Old Bike Australasia

Old Bike magazine is a must for those who ride as well as the dedicated enthusiast and rebuilder, covering everything from Vintage to early 1980s bikes - marvel at the restoration of machines that could still sit proudly on the showroom floor. Each issue brings you the latest news and results from recent events, race reports and Rally Roundup, along with new and old bike news and reviews, readers letters, Club Directory, What’s On and much, much more.

Old Bike Australasia • NUMBER 101

Milestones and beyond

BLOW YOUR OWN • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Swap Meet Odyssey

Pheasant Wood gears up for September

Legends of Motorcycling • At the recent Shannons Insurance Broadford Bike Bonanza, a feature of Saturday night’s K-Tech Gala Dinner was the presentation of two Legend of Motorcycling Awards by committee chairman David White on behalf of Motorcycling Australia.

Take me down to the river • After several Covid-forced cancelations the popular Show Day run by Macquarie Towns Motorcycle Restoration & Preservation Club is “absolutely, definitely” back for 2022.

Southern Hemisphere’s leading motorcycle collection grows • Tucked away in a streetscape of heritage buildings in the regional Kiwi town of Invercargill, motorcycle enthusiasts will find heaven on earth.

Dale Wylie: “A motorbike is freedom” • Former New Zealand champion DALE WYLIE died at his home in Christchurch on March 21, after a long illness. He was 72 and had an inoperable brain tumour.

Iain Leonard Pero • July 7, 1961 – March 23, 2022

South Australia All British Day 2024

ANZAC DAY IN 1953 • It was a great weekend for the Anzacs in August 1953, when Ken Kavanagh won the 500cc Ulster Grand Prix, held for the first time on the 7.5 mile Dunrod circuit in Northern Ireland, on a works Norton.

Master blaster • Originally conceived to take on the perilous public road events in Italy, the Corsa C 4V is an out-and-out racer in the classic mould.

NORTON P92 WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN • With Norton’s future now in the hands of Indian manufacturer TVS, the historic British marque seems set for a new and much more financially secure lease of life, which makes it all the more timely to take a look in the rear view mirror of history.

BIG TANK BEEMER • The R69S has become, over the years, one of the most revered of all the BMW flat twins. It is rare too, although not as rare as the R69.

Ducati Scramblers and the Little Yellow Taxi • While ‘Scrambling’ had its origins in the nascent days of motorcycling, it really came into fashion post WW2, when frame and suspension advances conquered the roughest of terrain.

Tempe Mud Flats Tempe NSW • Strictly speaking, this issue’s Tracks in Time is not really a track at all, and only ever hosted racing of a very unofficial kind. But Tempe Mud Flats nevertheless honed the skills of many a rider, and catered for the boundless enthusiasm of a generation of motorcyclists. It was what is now referred to as a Track Day, but largely without the track…

Big-hearted middleweight • Just when everything was getting bigger in the ‘seventies, Kawasaki went smaller. By mid decade, Kawasaki had its range of 900 fours, and the not-so-fondly remembered Z750 twin, but the company felt the 650 class was ripe for the picking, as none of the Japanese factories offered a four-cylinder model.

THE ARAI 500 1979-1988 A BRAVE EXPERIMENT • The Easter Bathurst races had always stuck strictly with tradition; to the point that the Clubmen’s races were constantly being kicked around to accommodate longer duration for the ‘classic’ classes – the 350cc and 500cc solos and the Unlimited Sidecar. So it was not without a great deal of heavy lobbying that saw perhaps the most radical innovation in the thus-far 40 year history of motorcycle...