Think of Club Eaglerider like a swap app, but for motorbikes. You could say it’s your true “friend with benefits…”
Begin press release:
EagleRider is expanding its current Club EagleRider subscription program with two additional premium offerings called Pick 6 ($199 per month) and Ride 12 ($249 per month).
These enhancements include more riding days at an optimal value designed for both current and new motorcycle enthusiasts. EagleRider will support this program by launching in select US motorcycle markets with continued expansion over the coming months.
“EagleRider has always been a leading innovator in the motorcycle industry,” says Chris McIntyre, EagleRider’s co-founder and CEO, “Club EagleRider’s new Premium Memberships continue in that spirit by giving today’s new riders and existing riders an easy, economical, and safe way to experience the great sport of motorcycling. You can ride anytime, anywhere on any bike. This is essentially like having a bike in your suitcase.”
EagleRider maintains a fleet of thousands of motorcycles from a variety of brands including Harley-Davidson, Yamaha, Triumph, Royal Enfield, KTM, Husqvarna, as well as dirt bikes, and side-by-sides offering rentals, tours, & memberships in our nationwide locations. Always looking for ways to get more people to experience the joys of motorcycle riding, EagleRider is committed to getting more people access to motorcycles and riding experiences.
To speak with us about all the amazing new things going on at EagleRider, come see us at any of the 2019/20 International Motorcycle Shows in Long Beach, New York, Dallas, Washington D.C., Denver, Cleveland, Minneapolis, or Chicago where we will be celebrating another successful riding season with current Club EagleRider members and looking forward to meeting others who want to learn more about our Premium Membership program.
The immediate intervention team is composed of two intensive care vehicles where there are two intensive care specialists, anaesthetists and paramedics specialised in the management of severe polytrauma. “They work like any emergency unit of a hospital,” explains Dr. Charte, “as they are equipped with high-level equipment that allows facing any type of pathology (cranial, thoracic, cardiac, abdominal, vascular, traumatic). With this equipment, we are perfectly prepared to give the best attention on the track to all drivers.”
Trev is currently on a five-day intensive test program with Yamaha’s eagerly awaited new Tenere 700. He has over 1000 dusty kilometres under his belt so far on Yamaha’s new middle-weight adventure machine and was lucky enough to have the opportunity, thanks to Yamaha Australia, to chat with Takushiro Shiraishi, Project Leader in charge of overall development of what is a very important new model for Yamaha. Quite a responsibility…
Yamaha’s Tenere 700
45-year-old Shiraishi-san joined Yamaha after completing a Master’s in engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1999. Thus 2019 marks Shiraishi-san’s 20th year with the marque.
During those two decades Shiraishi-san has been involved with the development of the XT660, as well as the WR250R, and was also involved with the development of the popular MT-07, from which the Tenere 700 receives its powerplant.
Here’s a look at what went on behind the scenes with the development of the Tenere 700 and the decision making processes that evolved as the project took shape.
Takushio Shiraishi Interview
Trev: You were the project leader for the Tenere 700, to be blunt, why did Yamaha give you the job?
Shiraishi-san: I’m not sure, but most probably Yamaha appreciated me from the experience of the off-road bike development. Before Tenere I was involved with the development of the XT660, and also WR250R/X, and I was also involved with the MT-07. So I know well about the engine of the MT-07, and this is my background before starting the Tenere. That’s most probably why Yamaha appreciated my experience.
Takushio Shiraishi (left) – Yamaha Tenere 700 Project Leader; with YMA’s Sean Goldhawk (right)
Trev: When the MT-07 was first released here four or five years ago, during the launch, at the very first stop I asked Sean Goldhawk ‘when is the adventure bike was coming..?’ As the engine seemed to lend itself to that application, was the engine originally designed with adventure envisaged in its future?
Shiraishi-san: Honestly speaking, no. At the beginning of MT-07 development we didn’t consider, but at the same time we already noticed that this engine is so good during our development on the MT-07, that we then also thought about off-road usage, so at that time we developed some idea to develop an off-road model using the MT-07 engine, because of the character and the torque.
