Australian Motorcycle News

HORSEPOWER HAS LONG ruled Aussie’s hearts when it comes to motorcycles. We love to go the most powerful one available and we equate that with value, fun factor and, I have to admit, ego. One look at this issue’s cover image, however, is enough to rem

Editor: Sam Maclachlan Deputy Editor: Kel Buckley Sub Editor: Phil Branagan News Editor: Hamish Cooper Staff Journalist: Pete Vorst Founding Editor: George Lynn Art Director: Paul Andrews Designer: Joe Ferrara Sir Alan Cathcart, Matt O’Connell, Micha

A NEW, POTENTIALLY powerful motorcycle lobby group has already won the backing of Australia’s peak industry body in its fight to get rid of inefficient legislation. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has quickly come out in support o

CONTROVERSY IS RAGING in the US over claims the 460,000 riders who attended the recent 80th running of Sturgis have become Covid superspreaders. In a shock finding, academics have estimated that infections among attendees and the people they subseque

FIRST HELD IN the late summer of 1938, Sturgis started as a circus-like event involving impromptu stunt riding. Called the Black Hills Motor Classic, by the 1960s it had expanded into competitive hillclimbs, flat-track and motocross-style racing. As

Is your motorcycle affected by this recent recall? › MODEL Triumph Tiger 1200, 2018-2020; Street Triple RS, 2017-2021; Speed Triple S and Speed Triple RS, 2018-2020 › IMPORTER PS Importers › NUMBER OF AFFECTED MOTORCYCLES 928 › ISSUE The front brake

Using Aussie and Kiwi input, Yamaha is releasing a lighter, better-balanced and more powerful WR450R enduro with a special local version that even features a kangaroo logo. Only 400 will be available at $17,099 ride-away. To celebrate 100 years in

30 MOTOGP PASSES THE MILESTONE OF 30 MILLION FANS ACROSS ITS SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS.› ■

Australia’s two-time world champ Casey Stoner explains in an Australian GP Corporation podcast why there is a different MotoGP winner every race. ■

Royal Enfield has made an impressive American Flat Track debut, with a sixth placing in the Production Twins main event at Williams Grove Half-Mile in Pennsylvania. ■

Sydney’s electric Fonzarelli NKD has won gold in Australia’s Good Design Awards, held in Brisbane recently. The awards attracted a record 835 design submissions with the Fonz taking out the Automotive – Best Exterior category. Judges praised its styl

Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, Franco Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi create Yamaha’s first qualifying 1-2-3-4 in the MotoGP era at Misano’s first doubleheader. Remy Gardner takes a huge step towards MotoGP by joining Red Bull’s Ajo KTM Moto2 s

Buoyed by the success of the recent Bend Classic, the owners of SA’s Bend Motorsport Park are planning an annual “Goodwood-style” version of the event starting on Father’s Day, 2021. The 2020 event featured half a dozen genuine F1 cars and it is hope

TECHNOLOGY UPGRADES, performance options and an increased range of factory accessories are key elements of Indian Motorcycles’ 2021 range. As well, the cruiser lineup is boosted by the new Indian Vintage Dark Horse, which has fully blacked-out stylin

Win a pair of Cobra II Long gloves valued at $99.95! Include your full name, address and glove size in your letter, via post or email. Long letters will be cut to fit, so don’t ramble. Oh, and the views expressed by readers here are not necessarily

@tezzmodromic My home town, where I grew up and where I surfed every day, rain hail or shine @jeffevans1300 Fear not. Soon enough the shackles will fall, and once again we can become one on the path to our happy place in the mountains. #bigyella

HERE ARE A FEW pics of some of my bikes over the years. My first was a Honda CBX250, followed by my first rebuild attempt on a 1981 Kawasaki GPZ1000B. It was fun to ride, as it was my first big bore. The Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Classic is my weekend crui

Bonus points if you can name the rider and his spotter! EMAIL YOUR NUMBERED ANSWERS TO COMPS@AMCN.COM.AU FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!

bikes to each other without a set criteria is close to impossible, so we take each bike and hold it up to the long-standing MOTY testing criteria, as below. The Indian stood out in each category, consistently delivering against all five to cement it

WHILE LOATHE TO plan much in this crazy year, first steps are the main machine for an upcoming AMCN story, plus a participant in our huge retro-bike comparo which is coming your way soon. Then we’ll share it among the AMCN staff who are based in Sydn

Capacity 1079cc Type V-twin, desmodromic, two valves per cyclinder Bore & stroke 98 x 71mm Compression ratio 11:1 Cooling Air Fueling EFI, 55mm throttle body Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain

BENELLI HAS been producing motorcycles since 1919 making them one of the oldest manufacturers of motorcycles on the planet. Established in Pesaro, Italy, the company enjoyed showroom and racing success through until the 1980s when production finally

Capacity 754cc Type Parallel twin, DOHC, 8 valves Bore & stroke 88 x 62mm Compression ratio 11.5:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, 2 x 37mm throttle bodies Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate Final drive Chain Power 56kW @ 8

