Indholdsfortegnelse for Feb 2017 048 i Australian Motorcyclist

Just before Christmas I was in Tasmania for the Australia launch of the new Triumph T100 and Street Cup and it got me thinking of how the West Coast of Tassie is a lot like the South Island of New Zealand. I wonder if any of you geologists out there know about when the world was one big land mass and broke apart that either Tassie or New Zealand spun around in the process of reaching their current orientation? I know we have said it before but Tassie is a motorcyclist’s heaven. Everywhere you go, there’s twisty corners and beautiful scenery. If you can’t handle the Spirit of Tasmania boat trip which is usually a rough crossing, I recommend getting in touch with one of the motorcycle hire companies so…

The Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme (LAMS) has grown and grown over the past couple of years, and you can now get a LAMS approved motorcycle from just about every manufacturer out there. For 2017, the LAMS offering continues to grow with many new models hitting the showroom floor, while the current models have been tweaked or given new colour schemes. Any way you look at it, the LAMS market is hot to trot and it’s great to see so many new riders experiencing the wonders of motorcycling, and experienced riders realising that jumping on a LAMS machine will take care of pretty much all your needs for commuting and saving money – and with some of the new adventure touring models, even more! SUZUKI Suzuki hasn’t really been big into…

Do you reckon that Triumph has an urban sports model in its range? Just look at the Street Triple – a perfect example of what ‘urban sports’ is all about – fun, agile and capable of everything you might like to throw at it in the urban jungle. But Triumph has now released what they’re calling an urban sports model, and the Bonneville Street Cup does not resemble the Street Triple much at all. Two different approaches to the same idea? The zoo of Australian media reptiles headed to lovely Tasmania to find out, riding for two days up the west coast on the Street Cup after two days down the east coast on the equally new Bonneville T100 (launch report in the next issue). Are you a potential Street…

RATED 3 OUT OF 5 HELMETS I’d been chatting on the phone for a while with Kay who, with husband Ted, runs the Royal Hotel at Grong Grong, and she’s expecting me when I cross the railway and pull up at the front door. Ted’s inside using the pool table as his office desk: bills, invoices, letters cover nearly half of the green and he looks up and says his g’day. They’ve had this place for almost a quarter of a century, a long stretch for country publicans and although it’s quiet now I ask if any of the bar stools is the private domain of any regular who might be about to front. Never want to be sitting in some bloke’s chair when he turns up tonguing for a…

I must have sounded like a, er, sounding whale. I’d pushed my way out of the hotel lobby through the rotating door when I released a huge guffaw, a combination of outrage and mirth. An elderly couple who had just rolled up on an RT Spyder stepped back to establish that they were not in any way associated with this loonie who was now wheezing with laughter. I waved them through the door and wished them luck. The attractive young lady behind the reception counter had just quoted me two hundred and forty-five bucks for a room. For one night. In a kind of average-looking multi-storey hotel with no under cover parking for the bike. When I replied that I hadn’t intended to spend quite that much, she immediately lost…

We were ready, on this perfect riding day, to tackle Rajasthan. Sadly that was not to be because, as I quickly realised, we were lined up in Melbourne, not desert India… but we really had the right bikes for both places. The full range of Royal Enfield models, unfortunately missing the brand-new Himalayan, was patiently waiting for us outside Australia’s first full-on Royal Enfield Concept Store: the freshly re-imaged Mid Life Cycles, which will fly the Indian flag for the marque in Melbourne’s near-inner city Cremorne. Perfect location – after all, Royal Enfields are ideal city and commuter bikes as well as conquerors of the world’s tallest mountains. Instead of climbing every mountain we tackled the rather more amenable environment of bayside Melbourne on a range of the company’s bikes…

