TK Remembered

This entry is part 7 of 22 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #2

In August a swag of riders got together to celebrate an Aussie bike-journo pioneer, Tony “TK” Kirby.

For those who’ve been adventure riding since before there was such a thing, TK has legendary status – the kind of status where a big group of riders from all over Australia gathers to ride in his honour each year.

That’s largely because in 1995, when Australia was embracing the Thumper Nats, Yamaha was messing about with a four stroke motocrosser and some young Americans had just begun making the videos that were to give birth to freestyle
motocross, TK walked out of his job as editor of Australia’s biggest dirt-bike magazine and kicked off his own venture, SideTrack Magazine.

He’d been a huge exponent of the KLR600, then the XR600, and most BMW adventure riders of today revere his name for his exploits on an 1150GS.

Development

TK first came to most riders’ attention when he signed on as Features Editor at Australasian Dirt Bike in the early
1990s. He’d been working at the lab which developed the slide film for ADB, and during a visit by the magazine’s owner, TK showed him a few pics he’d taken himself on an outback ride.

One thing led to another, and before long TK had his start in publishing.

He would go on to become editor of that iconic journal in late 1993.

Carving his own rut

SideTrack was a bold move for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it was Australia’s first motorcycle magazine – one of Australia’s first magazines of any kind – to go “direct-to-plate”. What that meant, effectively, was the magazine was produced using digital technology, and in 1995, that was about as radical as things could be.

But there were very few people around, then or now, who could match TK for boldness or backbone. Not only was SideTrack direct-to-plate, its content was entirely adventure riding.

This was a shock to everyone. There was no “adventure” riding back then. There was trail riding, and some people rode big trailbikes into the desert sometimes, but the idea of adventure riding being a section of the sport on its own was science fiction.

TK made it a reality.In the process he showed us rides that make the highlights of any rider’s list today. The Canning. Across Australia. Birdsville. Arkaroola. Cameron Corner. Lake Eyre. Poeppel Corner, The Gibb River Road these and many others were names unknown to a fledgling adventureriding group in the mid-1990s.

He wrote about things the mainstream dirt-bike mags considered ridiculous or irrelevant, like screens, large fuel tanks, dealing with dust, locked gates on public thoroughfares and how loud bikes would put an end to the sport. TK rode and wrote about all of those places and subjects. He opened a new world of possibility to riders across the country.

Tough luck

As a rider TK wasn’t exceptionally fast, but he was one seriously tough bugger.

When it came to manhandling bigbores through tough terrain, he was the master, all 70kg of him.

And if big-bores made something easy, he’d turn around and do it on a small-bore. And do it cheaper. Doing things cost-effectively was a hallmark of TK’s philosophy, and sharing his cost-cutting measures didn’t always earn him the high regard of advertisers.

How tough was he?
He won his class in the Australasian Safari on a DR250. He took his BMW GS1150 to places that left BMW owners reeling in shock, and when finances got tight he grabbed a camper and produced his magazine as he lived a nomad lifestyle.

And when it came to planning a ride, he was the master.Aside from all that, TK was instrumental in the founding of the DSMRA and had a laugh like a demented hyena.

Craig Hartley

dealer principal at Dalby Moto and hard-bitten adventure campaigner. When Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson first crossed the Blue Mountains, they probably did it by following Hartley’s knobby tracks. He’s been riding THAT long.

“I remember TK as a person who was so passionate about what he did with his SideTrack Magazine that he literally lived and breathed the adventure.

No doubt there are abundant examples of this, but one personal example is when he turned up with his slide-on camper, bike trailer, bike, race quad and canoe and simply set up home/office in my garden beside the dam and continued to do work on the next edition of SideTrack.

In the same week we then went to Manar Park near Gayndah and ran the subscriber’s ride for 2000, and I have no doubt he would have punched out a few more paragraphs in the few spare minutes he would’ve had over the weekend.

Tony often related stories of how he’d compiled magazines in National Parks, beside dams, overlooking oceans or from atop mountain ranges. He had all the equipment in his flash camper to build the whole magazine: stories, photographs, advertising…and all content was done by Tony in the camper and then sent on to the printers.

I guarantee no other super-successful magazine in Australia would’ve ever been put together in a mobile office/home.

Some of the places that SideTrack would have been put together would astound many, but the truth is Tony was living the dream and making some of the nicest places in Australia his own front yard and office.”

Spare a thought

So there you have it. That was TK

Our sport owes him a lot, and there are a huge number of died-in-the-wool adventure riders today who’ll say it was TK and SideTrack Magazine who inspired them to embrace adventure riding in the first place.

TK sold SideTrack in 2006 and finally succumbed to Motor Neuron Disease in 2010. He stayed belligerent and unbeaten right to the last, cutting special test times on his mobility scooter in the shed with his close friends when he couldn’t sit a bike upright any longer.

That’s who those riders are remembering when they ride each year, and a bloke we should all be saluting whenever we think about the glory of adventure riding as it is today.

Phil Hodgens

owner of the Motorbikin’ franchise, instigator of the Hardcore Postie runs and genuine adventure rider. Burke and Wills probably asked Phil for directions he’s been riding outback for so long.

“A lot of people will remember Tony Kirby as a leading journalist, wordsmith and editor of the legendary SideTrack Magazine, but I remember him as a tough little bastard!

He had a penchant for small-bores and coined the phrase “250s thrive on revs!” when he took his DR250 to a class win in the Australian Safari.

He launched the WR400 for Yamaha, setting a coast-to-coast record across Australia and dispelling the popular belief at the time that the WR was a “hand grenade”.

And he defied all odds when he rode a massive GS1150 down the Canning Stock Route, once again launching it for the manufacturers. Punters all over the country snapped up the big Bavarians and rode them out into the desert to their doom!

TK is gone now, but it turns out he had an awesome bunch of mates and while the TK Ride is about remembering him, it’s also about catching up with familiar faces.

Craig Hartley, Danny Wilkinson, Phil Gill, Yap Williams, Hedge and of course, the mighty Boulder Brothers to name a few.So long as blokes like these are keen to saddle up and ride, TK’s memory will live on.”www.motorbikin.com.au

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