G’day, Welcome to bikereview.com.au and of course, thanks for joining us. I hope you have all had a great month since we last touched base. Here in Sydney it has been bloody wet and freezing most of the time as has Victoria and a lot of Australia.
This winter I’ve been lucky, I reckon. I was invited to the Yamaha MT-10 and MT range launch event and it was held late July in Twin Waters, up on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Man, I can not believe how warm it is up there. Two days of 30-degrees plus when it was freezing in NSW.
I spent one day hammering around the hinterland up there and another testing a radical Australian bike called the MotoInno, with Motorcycle Innovation Director’s Colin Oddy and Ray Van Steenwyk, at Lakeside Park Raceway.
It was damn hot and could not believe it. I finally get why so many riders move up that way when they retire. Perfect riding conditions all year long and the roads a fantastic, plus the old injuries would feel better in winter than down south.
I did a few laps of the proposed TT course while I was at up there. I wasn’t hanging around, I was having a good go, and between me and you I don’t think it is that suitable but that is only the opinion of one man. I just found it very closed in and tree lined and not that fast, but that was using one side of the road of course.
The fastest sections were quick but not TT quick and there are quite a lot of slow, bumpy narrow areas that would need a lot of work. It was good fun, don’t get me wrong, but more dangerous than most road courses I’d say… I’ll leave that up to the Cam Donald’s of the world.
I stayed in flash accommodation, which is the norm, but of course like all things – things can go wrong! I didn’t really look at the beach, pool or bar as despite checking into my flight early and having a boarding pass in hand, bag drop delays at Jet Star in Sydney meant I was denied my flight by three minutes!
There was nothing around that suited from any airline so I had to jump back in the car and drive 1200km to Twin Waters. I arrived well after midnight so missed the presentation. Anyway, I got a good sleep and the bonus was that I didn’t have a hangover in the morning for the ride – and I’m normally one of the last journo’s standing, well sort of standing.
Anyway the bike was a blast and you can read all about it in Bike Reviews.
The following day I had the pleasure of testing a radical bike called the MotoInno TS3. This is the part of the job I like but also one of the most demanding. Testing a prototype with accuracy takes a lot of experience – you need hundreds and hundreds of tests under your belt to give real feedback on a prototype.
You also need racing experience and race bike development experience along with a good feel for tyres or all brands and types. Otherwise you just don’t have enough comparisons in the test bank to offer a true opinion and accurate notes.
You also have to be prepared to put yourself on the line and push the bike past its limits, ideally without crashing of course, and you have to trust the builder and hope it is all strong enough. You also have the responsibility of not damaging a bike that can often be worth a million bucks and be difficult, or impossible, to repair or replace.
Along with that, it is very important you give meaningful and accurate feedback as there is a responsibility there to not lead the owner or developer on a path that is completely wrong or inaccurate.
Doing all of the above at a dangerous place like Lakeside Park just adds to the task but I still enjoy it and the MotoInno was fantastic, plus Lakeside is fun. I was surprised to be honest… I had a test plan in place before I arrived, which was to ease into Lakeside Park after a two decade gap and gently feel my way into the bones of the bike, do a thorough mechanical check over, make any subtle set-up tweaks (very few in the end, in fact only tyre pressures), then gradually build to pushing the bike to crash point but not crashing.
I wanted to see how far that front end could be pushed compared to conventional forks. It was an interesting test and went very well. I’ll be posting it up soon. A hint – I had my knee down after two corners of my out lap. What does that tell you about the front end?
There needs to be more of these radical machines built here in Australia. The MotoInno TS3, the many Ian Drysdale creations, the PGM V8… We have the brains just not the money, some say, but look that never stops the Kiwi’s from creating amazing cutting edge machines…
Driving home from Lakeside Raceway for 12-hours gave me plenty of time to reflect on the MT-10 and the MotoInno TS3. Both stunning in design. Both equally as fun to ride. Both built with passion and drive by motorcycle enthusiasts. The two bikes are from totally different world’s – one a mass produced bike and one a hand crafted work of art. Which would I own? Like always, I could never decide and it’d have to be both. Or maybe an MT-01 powered MotoInno!
We’ve been flat out testing other bike lately as well. We’ve ridden the Ducati Scrambler Flat Track Pro, MV Agusta Turismo Lusso, Aprilia Tuono RR, Honda CBR500R, KLR650, Yamaha XSR900, KX250F, Super Tenere, Africa Twin, Kawasaki Versys 650L, Royal Enfield range and XSR700.
Yep, we’ve been busy and I haven’t had much time in the shed, that plus baby four here now so I have four kids under seven which is interesting! I still manage to sneak down to the shed to watch MotoGP and SBK and drink as much beer as I can fit in during that time even if the shed is bloody freezing!
As far as projects go, the Aprilia RS250 resto is coming along but I’m waiting on a few parts and my Slabbie needs a few things repaired. The 1995 Fireblade is perfect and running strong, while Kris has been giving his Daytona 675 a rest while testing all of these other bikes. Pommie has just bought himself a Kawasaki KH500 triple to restore so you will no doubt see more of that.
We have just started a Youtube channel too so if you subscribe to that you will get our latest videos. You can also join our Facebook page.
Let’s stay in touch, email me via the contact page and let me know what you think of my new website or tell me your story.
Cheers friends,
JEFF WARE
Pics: Daley Photography, Gavan Dall’Osto
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