Australian Motorcyclist Issue #122

May 31 - June 15

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Editor

As we entered 2024, the core directions for Australian Motorcyclist were revisited.

“We’re for the Rider” encapsulates the renewal.

Australian Motorcyclist draws upon the work and knowledge of several top Australian motorcycle writers.

I encourage you to get stuck into our content and to offer your views and information via yourview@clemengermediasales.com.au

we’re for the rider

We’re for the rider. For the passions, and the plans. For the loneliness of the ride, and the camaraderie of great friends. The bikes, both suitable for the ride, and those being made to suit, no matter the confrontation. For the gear that makes it pleasurable, and the conditions

that make it challenging. We’re for the tours to places unknown, and the unrelenting edge to the spirit within every rider. For the heroes who race, and the people who make it possible.

We’re for the dreamer that exists in every rider. We make aspirations appear possible, all in a format full of brilliant prose and wonderful photography. We open doors to new experiences, and we help the rider make motorcycling complete. And we entertain. Because we know what riders want.

Susan

Subscription enquiries: tony.clemenger@clemengermediasales.com.au

Printed in Australia using recyclable paper

Distributor Ovato

Publisher: Tony Clemenger

Editorial Manager: Susan Plunkett susan.plunkett@clemengermediasales.com.au

Sales: Leslie Maxilom leslie.maxilom@clemengermediasales.com.au

Design: Southern Bear Creative Solutions

Contributors: Nick Edards, Boris Mihailovic, Aaron Clifton, Tug McClutchin, Pete Vorst, Tom Boissel, Neale Bayly

Photographers: Nick Edards (Half-Light Photography), Rob Mott (RbMotoLens), Ross Gibb Photography, Gresini Racing, Matt McIntyre, Neal Bayly

Your View: yourview@clemengermediasales.com.au

Australian Motorcyclist magazine is published by Australian Motorcyclist Magazine Pty Ltd. Level 1/397 Chapel Street, South Yarra VIC 3141, Australia.

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Views

What do you consider to be beautiful bike design.

Sleek lines, “art on two wheels”, iconic livery, “understated design”, “distinctive and beautiful design”.

These are terms and phrases that can be found in many rider polls and website model descriptions but, what do they mean?

In this edition, five of our regular contributors expand on the concept of beauty and explain their selection(s).

From our Facebook followers:

Gotta love a Ural!

Epic Rides And ToursSidecar Adventures

Any of the KTM 690 based bikes fitted with long range tank, rally tower/fairing & luggage racks iv done similar setups with the Suzuki DR650’s but other than the reliability problems of the early bikes the combination of HP, weight and refined qualities of the KTM is the sweet spot for me. Pictured is David Coulthard’s 701.

Ben Price

The new Moto Guzzi Stelvio, classic lines.

William Greig

·My AJP PR7 is ticking all the boxes that adventure riders want. RIDE WITH ME

Ktm ,Husqvarna, Gas Gas 450 rally absolutely gorgeous designed to cross country quickly.

Bryan Eaton

800cc

200kg max

Switchable ABS

Sensible suspension e.i. Rebound, Compression, Adjustable preload

Sensible wind protection

CRUISE CONTROL

Under $25k

Suzuki just got so close!

John Beattie

Seems like you mean design as in looks, right? The proportions have to balance. Side view front to rearvisually equal weight, not obviously heavier on one end. Symmetry; the bug-eyed GS look annoys me. Symmetry side to side, so none of this CBR idea of a headlight on either side and only one working. Slim, flowing lines from one section to the next. No big blank areas or gaps.

Brett Helies

Mick Andrews

The Dr750 for stance, not beauty. The Britten takes that mantel in my books.

Author Simon Turvey One of our writer’s choices.

Simon Turvey Adventure Rider Magazine

Above all else I think rugged reliability matters most. I had a KLR (I loved that great lump of a bike) and discovered that after thirty-five years of production they still presented with the same faults. I got stuck at the Nullarbor Roadhouse because of one of those known faults. The xt250 had no such issues.

Mim Chook

Ok my thoughts I don’t ride road trail, to me the best-looking bikes were the Kawasaki z900/1000 and the Vincent hrd.

Timothy Rouse

Couldn’t find it, so I built it.

Colin Paul

There was always something very appealing about the rugged looks of the BMW R80.

Bob Wozga

Modern Africa twin would have to be up there for looks and design. Pretty much does it all to a decent standard. Touring, dirt, pillion, luggage, has decent power, good reliability and decent fuel consumption considering the amount of fun you can have with the right wrist.

2dReef Rash Bodyboarding

Polarising looks but the Pan Am broke the mould, steering away from the beak, to more boxer dog snout!

Mal Dalton

t HE yr E HE r E!

Harley-Davidson’s long-awaited X range has finally hit the dealerships.

Milwaukee is having a serious tilt at the Australian LAM market, with its two all-new offerings, the X350 and X500.

Having briefly ridden both models at the recent press launch, we can honestly say they will have a serious impact on the learner market. Learner riders can now sport the iconic and unmistakeable barand-shield logo. Harley rightly sees this as a huge selling point.

The X500 offers 47bhp, 46Nm of torque, and the front forks are adjustable for rebound. The rear is adjustable for rebound and spring preload. It weighs 200kg wet and can be yours for $11,495.

The X350 offers 36bhp, 31Nm of torque, has the same suspension adjustments as its big brother, weighs 180kgs, and is yours for $8,495.

We found the X500 to have a classy, tidy finish with a sweet, torquey motor and is very easy to ride.

AUSSIE worl D ASSAU lt IN 2024

May their names be known across the land

Australia has some high-class talent taking on the world in 2024, from the recently held Dakar rally with Toby Price, to riders in Moto3, Moto2, MotoGP, Motocross, and Supercross.

In Moto3, two Aussies will be competing for the title.

Joel the Ginger Ninja Kelso, will be back for his third season, with Team Boe Motorsports.

The second Aussie in Moto3 will be young gun, Jacob Raulstone, riding for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team.

Eighteen year old Senna Agius will be contesting the Moto2 title riding for the Liquimoly Husqvarna team.

In MotoGP, Jack Miller returns to his seat on the Factory KTM.

The Lawrence brothers, Jett and Hunter, are set to battle once again in the AMA Motocross and Supercross championships. Jett had a perfect Motorcross season in 2023, winning every single round in the 450 class. Coming into 2024, Jett has added pressure with the return of American favourite, Eli Tomac.

But we really liked the X350. It is noticeably lighter and felt more nimble than the X500. We were also quite drawn to its cool flat-tracker styling.

Harley also offers a good range of aftermarket OEM accessories, so you can tailor yours to your needs.

You can now be cool at an earlier age, and who doesn’t want that?

See upcoming editions of AM for reviews of these bikes.

Hunter, the eldest of the Lawrence brothers, won the AMA 250 motorcross title in 2023, and will step up to the 450 class in 2024 as team mate to his brother, Jett, at Honda.

Jack Miller

Joel ‘the Ginger Ninja’ Kelso

AMM

AUSSIES AB ro AD

Aussie talents, Dylan Wood and Joel Wightman, have set their eyes on AMA supercross.

Joel and Dylan are Australian pro Motocross and Supercross riders, and have set off to the USA to compete in the AMA Supercross Championship.

Joel had an impressive ride at the Newcastle round of the Australian Supercross Championship, finishing fourth and winning the prize for top privateer aboard his Yamaha YZ450. Joel finished fifth overall in the Australian Championship for 2023.

He has previously raced a handful of rounds in the AMA Supercross, but this year, he will be racing in America from January until at least March 2024. Armed with experience and more seat-time under his belt, he is ready to give it his all.

k EEP cool !

Evans waterless coolant

SDylan finished thirteenth overall in the Australian Supercross Championship in 2023.

He arrived in Texas from Australia on Christmas Day and plans to race the Anaheim 2 (A2) and Detroit rounds in the 450cc class.

When talking with Australian Motorcyclist Dylan said, “My goal in this short trip is to learn as much as I possibly can, and gain experience so I can come back and do a complete AMA season in 2026. By then I will have completed my electrical apprenticeship back home in Australia”.

When he is not working or racing, Dylan runs a coaching clinic for junior racers at his private track, giving back to the sport he loves.

ummer is here, and in Australia we experience the heat, like a taste of our pending eternal damnation. Let’s face it, our country seems to be headed that way, and along with your free sample, your engine also gets a little taste of Hell’s fiery wrath during the summer months.

Have you considered Evans Waterless Coolant? When thinking about coolants, the key words are heat transfer.

Evans Waterless Coolant boasts a much lower freezing point and a much higher boiling point than regular water-based coolants. Will this mean your engine will run cooler? No, but this liquid brew does “transfer heat” from engine components much more efficiently than regular coolants. When temperatures get high, water-based coolants create a vapour in the cooling system right before it reaches boiling point. This vapour causes the coolant to lose contact with engine components, reducing its ability to transfer heat and accelerating the overheating process. Evans Waterless Coolant, as the name implies, is not waterbased and will not create vapour, which allows the liquid to keep 100 per cent contact with engine components and heat transfer remains very efficient, even at high temperatures. Worth a look if you ride during the warmer months.

www.turbotechqld.com.au

Dylan Wood

Joel Wightman AMM

20

TOURS

I t all started 20 years ago in a home garage with two motorcycles and three avid people: Matej and Martina Malovrh and a good friend, Blaz Zganjar, who are all still very much involved in running the company.

Matej had this vision of getting foreign riders to their neck of the woods, and Blaz and Martina went along. At that time, very few foreigners knew where Slovenia was, but we managed to get 25 riders overseas and organised two tours in the first year; the rest were rentals. The main selling/ marketing tool was Adriatic’s webpage, and the two motorcycles that they owned were BMW R 1200 GS and F 650 GS, while the other three they rented from BMW Dealers.

Did you know that their first tours were run under the name Slovenia Moto Tours? They changed to Adriatic Moto Tours about two seasons later because they thought it sounded more appealing and romantic and would bring more clients. They were right!

A lot has changed in 20 years, and luckily, a few more people know about Slovenia and Adriatic Moto Tours today. Conveniently located in the heart of Europe, Slovenia is a perfect starting point for exploring Central and Eastern Europe, the Alps, the Balkans, the Adriatic Coast, and the Mediterranean.

Today, Adriatic Moto Tours is one of the leading companies in the world, offering guided, custom, and self-guided tours, as well as rentals. Whether you wish to ride romantic Italy, the mighty Alps, the intriguing Balkans, the amazing Adriatic Coastline, or royal European capitals, it’s all here at our doorstep. AMT will cover all the details and plan the tour for you, or you can book a rental and head out on your own. Clients can choose from the latest BMW motorcycles, Suzuki, Ducati, Yamaha, and Honda bikes.

Come ride roads less travelled, and start planning your dream ride with AMT.

Here’s to 20 more years: www.adriaticmototours.com

BE cool !

IXS-RS-700 Air Carbon sport jacket.

Y ou don’t need to be told it’s hot, because you’ve probably worked that out.

Being told you’re hot is great, and actually being hot is quite a burden to bear.

Thanks to IXS, you can be both cool and attractive and therefore hot with the IXS-RS-700 Air carbon jacket. This jacket has mesh inserts to give optimal airflow to the chest, inner arm, and back, and a lightweight breathable mesh liner. But just because its light weight doesn’t mean its compromised on safety. It has adjustable elbow protection, as well as full shoulder armour. It also has reflective transfer prints, as well as a pocket for a back protector, which can be optionally retrofitted with ImpacTec TP-06 armour, certified according to EN1621-2:2014 level 2. Throw in practical features like arm-width adjusters, auto-lock zippers at the cuffs, two outside and two inside pockets, and exchangeable shoulder-cap elements, and you have the real deal. Check it out at https://www.migmotorrad.com.au/

High-end Italian motorcycle manufacturer, MV Augusta, is set to increase its production after a strong year in 2023.

12 months ago, MV Augusta announced a strategic partnership with Pierer mobility AG. Since the announcement, MV Augusta has launched five new models, the LXP Orioli, Superveloce 98, Brutale 1000 RR Assen, the limited edition Dragster RR SCS America, and the super exclusive six-units-only, Superveloce Arsham.

Thanks to a new production line at its historic Schiranna factory, MV Augusta can now produce up to one thousand bikes per month.

MV Augusta has always assembled each motorcycle by hand and will continue to do so, however, the new line features a fully automated system for the handling, moving and positioning of parts across twenty-eight workstations.

These are promising times for MV Augusta, with this being the first major investment in the company for several years.

Street Glide CVO FLHXSE

Recall published on January 17th 2024.

Due to a manufacturing defect, affected motorcycles may lose stability whilst operating under certain conditions at higher speeds. This could result in a loss of vehicle control. H-D will be contacting owners however those owners can also request correction which will involve updating the calibration software and the installation of front-end ballast and strap components. These corrections are free of charge.

66 unit are affected from the 2023 model.

Superveloce 98

Brutale 1000 RR Assen

Dragster RR SCS

America Superveloce Arsham.

LXP Orioli

MoTogp season previeW tHE tEN tHINGS to wAtcH 2

By tUG

023 was an wonderful year in MotoGP. ducati continued its complete domination, and Valentino rossi’s proteg... francesco Bagnaia wrapped up his second world title from a hardcharging spaniard Jorge Martin, who pushed the Italian right to the last round in Valencia. I love it when the championship goes right to the wire. The intensity was palpable, even from half a world away.

Bagnaia is calm, cunning, clinical, and calculated. Martin is brash, precocious, and frighteningly fast. It was a battle for the ages and one that will likely be repeated this year. Though I expect a few other lads to stick their noses in as well, just to make things more complicated.

The two Japanese factories, Honda and Yamaha, both struggled in 2023, despite having the two most talented riders on the grid in Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo on board their machines. Technical deficiencies plague both bikes, the Yamaha mainly lacking acceleration, and the Honda struggling for grip and feel at both ends. The two biggest players in Grand Prix racing for the last 50 years will now receive some concessions to allow them to do some extra development work this year, so everyone’s beady eyes will be on them to see if they can turn things around. They’re both capable of bridging the gap, but it won’t happen overnight. Honda seems to face the biggest battle, being the furthest behind, and with a stable of 4 riders who can’t even boast a handful of MotoGP wins

between them. It’s hard to develop a bike when you don’t have a rider who is a consistent front-runner to provide you with quality feedback. Much of the parts-testing donkey work will fall to the experienced Johan Zarco in the satellite LCR team. He has raced multiple manufacturers’ bikes and is well-placed to guide development. His input will be crucial

to whether or not Honda can recover ground this year.

Yamaha on the other hand only has two riders, and the lack of a satellite team to provide extra rider input and data to the development guys will hold them back a little. The ace up their sleeve is Fabio Quartararo. The multiple world champ is almost as good as they come, and not only can

he provide quality data and feedback to the engineers, but the pressure he is putting on Yamaha to give him a competitive bike is brutal. If Yamaha doesn’t show signs of solid progress in pre-season testing and the early rounds, Fabio will put himself on the market for 2025, and he will be a prime target for other manufacturers, as is right and proper. There is much

McclUtcHIN - IMAGES By roB Mott AND NIck EDArDS

on the line here for Yamaha.

KTM and Aprilia are continuing their improvement and should get even closer to Ducati this year. They too have some concessions for extra testing, but not to the same extent as The Japanese manufacturers.

So, the competition side of MotoGP this year is shaping up to be brilliant, and there’s much to watch in terms of the potential recovery of Honda and Yamaha.

But that’s not the whole show. Here are my Top Ten things to watch out for in 2024.

10. t HE SI ll IES t o F SI lly SEAS o NS

Every year the “Silly Season”, as we call that period where riders coming off contract at the end of the year start signing deals with other teams, seems to get earlier and earlier. This year will be a Silly Season the likes of which have never been seen.

That’s because out of the 22 riders on the grid, at least 18 of them have contracts that end this year. I say “at least” because rookie Pedro Acosta may have already negotiated another year with KTM in 2025 as some compensation for having to ride a Gas Gas this year rather than the KTM they promised him, even though they are the same motorcycle with different coloured pyjamas. If he hasn’t, that will make it 19 riders coming off contract at season’s end.

That means riders looking for a new gig, and manufacturers looking for a new direction in their rider meat-locker, will all be out hunting for contracts as soon as they can, before everyone else picks up the good rides for 2025. Don’t expect too many people to start the season quietly and cautiously, because they will all be riding for their futures from Round 1. And that includes the maniacs in Moto2 looking for a promotion to MotoGP next year. Guys like Jake Dixon and Ai Ogura will be desperate to make some noise in Moto2 early in the season.

