Australian Motorcycle News

THIS OUGHT TO be fun! Honda is reportedly developing self-steering motorcycle technology (see News, page 10), and I reckon it is going to be a grouse thing to test when it finally comes to market. Whaaat?! Why the hell would I want a motorcycle to take control of itself instead of letting me look after the traditional role of steering it? Well, I’ve sampled this self-steering technology in several different cars over the past few years and while it works better in some vehicles than others, it’s in no way a bad thing. Sure, it takes some getting used to, as the feeling of the steering wheel pulling you back into your lane is a bit strange at first, but like most things, once you’re accustomed to it, you barely notice…

IMAGINE THIS. YOU are barrelling along a freeway at the legal speed limit on the latest Honda Fireblade when the traffic suddenly converges to avoid a pileup. In a split second, your handlebar is tweaked by a mysterious force and you avoid a serious crash. This isn’t fiction, but the latest development in Honda’s long-term goal to make its motorcycles completely safe, even ending fatalities by 2050. In pursuit of that, its best brains are working hard on car-style rider assistance systems. Fortunately, Honda is also aware that we don’t ride bikes simply to get from A to B efficiently and safely, and nor will owners be happy to hand over control to a computer. So this means the development focus is implementing safety nets in such a way that we…

HONDA’S ATTEMPTS TO minimise motorcycle accidents through technology coincides with a United Nations target to halve the global road toll by 2030. A landmark study released by Victoria University’s Institute of Strategic Economic Studies has revealed that every day more than 1000 people aged 10 to 24 die on the world’s roads, and thousands more are injured. These findings have helped make road safety a top policy priority of the United Nations. The Victorian study has concluded that 12 million serious injuries and two million deaths among young people in some of the world’s poorest countries could be averted with proven road safety investments. The study examined how introducing safety interventions such as bike and motorcycle helmets, better road design and enforcing drink-driving laws and vehicle safety standards could prevent death and…

THE ELECTRIC-POWERED adventure-touring landscape is opening up with a new player joining this developing market segment. American electric pioneer Lightning Motorcycles is challenging the Energica electric adventure model we revealed recently (AMCN Vol 71 No 24) with a secret Energica project codenamed Dakar. Revealed through patent applications filed in China, the ‘Dakar’ looks like being a real contender. Italian company Energica brought four years of experience supplying the MotoGP-supporting MotoE championship to bear on its upcoming Experia model. This features a 21.5kWh battery pack, an electric motor producing 75kW and a 222km combined range (cruising and full power). Lightning Motorcycles is basing its ‘Dakar’ project on its Strike sportsbike, launched in 2019 but with production hobbled by the Covid-19 pandemic. We’ve since revealed it’s also developed a high-performance, fully-enclosed Streetliner, which we’ve…

FOUR YEARS IN design and development, Kiwi-based company Switch has produced what it says is the world’s first electric street scrambler. Called the eSCRAMBLER, it is presently going through through USA/NZ/AUS homologation and plans are to export during the first quarter of 2023 for a starting price of $A17,000. The bikes will be delivered with VIN numbers and a one-year warranty. For that you get a 170kg street scrambler that has claimed acceleration of 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds, a top speed of 160km/h (but probably not on those tyres!), a 150km range and charge time of four hours to 90 percent battery capacity. A New Zealand initiative with government backing, Switch has a European-based design team led by ex-Yamaha Michel Riis Eriksen, a supply chain team in China, and will be assembled…

A WORLDWIDE TREND to convert blown-up engines of classic and vintage vehicles to electric is starting to appear. Now a Dutch company is offering a kit to electrify old BMW boxers. LM Creations has preempted BMW’s own attempts at mimicking the classic boxer engine layout. BMW’s 2020 DC Vision concept bike (AMCN Vol 70 No 06) was a futuristic design that referenced its classic engine layout by flanking a longitudinally mounted electric motor with two sets of coolers, sticking out on each side to hark back to a boxer’s cylinders. LM Creations also uses a longitudinal electric motor, but mounts it inside a specially cast alloy case that replicates a boxer engine. It’s so old school there are even holes in the sides where the conrods would normally fit. It even looks…