Those with a close eye for detail will spot a few minor revisions to CycleOnline.com.au today (including some slight teething issues) as we ready for the new year, which is shaping up to be our best yet in terms of planning and making this very website happen on a day-to-day basis.

This year, with the help of Matt Shields, Toby Lynch, Rennie Scaysbrook, Russell Colvin, Keith Muir, Brian Dyer and more along the way, we were able to move forward once again and had a great time doing so along the way. It really has been an epic season!

We’re constantly refining the process and, as usual at this time of the year, I’m pretty confident we’ll again make strides forward come January and beyond. This past month’s been relatively quiet while we lock away advertisers and with minimal events on, but we will be remaining active across the festive season to bring you info as it happens.

Most of all though, we’re thankful for all the fans who have tuned in and made it all possible, because without readers we wouldn’t have our loyal advertisers, and without advertisers we wouldn’t have a budget to operate as we do! So thank you for checking in daily, weekly, monthly or whenever it is – the growth over the past few years has been amazing.

Image: Keith Muir.

Luckily enough for us, the level of competition and professionalism of the sport in Australia has been extremely high once again this year, plus many Aussies have been in action all over the world doing us proud.

And, some of the greatest happenings of all have been the resurgence of new bikes, which makes coverage all that more appealing and gives our test riders plenty of opportunity to get out on track and have a blast along the way. That’s a major part of our plans this year and into the future.

Looking ahead to next year, with the major Yamaha Racing Team (Wayne Maxwell, Glenn Allerton and Cru Halliday) and Team Honda Racing (Jamie Stauffer and Troy Herfoss) 2015 line-ups now finalised, a lot more will begin to fall into place as people finalise their plans.

What everybody is talking about right now is the dynamics within YRT, as Maxwell and Allerton both line up in the same team for the first time since 2009 at Honda. It’s no secret they are hugely motivated to beat eachother, but I think once they’re in the truck together – at least to start with – they will be fine.

The sleeper in all of this is Halliday, because finally we will see him on (expected) competitive machinery in the premier class and with the might of a factory behind him. Like Herfoss and Josh Hook did this year alongside the more experienced combo of Maxwell and Stauffer at Honda, Halliday will match his teammates more often than not.

Image: Kirk Bentley.

Despite absolutely dominating 2014 with the all-star four-rider line-up, Team Honda Racing could funnily enough enter next year as the underdog (if they do in fact join Yamaha in the ASC series). That could work in the favour of Herfoss especially, because he will no doubt be stronger than ever, and Stauffer proved this year he still has a title run in him despite not winning one since 2007.

From here it will be good to see what the private teams do (there’s been plenty of speculation about Ben Henry’s Cube Racing effort expanding), because with the likes of Mike Jones, Sean Condon, Glenn Scott, Daniel Falzon, Matthew Walters and others all due to ride competitive machinery, they could be in the frame for race wins.

And the other questions is, while we know Josh Hook is going to Japan following his exit from Honda, where will we see former YRT riders Robbie Bugden and Rick Olson? Fingers crossed they can piece options together and we keep such talent on the grid.

That’s it from me for this, the final Cycle Central (to be rebranded Cycle 360 in 2015 and moved to later in the week), but rest assured we’ll be back and better than ever next year around the clock. Thanks for stopping by!