We may not be able to ride like MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, but we can look just as fast with the new limited edition YZF-R1SP that has been unveiled by Yamaha Australia this week.
The special Rossi-liveried version of Yamaha’s 2010 model YZF-R1 superbike bike will hit TeamMoto Yamaha dealerships in March this year.
Yamaha has urged customers to place an order to avoid disappointment, so click here to contact your local TeamMoto Yamaha dealer today!
The YZF-R1SP is based on a 2010 R1, but is fitted with a Rossi decal kit that includes #46 race numbers front and rear and the maestro’s signature on the fuel tank to make it the ultimate autograph collector’s piece.
The revolutionary YZF-R1 was introduced at the end of February 2009.
The radical and innovative new model represented the most significant
development in engine and chassis technology ever seen in the 11-year
history of this legendary motorcycle.
Featuring an all-new 998cc engine whose design, feel and character has
been influenced by Rossi’s championship winning M1, the new high-tech
R1 powerplant is closely linked to the Moto GP bike. In fact the new
model R1 engine has benefited from more MotoGP-developed technology
than any other in its long and prestigious history.
In addition, the completely redesigned aluminium Deltabox chassis and
aggressive styling, give the new-generation YZF-R1 a radical new look
and bring innovative technology to the class. In the same way that the
original YZF-R1 threw the rule book out of the window, this
revolutionary new model sets a new benchmark for the super-competitive
1000cc superbike category.
New Sexy Looks, New Stunning Performance: 2010 Kawasaki Z1000 ABS
Other Super Naked models are often no more than supersport models with
the fairings removed, so the scope of the design is limited. As the new
2010 Z1000 ABS was designed from scratch, there were no design
limitations and the results speak louder than words. The new Z1000
boasts stunning visual impact with a healthy dose of power thanks to
the new engine.
The Z1000 development focused on the excitement derived from riding a sport bike on the street. Engine tuning focused on the feeling the rider gets when twisting the throttle. Open the throttle at any speed and the engine pulls strongly, so sit back and enjoy the experience of the all new 2010 Z1000 ABS.
The all-new 2010 Kawasaki Z1000 ABS will be available in TeamMoto Kawasaki dealers late-February. For more information, click here to contact your local TeamMoto Kawasaki dealer.
Check out the Z1000 in action! See video below.
TeamMoto is proud to support the 2010 Sunrise Run
TeamMoto Motorcycles is proud to support the 2010 Sunrise Run, which will be held February 7th, 2010 by the Rim Valleys branch of the Ulysses Club. The Sunrise Run has been held for the past six years, with each years turnout surpassing the last!
Registration starts 4.00am at the BP Blacksoil, Warrego Highway outbound. The ride leaves 5.00am sharp and goes for 250km, which a fuel stop in the middle.
The ride will end at Laidley Cultural Centre at 8.30am, where for $25 per person a full buffet breakfast awaits, along with a goody bag and badge! You will also be entered for a chancee to win a set of front & rear tyres (plus free fitting!) sponsored by TeamMoto.
There will be a charity raffle and auction, with profits going to Gatton Hospital and the Ulysses Arthritis Research fund.
So start 2010 with a great ride for a good cause!
For more information contact: Garry Morris - (07) 5462 7067 - rim_valleys_ulyssess@hotmail.com
The Longest Day Ride: One Day to SA
The Summer Solstice is the one day of the year with the most available amount of daylight - Dec 21st. With all that sunshine, what better day for a ride....and so the "Longest Day Ride" was born. Originally a bunch of mates left from a NSW beach at daybreak with the goal of seeing how far west they could ride in one day before sunset. And each year someone managed to go just a little further until an actual destination point was nominated - Cameron Corner on the South Australian border!
This is from the diary of one of the participants, Ron Grant, riding a 2010 Yamaha Tenere.
3.45am - Out of bed. Quick (light) breakfast and gear up for the day.
4.20am - Leave home for departure point. 2010 Yamaha Tenere all loaded and fueled up the night before.
4.40am - Arrive at Wynnum foreshore. A beautiful morning, slightly overcast and 22c.
4.44am - Official sunrise and away we go. Traffic good out of Brisbane. Into Toowoomba at 6.15 and quite a bit of traffic / traffic lights slowed things down. Out thru Cecil Plains to keep off the main road. VERY close encounter with a huge roo! My heart was beating so fast it hurt.
7.45am - 335km's. First fuel stop at Moonie. Lube chain, clean
visor, quick sandwich and drink = 20 mins. Temp is rising and starting
to feel a little tired already.
10.45am - 637km's. Second fuel stop at Bollon. Servo is
locked up, 15 mins wasted finding the owner to open up!! Clean visor
and drink = 25 mins. The bitumen road was really rough from Moonie out.
