Page 59 - Motorcycle Trader (February 2020)
P. 59
I’m amazed
you could
actually buy
a bike like
the Tenere in
2020. I’m sorely
tempted though
ROOTHY: Nup, I’d rather have a carby on too. And watching Tommo go through the ABOVE: Try going about
my ’Layan. Nothing to do with performance, bike licencing requirements was incredible roadside repairs with
just the reassurance that I can sort it after compared to the ‘There you go, son, we’ll a modern machine...
dumping it in a creek or something. And pick up the bits later’ approach a few You end up with a king
having tested the new ABS-equipped decades ago. and queen seat (minus
the queen) by default
Enfields, I’m impressed with the way it There’s still plenty of room for that all to go when you do more
worked but not sure my style of slow-poking to shit but my time on that BMW S 1000 RR than 800,000km on
needs it. I mean, they slide pretty nicely. in Tassie showed me the value of techno the same old Harley.
Good balance and all. safety at high speeds. Still, we’re both alive
It does seem like there’s fewer blokes after 50 years of continuous riding, we must
falling off for the sake of over-braking be doing something right and mostly on bikes
or snaking a rear tyre out of a corner or that never had any of the new technology.
something silly and that must be the quality SPANNER: I hope you blessed yourself and
of modern traction control, ABS, better tyres knocked on a bit of wood when you said
and suspension. I used to fall off regularly that. Fate is not to be tempted. Check out the
in the ’70s, not always because I was full of letter in my column this month asking if we
piss back tracking home either. Losing the knew Dave Sanders. He was a bit before my
front wheel on wet grass when Hilda’s double time, and I think he was dead before you
leading-shoe decided to work or the classic took over Two Wheels. They were different
slow slide into the gutter because I’d dare tilt times, though. He and Kel Wearne used to get
the Matchless off its rock-hard trials tyres. test bikes and return them with 5000 extra
The Norton dumped me twice with a locked- kilometres on them. The distributors would
up rear wheel. Once when the motor seized then spend the next few months dealing
and another time when the rear ’guard bolts with speeding fines from the NT, WA and
fell out and the guard locked the tyre. Now SA as well as rebuilding the bikes. If Dave
we’ve got Loctite and spring washers. and Kel said the bike was durable in print,
Technology must have helped rider safety. it probably was. I remember Kel once being
There’s still plenty of mug drivers out there stopped in WA because so many moths had
but with speed and red-light cameras and collected in the airbox of his test bike that
these new texting laws I reckon our chances the engine failed to proceed.
have improved. How many times would Here’s the thing: he could fix the problem
you see a car weaving all over the road in at the side of the road. I had a Honda Turbo
the pre-breathalyser days? Sure, there’s quit on me on the way to Perth once and the
more traffic but they’re more bike aware, problem ended up being the fuel pump.
MOTORCYCLE TRADER 59