Trev: It’s EURO5 spec’ in the Tenere 700?
Shiraishi-san: For the future of course.
Trev: Can you tell me anything about the technical challenges of meeting Euro5 without Ride-by-Wire? I would imagine that would be quite difficult?
Shiraishi-san: Honestly speaking no, because the MT-07 engine has very good combustion in the cylinder, so good combustion means good exhaust gas emissions. Of course we have some difficulty, but not so quite difficult.
Yamaha Ténéré 700
Trev: With EURO5 I believe you have to have an O2 sensor before the cat converter, and one after.
Shiraishi-san: Something like this I think.
Trev: So this bike has one cat or two cats?
Shiraishi-san: Now this spec which you rode is EURO4 spec at this moment. So now the O2 sensor is one, and the catalyst is only one.
The Yamaha Tenere 700 is currently Euro4 compliant
Trev: Do other countries have this EURO4 for now, or have some got the EURO5?
Shiraishi-san: At this moment our plan is only EURO4 spec at the moment, for the future of course we have a plan to introduce EURO5, but not now.
Trev: The suspension travel, I guess everything is always a compromise. As we’ve spoken about before, it’s generally only places like the Australian market where people are going to use all the suspension travel, hitting and jumping big erosion banks and the like off-road. Where most people in Europe would probably only ride them on-road, due to the severe restrictions placed on off-road pursuits in many countries. I suppose the 200-210 mm of suspension travel was the compromise between the two, to retain a relatively low seat height, but also give us a fair bit of ground clearance. How long did it take to arrive at that sort of base figure, that you then had to tune the suspension for.
Shiraishi-san: To decide the final specification with this suspension strokes and seat height, we spent a lot of time. Because the balance between the seat height and the shock absorption is very difficult to define, and finding the good balancing point and ability. And the accessibility for many riders, so we took a long time for this.
Takushio Shiraishi – Yamaha Tenere 700 Project Lead Interview
Trev: This bike is somewhat purposefully basic in regards to electronics, no ride-by-wire, no cruise, no traction control, no rider modes, I presume the ABS is not lean angle sensitive.
Shiraishi-san: No.
Trev: So the ABS is either on or off, why not have a middle setting where the ABS is only off on the rear? A medium setting which we see quite often from other brands.
Shiraishi-san: For example, for this ABS setting, or the variation of the switching off, yes we also discussed a lot about this, of course we understood that some requirements could be in the market, about rear cancelation with only front having ABS active. But our main target was off-road riders so especially I discuss a lot with testing riders, who are very expert off-road riders, and they told me real off-road riders prefer very simple structure, and also that to stop efficiently with good skid the ABS is annoying. That’s why we decided because our target customer, main target, is expert off-road rider, that’s why we decided to cancel both front and rear, to give the customer a lot of freedom of control. That’s why also we carefully created the specifications of the brakes to have much more controllability by the rider.
Dual disc brakes are featured with ABS able to be switched off, but no off-road specific mode
Trev: I think you’ve done quite a good job there, a good twin-disc front end, it has a progressive feel. The ABS is not too bad off-road, as in for most of this riding so far this week you didn’t really need to turn ABS off when on rough terrain off-road. One little scenario here and there you might prefer it off, but overall the ABS still cycles fast enough to still be useful to most riders. Not everyone will need to turn the ABS off to go off-roading, and most certainly riders of lesser experience levels would still be wise to leave the system on.
Shiraishi-san: Yes, thanks to our ABS engineer, I cannot say we have the best system and tuning of the system in the market, but we could achieve enough sufficient braking power even with the ABS on, off-road. And I would like to say this, the engineer responsible died one year ago due to a racing accident, but I would like to say thank you to him.
Trev: He did a good job. Condolences on the loss of your team member.
Trev: The instrumentation, it seems to be mounted on some sort of shock absorption system?
Shiraishi-san: Yes.
