Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2023 i Australian Motorcyclist

There was a time when steam engines looked like the way to run motorcycles (external combustion engines powered them long before internal combustion came along.) We all know how that contest ended, but now steam power has made a comeback, at least in drag racing. The bike, called Force of Nature, has set a new world record standing 1/8th mile time for steam-powered motorcycles. It is effectively a rocket on wheels, and laid down a record-breaking time of 3.878 seconds for the standing eighth, with a recorded exit speed of 264 km/h. British husband-and-wife precision engineering team Graham and Diane Sykes say it should go much faster in the next attempt. Graham, who was piloting the steam-powered dragster, said the bike continued to accelerate at Elvington Speed Week, actually passing…

If you’re looking for something to watch, says Shannons Insurance, then check out Shannons Dream Bike Build. Shannons teamed up with Purpose Built Moto to produce a six-part video series that takes you through the complete bike build process. “From the moment a client walks through our door with an idea right through to their first ride, we'll give you an insider's look at the meticulous Dream Bike Build process, including finding a motorcycle,” say the builders. “Initial design, engine upgrades, fabrication, and paint work and then your favorite part, the first ride on a brand-new machine!” Watch as they turn a tired Honda CB500 into a custom hand-built motorcycle over six YouTube videos: 1. Finding the Honda CB500 2. Engine Problems 3. Fabrication 4. Getting Some Colour 5. Final…

THE ISLE OF MAN TT is a vortex that sucks in time and space. Nothing matters in your life save for these two weeks of intense focus and concentration. You’re constantly on edge as you try with all your might to keep your wailing motorcycle at top revs and on the straight and narrow. At 60.72km-long, the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course is by far the most dangerous track on the planet and thus commands a level of respect other tracks can only dream of. The place has an aura to it, yet, it’s interesting how the human mind adapts to its circumstances; how it understands what’s going on and changes its reactions to keep the attached mass of flesh and bone safe. It’s even more interesting when 280…

I HATE PUBLIC TRANSPORT. I’m violently emphatic about that. Mainly because you have to share it with a lot of people you otherwise wouldn’t choose to sit beside. And being a motorcyclist I am, by my very nature, a relatively solitary creature. Most of us are. You’re nodding, aren’t you? Given I’m the type of person who would leave my train seat to go and grab the guy loudly watching a YouTube video on his phone without headphones and throw him out the door while we’re still moving, it’s best for everyone that I don’t take the train or bus. So why don’t you ride to work? You’re making excuses already, aren’t you? You don’t want to rack up lots of miles on your bike. It’s raining. It’s hot. You…

MOTORCYCLE TRIBES occur when motorcycles stop being tools and become leisure vehicles ridden by wild, gimlet-eyed youths. Tribalism is human nature. We all do it. We all like to belong. But wild, gimlet-eyed youths like to belong more than anyone else. It’s like a genetic imperative. I’m thinking real motorcycle tribalism would have first started happening in the mid-50s in Australia. Up until then, Australia was far too busy pretending it was a much hotter and bigger version of England. It had no time for motorcycle tribalism. England would have disapproved. But sport tribalism was OK. And no-one loves sport and sport tribalism more than Australia. We don’t have any kind of culture, so sport is like a default setting for our national identity. The Auto Cycle Union of Australia…

WHEN I THINK OF popular bikes from the 1980’s there are a few that spring to mind. Brands like BMW, Ducati and Harley had some bikes of note, but it was the land of rising sun that really dominated the decade in what really was a golden era for the Japanese motorcycle industry. Innovative engineering, cutting-edge design and unrivalled performance converged to create a wave of iconic two-wheeled machines. From the Suzuki Katana, the Yamaha V-Max and the Honda RC30, Japanese manufacturers left a lasting mark on the motorcycle industry during the decade, and, in my opinion, no bike left a bigger mark than the legendary Kawasaki GPZ900R. So, grab your aviators, while we take a look at this awesome bike from the decade that also gave us acid wash…

