Australian Motorcycle News Vol 68 Issue 22

THIS ISSUE CENTRES around two of my most favourite ways to use a motorcycle – smashing laps at a track, and exploring far and wide. In 2019, the variety of ways in which you can do this is mind blowing. One day you can be drifting an oversized chook chaser at improbable pace through a corner deep in the bush; the next, knee down with a rorty V4 growling away beneath you, shortly before pumping you down the chute north of 250km/h. Our choice, now, is astounding and it will never cease to amaze me how many different bike niches we now live with. There’s a bike for each pursuit we invent for ourselves, but there are still bikes that do everything, too. Our biggest problem is whether to buy the…

SMALLER-CAPACITY models are propping up a sagging motorcycle new-sales market. Riders are finding that models even as small as 300cc can pack a punch in handling, safety technology and even performance. Back in 2014 KTM’s Indian-built 390 Duke was a gamechanger in Australia. Its zippy performance and lean, clean, angular styling made a statement of power and performance that would have been unimaginable just a few years earlier. Now a new test mule that has surfaced, with slightly rusting and unpainted frame, makeshift petrol tank and seat, offers a fascinating look into KTM’s all-new 390 Duke. Despite a sharp-edged restyle in 2017, the current model is still essentially the same bike that first appeared back in 2013. Now it looks like a complete redesign is being undertaken. At this early stage the 373cc…

Small-Capacity models like this have become commonplace on our streets and the world’s largest manufacturers are poised for significant model updates. Here’s some more we’ve uncovered in their early stages of development. HONDA’ S NEW BABIES TWO 125CC SINGLE-cylinder concepts that Honda quietly revealed last year are the subject of new design patents indicating they may reach production. Both the supermoto-style CB125M and the CB125X adventure bike were shown without fanfare at EICMA last November. They came from the same Rome-based R&D department previously responsible for styling ideas on the CB1000R, CB650R, CB300R and CB125R. The adventure-style CB125X seems a no-brainer, as that market segment is strong. Its styling fits neatly with the Africa Twin to give an entry-level, learner-legal adventure machine for the first time since the demise of the Varadero 125. The argument…

THERE IS A special place in the hall of fame of adventure bikes for Suzuki’s DR Big – made from 1988 to 1996. It was the world’s largest single-cylinder bike and offered a completely different proposition to the twin-cylinder offerings of its rivals. THE APPROACH TO THE REBORN DR BIG IS THE SAME AS THE NEW KATANA Now we have confirmation that the DR Big is coming back to Suzuki’s line-up in 2020. Two prototypes have been caught on camera testing in Italy, giving us our first look and showing that Suzuki’s approach to the reborn DR Big is the same as the new Katana. In other words, making a vast saving in time and money by borrowing the majority of its components from an existing machine. Lovers of that original single-cylinder machine…

Old and new THE FRAME, FORKS, brakes, subframe and swingarm are all straight from the DL1000 V-Strom, and the 1037cc V-twin engine also looks much the same. It’s surprising to see that the DR Big even uses the alloy wheels of the stock V-Strom rather than the wires of the V-Strom XT, although surely the wire wheels will be an option on the finished bike to give it a more authentic look. Soft-roader WITH THE V-STROM as its basis, the bike’s off-road ability will be fairly limited, and certainly a far cry from the original DR Big that proved itself in the Paris-Dakar rally. However, it will be around twice as powerful as the old bike: the first-gen DR750 ‘DR Big’ made 38.3kW, with the later DR800 version upping that figure to 40kW,…

THE UPCOMING LARGE-capacity water-cooled touring Indian has been let out of the bag through a planning document that’s leaked onto the internet, revealing its power, capacity and name: Raptor. While the blurry, low-res picture doesn’t give much detail, we’ve already seen the engine’s patents, revealing it to be a single overhead cam design with four valves per cylinder. And a close-up spy shot of a disguised Raptor has confirmed that’s the engine to be used. In terms of specs, the document confirms that the new water-cooled V-twin engine will have a 108 cubic inch, 1770cc capacity, and make 120hp (90kW), driving through a six-speed transmission. What the new picture does show us is the Raptor’s overall outline, confirming it’s a rival to Harley-Davidson’s Road Glide and a machine in the currently-fashionable bagger mould. It’s…