LOVE HONDA (AND YAMAHA)

David Murray is happy to admit that his race bike is a replica.

“I do have another version, but you’ll only see it at events like Broadford’s Bonanza fun rides,” he said. “It’s too special to crash.” The bike in question is Honda’s RS1000, seen in the hands of Tony Hatton and Mike Cole in Australia’s biggest road-racing events in 1979. “This is the one I can race; the one at home is a bitsa made from factory bits.” Murray loves road-racing, but is torn between it and his first love, enduro riding. “I raced in the inaugural Australian Safari in 1985 on my ’83 Yamaha XT600 Tenere,” he said. That has since clocked up 150,000km, including five times in the Tenere Tragics event that celebrates this iconic model. “It’s the only Yamaha I own, though – I’m a Honda man,” he said.