Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Australian Motorcyclist

DUCATI DIAVEL V4 THE DEVIL WILL MAKE YOU DO IT! The New 1260 Diavel is a major update to the Ducati that was first introduced in 2017, and the biggest surprise is that it has added two extra cylinders – sometimes! The Diavel’s party trick is that when cruising under 4000 rpm, two cylinders cut out, but the moment you twist the throttle, they come roaring back in. The added complexity however does not come at the cost of increased maintenance, in fact the recommended service interval is now 60,000km. And in adding two cylinders they have still managed to pare 13 kg from the V twin, making the Diavel even more nimble, and from all accounts, a delight to ride with added mid-range and a counter rotating crank ensuring…

TOORAWEENAH With a population of about 250, this is not anybody’s idea of a metropolis but it’s a kind of nice little place. COONABARABRAN This is the big smoke up around the Warrumbungles, with motels and restaurants and service stations – none of which can be guaranteed in any of the other places mentioned here. It’s not over-touristy and has a pleasant, low-stress feel to it. It’s probably best to eat at the Imperial Hotel – I tried the Golden Sea Dragon last time I was there and was, er, underwhelmed. Depending on the way you go, it’s just under 500km from Sydney – an easy day run unless you want to check out something along the way. Believe it or not, there is a CFMoto dealer in town, namely…

MY NAME IS ROSS and I have been a motorcyclist for nearly 30 years and I’m also the co-producer of the YouTube channel Biker Torque. www.youtube.com/@BikerTorque/featured I’m a fan of riding older motorcycles. There is a unique charm and character that you just don’t get from riding a modern machine. It’s not to say that they are better, because on paper, clearly, they are not. They are just different, enjoyable and at times thrilling if you get a gear shift wrong or overestimate how good the brakes are. The Kawasaki Z1 is a bike that I have long admired. I remember seeing one as a kid and being blown away, by both the looks and the sound. Nothing much has changed since then. To me that is what a motorbike…

EVERY MOTORCYCLE TRIP HAS the prospect of going pear-shaped. The variables in planning a trip, whether a day’s ride, weekend ride or longer, can be numerous (depending on how spontaneous you are!) If you become entrenched in all the things that can go wrong, you will never venture out and your motorcycle will never show you what’s its capable of. Whatever happens, a motorcycle that rarely leaves the safety of the garage floor is an underutilised resource. Many motorcyclists understand the value of adaptability. The ability to respond to changes in plans, ideas, expectations as well as solving problems. With adaptability, resilience can develop; the ability to recover from changed conditions, changed plans, hurdles or just breakdowns Everyone has their own way of dealing with setbacks. To clear my head,…

MOST PRICES EXCLUDE DEALER and on road costs, however some are ride away – ask your local dealer for the best possible price! Prices correct at time of listing compilation APRILIA aprilia.com.au * All Aprilia prices are ride away RS660 LAMS $20.830 RS660 $21,230 Tuono 660 LAMS $20,530 Tuono 660 $20,430 Tuono V4 $28,830 TuonoV4 Factory $33,330 RSV4 $31,830 RSV4 Factory $38,930 Tuareg 660 LAMS $22,230 Tuareg 660 $22,230 BENELLI benelli.com.au *All Benelli prices are ride away TnT 135 CBS $4590 502C $10,590 TnT 600 $11,790 Leoncino 500 $9890 Leoncino 500Trail $10,390 752 S $12,990 Leoncino 800 $13,490 Leoncino 500Trail $13,990 TRK 502 $9990 TRK 502X $10,890 BMW bmwmotorrad.com.au *All BMW prices are PLUS on-roads G 310 R $7990 F 900 R $15,420 S 1000 R $22,090 S 1000 RR…

AT THIS POINT IN Australia’s history, I could mount a very compelling argument that would see many of our local, state, and federal politicians herded into re-education camps like the Bat Empire has in Xinjiang. “Transformation through education”, bitches. It will get shit done. And shit needs to be done, because right now, shit is not being done. All that is being done is signs are being put out declaring shit is being done, when any mouth-breathing idiot can clearly see no such shit is being done at all. There are just signs telling lies. These signs state “ROAD-WORKS”. And they are serious signs. But they lie. I have ridden many thousands of kilometres in the last few months through NSW and Victoria, and these ROADWORKS signs are everywhere –…

THE CONCEPT WAS SIMPLE… Take professional snapper, Nick Edards, a pair of righteous BMWs, and two mates in case terrible things happened, and spend a weekend blasting some great roads. The result would be epic images of magnificence and glory. BMW Motorrad liked the concept, but probably because I did not tell anyone there about the likelihood of terrible things happening, and promptly sent me a pair of 2023 R18s. One was the R18 Classic – which I immediately allocated to Nick because it had saddlebags where he could carry his cameras, and a screen to assist in him being less wind-blasted. I took the other one – the Highline, dubbed so for a few reasons, and not just because it had a bigger front wheel. It also came with…

