BUSY, BUT IN DIFFERENT WAYS AS YOU MAY OR may not be aware by now, we’ve gone quarterly. Life has taken over and I just couldn’t continue the busy schedule of a monthly magazine, hence we’ve gone to an easier to manage quarterly roster.

BUT HE’S STILL YOUNG! Our good mate, ‘Lukey Luke’ the stunt rider has officially retired. His final show was at the Phillip Island World Superbike round in November 2022. After a professional stunt career spanning nearly 20 years, the father of two has elected to finish on his own terms. In recent times, his own business ventures have, by necessity, taken more of his time and taken away from the vital stunt rider training and practice that staying at the top of the sport demands.

BACK IN ISSUE #110 I rode the Suzuki GSX-S1000 at the Australian launch and was blown away with how good this bike is for the little amount of money it retails for. At that launch everyone was also talking about the GT version, “coming in a few months’ time” and trying to guess what the price would be. Well, those months have passed and here is the amazing GSX-S1000GT. Priced at only $19,990 ride away, which is a stunning price, the bike I tested also had the accessory panniers. These retail for $1740 and well worth adding to the bike, they’re also keyed to the ignition key.

A LIFETIME WORDS – STUART • PHOTOS – ROYAL ENFIELD I RECENTLY GOT THE THICKEST marker pen I could find and gave a big fat tick to a bucket list ride – riding the Himalayas and some of the highest motorable roads in the world. Riding the Himalayas has long been a dream ride for me. Whenever there’s movies on Mount Everest and the highest peaks in the world I’m all over them – I’d one day love to climb one of the highest 14 peaks, but riding some of the highest motorable roads in the world is something that turned from a dream to a reality with a big thanks to Royal Enfield Australia and Royal Enfield.

An Indian in Czechia Visiting Bohemia on a borrowed “race bike”WORDS & PHOTOS THE BEAR EASTERN EUROPE IS AN odd place. It’s not so long ago historically that it was a patchwork of small countries, principalities and dukedoms. These amalgamated, divided and amalgamated again with different partners so you would never have been sure what piece of ground belonged to whom and from when. For an effective image of what that meant, take a look at maps of Poland over the last few hundred years.

A BIT OF EVERYTHINGWORDS & PHOTOS THE BEAR BROKEN HILL One of the state’s largest and most sophisticated inland cities, The Hill is an interesting place with art galleries and good cafés as well as plentiful accommodation. Doesn’t sound much like a down-at-heel mining town, and it isn’t. The place has reinvented itself quite successfully as a tourist destination. Ask someone who’s been around for a while where the Honda Motel is; Honda used to test cars and bikes here, and the test teams always stayed in the same motel.

WORDS & PHOTOS COLIN WHELAN THE CRAMSIE ROAD STRETCHES for a bit over 100kms north from the Landsborough Highway about 6 kms west of Longreach, to the Hughenden Road, just west of Muttaburra – the town closest to the geographical centre of Queensland.

WORDS – STUART • PHOTOS – NICK WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY ‘BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS whatcha gunna do…whatcha gunna do when they come for you…” The Inner Circle lyrics, which was used as the theme song for the TV hit show, “Cops” certainly applies for the Bad Boy, Harley-Davidson Breakout. “When they come for you” is me saying the Harley dealer will be coming to take your money as you won’t be able to resist this mean mother of a motorcycle. A ‘PH’ fat 240mm wide rear tyre is mostly what anyone else will see, unless you’re sipping a frosty at a local pub while others drool over all the chrome sparkling on the 114 V-twin engine.

SUIT-ABLE FOR AN ATLANTIC STORM BMW UNISEX PRORAIN SUITPART NUMBER 76817921671,$285 I DIDN’T KNOW THAT I WAS going to be hit by an Atlantic Ocean storm cell when I was sorting out the gear for my recent trip to Europe, but I was only too aware of the need for rain protection that would last for a while. On a previous trip my wet weather gear had literally disintegrated, and the expensive two-piece I bought less than a year ago leaked from the first time I wore it. Time to get serious. The obvious top choice, given my experience over the years, was one of the suits from BMW. Never the cheapest, they have always been the best and I only disposed of my previous one because I had carelessly torn it.

WORDS & PHOTOS THE BEAR IT’S NO SECRET TO you, if you’ve been following my tales, that IMTBIKE is a tour operator whose work I have enjoyed. It is no accident that they are offering a tour for Australian Motorcyclist readers. My most recent experience with them leads me to suggest that you could hardly do better than to sign up for it!