I expect the big signings will start even before Round 1 rolls around, with Ducati confirming a contract extension for Pecco Bagnaia of at least 2 years. I’m writing this on January 2nd, but by the time you read this, it will likely have already happened. Let’s see how my Nostradamus impression goes.

The only riders to have confirmed rides for 2025 at this stage are Johan Zarco at LCR Honda, Brad Binder who is signed to KTM until the end of 2026, and Luca Marini at Repsol Honda. And maybe Pedro Acosta, but I can’t be sure at this stage.

What I am sure about though, the boys will be racing for cattle stations from Round 1, so expect fireworks. It will be a thing of glory.

Honda’s new hope, Luca Marini.

RbMotoLens

9. D r AMA At kt M

This one is guaranteed. KTM has a poor reputation when it comes to rider management. They did their reputation in this department no favours when they dumped Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez at the end of their rookie year in 2022 to make way for the returning Pol Espargaro and new rookie Augusto Fernandez, though what the point of all that was is anyone’s guess. Neither new rider did any better than Raul or Remy would likely have done.

Remy and Raul struggled in 2022 in the Tech 3 satellite KTM team, with both riders complaining of disorganisation in the team and a lack of support on technical issues from KTM. By the time KTM

announced both guys were being sacked at the end of 2022, there was very little left available for them in the paddock. Raul picked up a satellite ride at Aprilia, but there was nothing left for Remy in MotoGP. Every seat was spoken for. Poor form from KTM. Remy ended up in World Superbikes and will be stuck there for the foreseeable future, although he told me recently when we interviewed him on the MotoPG Podcast that he feels reinvigorated and is finally enjoying racing again in WSBK. A happy Remy is a fast Remy, so hopefully he gets the right equipment and can make his mark in WSBK this year.

And for 2024 KTM have done the unthinkable. In their desperation to hang onto Moto2 World Champ and rising prodigy Pedro Acosta,

8. t HE r E t U r N o F t HE BEAS t

Enea Bastianini finished 2022 with a glorious flourish. So very Italian of him. He won races on a satellite Ducati for the Gresini team in 2022 and looked to be the next big thing. Ducati then pulled him into the factory squad for 2023 to replace the departing Jack Miller. I thought The Beast would give Bagnaia a real challenge, but an injury in round 1 ruined his year. He missed the first half of the season with a broken shoulder, courtesy of a Luca Marini mistake, then struggled to find his feet on his Ducati GP23 when he came back. He won a race at the end of the year though and looked very good doing it, suggesting good things for 2024. It will be great to see The Beast back at the front. His teammate won’t think so though. Bastianini has an ability to make tyres last late into a race that only Marco Bezzecchi seems to be able to match, and he is a genuine title threat.

they signed him to a MotoGP ride for this year. The problem is they already had 4 riders under contract, and only 4 seats. 5 into 4 doesn’t go. Even I know that and my maths is pedestrian at a pinch. The rulemakers refused KTM’s ridiculous ambit request to field an extra rider, so now Pol Espargaro has drawn the short straw and will spend the last year of his contract as a test rider and doing fill-in gigs if someone else is out injured. After nearly killing himself on their bike in 2023 and suffering injuries that will cause him lingering pain for the rest of his life after racing, that’s a pretty shitty thing for KTM to do to him. There’s a pattern here.

The next battle will be what happens next year. The factory team pairing of Jack Miller and Brad Binder will be under pressure, because Pedro wants one of their seats next year, and has likely been promised as much. Binder is loved by KTM and is signed until 2026, but Miller is off contract at the end of the year. So now Jack faces the prospect of losing his seat to Acosta next year, but the question is does Jack move to the satellite Gas Gas team, or look for another factory to call home? Jack could fix this by winning a race or two early, and putting pressure on KTM to extend his contract, or at the very least he would increase his value in the crowded rider market if he wants to look elsewhere. It will need to be a huge first 5 rounds for Jack. His future may depend on it.

The pressure is on for Jack to keep his seat at KTM.

Injury plagued Bastianini’s first year in red in 2023.

RbMotoLens

RbMotoLens

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7. c AN J o AN

MI r SU rv I v E?

Honda’s RC213V has damaged a few reputations in the last 5 or 6 years, but none more so than that of Joan Mir. It’s not that long ago that he won the World Championship on a Suzuki. 2020 in fact. He backed that up with a 3rd place title finish in 2021. Consistency is his trademark. Since signing with Honda after Suzuki departed the scene, he’s looked anything but a champion, and the only thing he’s done consistently is pick gravel out of his butt-hole.

The bike hasn’t suited him, and he hasn’t been able to ride around its failings the way Marc Marquez can. Mir is a smooth rider, the Honda requires brutality. He finished only 5 Sunday races in 2023, and only one

of those finishes was in the top 10. I can’t imagine what that does to the confidence of a rider whose path to success requires him to finish well and do it regularly, because he was never one to have the outright pace to win races at will.

He’s seen the gravel far more than he’s seen the chequered flag since joining Honda. The two-time world champ (he also won Moto3 in 2017) finished in 22nd place last year, with only 26 championship points. By way of comparison, Pecco Bagnaia scored 467 points. For a former champ, that must be gutting. Not to mention the physical toll all that crashing takes on the body.

The battle now for Mir is surely to get his arse off the Honda and onto something he can ride fast. But a dismal 2023 has damaged his confidence, and his market value,

and whether he can score some good results early in the season to give himself a shot at a contract with another manufacturer is anyone’s guess. If he doesn’t show some speed early, it will take a huge leap of faith for someone to offer him a ride for 2025. Even Honda would be reluctant to continue their partnership. And the problem with having to show speed is it’s not really his forte anyway. He does well in championships by finished consistently well, not by winning lots of races. In fact, he’s only ever won one race in MotoGP. So, things are looking grim for Joan. Come June, he could be looking for rides in WSBK for 2025. Either that, or desperately hoping Honda gives him another chance, assuming his bruised body and battered ego can cope with that.

Can Joan Mir’s career survive another year at Honda?

6. F r AN co

FIGH

t S BA ck

This right here is the one I’m most excited about. Franco Morbidelli has to be one of the most wonderful humans in the whole MotoGP stratosphere. You won’t find anyone with a bad word to say about him, except maybe Aleix Espargaro, but that’s ok. He’s a bit dysfunctional anyway.

In 2020, riding a satellite 2019 Yamaha for the Petronas team, Frankie won 3 races and scored 5 podiums to come 2nd in the championship. He was smooth, fast, and cool. The next year was injury-plagued, and he was

5. BEZZ o N t HE MA rc H

Marco

drafted into the factory Yamaha team mid-way through the season when Maverick Vinales had a b rain implosion and decided to try and blow up his Yamaha in a temper tantrum that saw the Yamaha bosses dump him almost immediately.

But Frankie struggled with his knee injury, and has since struggled to gel with the Yamaha. The 2019 bike he had so much success on changed in 2020, with a new frame to accommodate the centrally located air intake required by the modern bikes with their new aero configurations. The Yamaha has never quite turned as sweetly since, and for

Bezzecchi showed what he was capable of in 2022, and his speed late in races on shagged tyres is astonishing. When the grip is bad, he shines. 2023 could have been his year, and with three race wins to his name, he was still in the hunt with a few round to go. Still, a third place finish on a satellite bike was a valiant effort. He’ll be even better this year, and the VR46 squad is another year wiser too. So yeah, another curly-headed Italian trying to take Pecco’s crown in 2024. It’s wonderful.

Frankie, that has been a bridge too far to overcome.

For 2024 he finds himself on a Pramac Ducati, with a factory Ducati contract in his hand. He will be eyeing off a seat on a red bike in 2025, and like any rider who goes from a bike that isn’t performing to one that does, his confidence should receive a boost. As if Pecco didn’t have enough to worry about with Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini on factory spec Ducatis, he now also has to worry about Frankie. He is smooth, fast, happy with the bike getting a little loose, and he’s uber cool under pressure. A dangerous combination on a bike he’s confident with.

4. DU c At I HUNGE r GAMES

So lets bring all these fast Italians together in one tent, said no sane person ever. But that’s the mess Ducati has created for itself. They’ve unloaded the Frenchman, Johan Zarco to Honda, but now they have 8 bikes, being ridden by Italians Bagnaia, Bastianini, Bezzecchi, DiGianantonio and Morbidelli. Then throw in the three crazy but numbingly fast Spaniards on the other three, and you can see the problem. Ducati don’t

really want to put a Spaniard on the red factory bikes, but they also don’t want the number 1 plate on a Ducati that isn’t red. Of the 8 Ducati riders in the field, 6 of them are genuine title threats. And all of the Italian ones think that if they win the title they will be in the factory squad in 2025.

All five of those Italians want to be on the pretty red factory bike. Because that makes you famous in Italy. The Beast has a target on

his back. Jorge Martin would be an option for 2025 (despite being Spanish) if he wins the title this year, and he’s already threatening to leave and head to another manufacturer if Ducati don’t give him a factory seat for ‘25. Imagine him winning the title this year then taking the Number 1 plate to Aprilia on big money the following year? Or even to a third KTM team carrying Husqvarna or MV Augusta branding? It may just happen.

Jorge Martin is out to go one better in 2024.

Brad Binder keeps edging closer to being a title threat.

3. BINDE r G o ES HUN t ING

KTM’s golden boy has a contract in his pocket until the end of 2026, making him the rider with the longest tenure in the paddock. There’s a particular type of confidence that comes with that. Brad has been KTM’s best performing rider for quite some time, and there’s nothing to

2. A NE w c AP tAIN

Aleix

suggest 2024 won’t be any different. Jack Miller should have a better year than he did in 2023, but KTM still see Brad as their number 1 guy, and rightly so. KTM made some improvements in the last half of l ast season, and at Valencia looked on target for a 1-2 finish before front tyre issues destroyed the

Espargaro considers himself The Captain of the good ship Aprilia. 2024 was looking like being his last year, however he is now hinting at continuing into 2025. Although we should look for a new Captain at Aprilia this year. This will piss the old Captain off mightily, and that will be fun to watch. Aleix is entertaining when he’s mad.

Miguel Oliveira has been given a full factory supported 2024 bike this year, even though he is in the satellite Aprilia squad. I expected Miguel, a qualified dentist who speaks five languages, to be the top placed Aprilia rider in 2023, but he was hampered by a confluence of injury, bad luck, and being stuck in a poorly run team. This year he will have a lot more factory support around him, a better bike, and more opportunity to show his impressive skills.

In fact there’s every chance that between Miguel, the fast but erratic Maverick Vinales, and the precocious talents of Raul Fernandez on the second satellite Aprilia, The Captain may just be the last of the four bikes from the “other” Italian factory this year. If that happens, I would expect Aleix to retire this year. We can but hope. It’s time.

races of both riders.

KTM will also benefit from some extra testing dispensation this year, allowing Dani Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro to do some more development work. I expect Brad to be a strong contender for the title, especially with so many fast guys on Ducati’s taking points off each other. Jack is certainly capable too.

Miguel Oliveira might be Aprilia’s main man this year.

Former MotoGP rider and current Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow said early in 2023 “I’ve always said if Marc goes onto a Ducati, the rest may as well not turn up.”

I’m inclined to agree with him. We’re about to find out if Cal and I have any sort of clue what we’re talking about.

There is no doubt in the minds

of anyone who isn’t a lunatic that Marc Marquez is the single most talented rider on the grid. Probably by a margin too. The eight-time world champion has shown for a long time now that when he is on a competitive bike, he wins more often than not. If the Honda hadn’t spent the last 3 years trying to kill him, he’d likely have more than

his current tally of 8 world titles by now. The fact that even with the almost career-ending injuries he has suffered multiple times now, he was still able to be the fastest guy out there of the four Hondas on the grid speaks volumes.

So now, after splitting with Honda, the factory he has been with since moving to MotoGP, we

No longer to be seen in Repsol colours, can Marc Marquez return to the winner’s circle on a Ducati?

will see whether he can get back to his winning ways on a GP23 Satellite Ducati. Let’s be clear about something though. Ducati will not be wanting him to win. They want a red Ducati winning the title, not whatever colour bike Marc will be astride. And he’s Spanish. Ducati would probably prefer a KTM win the title before a Marquez.

So you can expect he won’t get a lot of help from Ducati. He will be riding an old bike, and is not likely to get any updated parts throughout the year like many of the other riders. The bike he starts the first race on will likely be identical to the one he finishes the year on.

But there are danger signs already for the rest of the field. The smile

on his face after his first ride on the Gresini Ducati at the Valencia test just after the last round of last year was illustrative of significant relief. A happy rider is a fast rider, and a rider who has good “feel” from his bike is generally a happy rider. Conditions at the test were cold and windy, and not conducive to setting good times. During the sprint race on the preceding Saturday, Marc set the fastest lap of the race on his Honda. He went half a second faster than that on the Ducati in the test without breaking a sweat.

Contracts in place until January 1 meant he couldn’t talk about the Ducati at the time, but come early January he was happy to talk about how much “feel” he had on the bike. When a rider comes off a bike that handles poorly onto one that handles well, their confidence climbs immeasurably. Despite a few years of torment, nobody ever doubted that Marc’s determination remained undiminished. And if he once again has confidence in his bike, that is a dangerous combination.

Over the last few years while others have been winning championships, many have pondered whether the other riders have caught up to Marc in terms of their skill level and ability on a bike. We’re about to find out whether that is the case.

Word from people in the paddock is that the other riders are wary of what Marc is capable of. They’re not stupid. They know he’s been hobbled by his equipment for the last few years, and even though he won’t have the fastest of the Ducati machinery, he will be on a well sorted bike, in a team that knows how to win races.

I expect Marc Marquez will throw himself at this championship with as much gusto and bravado as he did in his rookie year. He won the championship that year. I think he will win it this year too, and equal Valentino Rossi’s 9 world titles.

Then he’ll go chasing Agostini’s record. You’d be brave to suggest he can’t topple that as well.

Rain-smeared but rock-solid.

worDS By BorIS MIHAIlovIc - IMAGES By NIck EDArDS

“ ApriliA would rAther burn in hell thAn offer its customers A bike thAt wAsn’t the cutting edge of hAndling And loAded with topend suspension And brAkes.”

Top right: ou have to wonder why the whole dash area is not used.

Below: The most beautiful swingarm in the game. Below right: Nothing shabby here at all.

You know how Parallel twins are now the hot chick in the room, right? Yamaha kicked it all off some years back with the MT-07, and within a few years everyone was busy shoving their versions of the 270-degreecranked mid-sized upright-twin onto the market – the most recent being honda’s CB750 hornet.

The whole point, I assume, was to offer a new generation of riders mildermannered bikes...um, presumably because they spook easy when confronted with 1000cc of weaponised motorcycle. Or something.

So, out they came. Light, agile, torquey 700s and 800s. They sounded OK thanks to the crank being spun around, and they were a hoot to hammer through the bends precisely because of what they were.

All of them made around 70-80 horses, give or take. All of them felt a little too...well, compact for a man of my size. And there are lot of men who are of my size. Must be due to all the good steak we have to eat. Look what happened to the appalling Dutch

when they went to South Africa and copped a few generations of sunlight and fresh meat.

So, men like me looked at these mid-sized offerings and considered them as viable second bikes to maybe go to work on, or bikes for our wives and girlfriends, or maybe something our kids could get onto if there were LAM versions. We liked the hell out of them, but we wouldn’t buy one as our only bike lest our testosterone levels dropped dangerously.

Enter the Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory. If you’ve read my stuff for any length of time, you’ll know I hold Aprilia’s offerings in very high regard, and when the paisans in Noale append the word “Factory” to any of their bikes, I feel like swooning. Go ride a Tuono V4 Factory or the 217hp RSV4 Factory and tell me you don’t feel like fainting when you get off.

These same paisans, some of whom are doubtlessly wicked sorcerers with scant regard for established norms, have created a new, smaller-capacity Tuono Factory – 659cc to be exact, so it’s indeed smaller in capacity than

its competition in this niche – and it makes 100 horsepower. And 67Nm of torque.

Which is a really cool way of thumbing one’s nose at the competition, is it not?

And the bike itself feels of a proper manly dimension. It does not feel shrunk in any way. Sure, it’s still remarkably light (181kg wet), and Aprilia would rather burn in Hell than offer its customers a bike that wasn’t the cutting edge of handling and loaded with top-end suspension and brakes. So, any fool that tells you this bike is somehow “uninspiring” or lacks some “wow-factor”, clearly has no idea just what an exercise of utter midsized brilliance the Tuono 660 Factory actually is.

