maschine

06/11/2024

4 day Maschine Adventure Academy is open for registration now - 24-27 January 2025

Join us in Port Macquarie NSW for 4 days of intensive rider training that goes beyond adventure riding skills training.

First two days will focus on Core riding skills such as:
- Body position
- Cornering
- Braking
- Vision
- Momentum
- Understanding Electronic riders aids ABS, TCS etc.

Then we will dive into real world terrain with a full day trail ride on Day 3. Day 4 will round out the weekend with more advanced riding techniques like sand, hills and ruts.

A series of Presentations in our workshop each day will cover topics ranging from: Bike setup, GPS navigation, tools, tyre changing, emergency scene management.

Most meals are included across the weekend too making for a great social environment where you are bound to make lots of new riding friends.

Suitable for riders on Enduro bikes or large capacity Adventure bikes and open to all brands.

This is by far the most comprehensive adventure rider training program you can sign yourself up for!

Check out the full course details on our website and advance your skills today!
https://maschine.com.au/tour/maschine-adventure-academy/

24/10/2024

TransTerra South Coast NSW kicked off yesterday from Batemans Bay heading for Merimbula. Great mix of tracks with overgrown tunnels through tree ferns, some skatey granite roads and heaps of erosion humps to launch off. The coastal views were pretty damn gorgeous too!

16/10/2024

We are go for registration now!

Join maschine in August 2025 for a retracing of the Burke & Wills Expedition across Australia's outback.

Single or Shared accommodation packages available now.

https://maschine.com.au/tour/burke-and-wills-expedition-2025/

16/10/2024

2025 ride events are live on our website now!

Entries open 6pm tonight for our Burke & Wills Expedition in August 2025.
A maximum of 30 places available so don't hesitate to book!



au



Motoz Tyres
Alpinestars Australia
Alpinestars
Oakley
Enduristan
Enduristan
Motorcycle Adventure Products
Barkbusters Handguards
Garmin Australia
Garmin Outdoor
Zac Speed International
Gaia GPS

14/10/2024

18/08/2024

Yeah it’s go time for GDR3 feature film over on YouTube - smash that link!

https://youtu.be/U7eT2xI_p6g?si=ypR4yvNmQulj7fH5

16/08/2024

The feature length film of our Great Divide Ride Stage3 is set to go live this Sunday evening!

Head on over to our YouTube channel on Sunday night at 8 pm AEST and make sure you watch in 4K



Ducati Australia & New Zealand
Ducati
Motoz Tyres
Alpinestars Australia
Alpinestars
Oakley Motorsports
Oakley
Monza Imports
Enduristan
Motorcycle Adventure Products
Barkbusters Handguards
Zac Speed International
Gaia GPS

12/08/2024

Tour des Alpes - Day 9
Santa Margherita Ligure to Milan

After being turned around on the road the previous day, a few of us made an early morning sq**rt to Portofino on our bikes. We were rewarded with a stunning clear morning and having the whole harbour and its glass calm waters to ourselves. Such a rare treat. Normally, as was the case yesterday, Portofino is jam packed with tourists and the dead end road and car park quickly get jammed.

A breakfast in the sunshine then we battled the traffic out of Santa Margherita and climbed our first mountain pass of the day. A few wild pigs were wandering the streets like any other weekday.

We stopped off in the town of Bobbio with one of the wonkiest bridges you've likely seen. "Ponte Gobbo" gets its name for being hunchbacked but features some gorgeous stone work.

The riding today was full of twists with one of delights being our own private Pavia Racetrack. We discovered this road unexpectedly in 2015 and still puts smiles on our faces every time we ride its curves. Like a Scalextric track laid out in a wheat field, it winds its way up a clear slope devoid of trees but full of joy. Tight, twisty, smooth; quite a treat on our last day.

Not going to lie, I did feel a little queasy after this section. I'm putting it down to the chocolate croissant and double espresso for morning tea!

Milan greeted us with warm temperatures while we returned our rental bikes. We quickly stripped our gear off the bikes and before long our taxis arrived to take us to our hotel in the centre of Milan. We had a couple of hours to wind down before we took dinner in Botinero restaurant owned by former soccer player Javier Zanetti. It is like a football museum with dozens of pairs of soccer boots from famous players on display.

Everyone was on a high after completing the tour. It was fascinating to see the contrasts between France and Italy as we travelled the roads. All our hotels were a delight and for sure we will gladly visit them again. Our group had a mix of plans to continue their European adventures and many started asking questions about maschine's ride plans for 2025. All will be revealed soon!

12/08/2024

Tour des Alpes - Day 8
St Paul de Vence to Santa Margherita Ligure

We begun our day with a cruise along the foreshore of Nice which was deep in preparation for the Tour de France finish in a weeks time.

