Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 26 i Australian Adventure Bike

NEWS ROOM KTM’s small-bore ADV machine, the 390 Adventure, just keeps on keeping on. The pint-sized Austrian all-roader is back for 2024 with little in the way of updates, save for some fresh new colour-ways. The bike is available in the traditional orange and black colours along with a fresh grey and white package. The 390 continues to be powered by a Euro 5 compliant, 373cc, six-speed single-cylinder engine that delivers a healthy 44hp and 37Nm torque. There’s a choice of riding modes including Off-Road, with lean-angle-sensitive ABS and Motorcycle Traction Control as standard equipment. WP Apex suspension components feature adjustable rebound and compression damping, while wheel sizes are 19/17-inch front/rear. Mag wheels are standard equipment, but a spoked wheel option is also available. Fuel capacity is 14.5 litres, which…

NEWS ROOM Australian motocross legend Stephen Gall has entered his 49th year with Yamaha and recently collected a range of the latest Yamaha off-road products to commemorate the occasion. His first year on a Yamaha was 1974, then just 12 months later he started a relationship with Yamaha Motor Australia that is still going strong to this day. A recent trip to Yamaha’s offices in Brisbane saw Gall collect a 2024 model 50th anniversary YZ450F motocrosser, a Ténéré 700 World Raid adventure bike and a 30th anniversary YDX Moro 07 E-MTB. He then hit the road and headed directly to Queensland Motocross Park west of the Gold Coast, where he took to the motocross track aboard the YZ450F and started carving up the circuit. There is no question Gall will…

NEWS ROOM Zero Motorcycles, the worldwide leader in electric motorcycles and power-trains, based in Santa Cruz, California, has partnered with Aussie motorcycle industry giant, Peter Stevens Motorcycles, to distribute and retail its complete range of electric motorcycles, parts, accessories, and apparel. Zero’s 100 per cent electric motorcycles have already begun to arrive in local dealerships as the biggest roll-out of electric motorcycles in local history continues. “Australia’s electric vehicle demand is ramping up as the nation’s charging infrastructure rapidly expands, as does availability of exciting new products like Zero’s,” said Zero Motorcycles Director of International Expansion, Adrian O’Donoughue. “The powerful partnership between Zero Motorcycles and Peter Stevens will enable enthusiasts to access an established and reputable network of authorised dealers from coast to coast.” Operating for over 50 years, Peter…

HERE WE ARE IN 2024 AND JUST LIKE LAZARUS, THE RED RIPPER IS BACK — IN THE SHAPE OF THE NEW CRF450RL. Honda’s first take at the CRF450L was a curious one. It came, it saw, but it didn’t quite conquer. Instead it quietly disappeared from Honda showroom floors after only a couple of seasons in the trail/enduro/dual-sport bike wilderness. Was it a trail bike? Was it an enduro bike? Was it a dual-sport bike? It performed like a trail bike. But it was priced like an enduro bike ($12,990 RRP back in 2018 when it launched). Yet Honda tried to promote it as a dual-sport bike. While to get the best out of the bike, Honda Australia created the LX Enduro kit, which included an FMF exhaust system with…

WE WANTED TO EXPLORE AS MUCH OF THE SPECTACULAR YET RUGGED BAJA COASTLINE AS POSSIBLE. If you’re like me, when you think of Baja, Mexico, you’ll instantly recall memories of the immortal Dust to Glory movie and the annual Baja 500 and 1000 off-road races that slice down the Mexican peninsula south of California. Rocks, whoops, sand and desert are the usual fare of these classic races, and while that kind of topography dominates central Baja, the coastlines on either side are home to some of the most spectacular beaches anywhere in the world. I’ve ridden Baja before, and I can only describe it as an off-road paradise, so when my Amercian mates Mitch Martinez and Rich Gold threw an invite my way for another Bajabusting adventure, I was on…

The great thing about riding adventure bikes is the places they can take you. They can take you anywhere. And best of all they can take you to places that are so good for the soul. The township of Bright, in the north-west foothills of the famed Victorian high country, is one such destination for me. Heading for Bright and its surrounding districts always puts a smile on my dial and instantly starts recharging the batteries. I just love the place — and here are my favourite reasons why. SUB-ALPINE AIR Bright sits at just 317 metres elevation but is surrounded by mountains in every direction, so it feels like it’s perched higher than it actually is. The air in town is always crisp and clear, and the endless tracts…