We have been waiting for this announcement for quite a while. Triumph’s all-new Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 X single cylinder models finally join the Triump range. And best of all, Triumph Australia says that “We expect arrival of the new Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 X into Australia in December 2023 with competitive pricing announcement closer to the arrival date. “Born into a peerless bloodline, the Speed 400 roadster joins Triumph’s most successful modern classic line-up, the Speed Twin 900 and 1200,” says Triumph, “while the Scrambler 400 X takes its rugged design cues from the Scrambler 900 and 1200, with an off-road pedigree that goes back to the first factory Scramblers of the 1950s.” The Indian-built bikes have been designed from the ground-up with a brand-new single engine…

IT’S HIGHLY UNLIKELY ANYONE has the Rolex logo tattooed on their shoulder. Or the Lego one. Or the words “Rolls-Royce”. But there are millions of people who have Harley-Davidson inked into their hides. Among motorcyclists, it is THE most recognizable brand of bike. So instantly identifiable, Harley-Davidson itself eschewed using the word “Harley-Davidson” on its famous bar-and-shield device a few years back. The symbol itself was enough. Global RepTrack 100, which tracks international brands by surveying more than 100,000 participants to see how aware people are of which brands, discovered that in 2022, Harley-Davidson ranked sixth, behind Ferrari, Lego, Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz. No other stand-alone motorcycle manufacturer was even in the top 100. Harley-Davidson just celebrated its 120th birthday. As a company, it has defied its critics, weathered intensely rough…

THE UNQUESTIONABLY MAIN ATTRACTION of Temora is the Aviation Museum at Temora Airport. Owned by one of Australia’s richest men, it is dedicated to keeping all of its exhibits flying – something that is quite rare in the world of aviation museums, because it is so expensive. Temora airport was the site of the biggest and longest lasting RAAF Elementary Flying Training School during World War 2. It was called 10 EFTS and was established in May 1941. Training ended in May 1945 and a total of 2741 pilots were trained on Tiger Moths at Temora. Today 10 EFTS is the Temora Aviation Museum. The Museum displays ex-military aircraft which have historical significance to Australia. Now there are many different kinds of museums, but as far as technology-related establishments are…

THERE WAS A TIME when an adventure bike, or even a dirt bike, would have been just right for Thunderbolt’s Way. It was theoretically tar, but the surface was so badly chopped up that many road bikes found their suspension… inadequate. In fact, I remember a time when the last 20km north to Nowendoc was surfaced with a particularly aggressive lot of jagged black rocks, but that’s probably going back a little too far… Anyway, the bulldozers came and the road surface was steadily upgraded until Thunderbolt’s Way was one of the most popular stretches of road on the east coast. Then the trucks chewed it up again, and today the road crews are back at work, getting it into order. But so what? We have an alternative that never…

“OSO,” SAID DAVID, ONE of our tour guides, “the good news is that we have found the bag. The bad news is that it is still in Rabat.” This was particularly bad news for David, who was the one who drove the three and a half hours to Rabat to collect it and another three and a half hours back to Marrakesh. We don’t know what happened, but I suspect that I had not put it in the correct place to be collected and loaded into the van. Whatever: thank you, David for that long drive. As I suggested in the previous story, the Djemaa el-Fna turned out to be quite an experience. Wonderful photo opportunities, too. And all because the place meets the basic requirement for a great tourist…

I’M A FRENCH MOTORCYCLE builder based in the south of France, and I make all types customised bike parts in my workshop. I am 33-years-old, and I hope to someday make my way to Australia for a bike show. I can and do make any style of motorcycle. My goal is to ensure the customer leaves my workshop with the motorcycle they dreamed of. THE POINT To bring a motorcycle back to life. To demonstrate that this motorcycle, normally shunned by a lot of bikers, can be a great base to do some very cool things; that single shock absorber and the centrepiece V-twin-engine are a very good and inexpensive starting point for creating a nice café racer. To have several bikes that showcase my workshop available for shows and…

