Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 75 i Old Bike Australasia

In the dirt bike boom that began in the late ‘sixties, Honda got hammered, mainly because the company’s ethos was four stroke technology, and virtually all the opposition was two-stroke based, not least being the ground-breaking Yamaha DT1, the motorcycle that brought trail riding to the masses. But Honda wasn’t ready to abandon its principles, not yet anyway, and quietly plugged away in the design department while others racked up impressive sales figures. Along the way, Honda refined what were essentially converted road bikes (the CL series) into more dual-purpose models, of which the SL350 was the first decent attempt and in retrospect, wasn’t a bad bike at all, albeit overweight. There was also the fine line of little off-roaders, namely the Honda SL125 single (which actually won a Gold…

MV itself had contested the class for some years with its own two stroke, which began life as a 98cc and was the brainchild of Domenico Agusta, son of the company founder Count Giovanni Agusta. The Agusta empire had begun in 1923 as an aircraft company – Construzioni Aeronautiche Giovanni Agusta – in the northern Italian town of Verghera, but the Count passed away in 1927 leaving his wife Giuseppina to run the company, which she did very well. The company prospered but the war put a stop to that, and post-war Giuseppina and her sons Domenico and Vincenzo were faced with finding work for the company’s many employees. Domenico knew there would be a need for cheap transport, and the result was the 98cc lightweight motorcycle, which was to…

Both sadly are no longer with us but Cynthia Boocock (Nigel’s wife) and Jon White (Jack’s son) were present. Darren Sonnenberg who had the original vision and speedway tragic Tony Webb were the main organisers. The display was huge and filled both sides of Delta Street Geebung in front of the Indian Museum. Banners, leathers and mounted period photos complimented the bikes. In the crowd were many legends of the sport and Jack Porritt (Liverpool Hall of Fame recipient as a Midget Speedcar driver) armed with a microphone had a stream of notables fronting up for interviews during the day. John Boulger and his wife Jackie were flown up as special guests. He told me he is normally shy and hates public speaking, but we were entertained by exactly the…

• 15 July, 2018 – Cleveland Showgrounds, Qld 2018 saw perfect weather for the 30th running of the Concours after the sun came out and lifted the brisk 5 degree morning chill. Maybe it was the cold start but display bikes were a little down in numbers which was disappointing considering the blue sky day. It was a quality more than quantity scenario and again the attention to detail was breath taking. The Dave Ritter band were back, the Dyno shootout again entertained with the piercing sound of engines at full rpm. This year the One Addiction team brought along one of their toys – a wheelie trainer. While the Suzuki was tethered to prevent it from tilting past vertical, the rider was in control of just how high he…

One such concerns Paulo “Chromedome” Gompetz and his attractive sidekick Fiona Flibbertigibbet, who made countless incursions, sweeping across the Continent and liberating wealth from the foolish and the gullible. This often led to spirited police chases as Gompertz fled the crime scene and headed for the political immunity afforded by his residence in Andorra. However, on several occasions he was apprehended due to the failure of his vehicle, an embarrassing situation that was only rescued by the authorities’ appetite for ‘compensation’. Gompertz’ brother, Luciano, a skilled mechanic as well as an insatiable lothario, created a unique getaway vehicle by combining the rear section of an abandoned Spagforth Scuttlebutt with the front of a converted light personnel carrier, complete with armour plating. The Scuttlebutt, with its powerful 12 litre v-twin engine,…

See ya later generator I have always had a passion for single cylinder motorcycles having been brought up in a biking family where given the chance my father would tell all about how good his BSA Empire Star was. So imagine my delight when Yamaha introduced the SR500 back in 1978. At the time I was commuting over 30km each way to work on a tired ex-police Kawasaki WR1. I yearned for a Velocette but they were and still are thin on the ground here in WA. OBA 73 brought back a few memories starting with the monthly visit to my local newsagent to pick up my monthly copy of Two Wheels (August 1978). The front cover was a SR 500 and a Velocette Thruxton. It was meant to be.…

