Motorcycle Racing Books

This 288 page hardcover book is "The Official History of America's Great Sports Car Race" of Sebring as stated on the dust jacket spine. And what a book it is, too. I think many uninterested individuals of racing might be tempted to leaf through the book.

The book is filled with facts and illustrations fully documenting the 12-hour race at Sebring, Florida. Programs, patches, etc., are also included rounding out the book with interesting triva of 45 years covered in the book. Sebring has been called "the most popular sports car race in America".

Should a reader have any interest in Sebring, this book will no doubt be not only of interest but will also reach the "must have" level also.

Recommended.

Semper Fi.

I really enjoyed this book. It is full of great pictures throughout the years of racing at sebring. Ken Breslauer did a wondreful job puting sebring and all its history into a book. My only complaint is that it is a bit old, stopping at 1995 or 6.

The Sebring 12 hour race was a significant part of the world sports car racing calendar, and this book charts each race through the years, listing all the cars, drivers and results.

A well researched book that should grace the bookshelves of every sports car racing enthusiast.

As my good friend Art Vandalay likes to say, "YCLMFN"! As an avid motocross dresser, I can say these ladies know how to wear the gear!

This has to be the top motocross calendar on the market! All the top factory supercross stars like Jerremy McGrath, the top off-road racing stars including Larry Roessler, all shot by top race photographer Kenney Jones. Plus super sexy magazine cover girls Jaime Pressly and Francine Dee in the skimpest bikini's! YEOW! Better than any other motocross calendar on the market. BUY IT!

This definitely belongs in every BMW fan's book collection. Even if you are not a big racing fan you will enjoy the historical facts and the great pictures.

No manufacturer has a longer racing record than BMW, with factory involvement not just in motorcycles of many sizes and classes but also in the arcane (some say the most exciting) sidecar race category. BMW started winning German national championships in 1924 and took the sidecar world championship for 20 consecutive years--1954-1974. Their bikes also did brilliantly in the Isle of Man in the hands of greats such as Walter Zeller, Georg Meier and the Helmut Dahne, holder of the Nurburging motorcycle lap record (7'49.71")on an RC-30. BMW is still racing, in 2008.

This excellent book starts with the company crashing to earth in 1919 after WWI, forbidden to continue making aero engines and denied its technological roots by the Treaty of Versailles. It proceeds through Europe's great road and off-road races to the era of the `kompressor' (supercharger), to the Munich factory's devastation by Allied bombing in WWII, shown in photos.

Allen and Gardiner have created what is probably the most complete, definitive collection of data and photographs of BMW's racing endeavors, and done it with style and wit. Beautifully produced, in `horizontal' format, the book includes many great historical photos of the men and machines that have made the marque among the most respected in all of motorcycle racing. There is, however, only one diagram--a frontal drawing of the original R.32, BMW's epochal boxer twin of 1923--where the technically inclined reader thirsts for more.

The Butler & Smith era in the U.S. is described in detail, including Udo Gietl's frame achievements that delivered Superbike success, extends to the off-road (e.g. Paris-Dakar) wins, even '07 Pike's Peak, with Gary Trachey on a `Megamoto,' and to the emerging era of the current HP2. Noted (without photo) is the 1997-1999 achievement of Dave Morris, three-time Singles winner in the Isle of Man on BMWs. No mention--a pity!--is made nor photo shown of BMW's rumored MotoGP bikes, seen in magazines in 2006 with Luca Cadalora in the saddle, nor of the evolutionary camshaft and valve work on the four-valve boxer oilhead engine (like its predecessors, notoriously wide and restrictive of lean angle, irrelevant in their brilliantly successful racing sidecars).

This book arrives at a time when BMW is finally, after too long a hiatus, returning to serious national racing in the U.S. with its new HP2, already racing in MotoST and world endurance events in the hands of Brian Parriott and Nate Kern. Soon we will see its even newer World Superbike sibling, the transverse-four S 1000RR, reportedly due in the SBK series in 2009.

For about 25 years, since Reg Pridmore won the U.S. Superbike Championship in 1976, BMW produced a series of increasingly detuned and boring `air-head' bikes that disappointed hard-core race and sport-bike enthusiasts. The shaft-drive K bikes were little better, despite half-hearted attempts via the bloated K-1 and too-late/too-heavy current K offerings. The book, dealing only with racing, tactfully avoids mentioning these machines. Only with the oil-head R1100S in 2000, a machine that evolved into the HP2, did BMW inch back slowly to its racing roots. Can they keep up the commitment, financially, technically, and by attracting great riders? Time will tell.