If ever there was a place on this earth to put your own personal wealth in perspective it has to be Monaco, or more precisely the yacht harbour of Monte Carlo. Just getting to downtown Monte Carlo is a nightmare of tunnels and spaghetti junctions that makes a GPS a redundant piece of plastic.

Trying to do a lap of the F1 track is futile as you either get stopped by guards at the casino or redirected by road works.

We stopped off for some lunch in the harbour and admired the "boats" on the way out. A quick Google search revealed our favourite yacht Sarastar" could be rented for around €364,000 per week plus expenses! It sleeps 12 so who is in for 2025?

Somewhat depressed with our position in life, we made everything right in the world again with a blast along the autostrada of the Italian coastline to our destination of Santa Margerhita Ligure. Nestled in a pretty harbour with cafes and boats lining the water it is a bustling town full of beautiful sights.

Our intention after arriving, was to check in and then continue on to the cute town of Portofino for an apperitivo. Sadly the cabinieri were stopping all the traffic one the dead end road, except locals, and turning them around becuase apparently the town was full and couldn't take anymore tourists today! We consoled ourselves with an aperol by the harbour and enjoyed the pastime of people watching.

Our day was capped off with a beautiful dinner in a cute little restaurant run by a lovely young Italian family that were having a good go at life in Santa.

12/08/2024

Tour des Alpes - Day 7
Greoux-Les-Bains to St Paul de Vence

Continuing on from Provence we left our stunning villa and headed for the amazing Gorges du Verdon. Passing by Lac de Sante-Croix it gave our first view of the blue waters that looked so inviting. We followed the river valley from up high which gave us several incredible vantage points looking down into the gorge. With very few barriers lining the edge of the road this was not a place to race through. Keep one eye on the road and one eye on the views.

We rolled into Castellane for our lunch break and Derek couldn't help but strip down to his shorts and take a hike up the mountainside to the church overlooking the town. He came back sweaty but satisfied with his quick pilgrimage!

After our lunch break we took a twisty windy loop up and back through the sides of a valley with never ending tight turns. Quite a few of us cooked our rear brakes through this section in an effort to keep tight through the corners. Calling out approaching cars on comms certainly helps reduce surprises and makes overtaking safer.

The terrain changed markedly as we descended towards the Cote d'Azur and the dry hot air gave way to a touch of humidity. The vegetation changed with the climate more to rainforest as we passed through a gorge with abseilers descending a waterfall right alongside the road.

The pool at our hotel was well utilitised that afternoon with beers and spritz's enjoyed in the water.

One of the dinners we were most looking forward to on this tour was a dinner at Alain Ilorca restaurant, literally across the road from our hotel. The dining experience from this Michelin starred chef is nothing short of exceptional. The menu set said 3 courses but reality was we experienced 6 amazing courses with starters and finishers to cap the night off. The wine pairing was excellent too with champagne enjoyed by all to start us. Our view from the terrace across to the village of St Paul de Vence was ideal if too as the sun set on a great day.

08/08/2024

Coming Soon... Ducati Xpeditions.
We are super excited to be partnering with Australia & New Zealand to bring the first Ducati Xpeditions to New Zealand.

A three day adventure ride, through the scenic South Island of New Zealand from 6th – 8th December.

Join like minded Ducatisti in Central Otago on a ride of a lifetime where Ducati will plan and organise your experience, you only need to arrive with your Multistrada or DesertX and enjoy the journey.

27/07/2024

One of the more interesting bikes we found at World Ducati Week 2024 yesterday was the DesertX that was race prepped for Antoine Meo.

Meo is racing it in events like the Italian MotoRally championship and Erzberg Rodeo.

Prepared not by Ducati but by Entrophy Motorbikes a few standout features are:
- Carbon fibre guards that appeared to be moulded from the OEM parts
- strong tube type wheels with aggressive enduro tyres
- single brake disc on the front wheel
- the forks appear to be from an enduro or MX bike
- headlight has been removed
- the OEM dash has been relocated to the handlebars to allow mounting of rally navigation gear. The OEM dash has an interesting damping mount system
- confusing mass of wires sits in front of the bars linking the navigation and switchgear
- stock steel fuel tank with screw on fuel cap added
- chunky footpegs for serious boot grip
- large carbon fibre skid plate covers the engine extensively

It looks very much like a DesertX Rally at first appearance but the controls around the handlebars are the clearest indication it has been built with the purpose of competing in rally navigation events. It is scary to see the complex mass of wires required to connect up all the navigation equipment.

For sure it is built for speed in rough terrain.



Ducati Australia & New Zealand

26/07/2024

Mamma Mia!
A massive weekend at World Ducati Week 2024 is go!