BMW Motorrad is demonstrating what it is calling “ConnectedRide Smartglasses” at BMW Motorrad Days in Berlin this weekend with release imminent at a price of EUR ¤690.00 (around A$1130). You’ll need a fat wallet, but you won’t need a BMW to use the glasses. They connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth and an app., and they will display information onto the glass’s lens using head-up display technology. The Smartglasses are a bit chunky, but they have been designed to be comfortably worn under a helmet for long hours. They offer a host of information including what gear you are in, but more importantly they allow you to see GPS navigation info, current speed, and current prevailing speed limit wherever you might be. One of the downsides is that the batteries…

Powered by the gritty 300 hpe (High Performance Engine) single-cylinder, with 4-valve timing, liquid cooling, and electronic injection, the Gtv has the highest performance engine ever mounted on a Vespa. Producing 17.5 kW (23.8 HP), this is matched to perfect Vespa ergonomics, enhanced by its comfort and large body. The seating is natural and allows for total control of the vehicle and absolute comfort even over long distances. Seating is approved for two while the two-tone single-seater-look saddle has a rear part that is ready for a rigid cover, available separately, which is colour coded to match the body, reminiscent of the typical fairings on competition Vespas. Convenience and practicality are highlighted by the introduction of the keyless system, which allows the ignition to be switched on without the need…

ERNEST HEMINGWAY ONCE QUIPPED, “There are only three sports: Bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” I’d like to offer a modification to that, and exclude the barbarity of bullfighting. “There are only two sports: mountaineering and the Isle of Man TT; all the rest are merely games.” The Isle of Man TT is the finest, fastest, and deadliest motorcycle race in the world. Indeed, it’s so extreme it makes regular motor racing look decidedly boring by comparison. If you’re reading this magazine, you’d have at least heard of the TT. Most motorcycle riders have. The TT is a relic of a past when times were simpler, and less red tape was strapped around our world. The TT is loved as equally as it is loathed.…

RIGHT, SO FIRST THING first. It’s pronounced “Moh-toh Gooh-tzi”, not “Mowda Guhzee”. Now that’s out of the way, let me state it is common knowledge among motorcyclists that Moto Guzzi riders are the submariners of the motorcycle world. Like real submariners, they live a truth denied to others. Brave or crazy, or chunks of both, they’re fun to have a drink with until they’re not. Then you have to use a chair to subdue them. They are perfectly suited to the marque they have embraced – one-eyed and fanatical, they truly believe they ride the greatest two-wheeled creation ever made. No evidence to the contrary will be accepted. Their cognitive dissonance is complete. They have mainlined that soaring Italian eagle into their grospy veins, pledged their undying allegiance to the…

RATED 4 OUT OF 5 HELMETS The Royal Hotel 74 Best St, Sea Lake, Vic. T: 03 50701050 W: royalhotelsealake.com.au SO, YOU WANT A feel-good story? Wanna read something inspiring? Sit your tired arse down and let me tell you about the people and the pub of Sea Lake. In 2015 the hardware store in the main street of Sea Lake closed its doors pretty much overnight leaving a hole in this small farming town in the Mallee district of western Victoria. John Clohesy feared this might be the first of a few bad dominoes for the town where his family had farmed since 1901 so he called a public meeting and just over a quarter of the town’s population of 600 fronted. They decided they weren’t going to be…

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I was off on a ride with a group of mates. We had decided on a destination for lunch and had a vague idea of the route we were going to take. I’m a bit old school in that I always check a map to look up waypoints or towns we’d be passing through, so I had a rough idea of where we were going without knowing the exact roads we’d take. Like the start of any ride with mates, first stop, coffee. There we were, swapping stories (with only mild embellishments) and sharing our love of the open road. Finally, fully caffeinated, we were ready to get going. “So which way are we going” one of my mates inquired. Silence, all round. “Rossco, you’ve got one…