Articles by Mike Ryan

Borders bookstores are offering the ultimate gift for the scooter-loving dad - or even yourself - in the form of this LX50 Vespa, as part of their special Father's Day promotion.

In a bold anti theft initiative, Yamaha Motor Australia is currently supplying all motor-cycles, scooters and ATVs with DataDotDNA theft protection.\nDataDotDNA is a unique theft protection system consisting of tiny microdots bearing identifying code numbers. These dots have been sprayed onto all Yamahas since 1 February 2007 enabling units and their component parts to be easily identified.

In celebration of the factory Yamaha Racing Team's dominance of Australian Superbike and Supersport competition this year, Yamaha Motor Australia have extended their $1,000 'Yamadollar' promotion from the YZF-R1 to also include new sales of the increasingly popular YZF-R6 sportsbike.

The 'littlest' motorcycling icon, Honda's Z50 Monkey bike is making a return to the Australian market in the form a special 40th Anniversary model that is sure to become a hit with big and little kids alike. \n

In an ode to the great Grand Prix racers of the late 80's and early 90's including Mick Doohan, Wayne Gardner and Eddie Lawson, Honda is releasing a limited edition tri colour VFR800.\nPainted up in the same livery as the all mighty NSR500 of the day, the tri colour model features all of the standard benefits that sport touring customers have come to expect from their Honda.

Reardon dominates Pro\nOpen MX in season '07\nThe Australian MX landscape was painted a distinct shade of green this year. No, we're not talking about the breaking of the drought, but the performance of Team Kawasaki's Daniel Reardon in the Pro Open class. Here's how he did it.\nStrong performances and a runner up finish in the championship last season were backed up with another Australian Supercross title (in SX Open) at the start of 2007, which proved to be a taste of things to come for this year's Australian MX Championship.

The Australian motorcycle market is on target for another record year after achieving sales of more than 60,000 for the first half of 2007. Official retail sales figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that 60,192 motorcycles, scooters and ATVs were sold to June 30 - an increase of 7,818 or 14.9% over the same period in 2006.

The Piaggio Beverley 250 is now on sale at $7,490 + ORC.

Undoubtedly Scooters are riding the crest of a wave, as urban dwellers recognise the benefits scooters offer for short commuting around town, to say nothing of reduced running costs! These environmentally friendly credentials have been strengthened further with the release of the first hybrid scooter. Piaggio, the maker of Vespa, has launched the hybrid scooter by mechanically and electronically linking a traditional combustion engine with an electric motor.

The fuel-injected Piaggio X8 250ie maxi scooter now delivers more power and performance with an exhilarating mix of style, comfort, performance and protection.The X8's new Quaser 250cc four-valve engine is an environmental gem, and meets Euro 3 standards. Elsewhere, the seat height has been lowered to 785mm, and the rear boot and underseat storage have been combined to produce a massive 56 litre "storeroom" - complete with remote key access.

Piaggio Zip 100 -price zipped! Piaggio's cute and compact Zip 100 scooter has been marked down to $1,990 + ORC, a saving of $500 off the previous price.

SanDisk chose the Laguna Seca MotoGP round to launch their new range of Ducati-branded flash memory cards and USB flash drives. When you consider both have the quickest read/write speeds of all the SanDisk range, it seems only natural they ally themselves with the fastest bikes in the MotoGP paddock!