26 January 2025

Hold the Phone!


Ian Parks tests the Rocky Creek Phone Holder

SKU: PA030

I’ve been using the new Wireless & USB-C Phone Charger and Holder over the last few months and have decided I can’t do without it now and wonder how I managed without it before!

25 January 2025

Great Australian Motorcycle Stories: A Close Shave


As told to Jen Scanlan Kurrajong Heights, NSW

It was one of those very hot days in western Sydney when the tar on the roads starts to melt. The plants droop as you watch and the grass browns before your eyes. The garbage in the gutters seems too tired to move as the traffic swishes by. People's tempers fray quickly and the haze in the air seems to settle on people's minds. On such a day, roadworks and lane closures cause motorists' patience to wear thin.

16 January 2025

Choice Hotels offers benefits to motoring club members


Choice Hotels claims to bring together the people, brands, and technology that enable the success of others—welcoming every guest and partner wherever their journey takes them. 

Quality Inn Ashby House Tamworth

And to prove they walk the walk, Choice is offering discounts to travelling members simply by producing their membership cards. That discount is split between the member and the club, so members can actively support their club just by enjoying travel and a comfortable hotel bed.

Harley Owners Group (HOG) and Ulysses Club both have signed up for this member offer. Check with your club to see if they are on board with Choice.



07 January 2025

The Bear Tries Motorcycle Touring - Without Travel



Is this the future of bike travel holidays?
Peter "The Bear" Thoeming

It feels a bit like cheating. Is it really touring if you head out in the morning for a day's ride, only to return to the same place in the evening without "travelling anywhere"? The only answer I could come up with was, who cares when it works?

Edelweiss Bike Travel has made a highly successful business out of taking motorcyclists to all kinds of places around the world. The usual procedure is that a couple of tour guides with the bikes and a van meets participants at a hotel. After an evening of familiarisation and a night's sleep full of dreams of the tour, the van is loaded with luggage and one of the guides prepares to follow the group with it. The other guide and the riders fire up their bikes for a day's riding; late that afternoon, everyone meets at the next night's hotel. The guide in the van distributes the luggage to the rooms, then it's dinner and the process repeats.

Then someone at Edelweiss came up with an idea. There were numerous destinations on the company's books which were surrounded by what were effectively great day rides, where there was little point in moving hotels; it was easier for both guides and riders if they used one as a base for the entire "tour". There was no need to unpack every night, or for a van. The Touring Centre was born.

The first time I sampled this was in the Canary Islands. Distances are short in the islands, so it was a logical way to cover their roads. When I thought about it, the Dolomites were just as obvious a Touring Centre destination, especially since the scenery and the riding vary so much over quite a small area. I signed up.

From the base hotel in Klobenstein near Bozen in South Tirol, we headed out every day to sample the wonderful views and roads of the Dolomites. And whether you call it touring or... well, whatever else you can think of, it's a great way to "travel"!

The Bear took part in this event at the invitation of Edelweiss Bike Tours. He rode a Yamaha 700 Ténéré, in anticipation of Edelweiss launching a series of tours equipped solely with Yamahas. Check them out on the website!

This story originally appeared in Ulysses Club 'Riding On' Issue 164

26 November 2024

Yet another Quad Bike fatality highlights the need for safety

Marketing executive Lisa Ronson, 52 has died in an all terrain vehicle (ATV) crash at a property near Daylesford.

The danger of unprotected riders of All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), also known as Quad Bikes, being involved with fatal accidents was brought to the fore again with the recent death of much-respected female executive and Medibank chief marketing officer, Lisa Ronson, 52, when she lost control of an ATV she was riding on her family property near Daylesford, Victoria, on Saturday evening.

Along with husband, Chris Taylor, the couple had bought the Ullina property in 2019 and had been working together on making it a loving home for their family. A detailed and heartfelt tribute can be read here.

According to official sources, 42 children and 207 adults have been killed in quad bike accidents in the last 20 years, highlighting the danger these vehicles pose even in the hands of experienced riders. It's the third death involving an ATV on a rural Victorian property in two months. 


The primary danger exists when the vehicle rolls over and traps the rider underneath, either crushing or asphyxiating them. Given that these unregistered vehicles are ridden mostly on private property by riders without helmets, the danger of death or serious injury is significant.

Data from Safe Work Australia also reveals that around two thirds of these accidents occurred in the workplace and that quad bikes are a leading cause of death on Australian farms.

Beginning in 2020, national regulations were introduced in Australia that mandates that the retail sale of new or secondhand ATVs have rollover protection.

CF Moto brand ATV showing mandatory 'quad bar' rollover protection. (supplied)

"Every ATV sold across the country must have an approved quad bar fitted," said John Davies of Gawler Motorcycle Centre, a leading reseller of the top-selling CF Moto brand of ATV, "unfortunately we have no control over what people do when they take them home."


These quad bars must pass a rigid test and vehicles sold with these devices carry a tag explaining their conformity to regulation.

While specific details of Ms Ronson's accident are not yet public, we make no suggestion that her accident was a result of misuse of the equipment, lack of due care or whether the ATV in question was fitted with a 'quad bar'.

We do, however, make the strong recommendation that if you own a quad bike or are invited to ride one, that you take every precaution possible before doing so. 

A coroner's report is being prepared.


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