Australian Road Rider

In her second time running, Stacey Heaney set a blistering 43.9-second time up the steep and windy track in Maldon. “It was pretty scary; I snapped my clutch cable on the way up and just had to hold on for the ride. I thought I’d blown it, but then I

STORY: RODERICK EIME Despite plenty of competition for riders at other events, some 100 bikes turned out for the Motorcycle Council of NSW (MCCNSW) Sunday ride from Berowra to Cessnock to kick off 2017’s Motorcycle Awareness Month. The three-hour, 1

STORY: GREG LEECH PHOTOS: STOCK Honda’s big sports tourer, the ST1100 (known as the Pan European in other markets), first found its way Down Under in 1990, gaining slow showroom response at a new price of $13,990. The Australian bike marketplace has

STORY AND PICS: BRIAN RIX Yes, I know. We’ve travelled a fair chunk of the world on two wheels and here I am raving on about Tasmania. And why not. Tasmania has a bit of everything, all compacted into a nice little island. I recently toured around w

If you’re looking for a biking adventure next year, how about riding 2000km over and around planet earth’s deepest lake? Lake Baikal in Russia is the oldest and deepest (it’s just over a mile to the bottom) lake in the world. With temperatures in the

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STORY: NIGEL CROWLEY PICS: HEATHER WARE “The 1200 inundates your every sense yet never overwhelms them.” I’d headed out for an early run around my favourite road loop and annoyingly, as I approached the start of the properly fun bits, the fuel g

STORY: NIGEL CROWLEY PICS: HEATHER WARE I’ve been wanting to do this course for some time and now that we have the longterm Australianised version of the Tracer 700 at our disposal, replete with knobbly tyres, it seemed more relevant than ever. You

STORY: GREG LEECH PICS: BEN GALLI They say there is no replacement for displacement. Indeed, that maxim has been widely applied by bike and car manufacturers, particularly from the Land of the Brave, with varying success. While Triumph has never bee

When we test bike gear such as a new set of leathers, we usually only speak of its conformability, features and its claimed safety specifications. These garments, while designed to look and feel good, are primarily made for safety in an accident. In

My father was fond of dispensing advice in bite-sized chunks. On marriage, he warned me not to neglect my homework. In my career, he told me to make my own luck and in life, to play a straight bat. He rarely elaborated, which made his wisdom both mem

STORY: SPENCER LEECH PICS: JEFF CROW You don’t have to be an expert to see that the Royal Enfield Himalayan is not the best-equipped motorcycle to proclaim itself an Adventure bike. In fact, it’s far from it. Forget the GPS and heated grips, the pow

STORY: SPENCER LEECH PICS: JEFF CROW When Honda came out with the Honda Grom last year, it left a lot of us scratching our heads. What is this thing? we wondered. It’s not quite a monkey bike, but it’s much smaller than a regular road bike. Either w

STORY: GREG LEECH PICS: NICK ADARDS/HALF LIGHT For those of us seasoned enough to romantically remember the downright dirty rush that fast two-stroke motorcycles brought about, well, don’t give it all away just yet. Yes, in this era of rules, order

Believe it or not, of all the great bikes to come out in 2017, this is one of the ones I was most excited about riding. The reason for that was completely superficial. I thought it looked awesome. Many of you guys will remember that great period of t

STORY: RODERICK EIMEPICS: RODERICK EIME AND WARREN MALLETT Could we do him a favour? That was the question Paul McCann of PS Imports asked me when I enquired about a Moto Guzzi test ride. “We have three demo bikes that need to come back to Sydney,”

The super-light, aerodynamic and well-ventilated Aeroblade series has seen good uptake here in Australia. The Kabuto team, renowned for their innovation and R&D, have lifted the bar once more with the fifth-generation of the Aeroblade, as usual with