Issue 168

Australian Road Rider

The real ride

Australian Road Rider1 min read
Australian Road Rider
EDITOR Nigel Paterson npaterson@umco.com.au ART DIRECTOR Martha Rubazewicz REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Geoff Seddon, Brian Rix, Phillip James, Ian Neubauer, Dominic Graham, Chris Daly EDITORIAL roadrider@umco.com.au SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES mailorder@umco.com
Australian Road Rider3 min read
FORM & FUNCTION
I bet there were some stormy arguments at BMW a few years back. “Our touring bikes are more comfortable, better handling, lighter, smoother and less expensive than the Harleys and Indians,” an engineer would be saying. “The marketing department just
Australian Road Rider2 min read
Bike Sales Strong
“Increasing fuel prices are expected to keep motorcycle sales strong despite the inflationary pressures increasing the price of many new bikes,” ARR has been told. Our industry insider, who does not want their identity revealed, believes big bike sal
Australian Road Rider1 min read
Jack Miller Back With Ktm
The Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island, October 14-16, looks like being the only chance most Australians will have to see Jack Miller campaign a factory Ducati. The Queenslander has announced he will be moving to KTM for 2023 and 2024. His best cham
Australian Road Rider1 min read
Limited-edition Indians
Just 20 examples of Indian’s special Elite baggers are coming to Australia. A dozen examples of the Challenger Elite ($45,995) and just eight Chieftain Elite ($49,995) machines are expected to make their way to our shores. Indian claims they “deliver
Australian Road Rider2 min read
Ducati’s Motoe Racer
In 2023 Ducati takes over as the sole supplier of machinery for the MotoE World Championship, the electric racers that may one day take over the premier class. Ducati CEO, Claudio Domenicali, has ridden the new bike and is impressed. “A few weeks ago
Australian Road Rider1 min read
An Enfield Bobber?
As this issue of Australian Road Rider goes to press, rumours Royal Enfield is about to introduce a production version of the SG650 concept bike shown here are firming. Indeed, ARR has been invited to fly to Bangkok, Thailand in early August to atten
Australian Road Rider5 min read
Old Jimmy Woodser
And so the circle of life gets ever closer to the starting point. You know how it goes. We start out helpless, incontinent and talking gibberish. A lifetime later, we end up helpless, incontinent and talking gibberish. Bad jokes aside, there’s plenty
Australian Road Rider11 min read
Modern Monster
It’s the 30th year of the Ducati Monster, with the first model launched way back in 1992. Today, we’re back to one open-class Monster, and interestingly it’s also a 900 – well 937cc to be exact. It’s still aimed at being a great city bike and fun wee
Australian Road Rider5 min read
Wear The Fox Hat?
It’s been cold, miserable and wet. You’re pacing around the house driving your partner mad. Every time the sun peeks out, you take the bike for a quick spin between rain squalls. Every now and then you get caught in a deluge and come home soaked to t
Australian Road Rider15 min read
German Giant
Maybe BMW was grumpy Harley-Davidson decided to build an adventure bike, or maybe the Germans finally decided they weren’t going to make new headway in the American touring market without some classic style. I really don’t know why BMW decided to bui
Australian Road Rider7 min read
Power Above All
If the first motorcycle race happened just after the second motorcycle was built, this article is about the descendants of those machines. Many believe a motorcycle should be two wheels, an engine, a seat and some footpegs. The ARR crew is a bit more
Australian Road Rider4 min read
Running Repairs
It was someone else’s bike, a long way from home. Travelling out of Mexico to the US of A, we crossed the border into Texas from the notorious Nuevo Laredo border town, where it’s not unusual for gangs to hang their rival’s corpse off the freeway ove
Australian Road Rider7 min read
Practical Sport
One can’t help but feel a bit superior to the great unwashed, sitting at the lights in their very clean SUVs. Whilst they have discussions with their smartphones, I’ll be floating along the back streets, smoothly applying power and brakes, getting me
Australian Road Rider9 min read
Sleet, Snow And A Black SUV
The loud bang and the crunching sound of breaking plastic when we were hit still stands out in the memory. The bike seemed to bounce off the side of the black SUV, skidding sideways on the wet road, yet somehow I managed not to drop it. I thought our
Australian Road Rider9 min read
Romanian Rhapsody
It’s raining hard. I’m chilled to the bone. The raincoat I’m using to substitute the touring jacket that was misplaced by an airline somewhere between Sydney and Bucharest along with everything else inside my kit bag is keeping my chest dry. But the
Australian Road Rider12 min read
Finding New Horizons
Riding new roads will spark excitement in even the most jaded. The panoramic vistas, the smells and sounds, new people and places, anticipation of what the next corner will reveal, and… the peace of the open road. All of these hark back to the reason
Australian Road Rider4 min read
The Performance Lid
Can a helmet really be worth nearly two grand? That’s what you’ll have to pay for AGV’s top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art road racing lid, the Pista GP RR, a premium competition helmet aimed at providing the best track functionality currently on offe
Australian Road Rider2 min read
Michelin’s Wet Weather Wonders
French company Michelin is rightly famous for its motorcycle tyres, so Australian Road Rider was more than pleased to accept an offer to test a set of the new Road 6 sporttouring tyres on one of our personal bikes before heading off on a 2000km tour.
Australian Road Rider2 min read
Flip-top Touring
AGV’s new Tourmodular is a premium modular touring helmet designed for all-day riding, providing safety, comfort and optional integrated communications. Its aerodynamic design has been optimised to provide zero dynamic weight at 130km/h to reduce fat
Australian Road Rider1 min read
Kabuto’s Rt33
Kabuto made its name as a manufacturer of quality helmets decades ago with advanced aero technology, smoothing out the way helmets punch through the air at high speed through wind tunnel development and its patented Wake Stabiliser. Making helmets in
Australian Road Rider1 min read
Mac In A Sack
Andy Strapz has a new mid-layer option that not only keeps you super warm when required, but also packs down small when it’s not, called the Mac in a Sac. Filled with Responsible Down Certified fill, there’s 90 per cent duck down/10 per cent feather
Australian Road Rider2 min read
Plugfones Sovereign
In my never-ending quest to find the perfect balance between hearing protection and smartphone connectivity, I’ve recently been trying out Plugfones’ individual Bluetooth audio earplugs named Sovereign. At $124.95 they are considerably cheaper than m
Australian Road Rider4 min read
Tell Your Travel Stories
Australian Road Rider would like to publish your touring and travel stories. The magazine prides itself on the quality and diversity of its touring and travel articles and we’d like to include more from readers such as yourself. It doesn’t matter if
Australian Road Rider2 min read
The Old Girl
Former builder Chris Dibb owned a Suzuki Katana back when he was young and the bikes were the sports machines of choice for thousands of young men around the world. Now he has another. “I used to own one back in the day and I love the look of them,”
Australian Road Rider1 min read
That Bike Of Yours
MOTUL CARE PACK WINNER Every issue we’re giving away this beaut pack of Motul cleaning gear worth $49.95. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is send us a pick of your shining steed and we’ll pick what we think is the best shot and c
Australian Road Rider2 min read
Blown Away
I had the opportunity to ride a Honda CX500 recently… no big deal you’re thinking, just a slightly overweight shaft-driven all-rounder from the late 1970s… until you realise I got to ride the rare turbocharged model. When I was a teenager, turbos wer

Australian Road Rider

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