Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i Australian Motorcyclist

I’D LIKE TO START by saying it was great that a number of you reacted to my editorial in #87. I wrote that to get you writing in to us! It did get the blood pumping in some of you, huh? The majority of emails I received were in agreement that this has been hyped up a bit too much. Check, ‘What Say You?” for some of the emails I received. What more than a bit of stimulation for those that have been stuck at home! LOL! But, in all seriousness the main issue I have sympathy for out of this virus are the many that have lost their jobs as a result. It is devastating. Sure, death is never good, but you have to admit it will come to…

PRICE: $22,695 (plus on-road charges) WARRANTY:Two years, unlimited distance SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 10,000km or 12 months ENGINE: 799cc liquid-cooled parallel cylinder, 4-stroke, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder POWER: 70kW @ 8000rpm TORQUE: 89Nm @ 6600rpm TRANSMISSION: 6-speed, wet multi-plate slipper clutch, chain final drive SUSPENSION: Front, 48mm inverted fork, adjustable preload, compresson and rebound, travel 240mm. Rear, monoshock, adjustable preload, compression and rebound, travel 240mm. DIMENSIONS: Seat height 880mm, weight 189kg (dry), fuel capacity 20 litres, wheelbase 1528mm TYRES: Front, 90/90/21. Rear, 150/70/18 BRAKES: Front, twin 320mm discs with radial mount four-piston switchable ABS calipers. Rear, 260mm disc, two-piston switchable ABS caliper. FUEL CONSUMPTION: 5.06 litres per 100km, premium unleaded THEORETICAL RANGE: 395km COLOURS:White/Black/Orange VERDICT: REFINED HARDCORE TRAVELLER…

PRICE: $17,149 (ride away) WARRANTY:Two years, unlimited distance SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 10,000km or 12 months ENGINE: 689cc liquid-cooled parallel twin cylinder, 4-stroke, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder POWER: 53.8kW @ 9000rpm TORQUE: 68Nm @ 6500rpm TRANSMISSION: 6-speed, wet multi-plate clutch, chain final drive SUSPENSION: Front, telescopic fork, adjustable preload, compression and rebound, travel 210mm. Rear, monoshock, adjustable preload, compression and rebound, travel 200mm. DIMENSIONS: Seat height 880mm, weight 204kg (wet), fuel capacity 16 litres, wheelbase 1590mm TYRES: Front, 90/90/R21. Rear, 150/70/R18 BRAKES: Front, twin 282mm discs with four-piston switchable ABS calipers. Rear, 245mm disc, two-piston switchable ABS caliper. FUEL CONSUMPTION: 4.86 litres per 100km, premium unleaded THEORETICAL RANGE: 329km COLOURS: Ceramic Ice, Power Black, Competition White VERDICT:YOU NEED ONE…

THIS IS ALL SO BLOODY foreign to me - staying home every weekend or day-off. It’s foreign to me to not hang with mates at the end of the day or at the gym where the losing battle is so regularly fought. It’s foreign to me to head to the other side footpath when someone’s coming the other way rather than pausing as we pass and shooting the breeze for a bit. It’s all damn foreign and I want to go home. Problem is, I bloody AM at home! And there’s nowhere to go. So, it’s totally fitting that the emotions that’re so novel (now there’s a word I’ve heard waaaay too much of) and foreign that we’re all feeling are best summed up by a foreign word. And that…

ONE BIKE THAT we’d hoped to have tested for this issue is the new Triumph Tiger 900. One platform, five different bikes are what’s on offer. Triumph claims the Tiger 900 is “designed to set a new category benchmark for maximum adventure, and is completely transformed with an all-new more responsive 900cc triple engine, an incredible standard of specification, new state-of-the-art ride-enhancing technology, and an aggressive new Tiger style and attitude. On top of that, the new Tiger 900 range is now significantly lighter than previous Tiger models, making these the most capable, agile and dynamic middleweight adventure bikes available.” Well, we’ll find that out soon enough, but to pull some of the highlights of the new bike/s from Triumphs information supplied, the five models available are the, Tiger 900,…

NOBODY LIKES TO talk about the potential for things to go wrong and, chances are, it might never happen. You can never guess what trouble you might run into, but having a universal plan of attack in your head for any incident can be the difference between a great adventure and an embarrassing farce. Fail to prepare; prepare to fail. It’s a funny old saying, suggesting that preparing to fail is the wrong thing to be doing. Of course you should prepare for a trip, and nobody wants to prepare to fail, but as part of any preparation you should certainly prepare for failure. Now we’re not suggesting you should morbidly list off all the things that could go wrong and then talk yourself out of ever leaving the house,…

Starting out of Kurrajong jump onto Grose Vale Road and make your way to Bowen Mountain Road. Follow this to the end and turn right. A few hundred metres up you’ll be on Burralow Fire Trail (go around the rocks). When you get to the end, turn left, follow this road again and turn/veer left once you get to the Y intersection. You’re now on Patterson Range Fire Trail. Follow your nose north which will spit you out on Bells Line of Road at Bilpin. Turn left and head west. About four kilometres along you need to turn right onto Mountain Lagoon Road. Follow the bitumen for a while and it will soon turn to dirt as you approach a small incline. You’re now on Mountain Lagoon Trail. Follow it…

IF BERTRAND CADART had been a little less annoying, I would not be writing this now. The musical tastes of the Pacific islands would not be what they are, Mad Max would have been a different film, and Bertrand would almost certainly not have been awarded the Chevalier de L’ordre National du Mérite, an order reserved for those with distinguished military or civil achievements who are not French citizens and therefore not normally entitled to the Legion of Honour. Talk about irony. I wonder if his commanding officer in New Caledonia, where Bertrand served as a French Marine back in the ‘70s, was still alive to see that Knighthood being awarded. It was this officer who made sure that Bertrand was in the brig for insubordination or something like it…