Yes, it is a little more expensive than the bikes it is up against. But so what? Save up some more. Motorcycles should never be a rational purchase choice dictated by fiscal considerations. People who buy

Above: The profile is pure Noale. Right: It doesn’t feel small at all.

bikes because they’re at a certain price-point have no soul. You want to be happy? Buy the bike that makes you happy. Not the bike you have to buy because you didn’t save enough money, or spend too much on crap like girlfriends, food, and rent. Make sacrifices.

And if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to get it. It’s how this shit works.

“ it sounds glorious. it looks fAbulous. it’s ridiculously itAliAn in its roAd-mAnners, And more thAn A little bit speciAl in All the wAys A bike should be speciAl.”

The Tuono 660 Factory is, put simply, the King Daddy of the midsized twins. It sounds glorious. It looks fabulous. It’s ridiculously Italian in its road-manners, and more than a little bit special in all the ways a bike should be special – mainly by making you feel special. The quickshifter is standard, there’s a Lithium battery that shaves a further two kg from its weight, and you can have hours of fun taunting your missus that what she sees is the actual pillion seat. The pillion seat is

under the cover, but the cover has a pad in the middle and two very evillooking flanges that would spike a pillion in her soft thigh meat.

And the induction howl...blessed saints of Noale...this is the music of our people.

Yes, and all the electronic whizzbangery, like cornering ABS, is there. It has to be. It’s 2023.

That lovely TFT dash is certainly lovely, but, as usual, everything b uilt by Piaggio that involves menus and sub-menus, requires

Above: That exhaust pipe so needs binning. Right: It’s like a butterfly…

patience and perseverance to navigate. It may well be the way “character” is injected into their machines these days and it beats the crap out of “Why is there smoke coming from my wiring loom?”

And it’s hardly a biggie, unless you’re some kinda weird trainspotting anorak. Set the thing up once. Leave it there. Get on with your life. Sheesh.

The riding of it is where all the silly joy-joy is.

And it really is quite the rider’s bike. There’s no relying on massive grunt or power to address your shortcomings in the corners. Late braking, massive

corner speed, face of Jesus, on the gas hard out of the corner...and repeat. It will take your breath away.

Line changes are possible with a seeming thought. The package is hugely responsive, and the more finesse you apply, the more it will reward you. Start climbing all over it like a ham-fisted baboon, picking the wrong gears, and panic braking, and it will sniff dismissively at you.

The Tuono 660 Factory insists you apply a modicum of skill to your inputs. Of course, it forgives many indiscretions, for it is well-mannered, like its big brother...which is actually

a throat-cutting, moon-howling psychopath of bike, to which only serious people need apply.

The 660 is far, far more approachable. Which is exactly the design-brief of these mid-sized offerings.

It’s just that Aprilia’s offering in this class is more than just a little bit special.

And rightly so.

Top: The mirrors need to be replaced by bar-ends. Bottom left: Menu navigation lives here. Bottom right: Pretty standard on this side.

v

ENGINE

Type: Liquid-cooled, eight-valve, four-stroke, DOHC parallel-twin

Capacity: 659cc

Bore x stroke: 81.0mm x 63.93mm

Compression ratio: 13.5:1

Engine management: Electronic fuel injection

PERFORMANCE

Power: 100hp (74kW) at 10,500rpm

Torque: 67Nm at 8500rpm

TRANSMISSION

Type: Six-speed

Final drive: Chain

Clutch: Wet, multiplate

CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR

Frame: Double aluminium beam

Front suspension: Upside-down 41mm Kayaba forks, fully adjustable, with 110mm travel

Rear suspension: Sachs mono-

rebound, with 130mm travel

Front brakes: Twin 320mm discs with Brembo four-piston radial-mount calipers, Cornering ABS

Rear brake: 220mm disc with Brembo twin-piston caliper, Cornering ABS

CAPACITIES

Wet weight: 181kg

Seat height: 820mm

Wheelbase: 1370mm

Fuel capacity: 15L

HOW MUCH? $22,690 ride away

HA2023rlEy-DAvIDSoN SPortStEr

M y G r EAt UN k N ow N

worDS: AAroN clIFtoN - IMAGES By MAtt McINtyrE

If I’M honesT, I’Ve never been able to completely understand the whole harley-davidson thing.

I don’t mean this in the negative sense. I’ve just never really had much to do with Harleys, apart from observing those who ride them and love them. It’s not like I don’t know what they are. I do. But I never really got it. And from what I can gather, when it comes to Harley-Davidsons, you either love them or you don’t.

Well, I don’t conform much to most things, and as someone who’s reviewing a motorcycle, I try to stay objective. After all, each motorcycle deserves to be critiqued in its own right and judged according to its design, and not according to my biases and preconceptions.

And it’s not as though I hate Harleys. I don’t. I can see why they appeal to so many people – they’re bad-arse, men with neck tattoos, leather vests, and outlaw club colours ride them. They are often works of art, with custom paint jobs, chrome bits, and loud pipes. And the people who ride them...well, traditionally are people society doesn’t like, or at least aren’t sure of...and that’s cool, and deep down I know you think so too.

So, when I was offered the HarleyDavidson Sportster S to review, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands, since this could be my chance to maybe see what I wasn’t seeing before.

The basic specifications are as follows: A wet-weight of 228kgs, with a fuel capacity of 11.8-litres, and a seat-height of 765mm. The ground clearance was 90mm, and the giant fat tyres were 160/70R17 at the front and 180/70R17 at the back. Most interestingly, it produced 121 HP at 7500rpm, and offered up 125Nm of torque at 6000rpm. And its price started at $23,995.

Those are the objective facts. But how exactly do they define this motorcycle?

It’s easy to define a litre sportsbike like I normally ride, or an Adventure bike, but the Sportster S is uniquely its own thing, and if a motorcycle is to be judged according to its design, then I must answer the question, what has Harley created in the Sportster S?

Come to think of it, my life is built around questions. I should be used to them...

As a mechanic: “What the hell is wrong with it?”

As a dad: “Why is the tv not working?”

As a philosopher: “What is reality and morality?”

Left: American muscle

As a husband: “Why would you do that?”

Some questions are deep and some not so deep. Some I can answer, some I can’t. But regardless, I’m driven to find answers, particularly to things I don’t completely understand, so this review was my quest to formulate an answer to the Sportster S question.

My first impression wasn’t negative or bad. The seat was reasonably comfortable, ’bar position seemed natural for this bike, and the feet-forward riding position was all fine.

The real stand-out was that engine, a liquid-cooled 1250cc double-overhead cam with variable valve- timing donk – very modern. And it’s a nice engine, with mountains of torque and it pulls like a freight train. In fact, its deadly fast in a straight line and will happily throw you at the horizon with real malice.

I rode the Sportster S every day on my commute to work and back, and because I live in a rural area, that’s a 30-kay each-way ride. And I’m lucky enough to have a choice of

“ in fAct, its deAdly fAst in A strAight line And will hAppily throw you At the horizon with reAl mAlice. ”

roads, from the highway to winding back roads complete with roadkill and potholes. I made sure I got an equal share of them all.

On the smooth highway at around the 120 mark this bike seems to find its sweet spot. The engine is happy and I’m comfortable. The wind-blast

Above: The H-D stance turns heads. Below left: Even i found these easy to use. Below right: Smartphone bluetooth stuff controlled here.

is strong enough to hold your upper body and keep weight comfortably off your hands, and with the cruisecontrol set, it’s perfect.

The gearbox and driveline on the Sportster S are as good as you could hope to find on any bike. The gear ratios are spot on, the shift is light, smooth, and positive, and coupled with the belt-drive, results in a very smooth driveline, little noise and no “snatchiness” when coming on and off the throttle. From the engine right to the back wheel, Harley got it right.

There are only two things I’d ask for, and that is for the ignition coil be mounted somewhere else.

I found my knee hitting it quite often. The other want is some radiator protection. The radiator appears

rather vulnerable, particularly when you see that the front guard doesn’t sufficiently cover the back of the front wheel.

It was on the back roads where I could really ask something of its handling capabilities, and there are some advantages and disadvantages to that big front tyre. The disadvantage is that it seems to steer or initiate a turn quite slowly (keep in mind, I’m a sportsbike rider), but once you’re in the turn you have a fairly large footprint of rubber underneath you, and the Sportster S is quite happy mid-turn. I was able to achieve a lean-angle sufficient enough to wear the heels out of my work boots, and the Sportster S was happily compliant at that sort of stuff, no problem.

I’d run up roughly 400km in total, riding back and forward to work, but it was the Putty Road I was keen to ride. I’ve done countless laps of that road,

and it’s my true test-ground. So the first available Saturday, I locked the ride in with my mates.

Saturday came, and that morning didn’t start well. As I pulled into the servo, my mate Gary noticed a screw had lodged itself in the rear tyre. You can imagine my excitement at this discovery. I was delayed only some 20 minutes, and Singleton Tyre Service got me back on the road in almost no time at all, so thanks, blokes.

As I was running a touch late, the ride from Singleton to the famous Tenmile was quite spirited. I arrived at the fig tree, and while waiting for Matt the photographer (who was running later than I was), I stood looking at the bike, and asking that same question, how do I define the Sportster S? It’s not a sportsbike, as its name sort of implies, and it’s not a full-blown cruiser either.

I think what Harley-Davidson has created is a motorcycle that is supposed to be modified and customised; quite a sort of a blank canvas where you decide what you want it to be.

You could drag race it. Seriously, you really could. The Sportster S engine provides a great platform for drag racing.

Or you could add a pillion seat, Bluetooth your phone to it and be guided by Google maps on your dash display, as you and your best friend go exploring the wineries.

As far as modern electronics on motorcycles are concerned, the Sportster S array is very easy to use.

So, maybe the more accurate question is, how would I customise it?

The first thing I would do is focus

“

you could drAg rAce it. seriously, you reAlly could. the sportster s engine provides A greAt plAtform for drAg rAcing. or you could Add A pillion seAt, bluetooth your phone to it And be guided by google mAps on your dAsh displAy, As you And your best friend go exploring the wineries. ”

Top left: Finishes are second to none. Below left: It has no ugly angles. Right: Engaged with Milwaukee freedom.

some effort on the suspension, particularly the rear shock. If you plan on doing serious miles on the Sportster S, more compliant suspension is a must, because the standard suspension does not offer much in comfort over any sort of distance. It can be improved; you’ve just got to understand what you’re working with. The standard suspension doesn’t have a lot of travel and bottoms-out quite easily, so the complaint is that the suspension suspension feels very hard.

Well, “hard” is only the feeling it gives you, and you’ll make a mistake by trying of soften it up. All you’ll do by softening the suspension up, is to allow it to travel faster through its limited stroke, and hit the bump stop faster and more frequently.

Playing around with it, I added compression dampening to the rear shock, even though it gave a hard uncomfortable feeling. Adding compression dampening slowed the shock action down, provided more resistance and prevented it from going straight to the bump-stop so easily. This actually improved it quite a bit, but as expected, I did feel the smaller bumps a little more, so spending some time and some cash customising the suspension with springs and valving to

suit you will transform this bike.

The second thing I would do revolves around day to day practicality, I would add a pillion pad, because after all s/he needs to sit somewhere and maybe something in the way of carrying a small amount of luggage Harley-Davidson do have saddle bags available if you’re into those.

There is however a wet weather issue with this bike and that is that it sends a water spray directly onto your back and neck from the back wheel. If you’re a fair weather rider then this wont worry you in the slightest because you wont be out when the weather is not fair, but if of course you ride distances then there’s every chance you can get caught in the rain. Harley-Davidson makes an OEM rear fender which should remedy the issue.

That along with some radiator protection should have your practical needs taken care of, and then all you have to do is to pipe it up. It’s got to have a set of pipes, it’s in the rules for owning a Harley-Davidson. I so wanted to hear this thing speak to me through the glory of aftermarket pipes, particularly banging along beside the rock walls of the Putty Road. It would be a chorus of glory.

The Sportster S is so worthy of this. If you already love Harleys, there’s

absolutely no reason you won’t love the new Sportster S. It’s true to its DNA and it goes so much harder than a standard Big Twin. If you’re new to Harley, like I was, it’s not the rough high-maintenance bike of decades before. The Sportster S is actually quite refined, with everything you’d expected to find on a modern motorcycle.

This bike straight off the showroom floor is a kick arse engine with handlebars - and two big rubber hoops at each end - and in every sense is your canvas to make it into the bike you want it to be.

It’s not going to take you touring straight out of the box, but you can customise it to do this: add your luggage, tweak the suspension to suit, then simply bluetooth your phone and follow the maps on the dash display.

Straight from the dealer it’s not a drag bike but it damn well can be and will haul your carcass lap after lap down the drag strip.

It already turns heads in standard trim, so add your bling bits and make it a genuine show piece.

The bike itself may not be physically large as such, but the metaphorical canvas Harley-Davidson gives you in the Sportster S is, it’s now down to you to make it your own. AMM

Adventure rider mAgAzine, AustrAliAn motorcyclist mAgAzine – with the generous sponsorship cooperAtion of world on wheels – Are offering

explore ride experiences in the first hAlf of 2024.

NSw:

nsw: spring Cart farm ride with Bob wozga 3rd, 4th and 5th of May = weabonga nsw 2340

Spring Cart Farm, there will be a supplied BBQ on Friday and Saturday night, breakfast Saturday and Sunday. Will do a loop around some back roads and stop off for a pub lunch somewhere along the road. You might even get time to throw a line in the dam and catch a trout.

from co-owner Paul rumble:

fri night BBQ - rissoles, snags, roll and salad sat morning Bacon egg roll sat smoko coffee biscuits maybe scones if I’m up to it :) sat night BBQ - kebabs, snags, roll and salad sun morning Bacon egg roll

I will cook BBQ dinner and morning tea you guys can fend for yourselves for bacon egg roll. My ride suggestion would be sat morning couple of hours around the farm then morning tea head to walcha via woolbrook around 11.00am for approx 1.00pm pub lunch leave around 2,00pm go back via niangla and weabonga which should get you back around 4.00pm. You can bed down in the woolshed if that suits you.

nsw: weekend ride to wiseman’s ferry with Mike ferris (24th and 25th february)

Mike’s the 30-year experienced international tour director of World on Wheels. Starting out from the Northern Beaches with several join-up points along the way, Mike will lead riders via Mt White, Peats Ridge, Bucketty, Perrys Crossing and St Albans to reach Wisemans Ferry on the Saturday afternoon, 24th Feb. Accommodation at the Wisemans Inn, ask Mike about accommodation prices Rocking to Mike’s hand-picked live band, with dinner and (some!) drinks on WOW. Sunday morning will see various options for the return run home. Numbers are limited!

nsw: weekend ride to southern highlands with Tug McClutchin (sunday March 3rd)

Tug will take you on a guided tour of some of his favourite roads in the NSW Southern Highlands for a day. Lunch at one of his favourite pubs will be included. (Alcohol excluded). Ride will start at Pheasants Nest, an hour Southwest of Sydney. It will be a fun day, where you will get some inside info on what goes into testing a bike, and get to pick Tug’s brains, ‘for what that’s worth’. Maximum of five bikes (pillions welcome).

victoria:

Vic: day ride tour of with heather ellis (sunday 24th March).

We will ride Don Road over to Don Valley. A short stretch of dirt on this section. Then through Warburton and up to Donna Bung and the tower then down where we take the turn off along Acheron Way then through Marysville where we can stop for coffee before tackling the Reefton Spur then to Reefton Pub. From there everyone makes their own way home. Your lunch is included (exclusive of alcohol). A copy of Heather’s first book Ubuntu: One Woman’s Motorcycle Odyssey Across Africa will go to one lucky rider via a ‘helmet’ draw at lunch. Maximum of six bikes.

www.worldonwheels.tours/tours/

“Most ride costs (with limited exception plus alcohol) sponsored by wow”

These eXPlore rIdes are open to any reader: Please indicate your interest to susan.plunkett@clemengermediasales.com.au

BEAUtIFUl biKe Designs

Iasked fIVe of our regular contributors to provide their ‘take’ or perception on what makes for a beautiful bike design.

The following pages provide those views. If you would like to contribute to the discussion, please email yourview@clemengermediasales.com.au

Exquisite motorcycle design has a very simple solution. The Britten V1000.

Built by John Britten and a very small team in his garage in New Zealand, this carbon, Kevlar, and alloy beast was unlike anything the world had ever seen to that point, and unlike anything it has seen since.

You can take your Ducati 916, your MV Agusta Superveloce, your whatever else you care to name and punch it right up your Khyber Pass. They have nothing on the Britten V1000.

John built the entire bike and made many of the

it and start again with an alloy frame. For him, it was unrideable. And for almost everyone else.

The Britten is built around a 1,000cc V-Twin engine. It is glorious. The sound is different to other similar motors, and it is strong. The engine was designed and built in-house. The front end is a solid carbon fibre unit, designed for lightness and to narrow the front end compared to a traditional fork setup for aerodynamic reasons. It bounces on a single shock mounted behind the steering head.

