Australian Motorcycle News

JUST RECENTLY a number of motorcycle manufacturers have taken a serious interest in the retro-LAMS bike market, which is little wonder considering the success Indian manufacturer Royal Enfield has had with its range of budget-priced singles, such as

Editor Dean Mellor Deputy Editor Kel Buckley Sub Editor Hamish Cooper Digital Gun We’re hiring! Founding Editor George Lynn Art Director Brendon Wise Sir Alan Cathcart, Michael Scott, Ben Purvis, Mat Oxley, Neil Morrison, Adam Child, Gold&Goose, Gord

KAWASAKI IS establishing itself as a pioneer among the Japanese Big Four when it comes to futuristic, unconventional motorcycles. This year it’s launched two all-electric machines and a brace of petrol-electric hybrids in the form of the Ninja 7 Hybr

THE LAUNCH of the KTM 1390 Super Duke in late 2023 means it’s all but inevitable that other models of KTM’s 1290 line-up will be gradually replaced with upsized 1390 models – all gaining variations on the brand’s latest family face and technical upgr

AS MANUFACTURERS shift away from purely track-focused supersport machines towards more usable parallel-twin all-rounders, Triumph has joined the fray with a 660cc triple. Dubbed the Daytona 660 and priced from $14,790 (rideaway), it’s based on Triump

ANOTHER NEW-for-2024 Benelli has broken cover through design registrations for a new V-twin machine bearing the Leoncino name. The Leoncino was among the first Benellis spun-off from a QJMotor design, starting life as the Leoncino 500, later joined b

Kawasaki's limited-production ZXR750R is heading to Australia. The homologation-special ZXR750K (to give the R its correct model designation) was released alongside the ZXR750J at the beginning of 1991, but Kawasaki Australia decided not to import th

ANSWERS WILL BE REVEALED IN THE NEXT ISSUE AN AMCN NECK SOCK EMAIL YOUR ANSWERS AND ADDRESS TO AMCN@AMCN.COM.AU FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN! ■

History has it that blokes on bikes started racing in tight circles around the Maitland Trotting Track in December 1923. A great idea, quickly adopted along Australia’s east coast. They think big on the other side of the continent and, in its inaugur

01“The first thing a bike has to be to be a Royal Enfield, the bike has to come from us, from somewhere inside us, our background, our heritage, some part of our story. “That may be the Classic, which was a homage to the original 1950s Bullet, or one

Capacity 648cc Torque 52.3Nm Weight 240kg wet Fuel capacity 13.8L Price TBC Capacity 1868cc Torque 155Nm Weight 306kg wet Fuel capacity 13.6L Price $32,995 ride away Capacity 1200cc Torque 106Nm Weight 251kg wet Fuel capacity 12 litres Price $23,190

APRILIA’S CHIEF engineer Romano Albesiano believes the RS-GP is getting closer to being a title challenger, after winning two MotoGPs in 2023. “Last season the bike was competitive at almost all tracks,” says Albesiano. “Whereas in 2022 we had some t

THE HALLOWED name that has so often ruled GP racing ended up bottom of MotoGP’s constructors championship for the second year in a row in 2023 as its factory riders suffered more than 50 crashes and its number-one superstar ran away to ride a secondh

YAMAHA LAST won the MotoGP title in 2021 with Fabio Quartararo. Since then life has been grim for the Japanese manufacturer, which scored its last race win in June 2022. Last season was the first since 2003 that the M1 didn’t score a single victory.

THE NEW front tyre uses two compounds, with the outer shoulder sections featuring an all-new compound. The rear, meanwhile, has three compounds with the new compound deployed on the tyre edge (and only likely to be used on track). The S23 retains the

BRIDGESTONE OFFERS sportsbike owners plenty of choice. For those who only ride on track and transport their bikes in vans, there is the V02 race slick and W02 race wet. The CR11 and R11 are not full slicks but are dedicated race and trackday tyres. T

WHY DID Graeme Crosby ride a Superbike-style machine in a round of the British TT1 Championship at Brands Hatch in 1979? It was not his idea. It came from his Superbike sponsor and mentor Ross Hannan. Moriwaki Engineering was crating a fully faired T

ACROSS THE Tasman in the early 1970s there were some clever ‘Q-Ship’ machines created at Lawton & Boyle in Wellington and backed by Colemans of Wanganui. Garry ‘Frizz’ Ellison served his apprenticeship at Lawton & Boyle. He recalls two Suzukis as wel

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FAIR DINKUM, the things I do for you readers. Here I am devoting my almost retired self to research and accurate reporting, dedicating day after day in search of perfection, and what do I get? Cash in an envelope? The promise of a ride on your new H2

WE ARE LOOKING ahead at a 2024 season of transition. Some changes have already begun, others are brewing, as yet in abeyance. But by the end of 2024 there is the potential for a great deal of far-reaching rider swaps and machine exchanges. The main r

AARON SHERECK made the trip to Oz in 1995 from Northern California, meeting his now wife the very first day he landed in Australia. Shereck has built his own advertising agency over nearly 30 years, producing campaigns for clients like Real Insurance

CAMERON DUNKER was riding a Supersport bike at the Summer Night Series but that won’t be the case in just over a month’s time at the season-opening ASBK round held in conjunction with the 2024 Superbike World Championship. Jamie Stauffer is preparing

TOM TOPARIS has confirmed he will not be returning to the BSB Supersport series this season and will instead suit up for the newly formed Stop and Seal team riding a Yamaha R1 M in the 2024 ASBK season. While Toparis had cemented himself as a top con

SOME MAJOR speedway meetings were staged after the last issue of AMCN was put together. The Johnnie Hoskins Founders Cup at Kurri Kurri on 16 December was won by Josh Pickering ahead of Ryan Douglas, James Pearson and Sam Masters, while on the same n