Alan Girdler has started from the beginning and lead me through the WRs, KRs, XLRs and into the XRs in a way that makes clear sense. I wouldn't have minded knowing how many of the given models were built, but given the way Girdler describes Harley record keeping, perhaps even they don't know! Anyway, if you are a dirttrack fan, you'll like this book.

Allen Girdler covers it all in this book. It has a lot of technical information as well as the history and background of flattrack racing. Lots of black and white photos. This is a must have if you are a fan of Harley Davidson racing and flattrack racing in general.

As the Crosby, Stills, and Nash song instructs: "Teach your children well!" With pictures of classic Porsches to Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Mustangs, your child will be prepared for the next Concours d'Elegance. Fun for the car fanatic mom or dad to share with their little boy or girl. Will strike fear at the thought of them asking for the keys to the car.

If you have a child who loves cars but is not, shall we say, an avid reader, buy this book! Our son guessed this was a book through the birthday wrapping but his deflated expression turned to ecstasy when he opened it. The bright color photographs are very appealing and he ate up the text. A quality purchase.

I liked the book but I was wondering if you could give me information on how to get my hands on a Workshop Manual for the new F4 MV Agusta Reply to me please my address is CHUCK@Craiga12.freeserve.co.uk

I don't know the right model of my moto. I hope that you can olso help me. I'd need the monografy of electric system and I can't find anywhere

I am a volunteer firefigther, and I often go to schools and preschools to teach. Many times, the littlest kids don't get to do the fun stuff outside (spraying water or going into the life-safety trailer), so I bring along teaching adjuncts to help me with the small tikes. This book is great. The kids like the words and the pictures. It is well bound and my copy has stood the test of time.

My 15 month son is crazy about this book. We first found it at Horizons bookstore in Traverse City while waiting for a family member. My son wheeled the book around the store--keeping him busy for a half hour! Reading the book or pushing it around never fails to engage him--I'm purchasing a new copy now because he has used it a bit too much! (I recommend reinforcing the binding with a bit of tape if you've got a vigorous boy like I do.)

As the title states, I think that this book could more aptly be described as an owners manual for your mind while you're on a motorcycle. Though it does cover technical points of the motorcycle and how it works, what it really does is teach a person how to think about motorcycling and how to train yourself to be better at it. It does have some things to offer those riders that are brand new to our sport/obsession, but I think it is of more value to those that have the basic proficiency with the MECHANICS of riding (how to work the brakes, shift, accelerate, change direction.) The information is presented in a simply and is easy to understand. It will not make you Valentino Rossi overnight, but it will help you set up a frame of reference with which to judge your current skills. You'll instantly begin to recognize some of the good and bad in your riding and, with discipline and practice, be able to make it better. I'm a coach for Keith's school and I still refer back to this book whenever I find myself in a rut out on the track.

There is no other publication that has been as well researched or well proven when it comes to the technology of getting the best out of a motorcycle whether it be for street or track riding.

The techniques and examples included in this book have been developed by Keith Code over 28 years of in depth and personalized observation, coaching, demonstration and execution. In addition, all of the techniques laid out by Keith are utlized by Keith and his coaching staff at the California Superbike school - www.superbikeschool.com - AT EVERY SCHOOL all over the world. There is no better text, methodology or school - period!

If you want to be a better and safer rider, whether on the street or track, whether you are 10 years old or 65 years old, buy this book, and then go to a school - you won't regret it!

I first read this book whilst learning to take my motorcycle test many years ago, as I wanted to learn how to ride a motorbike properly from the onset. I've since gone on to read, re-read and use this book and the subsequent DVD as a continual reference on how things work, and what a rider should do, as opposed to what his instincts might tell him to do.

It's fair to say that without this book I'd not have been able to progress to the level of rider that I've been able to become, I'd not have been switched on to my ability to make the bike stable and carve such beautiful lines as I've been fortunate enough to become.

The book though can be very hard work at times, the descriptions are sometimes very complex and tricky to understand, but with reviewing and re-reviewing, and working at it, it really does help make the complex understandable.

I think the book could probably do with a re-vamp, with the hand sketch drawings updating to pictures and real examples of the techincal aspects that are discussed, but it's still an neccesary purchase for any serious road/trackday rider and club racer to my mind.