Some even gain fame on their own account – naturally not of the giddy heights afforded to the star riders and drivers, but fame none the less. Jeremy Burgess, featured in OBA 70, is one such name, as are Kiwis Mike Sinclair and Paul Treacy. For many years of Valentino’s illustrious career, his team contained several such ANZACS, including Burgess, Alex Briggs, Dick Smart, and for the seasons 2000 to 2015 inclusive, Gary Coleman. Newcastle born and bred, and trained as a fitter machinist, Gary’s initial interest in motorcycling was in the leisurely world of Observed Trials, riding, not unnaturally, a Bultaco Sherpa, since the coal city was the home of Norm Fraser’s Bultaco-based empire. Newcastle and its environs was also a hotbed of Dirt Track (Short Circuit) activity, with…

The question was especially poignant with the recent demise of the troubled TX750 Yamaha twin, although Yamaha did soldier on with its now-venerable XS650 twin. The British parallel twin pretenders had largely vanished; the Enfield Interceptor, BSA’s A65, both gone, and the Norton Commando about to do the same, leaving only the 750cc Triumph Bonneville, of which the less said, the better. Perhaps Kawasaki felt that the once-proud class was ripe for picking, and that big-twin fans needed looking after. It’s true that the new breed of four-cylinder bikes – soon referred to as UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycles) – did not have across-the-board appeal; many felt that the complexity and the loss of do-it-yourself maintenance was a backward step. Of course, Kawasaki had built a big twin before, or rather,…

Englishman Andy Gourlay, a resident of New Zealand since 1986, has enjoyed a long love affair with quick singles, having raced Aermacchis and a Manx Norton in the Manx Grand Prix from 1976 to 1980. He recently re-acquired his Aermacchi Metisse that has been in storage for over 30 years and which is currently undergoing a complete rebuild as a retirement project. Andy is also a staunch Ducati fan, with a TT2 600 in the stable, which also includes a pair (soon to be a trio) of totally unique creations – 470cc and 540cc single cylinder racers that started life as 2-valve twins. Andy acknowledges Phil Irving’s famous book ‘Tuning for Speed’ was good for reference with the project. By removing the rear cylinder and head, which is pretty much…

Liberty updates Geoffrey Ellis writes, “When my story of the YDS1 Yamaha Liberty Ranch Model was included in OBA 26 it was at the time believed that all sales records had been destroyed and numbers built were therefore unknown. The Ranch Model was Yamaha’s first off-road motorcycle, produced specifically for Frank Johns and the Liberty Motor Company in Adelaide who had world-wide rights to it. Recently the Liberty Motors sales books surfaced and it can be now said that 67 Ranch models were manufactured in total. Whilst Ranch Models are often claimed to be from 1959, the first of the two evaluation bikes (#6220) was sold to Anna Creek Station in South Australia on 7/12/1960 and the second (#6222) on 19/12/1960. The rest were sold by Frank’s distributers Dalgety and…

• 21-26 August, 2018 – South-East Qld. It all began with a dream when Peter Morrow and Trevor Fryer were thinking of a way to get classic Italian bikes out of garages and onto the road. The concept of the original Motogiro d’Italia in the ‘50s was the inspiration of what was to be realised. 2009 saw the first running of the Motogiro Australia and from humble beginnings the event has mushroomed to its 10th running this year. This ride was based at Mt Tamborine from 21st to the 23rd August and Woodford for the 24th to the 26th. The Tamborine leg enjoyed magic Queensland winter sunshine, enabling us to complete the three summits (Binna Burra, Springbrook and O’Reillys) and a galloping ride through Numinbah Valley via Uki to Kyogle…

• 8 July, 2018 – Pine Rivers, Qld In any club there are people whose dedication and passion for their club enables us to enjoy what we do today. Sometimes unfortunately those people are no longer with us and it is necessary to remind ourselves of how much they achieved, and to also let those who never met them understand the importance of their contribution. This was the gist of Richard Speck’s eloquent summary of the impact of Don Nicol to the Pine Rivers Area. Subsequently the Sidecar Circus is held each year in his memory at the Clubhouse he fought for ten years to get, but sadly never saw. The third running of the Don Nicol Memorial Sidecar Circus was held in the most beautiful crisp, sunny weather just…