The rear shock is mounted in front of the engine. Yes, I said in front. It created easy access for adjustments, but more importantly it kept the shock out in the cool breeze, away from the heat

worDS: tUG McclUtcHIN

similar looking units now in MotoGP. But remember, this bike was built in the 80’s and further refined in the 90’s. That’s over 30 years ago. The rest of the bodywork, the seat, front fairing, and tank unit are made of carbon and kevlar.

The aerodynamics of the bike were way ahead of its time. When it was launched, it dazzled. Not only was it extraordinary in its design, it was incredible in its engineering. The blue and pink paint only made it stand out more. It is simply stunning in every way and has performance to match.

The bike is ahead of its time, even now. It’s getting on for 40 years old, and still looks futuristic. Were it launched today, the reaction to it would be the same as it was then.

Best of all, some of the biggest bike manufacturers in the world still can’t do what John Britten did, and he did it in his garage.

My theory of excellence in motorcycle design goes a little like this: A bike should be pleasing to the eye, nay beautiful; it should perform at least as well as the manufacturer claims, and the amalgamation of parts that go into making said fast and fabulous motorcycle should be equally beautiful in their construction and fit together with feng shui levels of brilliance.

This is a theory shared by many, but it falls apart a little because looks are subjective, and motorcyclists, in general, are chronic brand bitches who will see ugliness where another sees beauty, mainly based on the factory it comes from - one man’s Panigale is another man’s latte-fuelled wank-fest.

Some people, it seems, find excellence in a purely functional design. Surely, no one with a modicum of mental stability has ever swooned upon a V-Strom 650, but the 650 has a massive following, so, it must be an excellent design for those into that sort of thing.

This will cause all manner of caterwauling and bilespitting, but I reckon Suzuki’s Hayabusa is an example of excellence in motorcycle design that rivals the likes of Ducati, MV Agusta or Triumph.

When the Busa hit the scene in 1999, pretty much everyone had a few questions about the potency of the recreational drugs getting about the Hamamatsu factory. Suzuki put aerodynamic slipperiness at the forefront of its fairing design and created one of the most polarizing, iconic, and fastest motorcycles ever produced.

Few bikes put function over form front and centre, and the ones that had, such as Bimota’s disjointedly exotic Tesi, never resonated with the market like the Busa did.

Underneath the weird suit of clothes was performance that no production motorcycle could match, and thanks

to its performance and the cred that came along with riding the fastest motorcycle on the planet, day by day, month by month, the Busa got sexy - kind of like that ugly friend that seems to get better looking as you get to know them.

What Suzuki did was genius. They designed a bike that looked like nothing else, almost completely dispensing with the bone-line design ethos that had ruled motorcycle design since time immemorial, stuck a rocket up its arse, and created a legend.

Building a strange-looking machine with utterly polarizing looks and having it become what can be rightly referred to as a legend is pretty impressive, but it wasn’t the first and last time Suzuki pulled a Kat out of the bag. Suzuki shrugged off the usual design constraints when it created the Katana in 1981, and like the Hayabusa, people either love or loathe it, but like the Busa, it has become an iconic motorcycle design. Unfortunately, Suzuki tried to pull this off one too many times and unleashed the B-King on the world. The B-King promised stupid levels of performance when it was first shown as a concept, but when the B-King arrived, it didn’t deliver what the freaks and fanatics needed, and it looked like an untreated haemorrhoid.

There are more classically beautiful motorcycles with performance on tap that us mere mortals can only dream of conquering, and by any objective measure, these bikes can be held up as examples of brilliance in motorcycle design. But the Hayabusa and Suzuki, in general, are the ones that have done it differently. They’ve taken chances, eschewed the norm, and created design icons that have enjoyed massive sales success despite their rejection of convention.

I’ma simple mechanic, so my brain works a certain way. I’m hardwired to appreciate function over form, and I will always pick a well-engineered bike over a bike everyone reckons is gorgeous, has “character”, and is therefore beautifully designed.

To me, “beautifully designed” means it does its intended motorcycle business really well. Of course, it helps if it’s not hard on the eyes, but it really does have to work on every motorcycling level. And that has nothing to do with “character”.

So, for me, the Honda Fireblade is what great motorcycle design is all about. It is the best motorbike ever made; no doubt about that, forever and ever, Amen.

But before some of you start critiquing my choice, let me explain how I reached such a conviction.

I’ve ridden many motorcycles, from sportsbikes, to cruisers, to adventure bikes, to motocross, and I don’t care what bike or discipline you find yourself riding, I reckon it’s all about going as fast as possible and doing that well. Even blokes on superbikes wish to ride them better and faster than the last bloke riding a superbike.

A well-designed bike is one that gives you that feeling of confidence. A bike that puts together a package of good suspension, good handling, good brakes, and a good

engine, is to me, the epitome of great design.

No matter the discipline, and no matter the bike, these things together are a must when it comes to what makes a bike great.

So why do I crown the Fireblade the bestdesigned bike?

Well, because for me it does all those things listed previously. It’s a bike that handles so well it inspires confidence, so it flatters me when I ride it. When I sit on a Fireblade, I feel at home and comfortable. They are mechanically sound and therefore hugely reliable, and they look good.

That is what a beautifully-designed bike is to me. It’s a bike that speaks to my soul and gives me as a rider, that special something that keeps me coming back for more.

I always laugh a little when I read some know-it-all reviewer call the Fireblade “boring”. It’s like they don’t understand how well-engineered the bike is. It is, in fact, over-engineered. This makes it so easy to ride well. Some people think a bike that is constantly trying to murder them at speed has “character”. I tell them it’s badly made. No matter how good it looks, if it does not behave at speed, it’s just badly made.

The Honda Fireblade is brilliantly made. So, it’s the best-designed bike on the planet. The logic is flawless.

B EAU t IFU l BI k ES

Let us understand the proverb, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This is essentially true. That is the nature of proverbs, after all. But they are not entirely true, especially when it comes to motorcycles, because there are some motorcycles which are objectively beautiful, no matter who is doing the beholding.

So why is that?

It’s largely about proportion. The bike looks...well, “right”. It is pleasing to the eye, and the leading scientific theory behind why our brain appreciates “beauty” is that it is hardwired in that way.

The human brain is designed to appreciate forms and patterns found in nature because being able to do so helped us to survive being eaten by dragons or eating poisonous rubbish. Things such as fractals and the socalled Golden Ratio are found everywhere in nature, and it is what pleases our brains. You can Google this for yourself, but basically, the Golden Ratio, called the “extreme ratio” by Euclid and the “divine proportion” by mathematician Luca Pacioli is 1.618 to 1. You take a line, divide it into two parts, so that the longer part (a) when divided by the smaller part (b) is equal to the sum of a + b divided by a, which must then equal 1.618.

But that’s the why, and it really doesn’t matter. Your brain appreciates this ratio automatically without conscious thought. So now and again, a motorcycle comes along that everyone thinks is simply gorgeous, and everyone thinks that because the bike has,

worDS: BorIS MIHAIlovIc

either by design or by sheer luck, nailed the Golden Ratio.

Most of the time, this does not happen with bikes. And we get the whole beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing. One bloke will tell you his MT10 is the most gorgeous bike ever built, while his mate thinks it looks like a hatful of arseholes.

But there are a bunch of bikes everyone agrees are actually beautiful, and I will make a little list here, and we shall see if anyone can actually disagree with any of my selections, because I do not think you can.

The first Kawasaki Z1 – it made its debut in 1972, and sat the motorcycle world on its raggy arse. And back then, it went as great as it looked.

The 1972 Ducati 750 Sport – It was as likely to detonate into a fireball while handling with sublime perfection (for that time), but it’s perfect proportions and utilisation of negative space, resonate to this day.

The 1994 Ducati 916 and the 1999 MV Agusta F4 – designed by Massimo Tamburini, these two are neck and neck when people discuss the most beautiful bike ever created. I lean toward the MV.

And I can fill the next ten pages with more such examples, but in the interests of brevity, get these stunners into you: Harley’s 1949 Hydra Glide Panhead, MV’s Brutale 1000 Serie Oro, Norton’s 1962 Manx, Triumph’s 2023 Speed Triple RR and that will do you for now.

S PEED t r IP l E , t HE or IGINA l Str EE t FIGH t E r

In 1994, Triumph released the first Speed Triple and created a new market segment, the factory streetfighter, sportsbike performance in an unfaired bike with a riding position that didn’t require you to have early chiropractic intervention.

Today that streetfighter ethos has evolved into bikes like the KTM 1300R, Ducati Streetfighter V4, Aprilia Tuono 1100 and Triumph’s own Speed Triple 1200RS.

The latest Speed Triple is refined, explosively quick and handles like a dream but it wasn’t always like that and perhaps the classic Speed Triple was always meant to be raw, slightly intimidating and about as subtle as a sledgehammer. That would be the 2005-2010 roundeyed model, a classic and enduring piece of design that hasn’t aged. Yet.

Streetfighters are meant to be demanding, rewarding and slightly threatening. A late round-eyed Speed Triple is all that and more. The heart of Speedies has always been the engine and the 1050 motor was and always will be a peach. Sure, it could only muster around 130hp but the flat torque curve that starts a little above idle and keeps on delivering all the way through the rev range means that you can ride it crazy, hammering the slightly agricultural gearbox to stay in the meatiest part of the torque curve or you can ride it lazy, leave it in 4th gear and treat it like an automatic. Either option works and both are fun. Word from the wise, ditch the over-complicated rose jointed OEM gear shift and replace the gear lever with a YZ80/85 unit. This retains the standard 1-down 5-up pattern but takes a lot of slop out of gear changes and makes them much more precise and less likely to land you in false-neutral hell.

The impeccable visual appeal of the late round-eyed Speed Triples and the rough diamond that is the 1050 engine/gearbox wasn’t completely matched by some of the

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other components. The suspension loves smooth roads but get it on rough, rippled surfaces and the damping would go on strike fairly quickly which makes for a harsh ride. Aftermarket fixes are available but aren’t cheap. And the electrics can be haunted by the Ghost of Joe Lucas Prince of Darkness and if you’re really lucky, the regulator/rectifier will only fry itself and not the stator and/or wiring loom. But these are all just ...errr... charming foibles in an otherwise spectacular package that Triumph have always been justifiably proud of

So important is the Speed Triple to Triumph that John Bloor, when discussing the major revision of the Speedie in 2011 which got rid of the round eyes and made the bike slightly more civilized, is reported to have given the design team a simple direction – ‘don’t fuck it up’.

Now all of the above needs to be taken in the context of my slight bias on the matter of Speed Triples as I own a 2010SE, the absolute last of the round-eyes which, although a 2010 model year, did have a few components that would otherwise first appear on the all-new insect-eyed 2011 model. It also wears one of the best paint schemes Triumph ever slapped on a Speedie, a lovely, slightly retro red with white stripe. Yes I’ve uprated the suspension (Nitron read, RaceTech front), yes I’ve had to replace the reg/rec, yes it’s got the YZ85 gear shift fix and yes, we’ve had some uncomfortable arguments with each other on the open road but, we’re still friends, it’s still a classic piece of design and whilst I’ve often thought about what I might trade it for, I’ve never found the heart to take the fateful step because nothing’s hit the mark. The BMW M1000R might come close but put my old Speedie next to an M1000R and I guarantee that the Speedy would look better even if the BMW is a better bike in every respect other than looks. Oh, and it ain’t a triple.

hoW To trANSPort A MotorcyclE

(coMpleTe

guiDe)

There are sound PrInCIPles that apply to save you time and money when it comes to motorcycle transport. we’ve created this guide to make the process seamless as possible.

We’ll take you through the advantages and potential disadvantages of the various motorcycle transportation options, whether you are doing it yourself, or using a specialist moving company. With this guide you can avoid common problems and prepare your bike correctly.

Moving

the bike yourself or using a transport company?

These are your two options, and below, we’ll break down each.

Moving the bike yourself

If you own a ute, van or a vehicle with a tow hitch, you can transport a motorcycle yourself. This can be an excellent solution for shorterdistance trips if you have experience securing a motorcycle and driving with the extra weight. Remember that you may also have limited

visibility at the rear as the motorcycle may obstruct your view and trailers require additional awareness when changing lanes on the highway or joining from junctions.

Moving a motorcycle yourself may seem like a cheaper option, and it can often be for shorter distances. However, if the move is interstate or a long distance, a motorcycle transport company will usually work out more cost-effective as they’re moving multiple motorcycles simultaneously.

Using a transport company

The good news is that there are several motorcycle moving companies across Aus; however, ensuring you use a reputable and reliable one is more challenging.

There are a few things to help you make a decision and watch out for:

3 Read their reviews, both on the website and on Google

3 Get multiple quotes to make sure you’re getting a fair price

3 Check they have insurance

A quick and easy option: You can use a

website that sources multiple quotes from vetted and trusted motorcycle transport providers in one request, it’s called Upmove.

When moving a motorcycle over a long distance, outsourcing the move usually makes sense cost-wise as it saves you fuel and multiple days on the road going there and back.

Preparing your motorcycle for transport

Once you’ve washed and dried your motorcycle, thoroughly survey any damage or scratches, document these, and take images with your phone as corroborating evidence. It’s essential to verify the condition of your motorcycle before it is transported, preventing any conflict about the condition it arrives in, at its delivery point.

The safest option for a bike to transport, is in a crate or a covered trailer. But what if your bike is travelling in an open trailer, or on the back of a ute? Should you use a bike cover? It’s a debate among riders, but bike covers are usually shaped and designed for static use, not on the back of a ute or trailer, at highway speeds. Not matter how meticulously you fit the, they can suffer wind buffeting.

Motorcycles need to travel in ‘clean’ trim. Get out the tools and remove all non-OEM accessories, categorising bolts with their mounting accessories into marked plastic bags or containers to prevent frustration when reattaching them.

Be mindful of how much fuel you’ll need at the delivery point. If you are transporting for a weekend ride or event, make sure the tank is adequately full to ride on arrival. If there is convenient refuelling close by the delivery point, you can transport with a low fuel load, which can reduce the bike’s centre of gravity and make it easier to load and unload.

Do you need additional insurance?

Even the most reputable motorcycle transport companies can suffer an unfortunate event or issue en

route. The cost of escalating your insurance coverage for the few days involved in motorcycle transport is negligible, especially compared to the payment for uncovered damage.

Before any motorcycle is loaded, ensure that your coverage has been comprehensively updated for any eventuality. It’s always best to be over-insured for transport damages instead of having to quibble when something has gone awry after the fact.

what to avoid when transporting yourself

Ratchets and looping points can be tricky for the inexperienced, and although rubbing or vibration issues are never present when loading a motorcycle, that doesn’t mean they won’t happen once you get moving. At cruising speeds, a few hours into the journey, you could suffer a flailing ratchet strap end, creating a lot of avoidable cosmetic damage to your motorcycle.

Dropping your motorcycle is a nightmare for all riders, and no matter how confident you feel, don’t overestimate your ability to control a motorcycle for loading or rigging if it’s something you do irregularly. When in doubt, wait for a mate or someone else to assist. This is especially important when loading onto a higher surface, like the back of a ute.

to summarise

Approach bike transport like you would a great ride. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, being prepared can avoid simple errors under pressure, which often prove very costly.

For transport close to home, it’s often cheaper to rig up the ute, or rent a trailer, and do it yourself. But when a motorcycle needs to journey many hours, or out of state, it can be smarter to use a transport specialist. Don’t let the allure of that dream bike, on sale in another State, or an amazing riding experience 1000km away, deter you from using bike transport to make it happen. There are options and they could be a mere screen tap or two away from fulfilling your needs. AMM

The ecsTasy oF SPEED

tHIS IS AN EN t I r E ly FI ct I t I o US S tory. It NE v E r HAPPENED . I MADE I t A ll UP. So HE l P ME Go D . oH , AND t HE o PINI o NS E x P r ESSED IN t HIS FI ct I o NA l PIE c E D o N ot r EM ot E ly r EF l E ct t HE AU t H or’ S PE r S o NA l v IE w S . It’ S FI ct I o N , ok ? It’ S JUS t M y IMAGINAt I o N .

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I’M a fIlThY deGeneraTe. no two ways about it. I speed every chance I get.

I always have. I always will. My licence has been shredded more times than a liberal senator’s meeting notes.

You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now. But some dogs can’t be trained. They remember when they were wolves. And now and again, that old primeval switch gets flicked in their brains, and they howl at the moon no matter how often you’ve tried to beat compliance into them.

