…

Rather than mandating gloves and boots as the Victorian police are trying to do, riding gear should be subsidised to encourage riders to wear it, says the Victorian Motorcycle Council. Victorian police have deployed a fleet of nimble Husqvarna 701 motard patrol bikes for a road blitz on riders and are also calling for mandatory wearing of boots and gloves. It’s called Operation Motus and was initiated in response to the high number of Victorian rider deaths this year. Victorian Motorcycle Council spokesman John Eacott says they support the use of all protective equipment. “But we do not support mandating riding gear,” he says. “With any mandating you have to have a standard and the background in creating standards in Australia isn’t stellar. The whole helmet issue has been a…

Is the T12 Massimo the greatest superbike ever built? It’s certainly one of the most expensive at an estimated €300,000 ($463,000). The bike was designed by the man who also created the most beautiful bikes of all time — the Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4. Sadly, Massimo Tamburini died of cancer on April 6, 2014, while working on the T12 with his son, Andrea. His son took over the reins of the independently funded family project and the result has recently been unveiled. Massimo’s chief design philosophy was light weight: “The ideal one would be a 750 with the power of a 1000 and the weight of a 500. You don’t need a huge amount of power on a road bike, but it’s important to have light weight as…

“I knew then I would miss this bike, more than I missed the Multistrada Touring I had through the whole of 2014” This test was going to be all about a fully optioned Multistrada tourer. All the bags, bars and bits you can add to Ducati’s adventure-sports bike. A ’Strada with the lot. But something went wrong and instead I’ve been living light and travelling fast on the Pikes Peak model. And not once did I give a rat's about the gear we’d missed out on. The sportiest of Multistradas was magnificent. What it lacks makes it better. What it has makes it amazing. What it is makes it so, so sexy. Why? Well, basically it’s because Ducati has nailed the concept in 2016. If we thought the previous Pikes…

Imagine this: there is a sheer mountain precipice on one side of the road, and a gargantuan peak rising above you. In between you have a narrow single lane. There are no barriers if you come off, just a terrifyingly brief drop over the cliffs. Then imagine potholes, boulders, herds of goats and sheep, trees growing randomly in the middle of the road, oil slicks, ice and glaciers, waving schoolkids and rivers randomly and sporadically appearing as you ride. Then add in the traffic: cars, bikes and buses all manically vying for position along the series of blind corners, overtaking each other in the wrong lane and narrowly avoiding head on collisions. This, my friend, is an average mountain road in Himalayan India. There is no riding like this anywhere…

If you spend days or maybe weeks with an eye on someone’s back or theirs on yours (literally and figuratively), you may spend hours each evening, a glass in your hand or around a fire somewhere out in the bush, yarning, discussing or arguing about a shared passion. If you find any sort of bond with this person then you will probably have made a mate. This is how the Compass Expeditions Reunion happened. It is all about the mates you make on the road riding motorcycles. Each year Compass puts the invite out to all of the participants of all of its past tours, and each year that list grows, as does the number of riders converging on Greendale, west of Melbourne. This year almost 50 keen motorcyclists were…

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 BELLS TO THE PASS We are staying in Sydney in October/November and I would like to ride the Bells Line of Road, stay in Katoomba, then cross down…

“I hadn’t just suggested something unreasonable, I’d caused great offence by it. Who’d have thought that the idea of customising a bike would be such an insult?” The anger behind the response caught me off guard. The “no” wasn’t just firm, it was aggressive. Like a door slamming in my face. Turns out I hadn’t just suggested something unreasonable, I’d caused great offence by it. Who’d have thought that the idea of customising a bike would be such an insult? I should have thought it through a little more deeply. I’d asked one of the Japanese distributors if I could create a special by transplanting the engine from model A into the chassis of model B. Interesting project, I thought. Direct and unwarranted criticism of their perfect products, they thought.…

Honda Motorcycles Australia has announced Morgan Motors of Central Queensland as National Dealer of the Year 2015. The Honda Motorcycles Dealer of the Year Awards reward excellence in dealership management and customer service. Over a 12-month period, a rigorous performance review is undertaken on all Honda motorcycle dealerships to decide the winners. Morgan Motors achieved the highest score through strong sales growth, and strong market share throughout 2015. Servicing the central Queensland area of Emerald, Morgan Motors offers off-road Honda Motorcycles along with ATVs and SXS products. The winners of the 2015 State Dealer of the Year Awards are: – Morgan Motors, Queensland – Cyclone Motorcycles, Northern Territory – Wilder Motorcycles & Power Equipment, New South Wales/ACT – Circular Head Motorcycles, Tasmania – Moto Adelaide, South Australia – Doyle &…