Trev: Obviously that’s to ensure it lasts for longevity. It works quite well, the screen got very very dusty where we’ve been riding, because the drought conditions are truly horrendous, which made the screen a little hard to see at times. With adventure bike riding you need to keep an eye on your fuel, especially in Australia, as it’s a big place with lots of very remote locations. The fuel gauge seems to go down to one bar when you still have up to 150 km of range to go, then when the tank gets down a little bit further a trip meter starts to count up. Some of the Yamaha Australia guys say they still have a 100-120km range when the fuel trip starts. I would much prefer that when the counter starts it counts down, and lets me know how much range I have remaining. I think a range to empty indicator would have been very useful. Is there a reason why we don’t have one?
Yamaha Tenere 700 dash
Shiraishi-san: Technically we can do it, also we discussed about it, and we just followed the normal way of Yamaha dash indicators. But at the same time we understand that this kind of feature could be very useful and helpful for riders. We can consider for the future, improvement as for this kind of feature.
Trev: Would something like that be implementable as a software update for first generation models? Could that possibly be something a Yamaha dealer could retrofit to someone who buys one of these bikes early on in the piece?
Shiraishi-san: It’s an interesting idea, normally we have not done like this, but maybe it can be considered. It’s an interesting idea.
Trev: And most of the testing and development was done in Europe is that correct?
Shiraishi-san: Yes.
Trev: And it was done between France and Italy, is that correct?
Shiraishi-san: Not exactly, most only in Italy, but we also used the test course in North of Italy where there is one test course owned by Porsche called Nardò Test Course, and here we had many kinds of off-road course, so we tested there for example one test course, called African World. From the outside it’s nice to see, but if you see the riding it’s really amazing, with a massive off-road test course with all conditions, was very useful for us.
Yamaha Ténéré 700
Trev: You were based in Europe throughout the development process?
Shiraishi-san: Yes.
Trev: How big was your team of engineers from Japan that were based with you in Europe? It must present some challenges doing the development in Europe when the main manufacturing arm is located, along with most Yamaha engineers being located back in Japan. How were those challenges overcome?
Shiraishi-san: Of course we needed a lot of communication between Italy and Japan, and sometimes for example the email information exchanged created a lot of confusion and misunderstandings, so finally we decided to have periodical Skype meetings and also periodically visited each other to have direct communication, especially on the ABS and engine development, which were mainly developed in Japan. So we visited each other very frequently, and that’s why we say by meeting directly we could establish something, good communication.
Trev: So job done now for Tenere 700 for you. What next?
Shiraishi-san: Personally I’m not sure, I’d like to have a wider view for the developments of Yamaha, especially for the off-road categories, and as for the new development, maybe based on this bike, we are waiting for the customers and the market feedback to be confident to start anew.
Takushio Shiraishi – Yamaha Tenere 700 Project Lead
Trev: To make a longer travel, more serious Tenere 700, maybe?
Shiraishi-san: Maybe.
Trev: If you’re still going to be involved, intrinsically with Yamaha’s off-road development and range of models, I would imagine you would be visiting us a little more often. Australia is a very small market generally, but a big market for WR and bikes likes the Tenere. Australia is the world’s best customer for the WR450 and WR250F, I think?
Shiraishi-san: Yes, that’s why I’d like to visit again, Australia and maybe New Zealand to understand more the customers and the market, also today I visited some dealers and also farms.
Trev: I did hear you’d been checking out some Ag bikes.
Shiraishi-san: I feel that the Ag is really legendary bike, survive with no maintenance for a long time and be very practical.
Trev: Farmers are generally very bad at maintenance *laughs*.
Shiraishi-san: But it’s very nice while here to see the real users on the AGs, really impressive for me, how they use theirs individually; imagination on its own is not good for understanding the reality for us, so the experience was very enlightening.
Trev: Thanks very much for joining us on the launch, perhaps next time we’ll get you out on the motorcycle with us.
Shiraishi-san: Thank you.
Yamaha Tenere 700
The wait for the eagerly anticipated Yamaha Tenere 700 is almost over, and with more than 350 already spoken for the bike might debut near the top of the adventure-touring sales charts for 2019 despite being only on sale for a single month of the calendar year.