The options available for navigation have continued to evolve over the years. Not that long ago a paper map with hand-written trip notes was the way it was done. Then GPS units become available and a brave new world was upon us. By utilising navigation software and planning your ride on a computer, which you could then transfer to the GPS, ‘following the purple line’ suddenly became a thing. The theory sounded great, but the technology could be tricky, to the point where not everyone fell in love with it, so out came the paper maps again! With all the BMW Safari rides and events we stage, we have quite a bit of experience with route planning and on-bike navigation, so let us share what we have learned over the…

IT’S A MAD WORLD When the adventure bug bites, it bites hard. So hard, in fact, that your mates get sucked into the path of goodness and righteousness! Okay, maybe I’ve gone a bit too biblical, but you know what I mean. The day adventure bit me, it was like being shot up the ass with a rainbow! It’s amazing how quickly and ferociously this bug can bite. Clubby and I were on our way back to Sydney after testing a pair of Honda 450s in the Victorian high country when we saw old mate Simon getting off the prettiest CRF300 Rally — AKA Red Rooster — I’d ever seen! Simon’s journey to ADV was lightning fast. He walked into a bike shop with the intention of buying a side-by-side.…

Hot on the heels of its much-updated range of 2024 model Tiger 900 ADV machines, Triumph has unveiled its latest pack of biggest and most ferocious cats, the mighty Tiger 1200s. For 2024 the 1200 range is four bikes strong, with the road-oriented GT Pro and GT Explorer models boasting 19-inch front wheels, while the off-road-oriented Rally Pro and Rally Explorer models have 21-inch front wheels. All four bikes run 18-inch rear wheels. The latest Tiger 1200 range features updated 1160cc triple-cylinder engines that deliver an even more refined riding experience with superior low-speed crank control, while retaining the exciting and unmistakable triple character from the T-plane crank. Changes to the crankshaft, alternator rotor and balancer have increased engine inertia to create a smoother and more precise low-rev torque delivery.…

NEWS ROOM While we mere mortals can only dream of throwing a leg over a big brother to Honda’s popular CRF300 Rally small-bore adventure bike, for five lucky blokes, riding a CRF450 Rally is actually a reality. What do these five blokes have in common, and what did they have to do to climb aboard such a machine? They’re five of the fastest rally racers in the world and they’ve all earned a place on the Monster Energy Honda HRC team that contested this year’s Dakar Rally. And when the two weeks and 7,967km of racing was done and dusted, the red riders had brought home the bacon, with Ricky Brabec winning the event, Adrien van Beveren finishing third, Jose Ignacio Cornejo snaring sixth, and Pablo Quintanilla coming home 11th.…

There’s no question the AAB crew have a penchant for small-bore adventure bikes. You know the ones: say 500cc capacity or less, lighter weight, fun to ride and easier to pick up when you bin them in the bush. We had a whole stack of fun with the AAB/MAD TV Honda CRF300 Rally project bike build, and it now has a permanent place in Clubby’s shed. Sure, it cost a fortune by the time we were done with bolting on an Arrow exhaust system and that deluxe Rally Raid UK suspension kit, but it’s a bike we’ve loved ever since. Since then the Darcinator has got all hot and heavy with a Husqvarna FE 501 and turned it into an adventure-ready off-road weapon. And after comparing our ‘Red Rooster’ 300…

It’s the same each and every year: the Dakar Rally grabs us and for two full weeks we become devout Dakar dreamers. It’s the ultimate adventure and every year it’s full of storylines that keep us on the edge of our seats — stories like these from the 2024 edition … GO RICKY There’s no doubt American Ricky Brabec is a seriously accomplished competitor who lives and breathes the Dakar. He won the event in 2020 and he won it again this year for the Monster Energy Honda HRC team, but the two races were entirely different in the way they played out for him. “This year was a lot tougher,” Brabec admitted. “In 2020 we had a big gap from the get-go. This time, I think Ross (Branch) and…

I’ve lost count of the number of Cape York tours I’ve done — there have been stacks of them over the years for various magazine editorials. In the very earliest days I did multiple tours with the pioneer of organised dirtbike tours from Cairns to the tip of Cape York, the legendary Roy Kunda from Cape York Motorcycle Adventures. Most appropriately, Roy’s long been known as the King of the Cape, and every ride I did with him was a memorable one. We did a couple of subscriber rides to the Tip when I was editor of ADB magazine, and each year Roy would turn on a tour that each and every participant would forever remember. One year he led me and two magazine cohorts (Tom Foster and Reeksy) on…

SHOWROOM THE YAMAHA TÉNÉRÉ 700 WORLD RAID HAS PROVEN TO BE A HIT ACROSS AUSTRALIA AND AROUND THE WORLD. THERE ARE SO MANY ACCESSORY PRODUCTS FOR THE POPULAR TWIN-CYLINDER MACHINE, WITH MOTORRAD GARAGE LEADING THE WAY WHEN IT COMES TO PERFORMANCE & PROTECTION PARTS. CHECK OUT WWW.MOTORRADGARAGE.COM.AU TO VIEW A HUGE RANGE OF ACCESSORIES FOR ALL KINDS OF BIKES.…