Producing motorcycles with a 3D printer has moved to the next stage, with the Airbus aviation company now printing and selling electric motorcycles. The global company that makes Airbus planes also operates large-scale industrial printers to produce components. Now they have turned their attention to producing an electric motorcycle frame using aluminium powder. It’s called the Light Rider and it was developed by the aviation giant’s APWorks 100-per-cent-owned subsidiary in Germany. The elaborate, hollow trellis frame is made of thousands of thin layers of aluminium powder just 60 microns thick. They claim it makes the frame 30 per cent lighter at just 35kg, which is a boon for an electric bike as it will mean better range from the battery. However, they haven’t supplied details of the motor or battery,…

Police have been incorrectly fining riders for wide handlebars, unaware the Australian Design Rules increased the maximum width in December from 900mm to 1100mm. Caboolture rider Dean Brown has had his fine waived by the Deception Bay police, but Motorcycle Riders Association of Queensland president Chris Mearns knows of four other incorrect infringement notices and believes many more throughout the nation may also have copped wrong fines. “For years police have loved this handlebar rule and have been using it as a target, particularly for cruiser riders,” says Chris, who recommends fined riders do not pay and should question their fine. He is also calling on police to refund incorrect fines and return any demerit points. “In December 2015, ADR 57 was revised, but there has been very little communication…

“Similarly, the paint is not garish; at first glance it looks kind of plain, especially on a dull day, but it pops like a $250,000 show car when the sun hits it” I totally get Harley-Davidsons and have been a fan for a long time, much to the horror of my Ducati mates. They have a presence that goes well beyond the image, the most copied marque of all time, yet none comes close to the feeling of a Harley ride. There was a time when we’d preface a Harley test with clichés of being an acquired taste, but not these days when every bastard’s got one. Ironic for a brand that established itself on rugged individualism, the problem now is how to stand out from a crowded pack. Enter…

DAY ONE: BAIRNSDALE TO GOULBURN VIA CANN RIVER, COOMA, SUTTON AND CROOKWELL We were supposed to end up in Crookwell for the night but when we got there the only motel in town, the Uplands Pastures Motel, was fully booked. The pubs were all closed so we rode 46km south-east (yes, back more or less in the direction we’d come from) to Goulburn, where we knew there’d be plenty of accommodation options. Sure enough, we found a grouse motel, no worries, and had dinner at the Services Club. Very serviceable. Warm and sunny all day. DAY TWO — GOULBURN TO GUNNEDAH VIA ROCKLEY, HILL END, COOLAH AND TAMBAR SPRINGS Warm and sunny again and a great day of riding up through the Abercrombie River National Park and Rockley to Bathurst…

“I don’t remember the brand’s tour specialist K1600s being this pleasant to sit on and whether it’s the nature of the foam, shape of the seat or riding position, it didn’t cut short any stretch between absolute necessity fuel stops” Our mate Crappy bought it. Hit a tree. It was quick, it was inexplicable, it was tragic, and the people who knew him are still hurting. The weekend after his life ended, a gathering to remember him as motorcyclist and drummer Ian Crapp was held in Orange where he’d lived. I rode from Melbourne to be there — a 10-hour mission to be close to other mates and to dilute my grief among them. Some of us had been in a band with him. Leaving it was one of the…

“The Stunt Pro boot from RST isn’t the kind of boot you could hike in, but it’s as comfortable as a set of Blunnies. More importantly, it’s as safe as boots come for when you are on the bike — or come off it” Short boots have a lot going for them if you are the kind of rider that is off the bike more than on it with your riding gear on. Monday to Friday my trips are short, there’s the occasional train or bus ride and way too much walking. I like to feel protected, but at times have gone for comfort over protection because, well, it feels better. The Stunt Pro boot from RST isn’t the kind of boot you could hike in, but it’s as comfortable…

THE SPOILS OF WAR Founded in 1901, Indian Motorcycle Company introduced the Powerplus in 1915, one of its most legendary engines. The 1000cc engine was a 42-degree V-twin flathead with side valves. The valves resulted in cleaner and quieter operation, and the engine produced more power than its predecessors, giving selected models a top speed of 60mph (96km/h). It was this machine that Indian would predominantly supply to the US military, building nearly 50,000 of them from 1917 through to 1919. It was the foundation of great things for Indian. The ’20s saw the introduction of the Ace, Scout, Chief, Big Chief, Prince and Four, taking the manufacturer to the forefront of motorcycle production in the US and around the world. Sadly, the Great Depression and WWII were just around…

Ridden We ride the new Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro bush basher, the updated Triumph Speed Triple R, and Harley-Davidson's sporty new Roadster. Rides We head to Dunns Swamp in NSW — a beautiful oasis in the central west with great riding taking you there. And things go big when the ride is one of the world’s great motorcycling expeditions from Cape Town to Cairo. Featured Riding and owning a Hyosung: Is it hard to be humble when you’re having the perfect time touring on your bike? Also, we ask why it's so hard to get odd-sized gear, what's next in hearing protection, and how to buy the right boots. Not forgetting All the other beaut stuff and regulars you expect to see in each and every issue of ARR.…