Luke Clout admits falling shy of the MX Nationals crown this year fuelled a fire for his Australian Supercross Championship campaign, which sees him lead the SX1 standings heading into this Saturday’s season finals at the Monster Energy AUS-X Open Melbourne.
The CDR Yamaha Monster Energy rider was positioned two points out of the lead heading into Coolum’s MX Nationals double-header championship decider, although he was defeated by eventual champion Todd Waters (Husqvarna) following a dominant performance.
A supremely consistent supercross season that boasts four podiums, including a maiden victory, has the New South Welshman in the box seat to win his first premier class title inside Marvel Stadium, where he holds a one-point advantage over AMA Supercross regular and three-time defending Australian champion Justin Brayton (Penrite Honda Racing).
“It wasn’t the end of the world that I didn’t win the motocross [championship], but it definitely fuelled the fire because I really put in during the off-season for supercross and did a lot of hard work with the team,” Clout explained to MotoOnline.com.au.
“We’ve put ourselves in this position to go and fight for the championship, so it’s kind of where I expected to be.
“There was obviously a bit of fire after losing the championship in the motocross series, but to be battling for both motocross and supercross championships is a feat in itself and I’m super proud of how the year has gone. We’ll see where we end up on Saturday night!”
This weekend’s championship decider will serve up a triple crown format, while added international talent will make for an incredible showdown in the title fight.
Recently crowned ASBK champion Mike Jones has made his first impression of the Ducati V4 R after taking to Morgan Park Raceway aboard the new machine for the very first time.
DesmoSport Ducati has had the all-new V4 in its possession since the early months of this season, however the squad has only rolled it out on a number of occasions for testing with team co-owner Troy Bayliss in the seat – the three-time world Superbike champion debuting it at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in the Superbike support category.
Jones, who took the Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition to the top step of the ASBK championship earlier this month, experienced his maiden ride on the V4 R at the Queensland venue last weekend, where he noted the differing handling characteristics as an initial benefit.
“Riding the Ducati V4 R for the first time was a really cool experience,” Jones told CycleOnline.com.au. “Obviously it’s a bit different to the twin set-up I’ve been riding this year, but the most important thing is that it feels very comfortable straightaway.
“The biggest difference between the two bikes is the power delivery – the twin has a lot of torque from the initial pick up of the throttle, where as the V4 has a lot more of its power at a higher RPM, so it pulls all the way through the rev-range and through to a higher RPM than that twin. So it’s a little bit of a different way of managing the power on the bike.
“The other biggest difference is the weight distribution of the bike – it feels like the V4 has a lot more weight distribution towards the front of the bike, which gives it quite a lot of stability versus the twin – this is a benefit.
“I’m really excited to come back in 2020 and defend the championship, but it’s even more exciting to do it on the Ducati V4 R. I think it’s certainly capable of the task.”
While an official announcement is yet to be made, it’s understood Jones will defend the title with DesmoSport Ducati in 2020, as indicated by himself and Bayliss.
Suzuki Australia have announced the opportunity to own the RM-Z450 ridden by Ricky Carmichael at the 2019 SX-Open Supercross event in Melbourne on November 30.
Ricky Carmichael’s SX-Open RM-Z450
Carmichael, the most successful AMA motocross racer of all-time is a seven time AMA Motocross premier class champion and five time AMA Supercross Champion. His unrivalled successes in the sport of motocross have given him the nickname ‘The G.O.A.T’ by his peers; standing for the Greatest of All Time.
Ricky Carmichael’s SX-Open RM-Z450 – Yoshimura RS-4 full titanium exhaust system
Suzuki has poured more than 40 years of open-class racebike engineering into the latest generation RM-Z450 to make it the hardest-hitting, sharpest-handling, best-balanced and most rider-friendly production motocrosser in company’s history.
Ricky Carmichael’s SX-Open RM-Z450
Ricky Carmichael’s one-off 2019 Suzuki RM-Z450 features the following modifications from standard.