So, when a filthy degenerate like this, like me, is given a Hayabusa – presumably because the giver understands some old wolves remain in a world of boot-licking lapdogs – there’s going to be some howling.

The day was bright and clean. There was a spring zest in the air. The crushing summer heat was still some weeks away, but pretty girls are putting on their bright summer dresses, and filthy degenerates are checking their tyre pressures.

My plan was simple. The best plans always

are. Belt the Hayabusa down Mother Putty in the morning. It’s week-day empty and a man can apply himself. He can pretend he’s faster than he is. That said, on a Hayabusa, he’s faster than he thinks.

This new Hayabusa was greeted with bizarre opprobrium when it appeared earlier this year. Lovers of the model – mainly fat, twice-a-year-riding fossils – started mewling about how they’d been betrayed by Suzuki because the new and long-awaited Hayabusa did not have 250 horsepower and a supercharger. “Suzuki is dead to me!” they declared on social media.

Yeah, OK. None of them had actually ridden the new Hayabusa. So it is quite right to turn a firehose on them and laugh as they tumble, writhe, and choke on their own dumbness.

What they should have been doing is putting Suzuki’s penis in their mouths out of sheer gratitude. Yes, I know Suzuki doesn’t have a penis. But if it did, and it produced a better, more agile, far more modern, and

slightly faster Hayabusa, then the Hayabusa Faithful need to get on their knees, open wide, and neck the big blue Hamamatsu knob with tears of gratitude streaming from their eyes.

What do you think is going on here, bitches? This is 2021. The world is brave and new and even Aldous Huxley is appalled. He’s dead, but he’s still appalled at what has happened.

There is no place for bikes like Hayabusas anymore. They no longer compute. They are like sabre-toothed tigers. They terrify Royal Enfield-riding idiot-children, and make the Highway Patrol masturbate like chimps. They make no sense in a world that has sold its soul to Safety and eschewed the sacred Ecstasy of Speed.

A bike that looks and goes like the Hayabusa, that has been built for no reason other than to go fast, and exists only because there are wolves at Suzuki who know there are other wolves still out there, is a bike to be celebrated.

Giving one to a filthy degenerate like me is both a blessing and a curse. Which is what life is and what life does. It blesses you and curses you, often at the same time. Deal with it.

Anyway, that’s enough horseshit philosophising. I need to get on with my fiction story

So, after riding the Mother in the morning, I intended to attend to various business things in Sydney, and then slab it home on the freeway. I didn’t feel like dodging the deranged menagerie of native fauna ruining every racing line on the Putty Road. I’ve hit a kangaroo at 180km/h. I emerged unscathed. It is just not possible that will ever happen again if I hit another kangaroo. That little reservoir of luck is empty.

The Mother is strange like that. I have ridden it at night many times. There have been nights when not a single animal appeared. There were nights when it looked like a petting zoo.

So freeway. The sun was going down and traffic was surprisingly light. Now there are times when the freeway, any freeway, is awful. Weekends, pretty much. That is when people who only drive on weekends, make their way to various freeways and proceed to ruin everyone’s shit.

You know what I’m talking about. Hogging the right-hand-lane, overtaking vehicles doing the speed limit two km/h faster than the speed limit, tailgating, swerving wildly, and so on.

And because I am a wretched and vile degenerate, I know I could shoot all of them in the face with a high-powered handgun and still sleep the sleep of the righteous. So I

tend to stay off freeways on weekends lest I give in to my disgusting and shameful urges.

But on weekdays, if the planets are aligned, and everyone’s testicles are sitting comfortably in their pants, freeways can be a bit of a lark.

I chose a Christian velocity, some 10-kays over the limit, as I surveyed the terrain. And the terrain must always be surveyed prior to slipping the chain. You gotta get a feel for where the Highway Patrol might be. You gotta suss out whether it’s a blanketcoverage kinda day, a sit-and-masturbatein-the-BMW kinda day, or a fuck it, let them do what they want kinda day.

The Hayabusa is happy to commute, happy to scratch, and happy to tool along at 120km/h. It’s ticking over at that speed. Its sassy Cadillac clocks aren’t doing anything much except looking back at you with dark promises each time you glance at them.

And I glance at them a lot on the freeway. My eyes are constantly roaming. Road ahead, road behind, blind spots, clocks, road ahead, road behind, blind spots, clocks…

I stopped at Brooklyn Bridge to make a call. A Highway Patrol car came out of the parking lot, and gassed it hard past me, heading north. My way. I’m sure there were ropes of cop-spaff hanging from the windscreen.

Cops hate Hayabusas. Everyone knows that. And they hate the filthy degenerates riding them. They are taught at Cop School that these bikes make their Highway Patrol cars look like lumbering bison. Few things throw you at the horizon faster than a Hayabusa. A Five-series BMW diesel is not one of those things. And neither is a V8 Commodore.

I bask in that hatred. It makes my dick hard. If it was a liquid, I would drink it. The cops have hated me and my ilk for decades. I’m OK with that. There would be something wrong with the world if they didn’t hate me. I just hate them back. Nothing else is possible or appropriate.

I have been pulled over on a Hayabusa. It was on the Snowy Mountains Highway. I got booked for 20km/h over the limit. Which, I was thinking at the time, a better result than getting done for 120 over the limit. Which, I was also thinking at the time, is what would have been the deal if his timing was better than mine.

And we all know it’s about the timing, don’t we? Pick a time, pick a place, roll the dice. Same as it ever was. Sure, the stakes and penalties are much higher and more awful now, and that’s kept the bitches out of the playground. Fine by me. Someone has to ride Royal Enfields, right?

The Highway Patrol car that shot off

ahead of me at Brooklyn Bridge had pulled some tradie champion over ten kays further on. His fully-pimped Ford Ranger looked very tough, bathed as it was in police lights. I hope he took lots of pictures.

I motored on and ahead of me I saw a Ducati Multistrada. I glanced at my speedo. It said 125. I made it say 140. This happens very fast on a Hayabusa, and it may have caught the Multistrada fellow by surprise when his mirrors were full of Hamamatsu degeneracy.

He dialled it up to 160. That happens quickly on Multistradas, and there we were descending into Ourimbah at 160-170 –with only the tiniest pause for the speed camera at the start of the descent.

I felt some shaming was in order. I twisted that thing on the right and shot past the Multistrada. Hayabusas accelerate very, very, very hard from 170. So do Multistradas. But the rider is a windsock. I am a not. The Hayabusa is designed to be aerodynamic. Look at it. What do you think the cops are thinking when they see it? What does anyone think when they see it? Even people who know nothing about bikes look at it and go: “Holy Jesus! Why is that even legal!”

The Multistrada pursued. His heart was pure. The clocks said 190 as we sliced through the sparse traffic. At that speed, you need to be paying a lot of attention. I was. We were now far enough past the first Highway car to consider there might be another one up ahead.

I buttoned off to 120 again. The Multistrada went past me, raised a hand in salute and turned off towards Doyalson.

Sure enough, there was another Highway car ruining some poor bastard’s day just past that turn-off. I grinned to myself. The omens seemed to be good. And you have to believe in omens, because sometimes that’s all you have.

The traffic usually gets sparser once you’re past the Central Coast commuters, but I kept it humming at 120 and watched my mirrors with interest. There had been a car

following the Multistrada and me when we had briefly rolled the dice.

It was not a cop car. It was an Audi. One of them hairy-balled station wagons the Germans make as some kind of Teutonic joke. “Ja, ja! Dis ist very funny, ja? Un family vagon mit turbo-spitten und scheissen! Ha ha ha!”

And this is what went past me at shitknows what speed, but I was doing 120 and it flashed past me in the waning light like a missile.

Oh, that is simply peachy, I thought, wriggling in my seat like a girl seeing her first German porn film.

You all know what a wood-duck is, right? It’s a decoy duck hunters put in a duck-pond that attracts other ducks. Then death comes upon them.

This Audi was my wood-duck. Any police cars ahead would clock him before they clocked me. The only problem was when I passed him – and as sure as filthy degenerates are filthy and degenerated, I would pass him at some stage because...well, because Hayabusa.

But that was a bridge yet to be crossed. And as the sun glowed gold as it descended over the Freemans Reach hills on my left, we headed towards that bridge. Fast.

I was maybe 100-metres behind him as the speedo needle went back and forth between 160 and 200. I stayed in sixth because I didn’t want the Audi driver to panic if I downshifted to fourth and came up on him too fast. Because shit happens quickly at those speeds. And it’s always terrible, terrible shit.

So I paced him. I’d close up, then drop back, close up, then ride beside him at 200, then drop back again. The freeway was mostly empty, and we were both rolling the dice like steel-eyed dirtbags in an alleyway full of broken bottles and piss-stained mattresses.

I’ve already told you I’m a filthy degenerate. So you know. But now it was time for the Audi driver to understand

what it was he was dealing with. It was time for him to taste the pure, red-blooded tang of filthy degeneracy.

At 200, I downshifted two gears and cracked the throttle to the stop. I didn’t have time to consider what happened next. Like, I’d had an idea. I’d done this before. But unless you do this kind of stuff lots of times, your brain tends to shove the memories into a place it doesn’t like you going to that often. What happened next? The Hayabusa did what it had been designed to do and filthed my degeneracy to the next level. It’s hard to appreciate just how fast this thing accelerates until you actually make an effort. It’s no effort for the Hayabusa. This is what it does. It throws the horizon at your face. It’s what you asked it do, after all.

I don’t think I even breathed for those few scalding, howling seconds as I went past that 200km/h-going Audi. And I went past him like he was not going very fast at all. My head was down, my eyes were wide, my mouth was dry, and my arse was clenched like a UFC champion’s fist.

I do not know what speed I was doing. I didn’t look. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the Audi driver understood what speed and acceleration were really all about. And that he grasped that he was dealing with a

filthy degenerate. And that his fine German station wagon was as dust compared to the Hayabusa.

Did he understand all of that? Of course he did. When I slowed down to 120 so that I could make the Singleton turn-off, he went past me and saluted me with his hazard lights. We’d rolled the dice. No snake-eyes. Both of us won, even though he’d lost.

There are other fast bikes. I have ridden them all. Any of them could have done that to the Audi. Some of them steer faster in corners than the Hayabusa. Most of them range in comfort from acceptable and tolerable to OMFG I’m crippled and on fire.

But none of them do this kind of comfy, high-speed, wind-roaring, blood-curdling evil quite like the Hayabusa does. None of them are quite as rounded a motorcycle as the Hayabusa now is. Sure, there’s the supercharged H2 from Kawasaki, but I reckon the Hayabusa handles tighter stuff better – and maybe it’s a bit of the Ford versus Holden thing going on for me here.

But this not a bike comparo. It’s not even a bike review.

It is a work of fiction. It never happened. How could it have? Who even dares to do this kinda shit anymore? Not me. And I’m a filthy degenerate. 30

MeeT

GEorGE JEtSoN

E NE r GI c A E SSE E SSE 9+ r S rIDE I MP r ESSI o N

By tUG McclUtcHIN - IMAGES By NIck EDArDS

Build quality is spot on.

Lots of interesting parts made specifically for this machine.

“Y“ you’re AfrAid of chAnge. i don’t know the future. i didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. i cAme here to tell you how it’s going to begin.”

ou’re afraId of ChanGe. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.” recognise the quote? It’s keanu reeves’ character neo from The Matrix. I find it oddly comforting when I can think of a relevant movie quote for a story that comes from a movie with bikes in it. serendipity.

Electric bikes huh? I remember when the first crusty ones started appearing on the scene. Heavy, ugly, poor range. Almost useless really, and immensely uninspiring.

I remember the cries from the people who considered themselves the motorcycling heartland. “But I love the sound of combustion engines!”. “I could never enjoy a bike that makes no noise!”. “But I like changing gears!”. “I’ll give up motorcycles before I ride

an electric bike”. “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our petrol!” I remember the cries because I probably cried a few of them myself. Many still cry them. You’ve no doubt heard them. Or maybe you still cry them too.

And that’s ok.

Change comes to us all, in our turn, in our time. Much like death. How quickly we embrace change, or indeed whether we do at all, is a matter for each of us. We all deal with things differently, and for many of us, motorcycles are a vital part of our lives, so any change to that is of vital import.

Why all the specific angst about electric bikes, though? I think it’s not so much about the noise, or the feel, or the experience of riding like everyone says. I think it’s more about all of us having to acknowledge that the thing we love, in its current form, has a limited life. Maybe we have to confront that climate change action is accelerating this electric vehicle adaptation, and some of you think climate change isn’t really a thing, so you want to resist anything that results from it, since embracing the resulting change is tantamount to accepting the existence of climate change in the first place. So screw all the greenies and their green solutions. It’s a spurious point though, because you won’t have a choice, eventually.

Combustion engines will one day disappear from our roads, whether we like it or not. We all denied it for a long time, and while electric vehicles were a novelty with limited use and high buy-in prices, we reassured ourselves we were safe from the horrors of the future for quite some time. But the last few years have seen an exponential change in technology, and what is becoming available in the electric vehicle and motorcycle market is suddenly realistic for a lot of people. Not just realistic, but economical, effective, and done with a level of refinement and performance that combustion-engined options in some cases can’t deliver for the same cash.

It’s not long ago that former Australian Prime Minister and serial idiot Scott Morrison tried to win a federal election by claiming the Labor Party’s electric vehicle policies would mean the end of the ute (Australian for a pick-up truck for our overseas readers) and it would “kill the Aussie weekend”. The inference was that

Top left: Lots of trick touches.

Bottom left: The Ego doesn’t look out of place amongst the classic bikes at Zen’s showroom.

Above: Its electric heart is inconspicuous visually, but aurally is another thing altogether.

Below right: The sublime to the ridiculous. A handbuilt Harley board tracker replica, and a modern Electric bike.

a lack of range and towing ability in electric vehicles would mean Aussies couldn’t do things like go camping and tow boats if their big utes were legislated off the road to make room for electric cars. Of course, none of that was going to happen, but it scared a lot of people and scored him a lot of votes.

Now, just a few years later, electric pickup trucks are coming that can tow more than a Dodge Ram and have a range that makes them effective for a decent chunk of the market. That is undeniable. Electric cars can now drive from Sydney to Melbourne with only two short stops to charge them, with a total recharge time required of about half an hour, which is not much longer than two fuel stops anyway. They can get from Melbourne

to Adelaide with one 15 minute recharging stop. Whether we like it or not, they’re getting better rapidly. It’s not the future anymore. It’s the now. Every major car manufacturer has plans to electrify most, if not all, of their fleets by 2035. Bike manufacturers have it squarely on the table too. Why do you think Ducati has invested millions into becoming the sole provider of bikes for the MotoE world championship? They know what lies ahead, and they want to be seen as the leaders in electric bike technology. So we can get our hate on for electric cars and bikes all we like, but eventually, it won’t be up to us. The

manufacturers know where this is headed. They know that eventually, fuel prices will have people screaming for electric vehicles. And one day, there will be no oil left anyway. Then electric vehicles are pretty much all we have. Gas and Hydrogen aren’t realistic solutions for bikes, so electric it is.

I came to terms with this reality a few years ago. It didn’t make me an electric bike early adopter. I’m quite happy with bikes that go bang for now. But when the call came from Bruce at Zen Motorcycles at Alexandria in Sydney with an offer to try an Energica electric bike, I jumped at it.

Energica is at the top end of the electric motorcycle market and was the supplier of bikes for the first couple of years of the MotoE world championship. I enjoyed watching them race. They were heavy, and the races were only around 8 laps, but they were fast and powerful and they smoked rear tyres with ease. So to ride the road-going version was certainly an interesting proposition. I was wary though, and if I am honest I would have to say I was prepared to be disappointed. Maybe part of me hoped to be. I was imagining a snatchy throttle. Difficulty manoeuvring at low speed. No engine braking. Mostly I was thinking it would simply be a completely different and altogether unsatisfactory riding experience. So, there’s that out of the way. My keenness to have a ride was more out of curiosity and a dedication to you, our much loved and coddled readers, so that together we all might know a little more about

these electric jiggers than we otherwise did, and have some feel for the future.

Before we get to what the bike is like to ride, let’s look at what it is. Energica has a few different models available, and the one I rode is the naked EsseEsse9+ RS (I’ll call it the EE9 because I’m simple guy). Its slightly different brother is the Ego, which is much the same but comes with a full fairing, a slightly more racey ride position and a little more oomph. There is also the Experia on the way, which is an electric answer to a Ducati Multistrada. While its adventure touring skills may be constrained by its range for now, limiting your ability to hit the back roads, most Multistrada owners don’t tackle much dirt, if any, anyway. People buy them for their long travel suspension, ability to carry luggage, and comfy ride position. That’s why I own one. The same will hold for the Experia.

