Australian Motorcycle News Vol 69 Issue 02

CAN YOU REMEMBER the very first time you climbed aboard a motorcycle? In the old days, it was invariably on a hot, smelly, kinda-maintained paddock bike someone else owned – being entrusted with it alone was a big enough deal, let alone the mental overload of actually making it go. And stop. I chose to stop the first bike I ever rode by grabbing a handful of front brake, getting it all locked up in the gravel, then skidding down said gravel on my helmeted face. Lucky about the helmet, because my pillion-riding cousin wasn’t wearing one. I remember being worried about that as he slid over the top of me, but my body took the wrath of our first-gear crash. I haven’t been off bikes ever since, though I like to…

WITH A LOT of internet chatter about a Ducati V4 Multistrada being spied out testing in Europe recently, we’ve dug deep for the real facts. Our Euro sleuths have snapped these photos of what all the fuss is about. It looks like there could be a V4 engine in there but we can’t be 100 percent sure. What does amaze us though is the advanced state of the radar testing equipment on board this test mule. Radar is a key element of Ducati’s upcoming models and the Italian manufacturer has already confirmed it will be on a production bike next year. Our industry analyst explains. DUCATI HAS ALREADY confirmed it will have a new model on sale in 2020 fitted with radar-activated safety systems. The next-generation Multistrada was always the most obvious…

HONDA HAS FILED patent applications for a new four-cylinder bike that appears to be an upcoming replacement for the CB1100. With this model now 10 years old, we expect to see this model released later this year to also coincide with the 50th birthday of Honda’s first four-cylinder model, the CB750. The paperwork we’ve seen confirms the unique air-cooled four-cylinder engine remains the centrepiece, but appears to have a redesigned bottom end. It’s mounted in a completely new half-duplex-type frame with a single spine running up and over the engine instead of twin upper rails. Twin shocks are replaced by a rising-rate monoshock design and the seat subframe, triangulated higher on the main chassis, sharpens the rear end styling. Note the exhaust headers sweeping to the right-hand side and joining in a…

AS EXPECTED, Australia’s new motorcycle market declined further in the first six months of 2019. An 11.4 percent drop follows an 8.7 percent fall in new sales over the full calendar year of 2018. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) recorded that 42,457 motorcycles, ATVs and scooters were sold during the first six months of 2019, compared with 47,909 for the same period in 2018. For the 2018 calendar year, 95,080 new sales were recorded. So if figures keeping tracking like they did last year, expect total sales in 2019 to slump to around 85,000. By way of comparison, Australia’s new-car market fell 9.6 percent over the same period. Tony Weber, chief executive of the FCAI, said lower sales reflected the current tough market environment for both two and four wheels. “The first…

56 The number of women riders who entered the recent Hattah Desert Race Full report page 122 LADIES FIRST Motorcycling Victoria is hosting a Ladies Day (in the dirt) on 10 August at the Broadford State Motorcycle Complex. BIG JIM Jim Airey, the subject of a Where Are They Now article (AMCN Vol 67 No 24), is the 2019 Inductee into the Speedway Hall of Fame, presented in Adelaide earlier this month. He won nine State and four Australian solo championships. Ex-AMCN staffer Rennie Scaysbrook gives an emotional tribute to his Pikes Peak rival and mentor Carlin Dunne. See the video at www.gofundme.com/f/carlin-dunne-932 and contribute to the Go Fund Me account set-up to support for Dunne’s mum, Romie, who is holding a memorial later this month. “We were all racing for second” Read about Scaysbrook’s emotional win…

Cool for Cal Cal Crutchlow finishes third in the German MotoGP just four days after breaking his leg training on his bicycle. To the Max! New Suzuki signing Wayne Maxwell shows true grit to drag himself back into ASBK contention with a round win at Morgan Park. Afronaut dies Mandla Maseko, 30, who had the chance to be the first black African in space, has died in a motorcycle accident. Big city bike ban Motorcycles built before 2004 are banned from Paris streets weekdays between 8am and 8pm.…