NO HIDING PLACE
“C
SIRO has secured access to
one of the world’s most
sophisticated high-
performance satellites,” says the press
release,” giving Australian scientists
direct control over which data the
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NovaSAR satellite will provide CSIRO
and the wider Australian research
community with access to an advanced
form of radar technology known as
S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar, or
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to be taken day and night, and through
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Now they’ll be able to read your
licence plate from space. Whoopee.
PICTURE FROM AN EXHIBITION
“They have learned nothing and
forgotten nothing.” Talleyrand meant
the Bourbons (and not the bottled
kind) but sometimes I feel like
applying the comment (which he, too,
apparently borrowed) to the Chinese
motorcycle industry.
If there is one commandment for
motorcycle manufacturers that is nearly
as important as “keep the price down”
(which the Chinese do understand) it
is “be original and consistent”. Take
a look at this photo (above) of an
imitation KTM from the 2017 Chinese
International Motorcycle Fair. Instead
of “Dake”, couldn’t they at least have
called it “Fake”? Or, as someone here
suggested, “Puke”?
pair of “custom” bikes that Kawasaki
showed alongside the new models. It’s
probably best to leave it at that, but
while Kawasaki will no doubt get a
lot of online coverage of the bikes I
suspect that the people who like the
Deus bikes would never buy a Z900,
and the people who might buy one will
be put off. I am.EVERYTHING OLD
Suzuki has also produced a “custom”
bike, but it’s been done at the factory.
Proving that everything old can,
indeed, be new again, the new Suzuki
TU250 with its ‘70s paint scheme is the
cutest thing since that YouTube thing
about the two blind cats.TWO TO GO
It looks as if Two Wheels magazine
has kicked the proverbial bucket. Its
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wake for some time early in 2018. I’ll
be there, having been both its designer
and editor at different times, and if
you’ve had anything to do with it over
its 50-year life you should contact him
for details of the celebration. His email
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you can ring him on 0427 416 876;
do it now.GRIZZLING
AND ANOTHER COUPLE OF THINGS
Kawasaki kindly invited me to the
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latest entry into the retro market.
I liked the previous pair of classic
bikes, the W650 and W800, enough to
buy one of each but I like the Z900
even more. The bike is a triumph
(oops, sorry) which has managed to
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radiator seamlessly into the design.
The bike looks, and I suspect is,
somewhat smaller than the original
Z900 but it is a respectful and
nevertheless innovative nod to that
great motorcycle.
The café version has a little touch of
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paint job, but it is still a successful
variation on the theme. I
particularly like the seat; if I do
buy a Z900 I’ll be seeing if it’s
possible to transfer seats!
I was somewhat bemused by thePeter ‘The Bear’
Thoeming