Motorcycle Racing Books - Page 4

Ten Days in the Dirt

Russ Rohrer

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Editorial Review:

The world of off-road racing comes to life in this photo-oriented look at the sport. The author visited ten of the hottest off-road racing events in the U.S., and came back with a current, high-quality look at the state of off-road racing today. The book is divided into 10 sections, each dealing with a particular type of off-road riding or competition. Described is what happens during a typical day of competition, with quotes from the racers and their families. Detailed photos show the action on the track, and the majority of the shots are the competitors in the pits working on their bikes, sharing racing stories, camping, and living the lives of a racer. Events Covered: 1. AMA National 125/250 MX Championship (Glen Helen, California). This outdoor motocross race takes place in the center of the MX universe. 2. AMA Supercross (Anaheim). This round was where Jeremy retired, and Chad Reed won to challenge Ricky Carmichael. 3. Grand National Cross-Country Round. Brutal 3-hour race run on 10- to 20-mile course snaking through the woods and over obstacles. 4. International Six Days Enduro. This brutal off-road racebrings teams from around the world together for six long hard days of racing through the nastiest terrain in the world. The 2003 event was held in Fortaleza, Brazil, and won by MX champion Stefan Everts. 5. Adelanto Grand Prix. 8-mile course in California, one of the classic off-road races. Speeds of 90 mph+, 2,000 entrants each year. 6. NMA World Mini Grand Prix (Las Vegas, Nevada). The most prestigious amateur event in the world. The place where the young kids show their stuff and compete for national titles and the attention of factory talent scouts. 7. 24 Hours of Glen Helen. Four- to six-rider teams compete on 8-mile course through day and night. 8. El Trial De Espana. Trials round hosted by American Trials Association near Temecula, CA. Trials is sport in which riders take specialized bikes through short, incredibly challenging courses. They scale sheer rock walls, jump off of 15-foot cliffs, and climb boulders. 9. Great American Hillclimb, Billings, Montana. Purpose-built 200-hp bikes race to the top of a 500-foot near-vertical hill. The fastest time wins. The final 15 feet of the climb is vertical, and spotters at the top use 18-inch hooks to grab onto crashed bikes and prevent them from cart-wheeling back down the hill. 10. Recreational riding. A look at a day of trail riding.

Motocross America

Bill Amick

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Editorial Review:

Motocross began in the 1960s as a European form of off-road racing, but once it was introduced in the United States in the 1970s, its stateside popularity exploded. Since the mid-1980s, virtually every motocross world champion has been United States-born.

Motocross America traces the lively history of motocross in the United States. The book is being released in conjunction with The Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum (in Ohio), which will open a full-scale exhibit about U.S. motocross history in March 2005.

Moto Guzzi: The Complete History from 1921

Mario Colombo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Updated History- a great book 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Many years ago I first came across one of the first editions of this book at a friend's place. I was fascinated by the detail, and the complete listings of everything that Moto Guzzi had ever made. It was all in Italian of course, but pictures are worth a thousand words and numbers are universal.
Fast forward 20 years and I was stoked to get my hands on the latest copy, updated including 2007 models and all in English. Superb. Mario Colombo writes in a neutral style which focuses mainly on technical detail rather than politics behind the scenes. The chronological unfolding of the history of the company is well covered, right up to the turbulent ride the company is currently in.

Highly recommended for Guzzi owners even if just for the technical detail.

Editorial Review:

Fourth edition of "Moto Guzzi The Complete History From 1921", since first published in 1977, it is considered a masterpiece of motorcycle literature and a basic source of information on Moto Guzzi. Revised, expanded and updated, including a review of current production, it covers the industrial and competitive history of Italy’s number one motorcycle marquee in terms of model variety and racing laurels.

 

Ducati Desmoquattro Performance Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop)

Ian Falloon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Must have for Ducati fans (851 to 999) 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This must-have book starts with a bit of historical information, then moves on to the Desmo cylinder head, crankcase, pistons, crankshafts, etc., and then intake & exhaust systems, engine management, chassis, wheels, tires, brakes, suspension and finally ends with a section on weight reduction and maintenance.

You will probably need a service manual and parts book to complement this performance handbook. Worth having if you're a Ducati fan.

Editorial Review:

Ian Falloon, the world’s foremost authority on Ducati motorcycles, delivers a performance handbook that is a must-have garage reference for any Ducati rider or enthusiast. This book offers specific tuning tips for Ducati’s Desmoquattro superbikes that have ruled the world’s streets and racetracks for the past two decades. Readers will uncover a remarkable amount of information, including charts that list specific suggestions for each model’s system and a section that lists the most productive ways to spend money on a particular model. Ian Falloon offers Ducati fans and fanatics a much-needed reference for getting the most out of their bikes.

