Daily motorbike news, views & reviews
Aussie-made Dakar Rally film, Dream Racer, has won the Best Feature Film Award in New York at the 2015 Motorcycle Film Festival (September 23-27, 2015). The feature-length movie is about French-African immigrant and now Sydney resident Christophe Barriere-Varju competing in the 2010 Dakar Rally in South America. It is one of the best motorcycle videos made. Don’t just take our …
Australian Toby Price has achieved a stunning and significant third place in the world’s most gruelling motorsports event, the Dakar Rally. The 27-year-old Hunter Valley rider is not only the top-placed rookie but also the equal highest-placed Aussie finisher in the event’s history after fellow rookie and privateer Andy Haydon placed third in 1998. Even …
Imagine having a tyre that changes its tread pattern when you go from tar to dirt and back again. Well, that could be the future with two motorcycle tyre designs in the top three of the biannual Hankook Tyre Design competition. The winning “Dakar” design by German university student Samir Sadikov is a motorcycle …
Is this tough, mud-spattered camo-painted off-roader the Honda Africa Twin? Honda rolled the bike out at the EICMA show in Milan between an old 750 Africa Twin and a modern Dakar Rally 450 bike. Honda calls it a “True Adventure Prototype”. While Honda isn’t mentioning the words “Africa Twin” or giving out any technical information or making any announcements …
A record Dakar Rally altitude of 4300m claimed several high-profile riders in the third stage today including Australia’s Ben Grabham (KTM) and stage two winner Sam Sunderland (Honda). They were among about a dozen riders who incorrectly descended the high ridge line into a valley and then found they couldn’t get back up, costing them …
It is little wonder KTM is so dominant in the Dakar Rally. I toured the factory early last year and was privileged to go across the carpark at their Mattighofen factory to the motorsport workshop and view them working on the bikes that Marc Coma and others are riding in the current Dakar Rally in …
Dakar motorcycle legends including Marc Coma and defending champion Cyril Despres star in a five-minute Red Bull YouTube video to psyche everyone for the Dakar Rally next month. The Spaghetti Western spoof, called “A Fistful of Trophies”, features the riders and truck and car category winners in a cowboy setting playing cards when challengers ride …
The Dakar Rally is not just a motorsport event, but the ultimate adventure. MotorbikeWriter usually steers clear of motorsport, but this rally is more than that. It is a torture test of man and machine across the driest desert in the world, some of the highest and most rugged mountains and temperatures ranging from 50C …
It didn’t take accessories company Touratech long to outfit the new water-cooled BMW R 1200 GS. Their Touratech R 1200 Rallye is one sexy beast. The GS prototype was designed on special request by Touratech CEO Jochen Schanz as a tribute to the company’s sporting past in events such as the Dakar Rally. It was …
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be inspired and you’ll drool at the exotic rally motorcycles in the new film Dream Racer. It is the best documentary yet made about the gruelling Dakar Rally and it features Australian rider Christophe Barrier-Varju. Read my review of the movie here. Its last screenings are tonight (October 23) at …