When AJS threw back the wraps on their star exhibit at the Earl’s Court Motor Cycle Show in November, 1935, the collective intake of breath almost sucked the carpets off the floor. Here, in solid metal, was perhaps the most mouth-watering, evocative and quite delicious powered two-wheeler ever offered to the public; a 50-degree vee with four cylinders, each with a single overhead camshaft driven by a central timing chain. It even carried a price tag – 89 guineas (when the average UK wage for a farm worker was about 100 Pounds per annum), suggesting that the order book was open for business. The design was the work of Bert Collier, of the original Matchless family who acquired AJS in 1931. Alas, the V-4 not only failed to proceed to…

I had a fantastic day out at the Kawaguchi Autorace track on the outskirts of Tokyo. We were up here visiting my son and his wife and meeting our new grand-daughter. The racing is really exciting and the Kawaguchi Autorace facility is incredible. The stadium will seat 44,000 people. The track is a 500 metre oval with beautifully sculptured gardens on the infield. They run 8 riders to a race over six laps. You have to see it in person to get an idea how fast they race and how close they are to each other. There’s no brakes but also no slide or wheel spin to slow down for corners like on dirt. You can hear them all throttle off slightly going into the corners then they all wind…

• 24 June, 2018 – Collie Motorplex, WA With conditions almost identical to Round 2, Saturday practice was almost continuously wet and Sunday got worse as the day wore on. In the end the weather bought an early closure to the meeting with just one race in the final round completed. For this round I put my focus on Team ‘Fam’ Racing – which is comprised of Father Aari, Mother Jodie and daughters Brooke and Yala. Older daughter Tonia was the fifth member of the team but has hung up the leathers. Aari and Jodie could be considered late starters in actual racing not gaining their race licences until they were 47 and 46 years old respectively, whilst both the girls got their licences in 2018. Brooke now has two…

• 29-29 July, 2018 – Pitt Town, NSW The many months of preparation work for the 2018 Macquarie Towns Restoration and Preservation Club Rally held on July 28 and 29, provided the 134 entrants with a fabulous weekend of riding around the beautiful Hawkesbury Valley area. Starting at the new venue of the Pitt Town Sports Club, where the dinner and presentation evening was also held on the Saturday night, the marshals were all given an impressive run down by one of the rally organizers and stalwart of the club, Kathleen Toovey. Kathleen didn’t miss a name or a corner with no reference to any notes – so impressed! As the marshals all headed off, the rest of the entrants made ready to enjoy what I thought was the best…

• 16-17 June, 2018 – Meddo, Holland Late in 1978 the Kawasaki Z1300 made its way onto the European market. The first one saw the light of day in Australia early 1979. I first became aware of the Z1300 when in Bathurst for the motorcycle races in Easter 1979. It took me some years before I actually owned one, however after having my first ride on a mates ’79 model I was hooked for life. Around 1992 I was contacted my Wilco Vonk president of the Dutch Z1300 owners Club and we have remained friends and have maintained regular correspondence ever since. Wilco has been out to Australia three times when he and some other Dutchmen travelled around Australia. I visited Holland for the 30th anniversary of the Z1300 in…

I picked up the bike from Burwood (Sydney) and headed out into the incessant traffic of Parramatta Road, but this is a very easy bike to ride in traffic and a pleasant bike to ride around rural North West Sydney. I also took it for a spin up the Putty Road where it motored along happily. All up did over 400 kilometers, and through twisty stuff like Galston Gorge and Berowra waters the suspension proved very capable – a joy to ride. Forks are 35mm (same size as the iconic CB750!) and the rear has piggy back shocks with preload adjustment. The swing arm has been updated from a circular section to an oval section shape and together with good quality Avon tyres proved a good package. Both brakes are…