Until you’ve tried it, you have no idea how much fun it can be to ride in other countries. Even New Zealand. Around every corner could be something you’ve never seen before, including a border post. If you’re in the Balkans, you can encounter them just about literally around every corner; when the old Jugoslavia was split up, some of the splinters created are so small they’re hardly there – but they still have border posts. Okay, so let’s see. Before you start out you should make certain that you have all the paperwork you might need. Proof of registration and insurance for the bike, plus a letter from the owner if the bike is borrowed, is a start. You should obviously have your driver’s licence; I don’t usually bother…

We’ve had a lot of requests for our 2017 New Zealand tour and here it is! We’ve picked South Pacific Motorcycle Tours to run this one, specifically because of this fantastic tour they offer, including the Omaka Classic Fighters event. If any of that gets you going, you’d better hurry and book your spot! You also get Peter “The Bear” Thoeming as your special host rider. TOUR BOOKING & DATES… South Pacific Motorcycle Tours www.motorbiketours.co.nz office@motorbiketours.co.nz Ph: +64 3 312 0066 Skype: ride.nz Depart - Christchurch Saturday 08 April 2017 Return - Christchurch Monday 17 April 2017 KEY POINTS FOR THE TOUR ... RIDING TIMES: 9am-4pm approx with breaks throughout the day for lunch, coffee, activities etc. DISTANCE: 2500kms approximately REST OR RIDE: Blenheim for Omaka Classic Fighters Airshow –…

Following the Off Centre Rally, I retired to Adelaide for some R&R. Fortunately it’s also the home of Rossi Boots, as I had suffered a blow-out on the zipper in one boot, so it was dropped off for repair. Getting out of Adelaide was pretty uneventful after picking up the repaired boot and heading north again. The wind was really picking up and the sky looked threatening as I got past Gawler. As luck would have it, whenever a really dark wet cloud mass loomed up, the road skirted around it, so it was just the wind that annoyed me. My travelling mate had left ahead of me, and we had arranged to meet at the Peterborough Hotel. I got there and put the bike out the back and moved…

WHAT THE @#%&* As you’ll see from the next item, I confuse fairly easily. But there are some things that I don’t understand no matter how often I think about them. Case in point one: why do so many drivers stop at red lights well back from the induction coils in the roadway that tell the little computer that someone is waiting? I mean, folks, if you don’t park over the coils – and they’re visible enough, or the lines in the tar that show where they lurk are – for you to easily see them. Is it that hard to understand that you need to be above them before they will register your presence? Do you enjoy sitting at traffic lights, maybe just listening to the radio, you know,…

THE VITALS KAWASAKI NINJA 300 PRICE: From $5799 (plus on-road charges) WARRANTY:Two years, unlimited distance SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 6000km or 12 months ENGINE: Liquid-cooled parallel twin cylinder, 4-stroke, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder DISPLACEMENT: 296cc TORQUE: 27Nm @ 10,000rpm TRANSMISSION: 6-speed, wet multi-plate clutch, chain final drive SUSPENSION: Front, 37mm telescopic fork, non-adjustable, travel 120mm. Rear, monoshock, adjustable preload, travel 132mm. DIMENSIONS: Seat height 785mm, weight 174kg (wet), fuel capacity 17 litres, wheelbase 1405mm BRAKES: Front, 290mm disc with dual-piston (optional ABS) calipers. Rear, 220mm disc, dual-piston (optional ABS) caliper. COLOURS: Pearl Blizzard White ABS and Non ABS, Metallic Graphite Gray / Ebony - ABS Special Edition only, Lime Green / Ebony KRT Edition ABS and non ABS YAMAHA R3 PRICE: From $6299 (plus on-road charges) WARRANTY:Two years, unlimited distance…

I’m getting a bit sick of being disappointed by country pubs which think that sticking some hats, maybe a rabbit trap, a couple of photos and a whip on the wall is enough to make their place attractive. The Grong Grong Royal Hotel ain’t like that. Ted and Kay know that some conversation starters around the place are great but they’re no substitute for a welcoming smile, a friendly attitude and warm hospitality.At the end of each day they know the story of every guest, because they’ve actually asked.They’re as interested in your stories as in separating you from a little of your cash! The lack of undercover parking and any motorcycle specific catering dragged this great little pub down into the high three helmet territory whilst the value for…

