On Throttle New Zealand

There’s no denying it’s a fine line to walk when designing a factory custo m – the name itself is  an oxymoron  after all  – even more so when designing one which fits in the LAMS segment.   Honda took a lot of risks when it came to producing the new CMX500 Rebel. Even the name raises expectations of a bike that won’t conform to the norms  and will take the fight to ‘The Man’ . But when it comes to the reality, does the bike live up to the name? Well, yes and no.   Falling into the Bobber category by virtue of its minimalistic design and ‘bobbed’ mudguards, the Rebel certainly has the lightweight looks associated with the movement, but what exactly is it meant to represent?   Based around the far less rare  modern  CB500 family, the Rebel shares the same 475cc parallel twin that makes those bikes such a joy, and at 190kg, it’s the same weight as the CB500 , b ut the Rebel shares much more than just an engine and k...

Watch the 3-year ownership review on Youtube! I've owned a set of Maxxis' Bravo AT771 tyres for 3 years now, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on them. Firstly, I didn't buy these tyres after doing any research on them. Truth be told, I'd never even heard of Maxxis before buying these! But with the stipulation that I wanted a set of All Terrain tyres for my Forester in 215/65R16, and that I didn't want to pay over $1500 for them. I ended up paying $1000 fitted and balanced. I took a punt on the 'Mackies' as I've started to call them, and I've got to be honest, I've been pretty happy with them. Sure, they don't look as cool as other All Terrain models out there, but they've worn well and haven't given me any headaches in the 3 years I've had them. The Good Stuff The AT771s have proven to be a really good match for the Subaru in the sand, which is primarily where they've been used apart from highw...

  Aprilia’s motto is “ desined  for racers, built for riders” – but does that translate to their scooter range?   I’ll admit that even with my  usual  level of enthusiasm  at collecting a shiny new bike , I wasn’t expecting a heck of a lot from Aprilia’s SR125  “ Motard ” scooter  out of the box.    After grabbing it from  Bayride  Motorcycles in Tauranga – straight off the showroom floor no less – with just 1km reading on the digital display,  I was expecting  my 80km ride home along the state highway  network  to take  much longer than the norm.   However, to my surprise, the little Aprilia not only made the trip in easy fashion, it hit the legal highway  speed  limit straight out of the box! An impressive feat, considering it was still – technically –   running in when I handed it back and was pushing a top speed which, at times, would  get a ...