AusMotorcyclist Issue#23
WEAR ‘EM IF YOU’VE GOT ‘EM I’m nowhere near as sensitive to Jack Frost’s caresses as Mrs Bear, who comes from Casino which often registers the highest summer temperature in NSW. There was one time the cold caught both of us, though.
IT’S BEEN A LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP I’ll never forget my first trip to Phillip Island for the MotoGP. If it wasn’t for a pair of huge, smelly, bearded men, I would be dead – a frost-blasted cadaver bobbing in Bass Strait. Mick Doohan was busy winning his fifth world title and I was wedged between the warming bulk of Brother Silverback and Uncle Paint in the Bass Strait stand as a feral ice-gale lashed us from the bowels of Antarctica. I was wearing everything I had brought, including my helmet, in an effort to fend off death. And had I not been compacted between these two vast blokes and feeding off their body-heat like a tick between two bears, I would have surely died. This is no doubt how Vikings survived crossing the North Sea in their row-boats.
KYMCOkymco.com.auROADCK 125 $2095CRUISER Venox 250 $5295SCOOTERSuper 8 125 $2595Like 125 $2995Espresso 150 $2799Like 200 $3395Downtown 300i ABS $7495 LAROwww.laro.com.auROADV Retro 250 $2990CRUISERCruiser 250 $3999
WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU, the letters are among the most keenly read parts of the magazine. Please try and keep letters down to no more than 300 words. Then you can read many, not just a couple. We do reserve the right to cut them and, unless you identify yourself and at least your town or suburb and state, we will print your email address instead. Please address letters to thebear@ausmotorcyclist.com.au or Australian Motorcyclist Magazine, PO Box 2066, Boronia Park NSW 2111. All opinions published here are those of the writers and we do not vouch for their accuracy or even their sanity! THIS MONTH’S BAGMAN I was going to write that this month’s winner of the excellent and stylish (even if it won’t hold rain gear in the top flap) Andy Strapz AABagz made me eat crow – but then I thought that that’s probably animal cruelty too… my thanks to Izak for making all of us here more aware of how important our photos are, and I hope you get a lot of use out of your bag – without any animals in it! About that bag: if you’re reading this and are interested in setting up or upgrading your luggage system, you owe it to yourself to check out Andy’s website www.andystrapz.com , where he has a lot of outstandingly clever touring accessories listed. PT
CHIMPANZEES ON BIKES LESTER ENCOUNTERS OUR NEAREST RELATIVES IN AN UNUSUAL SETTING WORDS LESTER MORRIS It’s been said that the other Great Apes out there, a category which includes gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-utans, are loaded with almost 95% of the Naked Ape’s human DNA, which is of some concern to us all; or at least, it should be. It’s also been stated that these furry critters are smarter than their naked cousins (that’s us) in many ways, because they don’t start wars and can subsist on just about anything they may stumble across which is bright green, sometimes yellow, or sometimes bright red. They don’t need to fire up the family car, or their bike, to zip off to the local Supermarket and spend good money to collect their own bright green, yellow, red, or multi-coloured, often-packaged produce.
TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE Yamaha MT Techno jacket Price – $399.01 To go with our fl ash new Yamaha MT-07 long term bike, the lovely people at Yamaha Genuine Parts & Accessories decided they want me to look the part as well. They sent over their MT Techno jacket, made by Spidi. As the name suggests, the MT Techno is a very technical looking jacket.
FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND WORDS STUART WOODBURY “Telegraph sang a song about the world outside Telegraph road got so deep and so wide Like a rolling river”. Dire Straits Pack the tent, or pack the swag and let’s go to the Tip on the Telegraph Road. When you look at this adventure map, it looks pretty easy, as it is marked as a fairly straight line, but don’t let this fool you. There are plenty of technical bits to ride as you get further north from Bramwell Roadhouse. As you will have your tent or swag, take your time and do this trip over two or three days.
MELBOURNE TO ADELAIDE THE BACK WAY “TIME IS RELATIVE.” ALBERT EINSTEIN WORDS/PHOTOS MICHAEL WALLEY I love touring in Victoria and I’ll tell you why. In my home state of South Australia, if you want to venture down a back road to take the more scenic route, or just for something different, chances are it will be a dirt road. A lot of times it will have those small stones that are more like marbles or have those nasty corrugations due to the dry weather and lack of infrastructure to keep on top of maintaining them. Now I’m not bagging South Australia as we don’t have the population to sustain the roads to Victoria’s standards, but I’m always amazed when I travel across the border to find tar roads in the middle of nowhere. (I really need to get a dual purpose bike.)
RUNNING IT IN YAMAHA MT-07 It just so happened that our new long termer, the Yamaha MT-07, was ready to be picked up when I was taking our Yamaha Bolt outfi t over to Yamaha for transportation to Moto Expo in Melbourne. We had to wait for an 07 in the Deep Armour colour we wanted and when I went to pick it up, it was brand spanking new. The Yamaha tech had had no time to check ride it, so as I left Yamaha HQ, zero kilometres is what read on the speedo – I felt special.