YOU’VE GOT THE bike, now you’ve got to have the gear. This can be kitting yourself out with kit head to toe, but don’t forget the bike needs some kit too. Check out what the distributors of fine adventure gear want you to know about… ROCKY CREEK DESIGNS rockycreeksdesigns.com.au MotoPressor Pocket Pump - $49.95 Still the same fast little pump with features including: CE Approval – this means it comes with a 5-year warranty. Chuck is “screw” on – this ensures no leakage when filling, 2m cable length, pumps up to 32 psi in under 4 minutes. Packs small so it can fit anywhere, your pocket, your pannier or under your seat. This is Rocky Creek’s most popular and best-selling item, EVER. See for yourself why adventure riders love this…

PRICE: $19,050 - $22,550 (plus on-road charges) WARRANTY:Two years, unlimited distance SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 16,000km or 12 months ENGINE: 888cc liquid-cooled in-line three cylinder, 4-stroke, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder POWER: 70kW @ 8750rpm TORQUE: 87Nm @ 7250rpm TRANSMISSION: 6-speed, wet multi-plate clutch, chain final drive SUSPENSION: Front, 45mm inverted fork, non-adjustable – fully adjustable (depending on model), travel 180-240mm. Rear, monoshock, adjustable or electronically adjustable (depending on model), travel 170-230mm. DIMENSIONS: Seat height 810-870mm (depending on model), weight 192-201kg (dry), fuel capacity 20 litres, wheelbase 1556-1551mm TYRES: Front, 100/90/19, 90/90/21 (Rally models). Rear, 150/70/R17 BRAKES: Front, twin 320mm discs with radial mount four-piston ABS (or Cornering ABS) calipers. Rear, 255mm disc, single-piston ABS (or Cornering ABS) caliper. FUEL CONSUMPTION: N/A THEORETICAL RANGE: N/A COLOURS: Pure White, Korosi Red, Sapphire…

ONE OF MY PET hates is the use of the term ‘nice’ especially when it is used to describe an element of a motorcycle’s character or behaviour. Maybe it’s a word you can apply to puppies or kittens -- until the time their needle-like little teeth break your skin and cause infection. Nothing that gets you soaking wet, overheated from rides in 40C+ temperatures or smelly from oil and fuel spills should ever have the ‘nice’ tag in its description. And there is nothing in the 790’s personality where ‘nice’ applies. Refined? Yes. Competent? Yes. Great fun? Yes. And if someone did apply the soubriquet ‘nice’ to any KTM, then the factory might well feel insulted enough to chase them off to that island off China called Japan. KTM doesn’t…

THERE IS A PERCEPTION that adventures start with the turn of a key, untying the rope from a wharf or the first step out the door. There is a myriad of quotes regarding adventure, what it means, how to find it, how to know if you are on one. But it really starts with curiosity; a desire to learn or see somewhere new that will put you out of your comfort zone. It basically starts with an idea. A couple of years ago I took a group of friends on a road trip to Braidwood on hired Royal Enfields. None of us had ridden an Enfield before, some had never ridden country roads, some had never been to that part of the country before: we all had something new to…

THIS DIRTY MAP is an awesome ride and one that I do quite regularly. In fact, if you do this ride you may well come across me testing an adventure bike. This is the perfect route for adventure machines so churn it up! KURRAJONG Kurrajong, the Aboriginal name for ‘shade tree’, which grew in abundance in the town, was settled around 1790. In earlier times the seeds of the trees were roasted as a coffee substitute. Prior to 1823, attempts to cross the Blue Mountains had been unsuccessful until Archibald Bell followed some Aboriginal women who had been kidnapped by the Springwood tribe. Wheeny Creek runs through the Kurrajong area to the Colo River. The area was renowned for its orchards and a steam rail link was opened in 1926.…

The proposal to create a ‘bubble’ around Australia and New Zealand and drop travel restrictions makes sense for a lot of reasons. It will be a gift to the tourism industry of both countries, it will give the airlines something to do – and above all, it will allow us to go and ride those wonderful roads across the Tasman. Not roads actually across the Tasman. Roads over there, on the other side of the Tasman in the land of Lemon & Paeroa and the Roads of the Rings. You know what I mean. We’ve been writing about the various motorcycle tour and rental companies for a while now, but it suddenly occurred to me: My new, allegedly around-the-world bike is unlikely to get a run anywhere soon, although I…

IT IS, I’VE HEARD IT said, an ill wind that blows nobody good. And so it is with the coronavirus. While motorcycling is not usually a way of ‘social distancing’, it can be if you make it that. You don’t even need to ride by yourself. Just keep the obligatory meter and a half from your fellow riders when you stop, and avoid smacking them for alleged errors they made on the ride. Yes, I know that can be hard… This little cheer-up is a lot more important than you might think. I have been working from home for all of a week and a half now, and I’m getting the first signs of cabin fever. The funny thing is that I normally work from home quite a bit. Why…

WHAT GOT YOU hooked on motorcycling? Was it the sound of a motorcycle roaring past as a kid, some hot model adorning that shiny piece of art, or is it the specs/ride review that got you hooked? Stuart, The Bear and Ralph take a step back in time to relive what, when, where and perhaps why motorcycling runs through their veins… Stuart first got introduced to motorcycling by his father, Ian, and it was while being pillioned on Ian’s Suzuki Katana back home from a Sydney Motorcycle Show being held at Rosehill Racecourse in the 80s that he was hooked for life. Sideways wheelspin away from a set of traffic lights was all it took. When Stuart looks back now it was probably because of some oil or something on…