Australian Motorcyclist

WORDS STUART PHOTOS RALPH When you hear the term, “naked bike” do you automatically think of something that’s been stripped of its bodywork and that’s it? Well, you’re in luck. If you were to take an Aprilia RSV4, take off the fairing, put an uprigh

WORDS/PHOTOS COLIN WHELAN Denham St,Tooraweenah NSW. Ph: 02 6848 1017 SO, OKAY BOYS AND GIRLS, who’s in the mood for a love story? How about three love stories? How about one of the great love stories of the Australian Bush? Great! Let’s go! Cecil A

WORDS STUART PHOTOS NICK WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY TAKE THE COLOURFUL paintwork of a MotoGP bike, put it on a standard motorcycle and bam! You have the new Suzuki GSX250R to attract younger riders! Attracting attention on this metallic blue version of the G

I HOPE EVERYONE had a great Christmas and New Year. Do you make a “New Year’s resolution”? I don’t, I think it’s a bit of BS, but I know many people do and whatever it may be that floats your boat, I want you to hit that goal. It could be that you’re

WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR “May you live all the days of your life.”- JONATHAN SWIFT WE ARE ALL IN the prime of life, which means our ages range from 67 to 82 (Cough, cough! Ed). We have all been involved in the motorcycle industry in various ways for

WORDS & PHOTOS THE BEAR MUCH TO THE DISGUST of the locals (who were mostly blow-ins themselves) the Sunshine Coast is filling up with refugees from Victoria, NSW and even Tasmania. I seen ‘em meself! Indeed, several of them are friends of mine. Wha

“G’day,” wrote Greg Luscombe, who tells us he is an ST1100 rider.“The Bear is about to enter a carpark in Christchurch, New Zealand...I believe it’s located in Worcester Street. Cheers.” And what do you know – the bugger is right! I even had to check

In what has been hot news and talked about more than anything in local motorcycling for quite some time is that Troy Bayliss is returning to full time racing – this time, racing in the Australian Superbike Championship. Troy mentioned that this is on

WORDS STUART PHOTOS NICK WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY DUCATI HAS FINALLY released a Multistrada that is designed for the dirt and not just a road bike that you can take on some dirt roads. The Enduro Pro is a proper full-on adventure bike that can be ridden ag

WORDS STUART PHOTOS STEVEN HENDY AS PART OF THE deal with our long term Kawasaki Z650L, the team at Kawasaki booked me into one of their Team Green Australia track days, this one being at Wakefield Park. I am quite handy around Wakefield and thought

WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR WHEN IN DOUBT, quote Dorothy Parker. The Scout I borrowed from the kind folk at Indian Motorcycle Brisbane was a seriously attractive blue over white (or is it white over blue? I can never sort that out) and was admired wherev

YEP, WE’RE organising another 11-day South Island tour in NZ with the supreme, Paradise Motorcycle Tours NZ people. We had planned to give NZ a rest for a year but couldn’t resist the temptation for you guys to head back. There’s just so much to see

WE’VE HAD A bucket load of new gear pile in through the office doors lately. It feels like Christmas and I suppose it is, seeing as we’re writing this up just before the fat man falls down the chimney. A bit of everything for just about every taste i

Year: 1996 Make: Yamaha Model: TRX850 YAMAHA CAME UP with the parallel twin TRX850 in an attempt to keep up with the Italians and created one of the best sounding bikes ever. The TRX was introduced in 1996 and used an upgraded version of the TDM850

WORDS THE BEAR PHOTOS JEFF CROW I REMEMBER AN ISSUE of MAD Magazine where the usual crew of idiots lampooned ‘The Lone Ranger’. His trusty Indian scout sidekick Tonto kept wanting to go and spy in bar rooms. That effectively sums up the Indian Scout

WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR ONCE IT WAS THE common thread that tied Australian motorcyclists together. Highway 1 was still gravel in parts and had single lane bridges; the Sandstone Curtain kept most of us from Highway 39; and the Olympic Way was pretty

WORDS/PHOTOS JACQUI KENNEDY WINDORAH – THE last piece of bitumen in far western Queensland before the hard slog on gibber plains to Birdsville. What was I thinking! Could a fully loaded postie bike with an inexperienced rider survive the gruelling

THE BEAR GETS A few things off his (ample, ha ha) chest Calling in an air strike with an early Cruise Missile on an idiot who sat on his backside in his car after the lights changed and made me miss the green light. [Photo Paul Healey] You’ve pr

WORDS/PHOTOS STUART THE SYDNEY Motorcycle Show returned to Darling Harbour this year at the new International Convention Centre. A laudable turnout from the motorcycle industry ensured the hype before the event was at maximum levels, and the crowds

WHILE THINKING about adding some more individuality to the Z650L, I was considering what was available off the shelf - and the first thing that came to mind was a set of Barkbuster handguards! Their universal single point bar end mount ($96.50) is fo