11.55am - 750km's for the morning. Stop on the side of the
road for the obligatory noon photo. Temp almost 40c. Road quite bumpy.
Tenere running perfectly. Now past the halfway point.
12.45pm - 808 km's. Third fuel stop at Cunnamulla. Lube chain, clean visor, drink and refill Camelbak + ate a muesli bar = 25 mins. Temp now over 40c. A lot of whirly winds going on.
2.45pm - 1,023 km's. Fourth fuel stop at Thargomindah. Lube chain, clean visor, drink and refill Camelbak = 25 mins. Temp now over 42c. Only a bit over 400k's to go.
4.10pm - 1,165km's. Fifth fuel stop at Noccundra. Lower tyre pressures for the sand dunes, clean visor, drink and refill Camelbak = 25 mins. The end of the bitumen and the start of the real fun.
5.35pm - 1,295km's. Turn off the main dirt road into the sand dunes. Sun right in my eyes but bike handling the dirt great.
7.05pm - 1,441km's. Arrive at Cameron Corner 29 minutes before official sunset. Total time = 14hrs 21mins. The dunes were an absolute hoot with the Tenere.
8.30am the next day - after the best hospitality at Cameron Corner, got to get going to be home before midnight. Waved goodbye to hosts Fenn and Sheryl. Temp almost 40c before departure.
Arrived home after 3,030km's. Bike ran perfect, just need to fit a new rear tyre for the Condamine Gorge ride on the weekend!
Be sure to check out the awesome footage below from the Longest Day Ride, taken on the GoPro HD Hero Helmet Camera.
TOMB RAIDER: Dakar Rally Princess' lucky escape
The dust has settled once again, as the 2010 Dakar Rally comes to an end. As one enthusiast quoted; "I am happy for two weeks of the year. The other 52 I am waiting for the Dakar to start again."
It's this type of passion which defines the Dakar and as usual the
event, which for the previous two years has run through Argentina and
Chile in South America, did not disappoint. Strife with adventure and
drama, fantastic racing and amazing tales, there was one story
however which stood out from the rest.
Swedish "Rally Princess" Annie Seel, who has now finished four
Dakar Rally's and the 2009 Australasian Safari, had a very close call
during the 8th stage of the 2010 Dakar leading to Copiapo that will
remain etched in her memory forever.
“I was riding fairly slowly in the dust with poor visibility and
when I tried to change track, I came face to face with an enormous
hole. It was impossible to avoid it. I jumped off the bike to avoid
falling in but my bike, the Super Rocket, went right to the bottom”. The Swede reckons the hole was 6 metres deep. “A real tomb, perfectly dug”.
The adventure of the quickest women in the Dakar seemed to have
screeched to a halt, at the bottom of a huge hole. But help was at
hand, in the guise of the Dakar Race Director, Etienne Lavigne on board
his helicopter. “He
went down into the hole to strap up the bike, put on my helmet to avoid
being hurt by falling stones and helped direct the bike as it was
airlifted out. Etienne and the helicopter pilot are the real heroes of
the day. What’s more, I filmed it all”.
As a result, Annie was able to continue and finish her fourth Dakar Rally with only a swollen hand and aching foot.
Check out the amazing video below of Annie's KTM Super Rocket being airlifted out of the tomb.
Throw out those flowers, get your girl some leather this Valentine's Day!
Forget the traditional flowers and chocolates this February and get your lady something she will really appreciate! TeamMoto has a huge range of 2010 Women's street gear in stock now.
Check out these great products at amazing prices. Earn yourself some serious brownie points by buying her the trendiest new street gear around.
Keep on rolling, baby: Check your steering head bearings
Steering head bearing condition and adjustment is extremely important, because they affect your ability to steer and control your motorcycle. Too much tension makes your steering feel heavy, causing you to over steer due to the extra effort required to turn the handlebars. You correct this by over-steering in the opposite direction causing the bike to weave, even when riding in a straight line. This is called tram lining.
Not enough tension on the bearings and you will feel and hear a clunk from the front end whenever you hit a bump or brake hard. Loose steering head bearings also cause your handlebars to shake violently from side to side; this is most noticeable when you’re slowing down from around 80kp/h to 60kp/h.
In saying that however, some makes and models are prone to this condition. How many of you have taken one hand off the handle bars while slowing down and then had trouble grabbing the bars again? A badly worn front tyre doesn’t help.
So now you know why your steering head bearings need to be checked – this is how it’s done.
Firstly, jack your front wheel off the ground.
A hydraulic jack can be
used under the right hand side of your bike, this way you use the side
stand as a support.