And what of performance? The

Ego has the balls to out-drag a Yamaha R1 from 0-100 km/h. 2.6 seconds for the Ego RS, if you don’t mind. The EE9 I rode will do it in 2.8. Yes, it’s seriously fast in a straight line. But speed is illusory on these motorcycles. With no gears to change, no repetitive runs through a tacho’s range, and no bellowing aural thunder, you don’t quite realise just how quickly you are accelerating. It’s simply twist and go, and go you do, very rapidly.

And before you start thinking it is silent, it isn’t. The Energica has a reduction gear that leads to the final drive chain, and it sounds like a straight-cut gear, given the whine it makes. So it makes quite a loud noise, very much like a jet turbine engine on a plane. The feeling of taking off from the lights is very much like being on a plane, come to think of it. You hear the howl, and you feel the unmistakable movement of your internal organs rearwards in your body as they try to stay where they are while the rest of you lurches forward, pushed by immense levels of torque.

It’s a head turner too. Not so much due to its looks, as to nonmotorcyclists it looks much the same as other bikes, but because of the noise it makes. People on the footpath turn to see what it is as soon as they hear it. My piped-up Ducati attracts less attention than this bike.

Appearance-wise it gives off understated yet futuristic vibes. I’m cool with that.

I imagined that I would be constantly reaching for a clutch lever that doesn’t exist, or trying to lift a gear lever that isn’t there. I didn’t do it once. The procedure to start the bike and get it moving is different to any other bike, so you find yourself in a different mindset from the start. Or perhaps it’s because you take off without a clutch to start with, so you don’t go looking for it after that?

The riding experience is different from what you are accustomed

Above: The TFT screen is bright and easy to read. Left: The hearts of the matter. Where all the Torques are made.

Right: Around town it looks like any other bike. Doesn’t sound like it though.

to, and you find yourself concentrating on riding what is beneath you and dealing with how it works. In no time you become familiar with it and get on with business. And it’s serious business.

How serious? 207Nm of torque serious. That’s for the EE9. That’s a massive number in the bike world. The Ego RS is smashing out 222Nm, so that’s another step again.

For all of the characteristics you might think electric motors lack, torque is not one of them. It is their superpower. You know all those freight trains you see hauling coal or containers across the country with their big diesel locomotives? The massive diesel engines on those suckers are only there to generate electricity for the monster electric motors that do the pulling. They’re not diesel locos, they’re diesel-electric. Because torque is where it’s at when it comes to pulling power, and electric trumps everything, even diesel.

We all know how much fun motorcycles with high torque outputs are. So maybe we should start to characterise these bikes from that premise? Maybe that gives you a different perspective?

“ it goes like A psychopAth on meth in A stolen porsche.”

The other great thing about electric motors is that all that power is there instantly. Petrol motors have to build to a rpm level where they are providing big power, and that takes time. Crack the throttle on an electric bike and it is all there for you in the instant.

By way of reference, here are some popular bikes right now and their torque numbers. The BMW S1000RR superbike produces 113Nm. Their trusty R1250GS has 143Nm. Suzuki’s new Gen3 Hayabusa smashes out 150Nm. The supercharged Kawasaki H2 makes 142Nm.

Ducati’s power cruiser Diavel V4 manages 126Nm, and KTM’s epic Superduke creates 140Nm.

Not one of them comes close to the Energica range.

The Harley-Davidson Breakout

with the new Milwalkee-Eight 117 motor pumps out 167Nm thanks to its almost two-litre engine, so it’s kind of getting close, but it isn’t until we look at the Triumph Rocket III with its massive 2.5 litre triple that we find a motorcycle with a petrol engine that can match Energica’s imposing torque stats for the Evo. The Rocket III oozes 221Nm, only one shy of the Ego. It’s also $37k plus on-roads.

You get the idea. The Energica range surpasses even most impressive

bikes around in the torque stakes. In fact it makes most of them look flaccid. But what does that mean for the riding experience? And does it even feel like a motorcycle?

Before you take off for the

Above: Doesn’t look that different to most other naked bikes, right?

Right: It doesn’t matter where you look, it’s quality bits for days.

Far right: Yes. Brembo radial callipers. They work as you would expect.

first time you wonder how you will modulate your initial speed without a clutch. We are all used to managing the clutch and throttle at low speed to manage our progress, and I worried about a lightswitch throttle spearing me straight across the road and leaving me bleeding out under the wheels of an oncoming concrete truck. I needn’t have concerned myself. Getting it moving was as easy as turning on a tap. The throttle is supple in gentle hands. Low-speed control is simpler than any bike I’ve ridden. You can still get into trouble if you’re an idiot, but you’re not, so don’t fret.

When you want it to boogie, the playlist is resting in your right hand. I found the most fun way to escape the traffic lights was to hold the rear brake on and start applying a little throttle when you anticipate the lights about to change. When the flag drops, err, I mean when the lights change, hammer the throttle and release the brake. You will find yourself escaping up the road at a velocity that few

motorcycles can match, with the front wheel skimming the tarmac, passers-by wondering what the hell that thing is, and you smiling like a loon inside your lid.

The suspension was a little firm for my liking around town, but there is substantial adjustability there, and if I was taking it out for a few days instead of a few hours, I’m sure finding suitable settings would not be an issue. The weight handicap isn’t very noticeable when underway as the centre of gravity is low, and moving the bike around when parking isn’t an issue either as it has a genius lowspeed mode, which will allow you to ride around at up to a slow jogging pace, either forwards or backwards, so getting it into the perfect parking spot is easier than any bike I’ve ever ridden. You don’t ever have to push it anywhere if you don’t choose to.

The Energica models also have regenerative energy recovery, which operates just like engine braking. Turn it off and when you back the

throttle off it will just keep rolling along. But turn it on and choose one of its multiple modes, and the bike will feel just like a normal motorcycle under engine braking when you back off, while at the same time passively generating its own electricity and charging the battery.

That’s why it has a larger range around town than it does on the open road. Stop-start riding helps keep the battery charged as the bike essentially charges itself. When you are stopped at an intersection or in traffic, it is not using any energy, unlike an idling combustion engine. Energica says the range around town can exceed 400km, depending on the riding conditions. That’s better than most bikes will get from a tank of fuel around town. Open road riding sees that reduce to something around 200km, but again that depends on riding conditions, the way you ride, and even the temperature, as that can affect battery efficiency as well.

The bike can be charged at home, or at the same fast charging stations most of the electric cars use, and there’s more of those being built all the time.

Our photographer Nick and I were both very impressed with the build quality of the bikes. They are wellput-together machines. They look like the high-class motorcycles that they are. And they would want to be well built, given the $45k+ prices of the Energica range. That’s a lot of cash, but there’s no shortage of naturally aspirated bikes in that price range already.

Everything else is as you’d expect. Funky TFT screen, quality brakes,

Top left: We rode it into a skate bowl just to piss off the Sk8tRBois. It worked.

Left & below: The build quality is evident wherever you look.

Top right: It’s not a logo yould know. But you will in time.

comfy seat, you know the deal. There’s nothing cheap on this bike.

Is it addictive like a normal motorcycle? Absolutely. It just affects you slightly differently. It goes like a psychopath on meth in a stolen Porsche. It turns and handles well, although my ride was limited to metro roads so I can’t comment on its open road manners, but I would expect good things. It is great fun to ride. So it ticks most of the boxes combustionpowered bikes tick. And what I noticed about not having to deal with a clutch and gears, is that it focuses the senses on other aspects of riding. You have more brain capacity to think about traffic, where you are going to place your wheels in the lane, your corner entry speed, your throttle control, and your braking points. You get the drift. Simplifying any task makes it more efficient and effective.

So the future isn’t as dark as you may think. Electric bikes are not coming. They are here. You can yell at clouds all you like, but you can’t stop the revolution. And if electric technology were around when bikes were invented, I reckon it’s likely that’s what would have powered Gotlieb Daimler’s first motorcycle, because it makes more sense than using petrol in a hell of a lot of ways, and Gotlieb was no man’s fool.

Here’s the big thing though, there’s a reason people love the Rocket III. They love the way it makes masses of torque and how it goes about its business. It is utterly addictive. Now imagine putting Rocket III levels of torque in a Ducati Panigale-style body. Or in a BMW GS. Or in a Yamaha MT10. That is what the three Energica models do. Naked bike, sports bike, and road-biased adventure bike, all smashing out 200Nm of torque and more.

If you can get past your preconceptions and misgivings, I can promise you will love that part at least.

I’m not suggesting you will all want to go out and buy one now. Some of you need a better range than what these bikes provide right now. But that range will improve as the technology improves. So there will come a time where electric bikes are an option for most riders, and then there will come a time when you won’t have another option than electric, but don’t fear, there’s much to love about them.

If you’d like to check them out and perhaps even book a test ride, get in touch with Zen Motorcycles in Sydney or any of the other Energica dealers.

Don’t worry. The future is brighter than you think. I’m just here to tell you how it begins. AMM

NAkED aggression

BM w ’ S IN cr EDIB l E M1000 r IS BE yo ND ME . It IS BE yo ND yo U . tHIS MA k ES I t o NE o F t HE G r EAt ES t M otorcycl ES E v E r BUI lt.

worDS By BorIS MIHAIlovIc - IMAGES By NIck EDArDS

The roCk I was sitting on was hot. rocks get hot in summer. It is the nature of both the season and the rock. I was hot too, and a little drymouthed. But not from thirst. When your entire being has been firehosed with adrenalin-powered endorphins, it tends to dry you out some. I wished I still smoked. It seemed appropriate.

Two metres away, on the side of the road, sat BMW’s M1000R, its rear tyre frosted with gravel. It looked like a black donut studded with grey hundredsand-thousands.

We were having what might be termed a brief operational pause. I was no longer 25. It takes a little longer for my thrilljelly to reconstitute itself. In the past, I would have a cigarette or three while this happened. I’d tell myself it calmed me. It didn’t. Of course, it didn’t. But I would tell myself that. But I no longer smoked. So, I just sat there staring at the M with slack-jawed intensity while the hot rock unpleasantly grilled my arse.

“ it’s like the m1000r hAd rAmmed A spiked electrode into my brAin And hosed it full of yesterdAy’s snowy mountAins scheme output. ”

Of the many bikes I have ridden, there have been very few that have branded themselves on my being. I can list them. It’s not a long list. But it was now longer by one more bike. What can I tell people about the M1000R?, I thought as I sat there on that hot rock.

Usually, thoughts about a bike, and what you might like to know about it, form in my head when I’m riding it. Then I get home, marshal those thoughts into some kind of coherence, and write the review.

Above: Nick and I do photos, it rains.

Left: If this ain’t warpaint, what is?

Below: No-one will be in any doubt what this is.

This was different. It’s like the M1000R had rammed a spiked electrode into my brain and hosed it full of yesterday’s Snowy Mountains Scheme output.

Above: The engine is lovely, the cat converter is not.

Below: Your pillion needs to be small. Bottom right: The levers are adjustable and collapsible.

The only things going through my head as I’d pushed the M1000R as hard as I dared, was a variety of blasphemies, grunts and moans, punctuated by six-languages worth of swearing. And that’s a power of swearing. Nothing else seemed appropriate. And nothing else was possible, quite frankly. Sure, I could descend into banal mediocrity, jam some adjectives and adverbs between the objective facts on the spec sheet – 210hp, 113Nm, 199kg wet, etc – but then

I’d just be doing what most of the motorcycle media will do. And they’re much better at that than I am.

How about I tell you other stuff instead?

How about I tell you my mate, Kane, who races bikes, is young, strong, and correctly fearless, is going to buy one? His mind was made up when him and his mate (who rides a Ducati Streetfighter) went for a squirt up the Putty the weekend before I picked up the bike he took on that ride.

“It just walks away from the Ducati,” he said. “I’ve never ridden anything like it.”

“You rode both?” I asked.

“Yeah, we swapped. Same thing. The M is better in every possible way.”

How about I tell you how I chased Duncan, astride his new S1000RR, up and down the Putty Road, and sat close enough to his rear tyre to fill me with horror and exaltation? I normally can’t keep him in sight. On that day, I

was wondering if I should have a crack at passing him, reasoning going to jail for 250 in an 80 zone would be much like going to jail for 180 in an 80 zone.

How about I tell you the M1000R, aside from being as good a bike as I have ever ridden, as good a bike as a bike needs to be, and is a bike as easy and rewarding to ride at hell-speeds even by muppets like me?

How about I tell you how omnipotent I felt riding it? I was on a bike that could slay all that challenged it. Of course, I could not, since there are lots of riders faster than me. But the bike could. It had “I can make you my bitch!” written all over it – from the crazy aero, to the speed-pimp race-paint BMW smeared it with. The bike’s sheer ability, it’s overwhelming competence and integrity, made my grins evil and my intent laser-focused.

When you are committed and deep

“ i wAs wondering if i should hAve A crAck At pAssing him, reAsoning going to jAil for 250 in An 80 zone would be much like going

to jAil for 180 in An 80 zone.

”

into a long 75km/h sweeper at 190, hot on the heels of your unhinged mate (or he’s hot on yours), you’re not even breathing. You just...well, “are”, I guess, because there’s nothing else you can be or do at that point.

These are the moments that exalt you. You’re raised to a higher plane within yourself. And that is only possible when the bike you’re on is utterly unfussed by what you’re doing. And in fact, completely at ease and would be wondering (if it was sentient) why you’re not going faster and harder. It can, even if you can’t.

And it does all of this without a hint of malice that something like the Panigale has. The Ducati is in every way as astonishing a bike as the M1000R, as I am sure is the

Top: Chucks out some fine lumens.

Above: Brakes the colour of a Bavarian sky.

Below: The best quick-shifter you’ll ever use.

Streetfighter variant. But the BMW is not frying your leg with nuclear heat. It’s not forcing you into a racer’s crouch you’ve no business being in, certainly at my age. The M1000R can commute and tour, whereas the Panigale will hurt you if you do that with it.

Above: It certainly looks the business.

Below: It’s still relatively muted.

Right

It is so good at what it does and how it does it, some people will declare it lacks “character”, as if it’s one of your badly-behaved kids. Let’s be honest for a sec. This “character” thing was

created by people who rode Nortons, Ducatis, and Harleys as a way of explaining why the bastards were trying to kill them from time to time. I was one of them. I know this.

The M1000R is quite beyond any such infantile mewlings and anthropomorphisms. It’s a goddamn motorcycle. It has characteristics, not character.

& bottom right: As usual, the important stuff is on the left block, while the right is basic.

It has the entire suite of BMW’s superb electronic rideraids. Of course, it does. And you can look at all of them on the website, shrug – because you’d expect nothing less from BMW – and move on with your life.

If you wish to go up a level, there’s the Competition variant, which gives you a bunch of carbon goodies, like the rear-wheel cover and chain guard, front-wheel cover, tank trims, airbox cover, aero bits, an activation code for the M GPS-Laptrigger, and M Carbon wheels that cut the unsprung weight by 1.6kg.

I’m not sure I’d opt for carbon wheels for road use, which would mean a man would have to actually own two of these – one for the track and one for the road. I could never afford two of them. But I would sure as hell cover the single unit I’d buy in the other carbon goodies. I’m strange like that.

This is pretty much what was going on in my head as I sat on that hot rock by the side of the road, and gaped at the M1000R.

It was more bike than I could ever ride. I did not care. The chunk of it that I could ride was simply amazing. Utterly, unquestionably, and completely amazing. Try one. See if I’m lying. AMM

Top: The greeting screen. Above: The business screen.

trIUMPH tIGEr 1200 Gt

iT burns brighT

wHEN yo U ’r E t I lt ING At t HE G E r MAN kING , B r ING yo U ’r E A- GAME

worDS By BorIS MIHAIlovIc - IMAGES By kEoGH vISIoN

OnCe uPon a TIMe, Triumph’s efforts in the big-bore adventure bike category were less than optimal. Its Tiger range was big – in every sense of the word. As was its direct competitor, the niche-defining BMW GS. But the Germans had finessed their big gronkasaurus with electronics and Bavarian sorcery until, despite its size, it was quite a manageable animal if you knew what you were doing. And if you’re buying these big adventurous girls and throwing them down iffy dirt roads, best you know what you’re doing.

The old Tiger, much like Yamaha’s even heftier Super Ténéré, was a far better road bike than it was a dirt bike, and it still lost out in many ways to the Germans.

What to do, what to do?

Clearly, build a better mousetrap, and that’s exactly what Triumph did.

The new Tiger 1200 surfaced with much fanfare. The Tall Poppy syndrome was hard at work, and everyone wanted to see the GS cut down to size, and were hoping this new 1200 would do it.