MotoGP Season Review 2007 (Motogp Season Review)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Brilliant, and getting better every year 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great season review is the closest thing to being at the tracks, and Julian Ryder's annual wrap of the MotoGP year is as good as it gets. Based in the UK, he reports or commentates on all the events, but with the Review he has time at year's end to refine and polish, providing an even more satisfying product than the necessarily deadline-limited reportage in magazines. Racers who want to know, in detail, who won or lost, who succeeded or failed, and the background to the men and machines that made history, will want to get, keep and refer often to this outstanding book, republished in the U.S. by David Bull based on the British edition, and printed in the U.K.

2007 was the year of Casey Stoner, so Ryder turned to 1987 World Champion Wayne Gardner to pen a foreword of unabashed praise for its young champion Stoner. In eight fully illustrated chapters, Ryder covers the Season in an overview, the annual rider-voted `rider of the year' activity (won by Stoner), a technical review that appraises the cutting-edge technology of the MotoGP paddock, details and an excellent side-view photo plus detailed shots of each competing bike (including Roberts' machine), background data on each of the 33 riders who competed in 2007, a race-by-race description of each event, with lap charts, full results, statistics and points data on all three classes (including constructor and team data) and--in what is essentially an appendix--a brief summary of MotoGP's official `Riders for Health' charity work in Africa. What we don't get in the U.S., unfortunately, though shown in the (British) table of contents, is the competition to win a Donnington ride with Randy Mamola on the Ducati two-seat MotoGP machine.

The book is illustrated with scores of great photos, primarily from Andrew Northcutt and Gold & Goose. These insiders can go where others can't, and they deliver the goods. Many of the photos are panoramic, running through the gutter into the facing page, and provide the sense of being there that lesser, smaller photos cannot capture. Unconfined by space-limited magazine reportage and brutal deadlines, Ryder includes photos and brief stories about the key individuals in MotoGP--the managers, engineers and support staff without whom the sport could not occur--`local color' shots of riders on and off the bike, and even (yeh!) umbrella girls. His coverage of Alex Hofmann's accident at Laguna (horrible hand injuries, left at trackside for 20 long minutes before a red flag permitted ambulance access) provides powerful insights and reflects badly on track management.

Reaching forward into publishing's future, knowing that enthusiasts are eager for moving pictures and the stunning aural assault of MotoGP bikes, let's see collaboration between the paper pushers (the book publishers) and the video gang, to arrive at a package that will include a DVD wrapup of the races, plus interviews with all the key people who deliver the events, even factory coverage. Some publishers are already doing this. For enthusiasts, one can never get too much of this fascinating, absorbing and challenging sport.

This book, like its predecessors, keeps getting better every year and belongs on every enthusiast's bookshelf.

Motocross Madness (The Hardy Boys #190)

Franklin W. Dixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Hardy Boys Say Farewell After 78 Years 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

For those of you who may not know, Motocross Madness, #190 in the long running Hardy Boys series, will be the FINAL volume in the series that began in 1927. The characters of Frank and Joe will live on in a new spinoff series, called Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers, to be released in June 2005, but it won't be the same Hardy Boys as you've come to know them. Over the years, there have been other Hardy Boys spinoff series, such as The Hardy Boys Casefiles, Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Supermysteries, etc., but those series were published right alongside the original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories series, which continued to add new volumes. The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories had gone through many changes since 1927, including changes in publishers, going to paperback, having rewrites done, etc., but they still managed to survive through it all, and a collector could count on seeing a new title come along almost as sure as counting on the sun rising each day. Now however, the sun has set, and the last volume has arrived. It's hard to believe that this series has lasted through 16 Presidents, is older than The Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, became a series only 15 years after New Mexico and Arizona became states, and a mere 24 years after the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, and yet continued clear until the 21st Century. I'm going to miss that thrill of looking forward to the next title in the series....

Editorial Review:

Frank and Joe get revved up to race for their lives!

The Hardy boys and their friend Jamal are thrilled to be participating in a motorcycle exhibition. It's going to be an exciting weekend, with many talented cyclists heating up the competition and a valuable prize for the winner -- a classic motorcycle! But when burglaries and suspicious accidents send the benefit skidding out of control, Frank and Joe find themselves racing to crack another case.

As the Hardys make their way through the long list of possible saboteurs, danger gains on them. Can they cut the criminal off before the finish line, or is this race speeding toward disaster?

The Motorcycle World Champions: The Inside Story of History's Heroes

Michael Scott

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Editorial Review:

From Michael Scott, author of Haynes’s highly successful biography of Barry Sheene, here is a fabulous series of character studies of the premier motorcycle racers, from bomber pilot Les Graham, who won the first 500cc World Championship in 1949, to American, Nicky Hayden, boasting the Number 1 plate in 2007 MotoGP, and on to the 2007 champion. Famous names like Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Kenny Roberts Senior, Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi are studies, but so are lesser-known heroes who rode the storm to brief glory.

The Magic of TT: A century of racing over The Mountain

Mac McDiarmid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

True Magic 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Manxman Mac McDiarmid has assembled the ultimate compendium of the Island, the greatest tribute to the place, race and racers every put into print. Consider the energy of the cover photo of Joey Dunlop on his RC30, enter its detailed, definitive history, and one is immersed immediately in memories of favorite Manx corners, greatest riders, 'best' bikes. Once in your blood the Island never leaves you.

