Old Bike Australasia

Old Bike magazine is a must for those who ride as well as the dedicated enthusiast and rebuilder, covering everything from Vintage to early 1980s bikes - marvel at the restoration of machines that could still sit proudly on the showroom floor. Each issue brings you the latest news and results from recent events, race reports and Rally Roundup, along with new and old bike news and reviews, readers letters, Club Directory, What’s On and much, much more.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Old Bike Australasia • NUMBER 124

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

RARITEE Best Letter

OUT IN THE SHED

Kiwis celebrate Castrol 6 Hour

Peter Stevens stores rescued • The collapse of the national Peter Stevens group (see OBA 123) was one of the biggest blows ever to the local motorcycle industry.

Entries open for AHRRC at Broadford

2026 Bathurst Easter Tour set to roll

Get aboard the VMCC 70th anniversary rally

Auction updates

Under the Chequered Flag

THE ALL ROUND RACER • To make a living out of racing motorcycles in the early 20th century, you needed to be able to ride anything, anywhere. Tommy Benstead could.

TAMING THE TIGER • The ‘seventies Ducati story is a complex tale, because the company constantly lurched from pillar to post. As the line goes in the classic Simon and Garfunkel song ‘Keep The Customer Satisfied’… “one step ahead of the shoe shine, two steps away from the county line”.

Age shall not weary it. • The recent Southern Cross Cannonball Classic saw seventy-six pre-1949 motorcycles each cover more than four thousand kilometres between the starting point in Darwin and the finish in Victor Harbor, South Australia. The oldest bike was Alex Trepanier’s 1912 Indian, which added this gruelling event to a formidable list of similar feats already achieved.

SIMPLE, SWEET, SWIFT • Things had changed when I got back into motorbikes after a 45-year hiatus – they did not look like the motorbikes I knew back in the early 1970s.

SURPRISE PACKAGE • My late mate Steve Landon bought his Maico MD250 brand new in 1976, and quite by accident.

A REX RESTORED The King of the Lightweights reigns again. • Readers will recall the short story in OBA 114 of Gary Edgar’s acquisition of a Rex KL125. Made in Italy by Garelli, the KL125 was rebadged as a Rex for American marketing purposes. Here’s one of the very few that call Australia home, now fully restored.

GREAT GIFT IDEA SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Down by the potato patch • The Old Northern Road, leading from Baulkham Hills to Wiseman’s Ferry in Sydney’s north west, wound its way through sparsely settled countryside in the early 1950s. There were orchards, a few vegetable farms, and very little in the way of residential settlements. It’s a vastly different story nowadays.

JOINING THE CLUB • It took Suzuki twenty two years to make its second four stroke.

A revolutionary ignition for classic motorcycles

The Carleton brothers AN OUTFIT ODYSSEY • The story of two brothers from Brisbane, Col and Alan Carleton, highlights the pioneering spirit of Australasian riders and the hardships they endured for the love of racing. It also gives a window into the period in British Speedway which was in rapid decline in the early ‘fifties.

1953 TILBROOK TRICAR • Lyndon Tilbrook is the great nephew of Rex Tilbrook and a keen collector and complier of the family’s illustrious history in Australian motorcycling. He owns one of the Tilbrook bikes, a Tilbrook sidecar, and now, this unique Tilbrook 3-wheeled car.

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Kiwis team’s TT triumph

“The enduring spirit of mateship” • Journeys are not always about the distance travelled, the terrain conquered, or the...