Australian Road Rider — August 2017

wing mirrors of SUVs, but then you may have

trouble with hatchbacks and sedans.

It rides on exclusive 17in front and rear

open-spoke black-cast aluminium wheels and

new Michelin Scorcher 21 radial tyres, sized

120/70 R17V front and 160/60 R17V rear. In the

early wet conditions they were a li le greasy,

especially in the mildew on the road edges.

As the roads quickly dried and grew hot, the

Scorchers se led in and became very grippy.

Brakes have been upgraded to dual two-

piston calipers and 300mm front disc brakes

with ABS. They are now very strong, although

there is no initial bite in the front and you

have to pull hard for eff ect. When you do, they

are very capable and there is li le fork dive.

The rear single disc is also very strong

and, on the few occasions when the

ABS activated on the wet roads, it came

on smoothly and predictably.

LET IT BE LAMS

The Street Rod would be a learner-approved

motorcycle if Harley-Davidson Australia

had its way. The company is actually

planning to put a proposal to Australian

governments through the Federal Chamber

for Automotive Industries to axe the LAMS

659cc engine capacity limit. Instead, Harley

suggests retaining the 150kW-per-tonne limit

only, as is the case in the ACT.

At the launch in Singapore of the new

749cc Street Rod, Harley-Davidson Australia

marketing manager Adam Wright said

they were planning to “put a paper to the

government through the FCAI. The ACT has

no restriction on capacity and we are trying to

expand that to all states in Australia.”

While they would hope other

manufacturers would support their proposal,

it’s Harley that has the most to gain from

such a move, with the Sportster range and

the Street 750 and Street Rod being suitable

candidates. It may even include some So ails

and Dynas. Harley has already had huge

success with its Street 500, which has been

the company’s top seller since its introduction

and hoisted the brand to the top of the road

bike sector in Australia over Honda.

Since the introduction of LAMS laws

over the past few years, the choice for many

tall and heavy riders is increasingly a more

stable bike with be er and safer technology.

Almost every manufacturer has at least one

learner model and it has been a huge sales

success for many brands.

However, the midweight capacity market

is very so in Australia and there are few

models off ered, as riders tend to leap straight

from LAMS bikes to over-litre bikes. If the

capacity limits were dropped, novices would

then have a wider choice and be able to

more sensibly graduate to bigger bikes over

time. That fi ts in much be er with the new

graduated licensing laws.

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