Back in my younger days I had a mate who had been sent to Lithgow to work off his Teachers’ College Scholarship. I know that some of these terms and concepts won’t mean anything to the younger among you, but it was all simple enough: if you wanted to become a teacher you attended Teachers’ College; most potential teachers received scholarships, and once you graduated you had to go and work wherever the Department of Education sent you. An interesting take on the possible results can be seen in a film called Wake in Fright; Lithgow, to be fair, was not quite that bad. But it was bad enough so that my friend packed his bag and lit out for Sydney on every Friday afternoon, only to return across the…

The 35th Thunder Rally conducted by the Ducati Owners Club of NSW was again held at the Sheba Dams camping ground, not far from Nundle. The weather forecast was not to promising, but we thought we would have a crack anyway. The ride up to Nundle was under near perfect skies, and most enjoyable. After a stop at the Peel Inn, for necessary refreshments, we tackled the climb up to the Sheba Dams, always with an eye on the rear view mirror for any budding Carl Fogartys charging up from behind on an overloaded Ducati ! Wheeling into the control tent, we were greeted by Aunty Mal and his hard working helpers who relieved us of money for badges and raffle tickets. Mal was quick to point out that there…

Park the Triumph Bonneville T120 anywhere, and almost certainly someone will come up to you and compliment you on the restoration job you’ve done. Every now and then, someone will know that this is a new bike and not a reconstruction, but they’ll compliment you anyway. For buying it. It seems that everybody loves the new Bonnie. And why not? What’s not to love? Before we go any further, let me out myself as a bit of a luddite. It’s not that I don’t like technology; I just love ABS and the many other innovations we have seen over the past few years, with the possible exception of traction control. What I don’t particularly like is the way styling is going. Consider the bikes I have owned most recently: a…

The story of the Newmount is very much a side chapter of the much larger tale of Zündapp, the German motorcycle manufacturer which was at one time one of the biggest maker of motorcycles in the world and which beat BMW in the competition to design a sidecar outfit with two powered wheels for the Wehrmacht, the WW2 German army, to use whenever it felt like invading someone through some mud. Erwin Tragatsch in his Encyclopaedia of Motorcycles claims that Zündapp’s first bike, the Z22 which hit the market in 1921, was a straight copy of a British Levis two-stroke. The factory promoted the Z22 as the Motorrad für Jedermann or motorcycle for everyman and built it for five years. It sold very well, by all reports, and Zündapp went…

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU, the letters are among the most keenly read parts of the magazine. Please try and keep letters down to no more than 300 words.Then you can read many, not just a couple.We do reserve the right to cut them and, unless you identify yourself and at least your town or suburb and state, we will print your email address instead. Please address letters to thebear@ausmotorcyclist.com.au or Australian Motorcyclist Magazine, PO Box 2066, Boronia Park NSW 2111. All opinions published here are those of the writers and we do not vouch for their accuracy or even their sanity! GOT TO HAND IT TO YOU… This month, the prize for the best letter of the month – a pair of the exceptional Rain Off Overgloves from the…

OOPS… Naughty Bear In our well-received “In Their Own Pics” feature where we gave some of the travel operators a chance to show us what they do, I made a mistake. Just because I deal with the wonderful Franziska at Edelweiss, I thought she’d be the right person to act as contact for you, too. Turns out she is pretty busy doing other stuff (including dealing with me!) so I’ve reproduced the correct contact details for Edelweiss below. You’ll be reading more about them, too – I’m going to Iceland with them later in the year. Edelweiss Bike Travel: +43 5264 5690-23, worldtours@edelweissbike.com, www.edelweissbike.com is the correct way to get in touch with them. Mention me anyway, though. AQUA BEAR Xmas fun Christmas time in just about all business means…