WORDS LESTER MORRIS In the last issue of Australian Motorcyclist we had a pictorial of Bill Forsyth’s latest journey to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. SW ACE AUSTRALIAN MOTOR race and road test photographer Bill Forsyth attended the Goodwood Fes

Roads in the Blackall Range vary considerably in quality. In many places they offer the usual high-quality Queensland tar, while in others they would (and do – The Frog imports Fournales shock absorbers from France and tests them here) serve well as

THINK OF IT, PLAN IT, mark it out and do it! This is adventure in a nutshell but the planning side of an adventure ride can sometimes be the hardest part of the entire thing. I’ll take you back to a time when I planned an adventure ride I organised f

WORDS/PHOTOS COLIN WHELAN IT WAS JULIAN STUART who brought me to Woodford Island, well he and a legend named Dan Frogan. Stuart was one of the leaders of the 1891 Shearers’ strike, a giant in the history of unionism in this country. He was arrested i

Dave at Get Routed has been offered another house for the 2019 IoM TT, so he can now take bookings from another 6 people. The phone lines are open! The cottage is near Port Erin and will comfortably house 6 people in 1 double room, 1 twin room and 2

WORDS STUART PHOTOS BEN GALLI PHOTOGRAPHY BENELLI NOT TOO long ago released the Leoncino and TRK502 with notations two more dirt focused variants were on their way. Well, they have both arrived and I headed off to Victoria and the Mount Macedon are

WORDS STUART AS THIS IS OUR annual adventure issue we decided to get you dirty with this nice loop out of Cooma. The Snowy Mountains area is littered with dirty adventures so you could make this a few days based in the area of Cooma and see many diff

Wherever you’ve based yourself in Cooma you need to get onto Polo Flat Road and head east. Just out of town turn right onto Carlaminda Road and keep on the main section of dirt until you reach Numeralla. Turn right, and then turn left onto Peak View

WORDS/PHOTOS THE POSSUM THE FAR CAIRN RALLY is a great ride out to the geographical Centre of NSW. This year also gave us a first-hand look at the way the bush was being belted by the drought. Not many sheep in sight, and very little wheat, although

WORDS/PHOTOS MICK MCDONALD MONGOLIA, THE VERY word conjures up images of wild horseman galloping across an ancient empty steppe landscape, with bow and arrow in hand, which today, isn’t that far from reality in what is the most sparsely populated co

WORDS THE BEAR PHOTOS NICK WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY “THERE ARE KNOWN KNOWNS; THERE ARE THINGS WE KNOW WE KNOW.WE ALSO KNOW THERE ARE KNOWN UNKNOWNS; THAT IS TO SAY WE KNOW THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE DO NOT KNOW. BUT THERE ARE ALSO UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS — THE ONES

WORDS/PHOTOS PICKO I look at most modern bikes these days and they barely get my passion meter above zero. Sure, there are some retro machines like the Kawasaki Z900RS and BMW’s RnineT for example but overall it’s all a bit ‘same same’ for my liking.

COMPILED BY STUART ADVENTURE TOURING can be some of the most memorable journey’s you’ll ever have. Seeing places and riding ‘roads’ where not many others have been is something really special. Of all the places I’ve been the most special rides have

WORDS STUART BEAR & RALPH I THOUGHT IT BE A great idea if we told you what our favourite dirt road is. We get to ride many great roads around this great country so what has been the pick of the bunch for The Bear, Ralph and myself? Well, the truth is

WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR WE HAD AN Africa Twin here at AMM for a while, but I didn’t get a chance to take a close look at it. That’s the first thing I did, then, when tour guide Peter from Edelweiss Bike Travel allocated the bike to me for the Canary Is

WORDS STUART TO MANY PEOPLE, riding off-road is something they’ll never do, only ever dream about, or will never be confident at doing. There are many things you can do to improve your skills off-road. Certainly, there are a number of off-road riding

Do you know that every ride you take on your motorcycle is influenced by Lawrence of Arabia? T.E. Lawrence is probably best known to the general public from his portrayal by Peter O’Toole in the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. But as a motorcyclist, you s

THERE ARE A NUMBER of very exciting new adventure bikes coming onto the market over the next few months. Here’s a little look at some of them. Many existing mid-size adventure models are perceived as being too road oriented and too sophisticated, and

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COMPILED BY THE BEAR “I TOOK THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED BY, AND NOW WHERE THE HELL AM I”? AFTER ROBERT FROST “THERE'S A REASON to celebrate: We have nine new tours for you!” says Edelweiss. “We worked meticulously, scouted in different countries, develo

Wunderlich Engine Protection Bars – $342.63 (A$ equivalent in Germany) THE CRASH BARS fitted to most BMW Airheads from the ‘70s and ‘80s were beaten severely with the Ugly Stick before installation. Their shape is far from elegant; they are too high

WORDS BORIS MIHAILOVIC I HAVE ALREADY addressed the whole “exciting” and still relatively new paradigm of adventuring astride a motorcycle. But since Editor Woodbury is again examining one of the few burgeoning motorcycle markets left to the industr