This book, backed up by the drills and learning you can glean from the schools (i've been lucky enough to attend) can enable even a half decent rider to become a very, very competent one. Much respect to Keith and his studying to be able to make the art of riding a motorbike such an acheievable skill for mere mortals!

When is 3 out....? :-)

The more experience I get on the track and the street, the more I get out of this book. I have taken all of the Keith Code classes in conjunction with this reading and re-reading this book, and I have found the comprehensive education with hands-on coaching at the classes along with intellectual learning through reading has helped my riding improve exponentially.

I have gained more control of my motorcycle, physical comfort on the bike, dropped lap times, and drastically improved my reactions to the unexpected through the book's section on re-training survival reactions.

Twist of the Wrist 2 is a book whose value increases the more you ride.

Now, this is an interesting book...

On one hand, it is packed with very useful information for both the street rider (the group of which I am a part of) and, I assume, the track rider. Code brings some interesting things to the table and makes these concepts pretty easy to understand even for the novice rider.

On the other hand, as has been mentioned in plenty of other reader reviews, this book is likely the most poorly written professionally published thing I've ever read. It is *filled* with errors, inconsistencies, howlers, and non sequiturs. Not only that, but words are seemingly randomly bolded and asterisked (sometimes both at the same time) and more random words are thrown into a glossary at the end of the chapter. In a lingo-centric sport like motorcycling, why not define more things like low-side, roll-on, contact patch...things like that? Instead, we get words like:

Sail: A Piece of canvas or cloth spread to the wind to cause a vessel to move

or

Point: A particular spot

or

Dazzling: To Impress deeply. Brilliant

or

Wisdom: A wise saying or teaching

WTH? Very strange. All in all though, a good book that I, as an intermediate rider, was able to glean much useful information from. If you can get passed the irritating manner in which that information is presented, you'll probably find it helpful as well.

This is a must have read and is better if you study it before you start racing or going to your first track day.

This was by fare the worst motorcycle book I have ever read. From the start to the finish Mr. Code tried to explain the basics of how a motorcycle operates. But what he really did was take a hundred plus pages explaining that you should pay attention while riding a motorcycle. The tips that are given in the book are common sense tips that if you have ridden a bike once then you already know them. I would not recommend this book to any rider.

This book doesn't have anything groundbreaking and is a little dated as of 2007 but is a very helpful reminder of the important things that you learned and forget to apply when you are actually riding. Not at all technical. The sidebars don't really tie into the content very well, but overall, it has helped me improve my track days.

Great book for the weekend rider to the begining roadracer, easy reading, and easy to relate to. I enjoyed reading a chapter or subject topic, then going out and applying what I learned to my riding technique. This book covers things you should be thinking of while riding and makes you think about what you already do but, don't know why.

Got this book along with a couple other authors riding books. Goes into great detail about racing and riding techniques. Thumbs up

This is quite a good book. I purchased it so I would have something to read on a long flight. It made me think about a lot of techniques and my personal habits while riding. This book does not teach you how to ride a motorcycle, so don't expect it to. It's also not for incredibly advanced riders as well, because they may be far beyond this advice. If you're looking for an interesting enjoyable book to burn some time with, this is a good one to do it with.

read this book - you can not use better your time and money

An excellent and easily digestible guide suggesting ways to enjoy sportbiking but reduce the risks of oth accidents and tickets.

This is not a slick, commercial product by a big name, but a book intended for a relatively local market in Northern and Central California where inexperience combined with challenging conditions and powerful bikes available on easy terms have created a high number of incidents and too many fatalities.

However, the advice here is just as relevant on any twisty road and the tips and drills have certainly improved my rising accuracy, cut my reaction times and increased my overall sportbike skills.

This book may be on the short side but what I think the author is trying to get across is to ride safe and to think about your skills and try to improve upon them with every ride you take. The author may not have used a fancy publishing house or had the bucks to pay an editor but maybe all he really wanted to do was to share his skills and knowledge of riding with his fellow motorcycle enthusiasts in a printed format! Buy the book, read it and if you learn something new that's great. And if it just reinforces some skills you already knew that's great, too!

I've come from standard bikes into riding sportbikes only recently and was looking for another resource for adding to my riding skills. I'd heard some good comments from a friend that had bought this book and recommended it to me so I bought it. I found that though this book was only around a hundred pages the information was very valid to the things I've experienced in my own riding on the street. I liked the fact that the information was so relevant to street riding especially the actual riding experience examples that the author included. I found lots of things that have helped me in my riding and continue to refer to the book on a regular basis before going out on weekend rides with friends.