Eighty-two bikes, 67 competitors, 23 countries - the 12th AMD World Championship at 'INTERMOT Customized' in Cologne in October was by far the most impressive custom show I have ever seen. Not only was the standard of craftsmanship outstanding, but the level of imagination matched it every time. The winner of the vote by the competitors themselves was a Japanese builder, the third time in a row that the crown has gone to Japan. Suicide Customs scored a convincing first place to take the coveted title of AMD World Champion of Custom Bike Building for the next two years. Before we go to the bikes themselves, here’s a well-deserved credit: in the motorcycle customising world there are a lot of staggeringly talented builders, but it takes skilled and inspired organisation…

I forgive you if you can’t work out what the blazes I’m on about this time. My mate Campbell once told me that I was an obscurantist, and I guess he’s right – but hang in. Let me explain… I’d been punting (er, sorry) the Harley-Davidson Street 500 around the city and on my way to and from work for a while, and I thought I’d better give it a bit of a run. Seeing the temperature outside Sydney was 40 degrees, it was however going to be only a bit of a run – I thought 200km or so would be just about right, and the 5 Punts looked like the way to go. Maybe it would be cooler by the Hawkesbury. In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t. Fortunately…

So, you’re thinking about giving a track day a whirl? You’ve probably seen what race teams take or have been told by your mates of a bazillion and one “must-haves” to get you out on the track to enjoy your machine. It can all be confusing. After a number of requests from you guys and gals I thought I’d give you a bit of a run down on the basics to get you through the day with maximum enjoyment. Here’s a list of items you might consider depending on just how serious you want to get. FUEL AND FUEL SPOUT: Aside from anything and everything else. It’s fair to consider fuel as the most essential item you need to take with you, along with a fuel spout to put it…

In art and especially movies, bridges (except Lloyd Bridges) are often used as symbols of connection or involvement. And as with most metaphors, simplicity makes for strength. Take Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters. There is something touching about bridges. Sometime in the past, someone cared enough to want to establish this connection, to bring people together. That’s why I like the Australian tendency to name bridges after people. It’s not just individual bridges, either – whole classes of bridges were named after their inventor. Take the bridge over Pearces Creek in Hornsby shire, north of Sydney. The 1894 bridge is a McDonald truss bridge, but not just any McDonald truss bridge - it is believed to be the only timber truss road bridge in NSW to survive with…

 Our man in China looks at some of the obstacles for Chinese motorcycle manufacturers trying to crack the European market, and the way these difficulties are being perceived. It’s unfortunate that the manufacturers in one of the world’s most bureaucratised nations don’t understand the never-ending push from their brothers in Europe’s bureaucracy for the constant tightening of rules… “…WHY WOULD A COMMUTER [BIKE] WITH SMALL ENGINE NEED AN ABS BRAKE SYSTEM? THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS THAT IT JUST DOESN’T.” Chinese motorcycle manufacturers are very good at creating obstacles for themselves but here I will detail some of the aspects (mainly outside of their control) that they (especially the small and medium sized manufacturers) will have to overcome to become a power on European Union nation markets. We have recently seen…

FANCY FLOOR Rust-Oleum Rock Solid Ever wondered how a showroom floor gets to be so spick and span, while no matter how long and hard you scrub your garage, you can’t seem to get that glossy finish? The answer is Rust-Oleum’s RockSolid range. RockSolid is the DIY concrete and flooring polish that will leave your garage floor looking just like the showroom. The average Joe can enjoy seeing their ride on gloss thanks to RockSolid’s long lasting sheen. RockSolid is an easy to apply floor and concrete epoxy that is quick dry and self-levelling. Most floor and concrete polishes require a full 7 days before they’re ready to bear loads again, but not RockSolid. You can park on a freshly applied coat after just one day. RockSolid is available in…