THE 701 SUPERMOTO is pretty much in a class of its own. But there are alternative options. The most obvious contender is the KTM 690 SMC, essentially the same bike with a different badge. In terms of big go-anywhere singles, there’s Suzuki’s DR650 an

THE 701 IS an all round thrilling package and one of the best parts of it is the single cylinder engine. Large-capacity single cylinder engines have advanced considerably over recent years – gone are the days of clunky and crude performance. The Husq

Capacity 692cc Type Single-cylinder Bore & stroke 105 x 80mm Compression ratio 12.7:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, 1 x 50mm Keihin throttle body Transmission Six-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain Power 55kW @

In the years following WW2, motorcycle scrambles flourished across the south eastern regions of Australia. Yet it was a small number of diehards who dominated: Ken Rumble, Roy Dungate, Charlie Scaysbrook, John Burrows and – believe it or not – Monty

1928 Ken Vincent 1929 Aubrey Melrose 1930 Roy Charman 1931 Aubrey Melrose 1932 Jack Kiely 1933 Roy Charman 1934 Aubrey Berryman 1935 Aubrey Melrose 1936 H. P. Teske 1937 Jack Kiely 1938 H. K. Griffith 1939 Les Clinton (senior)

I HAVE SEEN the future. And there are some surprises. One of them concerns Valentino Rossi. He is still in it. This didn’t necessarily seem likely in the run up to Misano, with the internet rife with rumours that he was to announce his retirement. No

“I understood from maybe lap five that I was going to be in some difficulty later in the race with the soft tyre. So by lap seven I’d already switched the map, tried to conserve the tyre and still anyway at the end I suffered a lot. To be honest my h

4.226km MotoGP 114.102km Moto2 106.650km Moto3 97.198km Alex Marquez is having a tough rookie season at the back of the MotoGP field. Being compared to Marc Marquez is a big burden to carry, but at the San Marino round Alex Marquez ‘beat’ his brother

Grid 20th, Race One DNF, Race Two DNF, 20th overall, 9 points “In FP1 I came into the circuit not knowing it at all and used the first session just to learn the circuit. Then in FP2 I would put in a fast time – but then it ended up raining in all t

Qualifying for the 300 category saw Tom Booth Amos (RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki, above) come back to form after some tough recent races, and lead a four-rider Kawasaki charge to the front row. Booth-Amos won the first race by over six seconds, in

“I am really sad because I had started well and we could have had a good race. We had all the right conditions to be up there. Unfortunately, it was nobody’s fault, it was a very unlucky day because a tear-off got stuck in the air box. I am also sorr

4.226km MotoGP 114.102km Moto2 42.26km Moto3 97.198km The win by Maverick Viñales made him the sixth winner of 2020, lifted a great weight off his shoulders and also puts him in pretty good company. The ‘Misano II’ victory was his eighth in the premi

DNF P BIESIEKIRSKI (POL, NTS), X VIERGE (SPA, KAL), J ROBERTS (USA, KAL), K DANIEL (MAL, KAL). L MARINI 1m35.271s (S LOWES 1m25.170s, RD 7) S LOWES 1m36.195s (L MARINI 1m37.013s, RD 7) 1 MARINI 125, 2 BASTIANINI 120, 3 BEZZECCHI 105, 4 LOWES 83, 5 M

DEPENDING ON HOW you view the controversial Romano Fenati (Max Racing Husqvarna), this was either a tale of redemption or a reminder of what could have been for one of the paddock’s great wasted talents. Two years ago, he left this round with his car

DNF D BINDER (RSA, KTM), D FOGGIA (ITA, HON), A LOPEZ (SPA, HUS). R FERNANDEZ 1m41.705s G RODRIGO 1m41.988s (2017 RODRIGO 1m42.381s) 1 A ARENAS 119, 2 A OGURA 117, 3 McPHEE 98,4 VIETTI 86, 5 T SUZUKI 75, 6 ARBOLINO 75, 7 RODRIGO 63, 8 MASIA 61, 9 FE

“THERE IS DEFINITELY an option there with KTM to step up (to MotoGP),” Gardner revealed. “They said they really believe in me and that’s where they’d like to see me. But first the work has to be done in Moto2. But first we need to show some good resu

FIRST IT WAS Marc Marquez. Then came Cal Crutchlow. Last Friday the 2020 Honda RC213V claimed another victim with Marquez’s stand-in Stefan Bradl withdrawing from the grand prix due to injury. The demands of the 2020 machine were such that HRC test r

Australian Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider Jed Beaton has celebrated his best MX2 result since 2018 picking up a fourth-place in the opening moto of the MXGP of Emilia Romagna before going one better to celebrate on the last step of the podium in the

Plans are underway for the 2021 Australian Four day Enduro slated for 19-22 May next year in Harvey, Western Australia. The Trail and Enduro Motorcycle Club of WA is working with both the Shire of Harvey and the Parks and Wildlife Services to ensure