Ricky Carmichael’s SX-Open RM-Z450 – ODI Ricky Carmichael signature handlebars and lock-on grips
Yoshimura RS-4 full titanium exhaust system
Hinson complete clutch assembly and factory Suzuki clutch cover
Unique to SX-Open event custom RC graphics kit
ODI Ricky Carmichael signature handlebars and lock-on grips
DID gold race chain
Personally signed by the G.O.A.T himself
A set of FOX riding gear as worn by Ricky Carmichael at the SX-Open event will also be included.
Ricky Carmichael’s SX-Open RM-Z450
All proceeds over and above the reserve price will be put allowing disadvantaged children to experience the excitement and joy motorcycling brings.
BMW Motorrad seems to be getting serious about an electric motorcycle, judging by their latest patent application for a frameless motorbike.
The patent drawing, published by Electrek, shows the motor and battery making up the book of the frame, linked via upside down forks and a single 45-degree mono shock to the swingarm.
The Bavarian company already has and electric scooter, the C-Evolution.
But this drawing is a long way from that as well as their electric concepts of the past few years:the boxer-style Vision DC Roadster unveiled in June 2019, the Concept Link electric scooter and the electric S 1000 RR concept called the eRR.
Vision DC Roadster
Concept Link
BMW eRR electric sports bike
Serious spark
But it does lend weight to the likelihood of BMW getting serious about an electric motorcycle sooner, rather than later.
Maybe they will unveil one at the Intermot motorcycle show in Cologne next year.
This is despite managing director Stephan Schaller telling Italian publisher Motociclismo in March 2018 that electric motorcycles are “not in their immediate future”.
Clearly they are now getting serious about electric motorcycles.
Just don’t expect it to be released in Australia soon.
Despite their electric scooter being available for several years, it is still not on sale here.
In 2017, BMW Group Australia boss Marc Werner said Australia needed tax incentives, import subsidies and/or charging infrastructure to catch up with the rest of the world on low-emissions vehicles.
MotoGP rookie Brad Binder admits adapting to the premier class machine hasn’t been easy over the Valencia and Jerez tests, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing contender identifying changes in his riding style will allow everything to ‘fall into place’.
Binder was 21st and 22nd respectively during the two days of testing at Jerez, and was one of only a few riders who hit the Spanish circuit in the wet on Tuesday to gain experience in different conditions.
“We decided to do a couple of laps when it was a little bit wet just to get the feeling of the new bike and that was really awesome,” said Binder. “I’m glad I got a chance to experience that. It’s been difficult these last two tests.
“It hasn’t been easy to adapt to the new bike but I think I’ve got a lot to think about now in the off-season and hopefully we can try to make a step in Sepang.
“I think I just need to improve my riding; my feeling with the front a little bit and just being able to have confidence to put the bike where I want to, especially on the entry to corners. I think once I get that right the rest will fall into place.”
The South African’s next time out on-track will be the Sepang test, scheduled for 7-9 February 2020.
Halliday & Wagner to head YRT ASBK efforts in 2020
Aiden Wagner will join Cru Halliday as the two pilots locked in for the Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) to contest the 2020 Australian Superbike Championship, starting in February at Phillip Island.
Cru Halliday returns with YRT in 2020 – Image by TBG
Competing on the Yamaha YZF- R1M, Halliday and Wagner are primed for a successful season and already preparations have begun as both riders chase that elusive ASBK Superbike championship trophy.
Halliday continues his relationship with YRT for another season and after making huge strides forward in 2019, he is out for the ultimate prize in 2020. After winning the 600cc Supersport Championship in 2018, Halliday stepped back into the Superbike class in 2019 and instantly became a contender as he mixed it up with the more established names.
Cru Halliday – TBG Image
He led the championship at stages during 2019 on his way to claim fourth but feels he has learnt and grown from his experiences this season and that will put in him good shape heading into the 2020 season.
Cru Halliday
“It’s great to be back with the YRT crew and with the same bike and people that have been a big part of my racing in recent years. I have familiarity in everything around me and both the bike and myself has been developed to the point where I think winning the 2020 Superbike championship is a realistic and achievable goal. I gained valuable experience in 2019 and maybe the biggest thing is consistency and that every point is valuable. Mike won the championship this year with an average third place finish across the season, so you need to be up the front in every race of every round to be in contention. I know we have a great starting point with the Yamaha R1M and that YRT will continue to work hard and give me the best motorcycle on the track. We start racing again in February but I’m motivated and have already started training for a huge season ahead and can’t wait to be back on the grid and racing again.”