At the same time, the manufacturers were well aware the current range of big-bore Adventure bikes could not and did not appeal to a market that was still in the growth phase. They were simply too big – too tall, too heavy, and too...well, overwhelming for many people just starting out in the Adventure segment. So, they all began to build smaller versions of the big-bore bikes.

And we shall set them aside, because they have nothing to do with the pointy end of the Adventure spear – which are the bigbore brutes.

And the new Tiger is very much the

pointy end of that spear, and it is not brutish at all.

Has it knocked the GS off it’s perch? No. But it may have made it move over some.

There are two iterations – the GT and the Rally. The Rally is more dirtoriented in its set-up, and Triumph offers two variations – the Rally Pro and the Rally Explorer.

“ triumph’s beAut new Active preloAd reduction – which ActuAlly lowers the bike 20mm As you come to A hAlt when you press the ‘home’ button.”

For people who want a more bitumen-pitched bike – and if we’re honest a lot of these big-bore Adventure bikes spend a lot of time on sealed roads because they are superb tourers by any definition – Triumph offers the Tiger 1200 GT, which is also comes in the GT Pro variant and the GT Explorer variant.

Because Australia is special, we don’t get the base GT. We only get the GT Pro and the GT Explorer –which has a bigger tank and blindspot detection.

I rode the GT Pro.

The important numbers are the same for all three variants – 150 horses, 130Nm of torque, and a seat height that benefits from Triumph’s beaut new Active Preload Reduction –which actually lowers the bike 20mm as you come to a halt when you press the ‘Home’ button. So maybe less tippy-toe time for the people who don’t have those wonderful long supermodel legs. And the seat is adjustable for height as well –850mm to 870mm.

As a bitumen tourer, where this variant will spend most of its time (otherwise you’d be shopping for the Rally), it is superb. That legendary triple engine does sterling duty in this set-up – massive gobs of torque,

sweet fuelling, and that unmistakeable triple-pot howl it makes when you’re being sassy.

My forays up and down the Putty and a few back-roads the other side of Coolah, were intensely satisfying, as you can imagine...though arguably not altogether compliant with the Motor Traffic Act.

That’s thing here. As Adventurey as they look and as Adventurey as they doubtlessly are, these things are absolute rocketships on the tar. Massive ground clearance, wonderfully compliant suspension (semi-active of course), superb brakes – and all with spot-on ergonomic comfort.

Even the pillion will have no room for complaint – and my beloved wife, Lynette, is testament to that.

Above: One of the world’s great triples. Below: What your pillion will see after you’ve fallen off.

Above: The profile is purposeful.

Below & below right: The logo welcomes you and Triumph allows you several choices in the display.

She’s about as hard a marker as it gets as a pillion – and I have inflicted everything from a rigid Shovelhead to a GSX-R on her over the years, so she’s very wary of my offering to take her for a ride each time I do.

“What are we going on?”

“That.”

“Shut-up, fool.”

“What about that one?”

“What else you got?”

“How about this here Tiger?”

“That looks fine.”

From my perspective, the Tiger had it over the 1250GS in several important ways. It was much narrower – both across the engine, and across the tank. It weighed about the same as GS (245kg wet), but it didn’t feel like it because its mass was appreciably more compact when you’re sitting on it.

The tank on the GT Pro holds 20-litres, but if your bladder will permit, the Explorer has a 30-litre tank. And that, as you can guess, is a bit more weight to cart around when the tank is full. If you’re already at your strength limit on one of these big girls, maybe you don’t need the bigger tank. You’ll get almost 300km out of the 20-litre jobby – and I don’t know about you, but I like to get off every hour-and-a-half or so and give thanks to the Road Gods for still being alive.

The semi-active Showa bouncers front and rear are pretty spot-on, and of course there’s a heap of adjustment you can make to custom ride modes you have. I just left mine in Sport and sailed most happily.

You’re also rocking Brembo Stylema stoppers at the front, Metzeler Tourance hoops, a lovely seven-inch TFT full-colour dash, and 16,000km service intervals. It is one hell of a package to aim at the GS.

And it feels so damn hard-punching. That’s that triple engine. It is a bona fide weapon if you wanna fight with it. I have always been a fan of that legendary donk, and I always will be. There’s just something mighty about it.

In that regard, it has an edge over the old GS. Not sure about the new one, since I have yet to ride it, but it’s a fair bet that if the Germans bring something new to the table, the Poms will not just let that slide. Mr Bloor and his lads have been producing some world-beating bikes in the last few years, and they have no intention on letting the Adventure category be a German province.

As far as the Tiger 1200 GT Pro is concerned, it burns bright indeed, fearful symmetry and all. AMM

Left: Good torque makes for good corner exits.

Top: Just this side of being ‘too busy’.

Above middle: Remote suspension voodoo.

Above: That muffler would look better in the sea.

Bottom left & right: The menu controls are all here, and the barkbusters are well-mounted.

The GreaTesT ConCern for any worldsBk fan, well maybe not so much the ducatista, would be that 2024 turns into another year of let’s-chaseBautista whilst he hauls off into the distance on the aruba.it factory ducati V4. Make no mistake, the spaniard deserves his back-to-back titles from seasons 2022 and 2023 but it’s also fair to say that being one of the smallest guys on the grid and being on the hardest accelerating bike has worked out very nicely for

him and some of his race wins have seen him a long way out front which robs us of the battles for first place that make bike racing so dramatic.

Bautista is one of the few top riders staying with his team for 2024 and would be seen as the man to beat but a late season back injury and the newfor-2024 minimum bike/rider weight, which adds 7kg to his ride, may shift the balance a little in his opposition’s favour. Here’s hoping they can stay with him in 2024 and make him work hard for a three-peat.

So what of Bautista’s opposition?

For a start he has a new teammate with Nicolo Bulega replacing Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Bulega came away from 2023 as World Supersport champion, a title he won on the Aruba. it factory Ducati Panigale V2 so he’s already very familiar with the way Aruba.it teams work. First impressions from pre-season testing are that he’s adapting quickly to the bigger bike, not always a given when riders switch from Supersport to Superbike. Kenan Sofuoğlu and Lucas Mahias, both

worlDSBk 2024 previeW

By NIck EDArDS

World Supersport champions both disappointed in the premier calss.

Bautista’s closest rivals in 2023 were Razgatioglu and Rea and this is where things get really interesting for 2024.

In many people’s eyes, Toprak Razgatlioğlu, protégé of Sofuoğlu, is the most talented rider on the WorldSBK grid. Brutally effective under brakes, usually with the back wheel floating around in mid-air, tough, clean and prone to ruffle other rider’s feathers because whilst some of his moves are hard, they’re pretty

much always absolutely clean and give whoever he’s passing at least a couple of millimetres space to work with. Riding the PATA Yamaha Prometeon R1M for the last four seasons, and taking the championship title in 2021, he’s been the only rider to be able to regularly challenge Bautista and to do that he’s had to ride closer to the edge of grip lap after lap in a way that defies belief especially if you replay some of his moves in slow motion where his absolute control can really be appreciated.

For 2024 Toprak has made the huge decision to switch from Yamaha to works BMW. Why huge? The reality is that the BMW simply hasn’t been able to make a real mark on the series despite having a decent rider line-up. Can Toprak make the Beemer sing? Very positive comments from him out of the early pre-season testing sessions suggest he likes what he’s got and let’s hope that by the time the regular season starts at Phillip Island on the last weekend in February, he’s gelled with the BMW to the extent

Insert above: Bassani’s new ride for 2024. How strange will it be to not see Rea on a factory Kawasaki ? Left: Loca can be expected to build on his already impressive transition to the big bikes.

that he’ll continue to put himself right up at the pointy end of the racing. Some have suggested that the only reason that Toprak went to BMW was because it represented a huge payday for him but more likely he felt there wasn’t much more he could squeeze out of the Yamaha and for him to challenge Bautista, he needed to get on a bike that had unrealized potential that he could unlock, and the BMW fitted that bill. Taking Phil Marron, his experienced crew chief, with him to BMW makes the transition easier than it might otherwise have been.

Toprak’s teammate at BMW will be Michael Van der Mark whose 2023 season was wrecked by injury. Toprak and VdM have good history, they had a great relationship at Yamaha before the Dutchman shifted across to BMW in 2021. Expect them to pick up where they left off and to work well together at BMW.

So factory Yamaha lost Toprak which left a big points scoring hole in the team. Retaining former World SuperSport champion Andrea Locatelli was a positive for them as Loca’s transition to the big bikes has been exemplary and he should be challenging for podium finishes on a regular basis in 2024.

Loca’s new teammate, shock horror, is six-times world champion Jonathan Rea who has been a fixture at factory

Kawasaki for the last nine seasons. The number of crashes Rea has had in the last couple of seasons attests to just how hard he’s had to push the Kawa to keep up with the Yamaha let alone keep the Ducati in sight and he’s probably had more chance to assess the R1M under racing conditions than anyone so perhaps the switch makes perfect sense. The only concern would be, if Toprak wasn’t able to challenge Bautista on the R1M and there’s limited options to develop the Yamaha further, is it reasonable to expect that Rea could do more on the Yam than Toprak and actually challenge Bautista? We’ll see. Soon enough we’ll see.

Rea leaving KRT, who retained Alex Lowes, opened up a seat and the taker was Alex Bassani, top privateer on the Motocorsa Ducati V4 in 2023. Quick if

somewhat inconsistent, the switch to KRT is a huge opportunity for Bassani and hopefully he’ll adapt quickly to his new mount.

Honda. Oh, dear Honda. Only the most ardent Honda-hater would want for them to have another season of just not being in the game. They’ve retained Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona for 2024 and hopefully they can build on this stability to turn the Honda into something more than an also-ran.

WorldSBK satellite teams have some very strong performers on deck for the upcoming season.

Danilo Petrucci returns on the Barni Ducati. A real crowd favourite, he put together some excellent performances in 2023 and hopefully we’ll see more of him upfront in 2024.

The Maniac is back. After four years in the wilderness of his drug bust

Above: Bautista will be looking to make it three titles in a row.

Right: Michael van der Mark stays with BMW for, hopefully, an injury-free season.

related ban, Andrea Iannone will be on the GoEleven Ducati V4 for 2024 and it’s fair to say everyone wants to see whether he’s still got it. WorldSBK will be a more exciting, and slightly more unhinged, place with him being in the middle of it.

Satellite Yamaha GRT are back for another year with 2022 World Supersport champion Domiique Aegerter who thoroughly impressed on some outings but needs to find some consistency, and Remy Gardener who made a smooth transition from MotoGP to WorldSBK in 2023 and can be expected to be close to the sharp end in 2023.

Loris Baz lost out at BMW satellite Bonovo racing, his place was taken by Scott Redding who moved aside to make way for Toprak on the factory bike. Redding, who hasn’t been able to live up to the expectations in WorldSBK (yet) will have Garret Gerloff as teammate. Gerloff, undeniably talented, seems to be consistently just a moment away from establishing himself in the top ranks

but then falling back into the pack as the opportunity slips out of his reach.

In the Ducati satellite world, losing his works seat would have been a tough decision for Rinaldi to swallow but the reality is that whilst he’s scored some good results, he wasn’t consistent enough and Bulega got the nod. But losing Rinaldi from the series would have been a bad thing and the good news is that he’s the beneficiary of Bassani going to KRT as he takes over Bassani’s vacated seat at Motocorsa Ducati.

In recent years, a number of MotoGP and Moto2 riders have switched across to WorldSBK with varying degrees of success and this year’s Moto2 refugee is Alex Lowes’ brother Sam who joins the WorldSBK circus from Moto2and will be riding for the MarcVDS Racing team on another satellite Ducati.

WorldSBK 2024 hits the track for Round One at Phillip Island 23rd-25th February. The final pre-season testing days are at the same track just a few days before race weekend and that will be the first real opportunity to see how well-placed riders and teams are to challenge for the title which consists of twelve rounds, consisting of twentyfour full length and twelve sprint races culminating at Jerez in October. 2024 could be the classic WorldSBK season that we’ve been waiting for... AMM

Above left: Petrucci was impressive in his first WorldSBK season in 2023. What can he do in 2024?

Above: Factory Ducati V4. Engineering Art. Left: Toprak will be centre of attention as he gets to grips with the BMW in 2024.

2023 UkrAINE neal bayly riDes

Thousands of MIles awaY in my soft, comfortable life, images of destroyed buildings, dead and injured civilians and outnumbered soldiers fighting for their country filled Internet news feeds and TV screens. It didn’t seem possible that in plain view of the world, russia was targeting women and children with their bombs and missiles, seemingly intent on destroying every facet of ukrainian life with this unprovoked attack.

We have currently been in Ukraine for five days and been on a number of assignments working with the most brilliant fixers. From 1500 feet below the surface of the earth in an old ‘70s Soviet era coal mine, to spending the day with young amputees who just weeks ago were on the front line, it’s been intense. We have visited a famous Speedway stadium to spend time with some racers, visited a 16th century monastery that is housing fifty refugees from Kharkiv, and been hammering away on social media soliciting donations that we will give to the project that most needs our support.

Every day people are messaging to say stay safe, some are donating, and for the most part here in the western part of Ukraine we are ok. There are moments though, like when world

u K raine 2023

famous photographer Brent Stirton, exSouth African special forces, messaged from Sri Lanka to say “it’s no joke, I’ve lost two friends and two others wounded,” that the gnawing in my gut begins. It’s the same feeling that happens when the air raid sirens wail at night, or we approach a military checkpoint out in the country.

It’s interesting, as there is another stronger feeling that sweeps over me when I’m at the rehab center seeing so many young men with missing limbs, or spending time with refugees listening to their horrific stories that threatens to overwhelm my emotions. Then we get busy, it passes, and I find myself riding a silky-smooth BMW motorcycle on a piece of twisting asphalt, carving through a beautiful country landscape marveling at the stunning architecture in the villages, the onion domed churches and the quiet rural life we are passing through. It would be an idyllic country to take a motorcycle trip, an adventure ride or holiday. As peaceful and beautiful as it appears though, reality comes rushing back in the knowledge that these beautiful people, this stunning architecture, and this peaceful lifestyle can be gone in an instant from Russian bombs or missiles and the gnawing in my gut returns. Tomorrow, we go east. The stories are going to get harder and the fight in my head will return, as the search for the words and images to communicate the need for us all to help continues. As I finish this account, I realize there is much more to be shared from the continuing journey here in Ukraine. Stay tuned.

It was one of those times where the historic streets, the beautiful weather and stunning architecture had me fooled into thinking I was on tour taking in the sights, sounds and smells of a beautiful new country. The feeling continued out into the countryside as we rolled for Kyiv with fields of grain and sunflowers, small rural villages, ornate churches and cathedrals dotting the landscape. Andriy, our fixer, had the Olesko Castle lined up to visit and photograph and the day was idyllic. We filmed some ride footage, stopped for a sandwich and coffee and occasional photo op and it was as peaceful and as enjoyable as a day in the saddle could be.

In total it’s only around 350 miles, so not a marathon day in saddle, but on two-lane roads and constantly slowing or stopping for military checkpoints it was late afternoon as we hit the outskirts of Kyiv. Where our previous exposure to the war had been from the testimonies of amputees, refugees and air

u K raine 2023

strike warnings, within minutes of our arrival, the sight and smell of blown-up buildings had my head on a swivel. Whole shopping malls, department stores, gas stations and houses were gone, leaving just the charred, twisted remains as grotesque reminders of the death and destruction caused by Russian missiles. Closer into the city there was less damage and, as the sun was setting, we rolled through historic tree-lined avenues to find our funky accommodation; I felt almost as if I were pulling up to my hostel on my old motorcycle in Istanbul 30 years ago.

Setting up camp for a few days in our small, single bedroom apartments, Kiran and I both shared the insane feelings of catching ourselves enjoying the ride and forgetting the war for a while. Any feelings of guilt were soon washed away by the haunting, and now familiar, sound of the sirens howling out into the night, as we sat discussing our day and the shared strange intimacy created by our knowing that these could be our last moments.

Closer to Bucha we stopped to look at a line of tanks and military vehicles that had been blown up in place by the Ukrainians. Lady Luck jumped in and Roman, a refugee from Irpin on a small Chinese motorcycle, was soon escorting us across Bucha with his friend on board a BMW F 800 GS. They were friends with the gentleman who

runs the Motocross track and wanted us to meet him. The track had been hit by dozens of missiles and the devastation was heartbreaking, but the spirit of the Ukrainian’s was here also on display— they had already filled in 47 bomb craters on the track and had cleared multiple tons of debris.