All that's missing--it soon floods back--is the sense of being there, hearing the distant wail of a race bike behind the banks, beyond the buildings, trees and phone poles that line the road, transforming suddenly into a shocking blur of action, embodying the intense focus of a racer at max effort, at grave risk. Add the sense of camaraderie on the street, in the pubs, around the circuit, swapping lies, kicking tires, found only in a few sports where skill, energy, commitment and risk forge bonds between participants whatever their origins. That's the true magic of the TT and McDiarmid--himself a resident and former Island racer with an 'over-the-ton' lap there--has bottled it.

John Surtees' foreword is provocative, outspoken in a way that will surprise no one who knows the man. He proposes a re-thinking of the Island: bike size/power, screening acceptable riders, even the program itself. He suggests a TT Motorsports Festival, perhaps linking two and four wheels, involving historic activities, not necessarily on the full Mountain course.

One aspect of his comments deserves mention. It puts modern racing on the Island into perspective. Over 50 years since Surtees raced and won there, two huge changes have occurred: to the bikes, radically more powerful, and the course, now smoothed and modified to the point of being unrecognizably different from the course he raced. These two changes calibrate the average speeds now approaching 130 MPH.

One element remains unchanged: the risks over the 37-mile, 150-corner Mountain moster with its unpredictable winds, weather and surface changes and other sudden, potentially deadly surprises (birds, animals, even spectators and marshalls). Over 200 racers, many of the highest caliber, have died there. Such racing, offering ultimate rewards, may extract the ultimate penalty--IoM racers have found more ways to die than any ordinary mortal could conceive, matching only carrier aviation.

The only omission from the book, clearly beyond its scope, is a listing of the riders who have run the Island, and their performance. You can find that on the event webside, www.IoMTT.com. McDiarmid's book is a keeper and keeps the reader coming back for more.

The Manx are an independent lot. Think of mysterious three-legged logotypes and cats with little or no tails but plenty of attitude.

Editorial Review:

There can be no better author to write a celebration of the Isle of Man TT than Mac McDiarmid, whose Joey Dunlop tribute book received outstanding reviews and sales success. As a former TT racer and the long-time TT correspondent of Motocourse, he has this race in his blood - he even lives on the Island. This evocative book presents a lavishly-illustrated collection of themed chapters commemorating the greatest motorcycle road-racing event in the world.

The Moto Guzzi Sport & Le Mans Bible

Ian Falloon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Moto Guzzi V7 Sport and Le Mans are iconic sporting motorcycles of the 1970s and 1980s. They were amongst the first Superbikes to combine Italian style, handling and performance. After struggling to survive during the 1960s, Lino Tonti was given the opportunity to create the V7 Sport Telaio Rosso, in 1971. This was so successful that Moto Guzzi again began to concentrate on building sporting motorcycles. When Alessandro de Tomaso acquired the company the future for Moto Guzzi twins looked bleak until the 850 Le Mans was released in 1975. Like the V7 Sport, the Le Mans was a class leading sporting motorcycle and continued into production throughout the 1980s. After the Le Mans II of 1978, Le Mans III of 1980, the Le Mans IV of 1984, and the Le Mans V of 1988, although no longer a cutting edge sports bike, the final Le Mans successfully managed to combine traditional attributes with modern conveniences. Covering the period 1971-1993 and all models (V7 Sport, 750S, 750S3, 850 Le Mans, 850 Le Mans II, 850 Le Mans III, 1000 Le Mans IV, 1000 Le Mans V) and with description of model development year by year, full production data and 150 photos this is a highly informative book and an essential Bible for enthusiasts.

Grand National: America's Golden Age of Motorcycle Racing

Joe Scalzo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A very poor attempt at telling the Grand National story 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Scalzo's folksy attempt at writing is sophomoric and juvenile...His constant use of the so called jargon of the time is comedic at best and a disservice to the individuals that actually participated in this era of motorcycle racing history. For example, No one ever referred to Triumphs and BSA's as "Lime Juicers" as Scalzo maintains. He has also peppered the book with photos taken after the true "Grand National" period was over. I suppose using photos from modern day flat tracking was easier for him but I think he should have taken the extra time and effort and come up with photos strictly from the period he was supposedly documenting. Even the cover photo was taken long after the "Grand National" period was over. Take a pass on this book as it is not worth the money.

Editorial Review:

Compared to racing done elsewhere in the world, the American Motorcyclist Associations Grand National series is challenging, unique, and baffling to outsiders. To have any chance at all of becoming the Number 1 rider, riders must have the well-rounded racing skills to enable them to, over a single season, find their way around dirt tracks of four varying lengths, shapes, and speeds, plus paved road circuits like Daytona. Because each surface and track requires a bike to be set up quite differently, contestants must be able to compete on essentially five different dirt and road model motorcycles. Complicating matters further, these bikes cannot be one-off factory specials specifically designed for each type of racing, but instead are based on more-limiting stock machines. All things considered, Grand National racing is one of the most demanding and exciting motorcycle racing on the planet.