NOTE: On some models, you may need to remove your fairing on faired
bikes. You may also need a friend to hold the back of your bike on the
ground. Due to modern frame design the majority of sports bikes have
most of their weight towards the front. So you will find while your
jacking up the front wheel, the rear wheel will lift off the ground at
the same time. This can be potentially dangerous and costly. Phone a
friend.
Ok, front wheel is off the ground now turn the handlebars slowly from
side to side through their whole range of movement.
Steering should
feel smooth and free without any notches and or grinding.
Notchy bearings need to be replaced ASAP. Generally if the tension on
your bearings is correct the handlebars will fall from the centre
position by their own weight.
If the tension is too tight the
handlebars will move very slowly or not at all.
Now grab the front fork legs down near the front axle while standing in
front of your bike. Now push and pull the forks away and towards you.
If you feel any play or movement you can presume your steering head
bearings are loose.
NOTE: Worn fork slider bushes will give you movement also while
performing this test, so you need to eliminate one from the other.
Too loose or too tight bearings can usually be rectified by
adjustment. I recommend you call your nearest TeamMoto dealer for any
adjustments and for replacing new steering head bearings if necessary.
Happy motorcycling and I will speak to you next month.
Motorcycle Riding School: Suspension Set-up - The Basics
Whether you are a road rider or an occasional track day rider correct suspension setup is the key to a controlled, comfortable and confident ride. To get the best out of your bike it needs to be set up for the conditions in which you will be riding. It is considerably easier to set the bike up for track days only as you know what the track conditions will be like and as a result you can dial in the optimum settings (harder springs, modifying the fork and shock internals etc.) for the that particular riding condition.
If you ride on the road as well as the track you will probably want to
keep a certain comfort level and concentrate on just optimizing the
current equipment. With a poor suspension setup tyres will wear out
faster and handling suffers which in turn can result in rider fatigue
and in extreme cases rider safety can be compromised.
Hopefully the following guide will help you dial in your suspension for a more confident and safer ride.
Firstly you will need to check the Fork and Shock sag: this is the
amount the forks and rear shock settle under load.
To measure it do the
following: push down on the forks a number of times to settle them,
then mark the stanchion with a felt pen or put a cable tie where the
dust seal is sitting.
Next ask someone for help to lift on the bars so the front wheel is
just off the ground and measure the amount the forks have travelled
down. This is the static sag, this can be changed by adjusting the
spring preload (more preload = less sag). Repeat the same process for
the rear, this time measuring the distance from the wheel spindle to a
fixed point on the bike. Now you are ready to begin setting up your
suspension. The key is to do it a little at a time and make notes as
you go.
For more information on the TeamMoto Riding School, Call (07) 3380 2250 to arrange a training course that suites your schedule.
A True Australian Adventure!
Robert Eckford and his two sons Michael and Matthew have embarked on an epic journey around Australia. With Robert & Matthew aboard Triumph America's and Michael on the Honda VT400, these boys are living the dream for two whole months.
They have been riding since December 6th, 2009 and their journey is almost over! This true Australian adventure has held many awesome memories for these guys.
Hi! What we have been up to lately - stayed in Exmouth which is home to a large communications base for the Oz and US navy. The town felt weird with all the federal police cars and communications towers until we figured out what was going on.
Rode through Port Hedland which looked like the mining capital of the world!
Stopped over in Broome and caught up with Chris (a fellow TeamMoto customer and Triumph owner). He was kind enough to ride around with us for half a day and show us the sights of Broome. His Thunderbird is very nice.
Then stayed in Willare and wrestled the roadhouse pet calf! Halls creek was a down pour so our bikes got a wash.
Then crossed the border into NT after Kununarra and rode through the Kimberly's (very nice!).
80km out of Katherine we were riding along at 120km/hour, when over a period of 5 seconds we each heard the loudest of noises inside of us. We didn't know if our tyres had blown, a truck was about to drive over us or our engines were on fire.
We then looked up and saw a RAAF jet just above us which had come from behind, came down to what looked like only 100m and was now in front turning and climbing back up to 20,000 feet+. The bugger scared the @#*€ out of us and must have had a smile on his face.
Getting bomb dived by a jet in the middle of nowhere, unawares, certainly raises the hair on the back of your neck until you know what's going on!
Now stopped in Tennant creek for the night. Michael's birthday today so a few drinks to celebrate tonight. Off to Alice springs tomorrow, talk soon. Matt
TeamMoto tests the new GoPro HD Hero Helmet Camera
TeamMoto has been putting the new GoPro HD Helmet Camera to the test.
Off-Road pilots Michael Oliver and Nathan Castle demonstrate the
versatility and awesome image quality that the GoPro can achieve.
Easy to use, ultra light-weight, with great sound and image quality,
our testers were extremely happy with the product! Plus, with the full
waterproof casing and sturdy mounting, these boys show you can take the
GoPro anywhere!