We spent a few days in and out of the area before making a walking tour of Kyiv. What an incredible city, crammed full of amazing architecture, peaceful streets and avenues with sidewalk cafes, historic churches, and cathedrals at every turn. My favorite was St. Sophia, founded in 1037 with monastic buildings, a gilt cupola, necropolis, and museum. Outside the gates was a chilling exhibition of destroyed Russian military equipment, which really just shows the Ukrainian spirit of poking up a middle finger to Russia. On a beautiful sunny day, tourists photographed and climbed on destroyed tanks and missile launchers as if it were just a normal thing to do in a city center. I had one of my now regular gut punches when Andriy translated the hand drawn signs taped to a shot-up and destroyed compact car: “Children.”

Trapped in the city of Mykolaiv as the air-strike warning howled across the city, we made a decision to move to the park. Out in the open we hoped that we would be as far from any buildings possible in case any were hit. And, if they hit the park, we’d be gone quickly.

In hindsight it created one of the most moving moments of the journey for us as we found 75-year-old, Ilia, and his daughter Liubov, still digging through the rubble of his destroyed house and workshop. Somehow in the sheer chaos caused by the Russian missiles, Ilia’s old Scooter had survived. On the surface it was a 1960s Vespa that Ilia had owned for 57 years. Quite how an Italian scooter had made it into the Soviet Union in the ’60s was baffling, until we later found out it was a Russian knock-off called a Vatjaka. It just seemed impossible that it had survived when everything else was destroyed.

The scene in Vinnytsia was beyond horrifying and we’ve all seen enough images of the destruction for me to not labor that point of what we found: Buildings still on fire, bits of human flesh, fragments of missiles, TV crews, emergency workers and as always the smell. The only word to explain it is “shocking,” the disgust felt towards the Russians for deliberately targeting and killing innocent civilians is beyond

words. Over the next few hours we all worked alone, without talking as we committed the scene to our memory cards late into the day. The fairly lengthy ride to our hotel in a nearby city later that evening passed in a blur, as my mind was stuck on what we had seen with absolutely no way of diverting it.

Two days later we were back in Lviv for our final, and most important, appointment, the Children’s Hospital. Early in the war Kiran had covered a story about a little girl called Sophia who had taken shrapnel to the brain, and with the hospital full of injured children it made sense to donate the money we had been raising since leaving America to help. The press lady introduced us to a young lad called Leo who had recently undergone surgery for a tumor, but was also now unable to walk after the trauma of the bombing and shelling in his hometown. He was very shy, but with some candy, a pair of motorcycles and some time, his boyish curiosity took over and the hugs and smiles we shared later came the closest to ripping my heart out of any of our experiences. Fighting to keep it together, we did some TV interviews, took pictures, and hugged Leo. And as he rolled back into the hospital waving and calling “Goodbye,” the airstrike warning began to howl once more. Even here in a children’s hospital he is not safe, with the darkness attempting to enter again we rode for our hotel. AMM

Boris Mihailovic

StUPIDIty The DeFiniTion oF

You’Ve heard ThIs defInITIon of madness. It’s excellent. It’s a straight tooth-busting punch to the face kinda definition. And it goes: “Madness is repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different result.”

I’m thinking you could easily replace the word “madness” with “stupidity”, and it would be just as apt. And it’s rather more applicable to the point I wish to make, because I know a lot of motorcyclists are not mad. But a shittonne of them are stupid. Deeply, profoundly, and shamefully stupid.

They do the same thing over and over, get the same result, then prop themselves up on their hind legs, and commence to baying how gronkingly idiotic they are on social media to an assortment of similarly intellectuallychallenged imbeciles.

Every weekend, provided the sun is shining, these fools take their motorcycles to the same stretch of road and ride upon it. Usually there is a coffee shop at either end or in the middle, where they pause and socialise, look disapprovingly upon each other’s chickenstrips, check out the bikes, and exchange what passes for intelligence among themselves as to where the cops may or may not be.

Then they go and ride the road – the same road they ride most weekends, and one of three things happens.

The first is nothing. They have a ride, a burger or a pie, a coffee, and catch up with the other passengers on this very special bus.

The second is they crash their sad little brains out. This happens despite the fact the crasher rides the same road a lot. Why this happens is a topic hotly debated among the gronks at the pie/hamburger shop.

There could have been a photographer on a corner and the rider maybe got distracted or maybe tried a little too hard. Tar snakes might be blamed. Gravel could be accused. The tyres were pushed too hard and they just “let go”. The apportioning of blame for falling off is all-encompassing. Something, surely, must be at fault for the crash? But that something is certainly not the rider. He or she must remain blameless – and thus a victim of some outside force that turned his day into shit, his bike into scrap, and his leg into a jigsaw puzzle.

The third thing that might happen is the cops will book them. For speeding usually. Because they are speeding. They know it, and the cops know it. Then they might also get a defect for a loud pipe, a shoddy tail-tidy, or a set of handlebars that don’t comply with whatever legislation the cop is enforcing.

The cops, of course, are always on these roads on the weekend. They are a target-rich environments and there are quotas to be filled, after all. They say it’s about safety, but it’s not and it never has been. They just say that so some people won’t think them to be revenueraising human-garbage they actually are.

So these things are all a given. They occur every weekend. And naturally the cops are there because they know the people who ride these roads are stupid, and why would the

full well what awaits them. Yet they go anyway.

Sure, the bends are great, and it’s fun to catch up with people you know and pretend like we’re all one big happy Brothers of the Handlebar circle-jerk, and you might spot some nice bikes.

However, if you enjoy riding motorcycles, you’re not going to have a good time. Because the enjoyment of riding lies in actually riding. Not idling along and staring at your speedo in case you drift over the arbitrary speed limit.

If you just wanna hang out at the pie shop, cool. Do that. We are social animals, after all.

But if you’re gonna give your tyres a proper warming, don’t complain when the Highway Patrol shreds your licence, or some muppet takes you out when he overcooks a corner, or you just fall off because well, you weren’t paying attention, or the corner frightened you.

Australia is a big country. There are a limited number of Highway Patrol cars, and they normally go to where the pickings are easy.

And don’t give me this shit about how you only go to these places because they’re close to town, and you don’t have much time. If you

spent less time dribbling shit with the other pie-shop idiots and more time riding, you could cover a lot of miles in three or four hours and be home for lunch.

Or you could just carry on being stupid weekend after weekend and expecting something other than what always happens to happen.

Good luck with that, champ. AMM

Tom Boissel

Here Is a sIMPle café racer preparation based on a kawasaki Zephyr 550.

The idea of the project was to make a pleasant cafe racer without making major and expensive modifications, to remain within an affordable budget (isn’t that the basic philosophy of the cafe racer?)

It also comes from a barn, bought at a very low price, in a half-dismantled state.

The entire cycle part is original, just renovated (rims, brake, fork). The rear buckle has been modified to integrate the multi-LED lighting (night light, brake lights, indicators), and the new saddle made-to-measure by the workshop with fine vegetable grain leather.

A stainless-steel silencer is adapted via a homemade stainless steel half line (its particularity and that the material comes from an A350 Airbus reactor kerosene supply line, hence the “Fuel” laser marking.

The massive counter assembly typical of the 90s has given way to a small multifunction assembly (speedometer, rev counter,

indicators, etc.).

A pair of half handlebars, new commodos and here’s how to achieve a café racer style in a budget of €5,000. (AUD $8,257)

The bike in its final line before painting attracted the attention of my wife. The idea came that this preparation could be as feminine as masculine. In fact, the size of this motorcycle adapts to any body shape.

For this purpose, I made it a plum red color with a matte varnish which maintains a certain sobriety as feminine as masculine but with an exclusive side.

The choice was the right one because my wife asked me if we could keep it for herself (to be honest I didn’t really have a choice!) (laughing..)

This motorcycle hides a very addictive behavior: its 4-cylinder in-line engine, carburettor and oil-cooled, small cylinder, delivers a sound derived from vintage grand prix superbikes, but at a more pleasant volume. The motorcycle is very playful and loves the climbs in the red zone. we can have fun without driving at dangerous speeds

Every time we go to mechanical events, people appreciate the preparation and women feel included in this preparation environment.

We hope that this motorcycle will be able to give a desire for authenticity to all bikers; and remember that a biker on a motorcycle is good, but on a cafe racer it’s incredible! AMM

Tug McClutchin

wHo ArE yoU?

By tUG McclUtcHIN

I’M noT a nodder. There, I said it. nor do I wave to other bike riders on the road.

There are exceptions, of course. I’ll wave to people I know. Sometimes, if I’m in the absolute middle of nowhere, I might even wave to someone I don’t know. But that’s rare.

I’ll also wave to car drivers who may let me into a gap, or otherwise make my life easier by way of a courteous action, simply as a thank you.

That’s about it though, really.

Why do I not nod at you on the road? There’s a number of reasons. The primary one being I have no idea who you are, and the fact that we both ride motorcycles does not make us brothers in arms. We just happen to both ride motorcycles. Just like we might have both eaten a pepper steak pie for lunch.

If I pull up at a pub for lunch and there are a group of riders sitting together at a table, I’m more than likely going to find a table somewhere away from them. It’s not personal. They’re doing their thing, I’ll do mine.

Yes, I’m a little antisocial. A lot, probably. I have a very small circle of close friends and I’m not naturally happy in a crowd. So that’s part of it.

But for some people riding motorcycles is about something they often refer to as “camaraderie”.

It’s about riding with mates, meeting new people, and whatever it is that comes from that. I get it, and that’s fine. But that’s not what motorcycling is for me.

I’ve also always found the nodding thing a bit weird. You don’t see Camry drivers waving to each other, yet they share the same bond, their choice of passion-killing vehicle. Yet no nodding.

I’ve never been waved to by someone standing in the same queue as me at KFC, yet there we are, both sharing the indignity of waiting in a line to get horrendous food in a squalid hole staffed by 25 year-olds with appalling personal hygiene and no appreciation for food safety laws. The camaraderie is palpable, yet still, no waving.

No. No camaraderie there, apparently.

There’s also the people involved in the world of motorcycling. That’s another reason I don’t nod. I’ve met some staggeringly wonderous people thanks to motorcycles. But I’ve also met some people who thought the simple act of riding one made them staggeringly wondrous. It’s a failed proposition. You’re not magically transformed into a great person by getting on a motorcycle.

If you think the average person is pretty stupid, just remember that 50% of the population is more

stupid than that average person. That’s just plain maths. And in my experience, motorcycling attracts more than its fair share of fuckwits. I’m sure you’ve met them too. So why do you want to wave at them?

You may even be a self-anointed Australian patriot waving at an immigrant whose very existence in this country you despise, yet here you are, waving at them. And because they’re in a helmet, you can’t tell they have dark skin, and all of a sudden they are your brother. Weird, huh?

Then there’s all the sub-groups involved in the waving saga. Some Harley riders only nod at other Harley riders. To do otherwise would be to break some kind of code, which is probably the equivalent of shitting your pants in a nightclub. Some people don’t nod at riders on little bikes, in case they are a learner or P Plater, because they are somehow not yet worthy of a nod. They clearly haven’t been through the school of hard knocks like you as a motorcyclist, so you’re not going to nod at them. They’ve not earnt it.

I was a bike racer long before I got my license to ride on the road. I raced as a kid ten years before I got my license at 19. In fact some racers never ride on the road. Multiple Aussie Superbike champion Wayne Maxwell has never had a road license. That’s not uncommon for racers. Some find very little joy in riding at sane speeds.

For me, riding bikes is usually simply about riding bikes. It really is that simple. I have little interest in making friends, or fluffing my own self-worth by being acknowledged as cool by someone else who is also desperate for me to wave at them to fill their cup with validation to replace the usual self-loathing they feel when they get home and take their leather jacket off. Because some people ride for very little reason other than to play make-believe that they’re cool, and to be accepted into a group. And that’s ok, too. Maslow’s Heirarchy Of Needs identifies “self-actualization” second only to “transcendence” as the pinnacle of human needs. So if convincing yourself that you are cool and accepted as part of a social group is what you get from motorcycling, then more power to you. But it’s not my job to give you that.

Even when I do find myself riding in a group situation, I am still alone once

I start the bike. And the solitude is one of the things I love about riding. I have an extremely busy life, and I crave solitude. Motorcycles give me that. It’s time I can spend doing nothing but focussing on riding. Everything else that usually clogs my mind drifts away. And then at other times when the road is boring, it’s a chance to ponder things that need to be thought about. To solve problems that have been nagging at me, or to plan future misadventure.

The other thing I love is the process of actually riding a motorcycle. The interaction with the machine is a visceral thing, and I love it. It feeds me. Sure, riding on the road is not the same as racing when it comes to having a tight bond with the machine, but it exists, nonetheless. Plus I enjoy working in partnership with the bike, and the challenge of being a little bit better at riding every time I get on the bike. Because for me, everything is a contest. That’s my personality. It’s always a race, of some sort. Even if it’s just against myself.

Things have changed for me a little in the last few years though. My partner also rides a bike, and I have found a new pleasure in travelling with her for trips away, or even just day rides. Motorcycling is a great interest to share with your partner. But it only works because she is as competitive as I am. She’s constantly trying to be a better rider, and she likes the speed turned up a bit. If she was one of those riders who only bought a bike so she could wear cool jackets and take Instagram photos, but otherwise didn’t want to venture too far from home, I’d be making every excuse I could to not ride together.

Come to think of it, we’d not be together in the first place.

You see, motorcycling has always been beset by people looking to alter their own image by adopting the image of others. Look at how many Harley riders dress as faux outlaws. If you don’t wear a vest with patches sewn on it, do you really even ride a Harley? Wear whatever the hell you like, but if you’re dressing up as something you’re not, I find myself compelled to wonder why you are riding a bike.

I remember once being on an overnight ride with a few more than half a dozen people, and we were sitting at a country pub having a few

beers after dinner. The guy sitting beside me, a surgeon of some repute and considerable fortune, passed comment on some local lads who had just walked in. Country boys, a little rough around the edges, but salt-ofthe-earth types.

“Look at these bogans in their flannelette shirts”, he laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “Says the sanctimonious prick in the flannelette shirt and shiny leather vest.”

“My shirt is worth over $200!” he fired back, being completely flannelette-ist.

“So who’s the dumb one then, the lads who paid $20 at Target, or the guy who paid $200 for the same thing?”

We didn’t speak again for the rest of the trip, and I went and spent the night playing pool with the lads in the flannos.

There’s plenty of pretenders in motorcycling, and plenty of people wishing they were something other than what they are.

But they generally leave eventually. The ones who get into bikes for the image will usually disappear at some point. It has always been the way. They have no interest in actually being good at riding bikes. Because the riding of the bikes isn’t why they ride bikes. Eventually either life gets in the way and riding is a waste of their time, or they decide that a new opportunity has arisen to do something else, or they get bitten by the tarmac and it scares them off. The world is full of people who will tell you they used to ride a bike, but had a crash and lost interest. Probably best for everyone they opted out if that’s the case.

So, why was I supposed to be waving at them again? AMM

NEW PRODUCTS helD saMbia GlovES

worDS By BorIS MIHAIlovIc IMAGES HAlF-lIGHt PHotoGrAPHIc (NIck EDArDS)

As You Can see, I have been using these held sambia summer gloves since early spring last year. They have done a lot of miles. why? simple. They’re my go-to summer glove.

To be honest, I pretty much exclusively wear Held gloves, and have for years. In my view, they are the best gloves money can buy – and this view is shared by all those people who hand out awards for these things. Held gloves have won every award there is to win in Europe and the USA.

I’m of an age where I no longer have to wear less-than-great gear – and I certainly won’t tell you gear is good if it isn’t. You’ll note there are brands I do not review for that very reason.

But I am happy to recommend Held gloves and gear, because I wear it, and it’s great.

So, the Sambia KTC jobbies. No, I do not know what the KTC stands for. It could be Killer Touch Clowns. It could be Kilo Top Coke. No-one knows, and no-one should care.

They are billed as Adventure gloves – and I think that’s because they have an expandable knitted cuff and that’s an Adventure thing apparently.

Frankly, I don’t care what they call themselves. They are an ideal summer glove. They offer massive, vented, and tested knuckle protection, the fully perforated palm is kangaroo (reinforced with SuperFabric and underlayed with Armaprotec), they are colourfast and sweat-proof, you can use a Smartphone with them, and they fit like a top-quality glove should.

On those warm days when you feel like riding naked, you should still maybe leave some gloves on. Your hands suffer terribly when bad things happen. You tend to put them down early in the tumbling process. It’s a reflex, after all.

But I don’t care what you wear. I have ridden helmetless and shirtless before and I will again. But, strangely enough, I have always put gloves on.

These Sambia KTC jobbies are excellent. And the massive knuckle-protection looks magnificently threatening.

Held just called me - KTC stands for Knitted Tight Cuff. Sadly.

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