Cru Halliday – Image by Rob Mott
25-year-old Queenslander, Aiden Wagner, will join YRT for the 2020 season and keen to establish himself in the premier road racing division in Australia. Wagner was competing in Europe for the past few seasons before returning to Australia at the start of the 2019 Superbike Championship.
Aiden Wagner – TBG Image
Wagner showed he had the speed to mix it up with the big names in the Australian Superbike Championship when in his only 2019 appearance at the opening round at Phillip Island, Wagner dominated proceedings, taking all three race wins and impressing with his aggressive, take no prisoners, style of racing.
Injuries hampered his results in recent years, but he took the majority of the 2019 season off to recover and rehab his injuries and is now 100 per cent fit and desperate to make the most of his opportunity with YRT.
Aiden Wagner’s big off at Wakefield Park while taking evasive action to miss riders that had exited pit-lane at an inopportune moment, leading to shoulder surgery – TBG Image
Aiden Wagner
“I’m excited and proud to have come to an arrangement with the Yamaha Racing Team and look forward to working with an experienced and professional race team to take my racing to the next level. Last year when I returned to Australia, I wanted to race the Yamaha R1 as it was the bike I felt most comfortable on and now to get a reward to be on the factory team is amazing and takes a lot of pressure from my shoulders. All I have to worry about now is going fast and staying on.
Aiden Wagner – Image by Rob Mott
“Its great that the team is also based here in Queensland near me so I can build a good relationship with everyone and believe this will be the start of a long and successful relationship for both myself and YRT. I started the championship strongly in 2019 before I got injured, but I’m now back to full fitness and my body is in good shape, so now my goal is to carry that throughout the season and do my best to secure the Superbike championship for Yamaha and myself in 2020.”
The 2020 Australian Superbike Championship gets underway at Philip Island when it is run in-conjunction with the first round of the World Superbike Championships on February 27 before moving through a seven round championship, finishing again at Phillip Island.
2020 ASBK Calendar
Round 1 – WSBK – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC 27 Feb – 1 March
Round 2 – Wakefield Park Raceway – Goulburn, NSW 27 – 29 March
Round 3 – The Bend Motorsport Park – Tailem Bend, SA 7 – 10 May *4 day *with Asia Road Race Championship (ARRC) & Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup (IATC)
Round 4 – Supercars – Barbagallo Raceway, Perth WA 15 – 17 May (Superbike Class Only)
Round 5 – Morgan Park Raceway – Warwick, QLD 7 – 9 August
Round 6 – Winton Motor Raceway, Benalla VIC 11 – 13 September
Round 7 – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Cowes VIC 2 – 4 October
Marc Marquez will undergo surgery this week after further injuring his right shoulder in a crash during day one of MotoGP testing at Jerez.
The reigning champion immediately visited the medical centre after his crash on Monday where it was determined he suffered a partially dislocated shoulder, however he returned to riding that afternoon before topping the timesheets on day two.
Marquez has since revealed he sustained the same injury during his crash at the Malaysian grand prix, prompting him to undergo surgery as a preventative measure.
“This winter I would have liked to have a nice holiday and enjoy a bit of quiet time after a great 2019, but it is time to have surgery on the right shoulder,” Marquez explained. “As everyone knows, last winter was very tough for me with the operation on the left shoulder, which was very, very damaged.
“I want to avoid the situation where my right shoulder is in this condition in the future so I spoke a lot with the doctors to see what our options were. Before Motegi I had some issues with the shoulder and then after the crash in Malaysia I had a subluxation.
“Here at the test I had another subluxation after the crash, so we decided with the doctors that it was best to have the surgery to avoid the situation we had with the other shoulder. It will take more or less the same time and we will work in the same way to arrive at the Malaysia test as strong as possible.”
The 2020 Sepang test is scheduled for 7-9 February, which the Repsol Honda rider is likely to recover in time for.