RATED 5 OUT OF 5 HELMETS The Stonehenge Hotel 11 Stratford St, Stonehenge, Qld T: 07 46585944 FB: Stonehenge Hotel OKAY, SO LET’S GET this sorted from the start: Queensland’s Stonehenge, 150 odd kilometres south from Longreach has bugger-all to do with the one on in England. Wasn’t named after it, doesn’t resemble it, and well, the Aussie one’s not quite so basic and primitive. When I was there last year it was weirdly green from the unusual rains but there was still no resemblance to the Salisbury Plains. If you come from south from Longy – now a real desert for good hotels - your arrival here is heralded by a 44 gallon drum painted in XXXX regalia atop what might be an old telegraph pole on one of…

A TALE OF PERSONAL EVOLUTION, vision, and never-ending joyous adventures. The Barbering Biker. Seven years ago, I jumped the Harley-Davidson ship and went over to Indian Motorcycles. It started a love affair that’s taken me to places I didn’t expect to see. Don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with the H-D’s that I had in my life, but being a marketing brand strategist, I just saw more potential with having an Indian brand and its novelty helping me to create something unique. I’m an arty farty type at heart and I have a love for creating projects and stories. Indian didn’t have much of a presence here in Australia and H-D seemed to come with a lot of backstories already plus a brand perception that in my experience was hard…

“ IT’S THE QUINTESSENTIAL HARLEY-DAVIDSON SILHOUETTE - THE LONG, RAKED-OUT CHOPPER LOOK AND LOW SLUNG TO THE GROUND. ” SOME MIGHT TELL YOU the rise of Breakout began when the controversial V-Rod (VRSC) was deleted from the Harley-Davidson line-up in 2017 after nearly 20 years. Ah, but wait. Breakout (FXSB) first appeared as a special build CVO Softail 110 twin-cam model in 2013, well before the appearance of the Milwaukee-Eight engine and the all-new Softail chassis that would come to define the entire cruiser segment from 2017. Such was the response to Breakout even at that early stage, a ‘base model’ 103 was produced for MY14 mass production and set the critics back somewhat by proving that a Harley-Davidson cruiser could deliver performance as well as curb side glamour. Breakout…

Sister magazine Adventure Rider is hosting the highly anticipated ‘2023 Congregation’ on the weekend of October 14th and 15th at Grey Gum Cafe on the Putty Road a couple of hours north west of Sydney. It is an ideal camping site where the event is located behind the well-known Grey Gum. AdvRider and Kim from the cafe are putting on music, prizes and a heap of fun. Getting there will be almost as much fun as participating, as there are incredible roads north, south east and west of the site! Contact-susan.plunkett@clemengermediasales.com…

TRANSPORT STAGES ARE AMONG my least favourite ways of spending time on a bike, although skimming the E3 motorway behind the Costa du Sol’s grimy beaches on the way to Algeciras and the ferry to Africa is not too bad. You get a choice here between the tollway and a somewhat slower motorway, and we were using the more expensive option because we didn’t want to miss the ferry. My rental F 750 GS was happy enough at 130km/h. Inevitably, toll collection points cause problems for motorcycle tours. In this case I was the (first) sufferer as the machine stubbornly refused to accept my credit card. There had been no problem a couple of days before, but now that there was a chance to hold everyone up – yee ha! I…

ON ANY GIVEN DAY, the beckoning sound of motorbikes riding through the laid-back rural streets, or the vision of bikes parked up outside one of the many motorcycle friendly cafes, pubs or accommodation houses, is a common sight in the small regional town of Walcha, and one that the town fully embraces and welcomes. With over 590 kilometres of gravel roads to explore, spectacular high-country scenery, waterfalls, gorges and world heritage national parks, it’s pretty hard to go past this region for adventure riding. Walcha is also located at the crossroads of two of the great sealed road rides, being the Oxley Highway and picturesque Thunderbolts Way, making it a terrific destination for all kinds of bikes. To really put Walcha on the map for two-wheel adventuring, the town runs…

STUFF LIKE THIS NEVER really happens in my world. The chances of someone not attached to a factory riding a pre-production model of its new bike just doesn’t happen. But then it did to me. A few weeks ago (from the time of writing), Dennis Savic contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in riding the prototype of his C-Series (C stands for “café”). Heh. As if that’s a question that has more than one answer. I was at the airport the following day and in Melbourne shortly after. I was picked up by Adrian Vinovrski, the project’s Chief Technology Officer and lead engineer – a quiet, gentle, and very committed soul – and taken to Savic Motorcycles HQ in Melbourne. Savic Motorcycles, as you probably know, is Australia’s…