Is the Rocket III Touring a cruiser or a tourer? It's both. With 2300cc in the three engine pots giving the rider no end of torque, you could almost see the bike making do with three gears, not five.
Small capacity and big fuel tank = long way between stops. Enter the Laro SPT 350 with its 28 litre tank. There's rumours around that the bike can go from Sydney to Melbourne on one tank of fuel.
NAMED after the famous Italian mountain pass, Moto Guzzi's Stelvio NTX is designed first and foremost to be a road machine, and it does this very well. It's also designed to be a competent off-roader.
BMW essentially invented the adventure touring market when the company introduced the R80G/S three decades ago. Although it didn't set the sales charts alight at the time, the machine was the forerunner to 1000, 1100, 1150 and 1200cc machines which followed.
SOMEONE at BMW must have said, Give them six of the best . Whoever it was obviously didn't mean for the headmaster to get out the cane, he or she wanted BMW's designers to build the best ever six cylinder engine for a motorcycle.
HOT on the heels of the Triumph Tiger 800XC is the more road oriented Tiger 800. In short, the base Tiger 800 is better on the road than its adventurous XC sibling, but not by much, and it's not quite as good on the dirt, but again not by much.
AT $8990 (plus on-road costs) this is a great price for such a good machine. A few years ago the earlier VTs were priced well above 10 grand.
THE addition of traction control, linked ABS-equipped brakes, lots of new gear and the latest in high-tech rider information.
CAN-AM has responded to the masses, introducing the Spyder RT Roadster touring model. Its luggage capacity and electronic gadgetry rivals any two-wheeled tourer on the market, although it's an altogether different experience to ride.
THE Can-Am Spyder is a unique machine - two front wheels, one rear, it's been designed to offer the wind-in-the-face experience of a motorcycle with the confidence and convenience of a two-seater sportscar.




