Classic TT Racers

Classic TT Racers
Author: Greg Pullen
Publisher: The Crowood Press
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2019-08-26
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1785006304

At 10 o'clock on the twenty-eighth of May 1907 the first Isle of Man Tourist Trophy motorcycle road race began. The riders pushed off on their 500cc single cylinder bikes and ten laps and 158 miles later, Charlie Collier aboard a Matchless would be declared the victor. This book is a history and celebration of the bikes of those early years of the TT races. It covers the events and personalities that led to the creation of the race and its challenging course; the early success of the British motorcycle manufacturers: Norton, Velocette, AJS and Matchless and their riders. The origins of the Italian Fours: Gilera and MV Agusta Quattro are covered and the influence and reign of the Japanese manufacturers too are covered: Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki. There are also details of the technical developments that enabled the bikes to conquer the mountain course with world-record beating times.

Racing Classic Motorcycles

Racing Classic Motorcycles
Author: Andy Reynolds
Publisher: David and Charles
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2021-09-06
Genre:
ISBN: 1787117812

The life of a classic motorcycle racer, who was fortunate enough to ride the best classic machines between 1976 & 2016 at the highest level, and on some of the best-known courses in the world. Told in his own words, this book recounts his successes, friendships, and hardships, and gives great insight into the world of motorcycle racing.

Built for Speed

Built for Speed
Author: John McGuinness
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2017-05-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1473550459

Go on the ride of your life with the racing legend himself **with a thrilling NEW CHAPTER on John’s dramatic 2017 crash** ‘Then I was there myself, just another face in the crowd, watching the bikes fly by. The smells, the noise and the speed were all there for me to experience. It was like a massive injection in my head and it just blew my mind. I knew within seconds that I was going to be a TT racer. I didn’t know how or what I was going to have to do to achieve this, and my dad wasn’t going to be keen. Everyone around me was aware of the dangers, but from that moment I knew I had to do it.’ John McGuinness is one of the all-time giants of road racing, with a huge host of victories to his name. But his easy humour and down-to-earth attitude off the bike have always kept people guessing: what’s the truth about the man inside the helmet, that has kept him at the top of such a sport for over 20 years? His autobiography tells the whole story, from his humble beginnings in Morecambe and getting his first bike at the age of 3, to working as a bricklayer and cockle fisherman before deciding to follow his dream, and finally to his many victories in the most dangerous sporting event on the planet. He tells of what it takes to be a champion in such an exacting sport, and to keep winning even though all logic tells you to stop – and when so many of your fellow racers are paying the ultimate price for doing it. This thrilling autobiography gets into the head of the man who stares death in the face, and doesn’t even flinch.

Racing Line

Racing Line
Author: Bob Guntrip
Publisher: David and Charles
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2022-07-21
Genre:
ISBN: 178711337X

Racing Line is the story of big-bike racing in Britain during the 1960s - when the British racing single reached its peak; when exciting racing unfolded at circuits across the land every summer; and when Britain took its last great generation of riding talent and engineering skill to the world.

Grand Prix Motorcycle Racers

Grand Prix Motorcycle Racers
Author: Norm DeWitt
Publisher: Motorbooks
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2010-09-16
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1610600452

Until the 1970s, North America was considered a backwater with respect to world championship–level motorcycle road racing. European racers viewed American riders as being less talented and rode around in circles on tracks made of dirt. That all changed when Kenny Roberts exploded onto the Grand Prix racing scene and became the first American to win the world championship in motorcycle road racing's premier class. Roberts' success launched an era of American dominance that lasted for nearly 20 years and still echoes through the annals of the sport. This is the story of the legendary American riders who beat the Europeans at their own game, including Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Kenny Roberts Jr., and the most recent American world champion, Nicky Hayden. With additional chapters about the American World Superbike champions and those Americans who competed for the World Championship, this is the story road racing fans have been waiting decades to read.

100 Years of the Isle of Man TT

100 Years of the Isle of Man TT
Author: David Wright
Publisher: Crowood
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2013-11-30
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1847976484

Run over the everyday roads of the Isle of Man for over 100 years, the world-famous Tourist Trophy races have gripped the imaginations of successive generations of motorcyclists. From the earliest days of single-speed, belt-driven machines delivering 5 bhp, to the highly developed projectiles of today offering a fearsome 200 bhp, race fans have thronged the roadside banks and watched in awe as the best racing motorcyclists in the world rode the fastest machines of their day around the twists, turns and climbs of the 374 mile Mountain Course, all in pursuit of a coveted Tourist Trophy. This new updated edition covering the 2007 - 2012 races, reveals the event's colourful history through the high-speed activities of great riders such as the Collier brothers, Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Steve Hislop, Joey Dunlop, John McGuinness and many others. It also looks at the machines and mechanical developments and race organisation, plus the financial rewards and commercial interests; setting them all in the context of the triumphs and tragedies of a great sporting event that has seen average lap speeds rise from 40 mph to over 130 mph. Written in an easy style, this book reveals the Manx TT's colourful history through its great riders, machines, mechanical developments and race organisation and is superbly illustrated with over 250 colour photographs.

Motorcycle Traveler

Motorcycle Traveler
Author: Peter Starr
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2018-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9780692151389

AMA Hall of Fame inductee Peter Starr's motorcycle adventures in 12 countries in 6 years

Road Racer

Road Racer
Author: Michael Dunlop
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2017-04-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1782438017

Michael Dunlop has a reputation for being the wild man of TT - often mercurial and outright dangerous. However,Road Racer reveals his emotional, human journey, taking the reader beyond the story of the sporting career of this aggressive and tenacious competitor.

Dave Molyneux: The Racer's Edge

Dave Molyneux: The Racer's Edge
Author: Dave Molyneux
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2011-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1783830662

Dave Molyneux is one of the most prolific and determined sidecar racers in British history. His racing career has spanned an incredible thirty-one years. He has dominated the sidecar class at the Isle of Man TT, one of the most demanding road races in the world, with an exceptional tally of 14 wins, making him the most successful sidecar competitor in the history of the event. He has competed in British and European championships, Grand Prix and other races. This book tells, in his own words, his remarkable story. It describes his victories and defeats, the accidents and the other setbacks he has overcome, and reveals what makes him such an accomplished engineer as well as a racer. Dave Molyneux is the most successful sidecar racer in the history of the TT with 14 wins. He holds the race record for the Sidecar TT at 58 minutes and 59.28 seconds, an average race speed of 115.132 mph over 3 laps, achieved in 2009. As well as dominating the event as a competitor, he has established an exceptional reputation as a sidecar designer and constructor and as a sometimes outspoken commentator on the sport.

BMW Airhead Twins

BMW Airhead Twins
Author: Phil West
Publisher: The Crowood Press
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2020-02-24
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1785006967

No motorcycle manufacturer is more closely associated with one type of engine than BMW: the air-cooled boxer twin or 'airhead'. It was included in BMW's very first motorcycle in 1923 and virtually every machine the company made, of every type, from radical road bike to TT winner, to land speed record holder, to 1970s style icon and even to the creation of an all-new adventure bike class with the R 80 G/S, right up to the mid-1990s. Phil West celebrates the success of the BMW airhead twin motorcycles. This book, with over 290 photographs, includes a history of the company pre- and post-War; the personalities behind the development of the bikes; profiles of each of the 'R' bikes in turn, including detailed specification guides and production numbers. These wonderful machines are regularly celebrated and now BMW itself is harking back to them with an all-new series of machines.