We just rolled into Misano World Circuit with the Ducati Australia & New Zealand crew and our eyeballs are already popping!

So much to take in.

26/07/2024

Tour des Alpes - Day 6
Gréoux-les-Bains-Les-Bains loop

A rest day or a ride day? Tough choice!
For some it was an easy choice. Get out and ride more!

Our group split in half today with some taking the option of a short ride in the support van to the lavender and sunflower fields. Six of us took a ride through Provence.

L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is a cute little French village we had been told about by friends back home. Although it is quite a mouthful to say it was also quite an eyeful with a beautiful clear river flowing through the town centre. Cafes lined the river bank but weirdly the French don't seem to like serving any food before midday so coffee got us through.

A bunch of locals entertained us with punt boat races down the river. Low bridges and a dam wall to negotiate caused a few swims and plenty of laughs.

Water remained a theme for the day with our next stop being the mighty impressive Pont-du-Gard.
Built by the Roman's in the first century AD its purpose primarily was an aqueduct to carry water over 50km across the Gardon River and throughout the Provence landscape. Admiring the stone work and imagining how they constructed the three levels all those centuries ago was incredible.

Gréoux-les-Bains had a street party that night creating a great vibe around town for dinner.

25/07/2024

Tour des Alpes - Day 5
Alpe d’Huez to Gréoux-les-Bains

Alpe d’Huez is famous in cycling world as one of the grand climbs that often features in the Tour de France. Certainly in the morning we saw several cycling crews that were ascending the mountain switchbacks as we descended.

Pont-en-Royans made for a great morning coffee stop with old buildings suspended above a clear running river. Now that we were in France proper we didn't feel so bad about our language skills. In spite of our weak attempts at speaking French when ordering, there really wasn't much English coming back at us at all so we struggled on with our 5th grade French.

Todays route plan was a late addition to the tour but there was "must do" road that Nick wanted to check off his bucket list and that is Combe Laval. Southern France is reknown for balcony roads which are roads that cling to the edge of mountains with an occasional tunnel or rocky overhang that you ride through. Combe Laval has several of these that are spectacular to ride through with incredible views to the valley floor.

The roads after Combe Laval were more flowing, had a better surface and views that commanded your attention. There is always the dilemma of going hard and enjoying the ride or slowing down and taking in the views. It ends up being a bit of both.

We even found a road with our name on it - Col de la Machine! A photo stop was compulsory.

Seeing the purple fields of lavender it was unmistakable we were in Provence. Dozens of people had stopped alongside the road and traipsed into the fields for Insta-worthy snaps. We were no different.

We had an amazing Villa waiting for us in Gréoux-les-Bains and everyone quickly made a change into swimming togs to enjoy a dip in the pool. Spritz and beers were the perfect remedy for a big day in the saddle.

07/11/2023

2023 has been a massive year for maschine adventures and we are still trying to process all the sights and experiences we've shared with riders this year. Writing Ride Reports and uploading images has helped refresh our memories and we will share more of this content soon.

2024 is fast approaching and we've got a cracking year of ride events planned out for you. We launched our 2024 Ride Calendar to our email subscribers yesterday and details of the rides are now live on our website.

After multiple rider requests, the TransTerra 4 Day series is back!!! With three separate events spanned across the year, you'll get your fill of excitement and adventure in different terrain but within easy reach of where many of us live. With the first event kicking off in February / March, it's not long to wait. Look out for the full event details in the next couple days with on sale dates, ride locations, and super deals for the first TransTerra ride.

Europe is back on the menu for 2024 with two tasty road tours planned that make the most of the glorious mountain passes. Tour des Alpes focuses on Southern France and the French end of the European Alps whereas Pinnacle Passes this year will bounce between Austria and Italy at the eastern end where the glorious Dolomites are calling us.

If you are keen to join us in Europe in 2024 we implore you to Register Your Interest now in the links from the event pages on our website. Both tours sold out in 2023 before they went on sale to the public because we had such a massive expression of interest list.

Our Great Divide Ride series is not done yet either. We still have a re-run of Stage 3 to Cape York scheduled for August next year and this is almost booked out already so don't delay if you want to ride to the Tip with us.

We also have exciting ride tours and training activities planned for 2024 with our good friends at Ducati Australia. This includes DRE Academy training and DRE Tours both in Australia and Internationally. Look out for a launch of this exciting Ducati DRE program soon.

Click through to our website to get an overview of each event. Many of the routes and dates are still "To Be Confirmed" but at least you can begin planning your year and scheduling time off!

Subscribe on our website to make sure you receive the emails as we launch each of these events with on sale dates coming soon.

https://maschine.com.au/adventure-tours/