NEWS ROOM After a rip-roaring debut last September, we are absolutely stoked to learn that Wolfy, Jen and all the crew at Adventure Moto and Tyres for Bikes have pressed the button for the second annual The Dirty Weekend extravaganza this year. The weekend of September 7/8 is the date, so lock it in your calendars right now because as Wolfy says, “The Dirty Weekend is the most fun you can have with your clothes on!” Green Valley Farm at Tingha in northern NSW is the venue once again, and the complex is tailor-made for this event. Over the course of the weekend there will be special guests, industry displays, riding skills demonstrations and entertainment, but most of all this event is all about getting out on a ride, catching…

NEWS ROOM Aussie off-road racer Andrew Houlihan is back in the saddle and aiming high for the 2024 season, with plans to contest this year’s FIM Bajas World Cup series and then take on the 2025 Dakar Rally next January. After severely injuring the quadriceps tendon in his left leg late last year, Houlihan has undergone surgeries and worked tirelessly to regain his fitness, to the point where he was able to line up in round one of the Bajas series in Saudi Arabia in February. Riding cautiously, Houlihan managed to bulldog his way through the Saudi event and was able to complete the championship opener in an impressive ninth place in the 450cc class and second in the veterans division. “The two-and-a-half days of riding was quite extreme and…

NEWS ROOM The sights and sounds of massive celebrations continue at Aprilia Racing HQ in Italy, after Jacopo Cerutti scored a huge win in the annual Africa Eco Race at the start of the year. The event follows large chunks of the original Paris-Dakar Rally courses, starting in Monaco and ending two weeks and more than 6,000km later at Lac Rose in Dakar on the west coast of Arica. The previous edition of the Africa Eco Race was the domain of the factory-backed Yamaha T7 World Raid-mounted team of Alessandro Botturi and Pol Tarres, who scored a resounding one-two finish for the bLU cRU. This year, however, Cerutti and Aprilia were in top form, the Italian off-road ace making the front-running the entire way to take an emphatic victory on…

The mark of an accomplished trail boss is how they go about keeping the troops on the ride inspired and fired up to conquer any challenge that may lie ahead. “I haven’t actually ridden this next section as we got turned around by the wet on the recce run,” barked Cam Donald, a bloke you might know for his stunning accomplishments racing road bikes and for conquering the famed SA 24 Hour Trial on a dirtbike, a sidecar and a Triumph Tiger 1200 Explorer. Yeah, he knows how to twist a throttle, on the tar and on the dirt. “But we’ll be right, it’s nice and dry today, so let’s go, woo hoo!” Cam hollered as he dropped the clutch and powered straight up a white, shaly, goat track of…

The waiter smiled gleefully as he placed the large pile of hornet larvae on our table, served up on a white china plate. He was anticipating a reaction of revulsion from ‘the Aussies’. But what he didn’t know was that this wasn’t our first rodeo, and Nugget, Nosh and I hooked into them like they were Macca’s french fries. And we backed it up with another two rounds! But the waiter kept smiling for a reason. While the larvae tasted like delicious nuts, he had ‘forgotten’ to tell us their side effects. This tasty dish had a sting to its tail: it puts lead in your pencil, hence it’s popular with Nepalese blokes heading home after a long day at work. When planning our Nepal adventure, riding a Royal Enfield…

With the 6,000km milestone recently ticking across the odometer on the World Raid’s snazzy new colour TFT screen, it was time to shower the blue beast with some TLC. This particular bike had done some general media duties before landing in the AAB shed as a long-term project bike, and I know it had been through its first 1,000km service. So with 5,000km on the books under my watch, it was time for a fresh engine oil and filter change. OILS AIN’T OILS The Professor has long drummed into me to change your engine oil with the passing of every 5,000km on ADV bikes, no matter what the owner’s manual might say about service intervals. So that’s what I’ve done with my two previous T7s, and both those bikes are…

After coaching off-road riding for a long time, it has become clear to me that probably the most important skill to learn is the art of physically moving on the bike. The more technical and varied the terrain you plan on riding, the more you need to move and the more precisely you need to do it. Think of it this way: the terrain is like a wave, your bike is your board and you need to able to move like a surfer to be efficient and balanced on the board (bike). But what I see with many riders is that they look stiff and rigid on the bike and this just doesn’t give good results. In recent years I have come up with some unique ways to communicate this.…