This title is reprinted for 2011 - back due to popular demand. Mick Walker - leading authority on all forms of motorcycle sport - examines the long career of the quickest and most determined competitors of all time in this enthralling biography. In the late 1950's John Surtees was the dominant rider in top-level British and European motorcycle racing. A precocious talent, he began riding competitively on Vincents in the early 1950's, then REGs and NSUs and Nortons. He swiftly established himself as one of the quickest and most determined competitors. He confirmed his outstanding qualities as a rider when he won his first 500cc title for MV Agusta in 1956, and this triumph was followed by six more titles, three at 350cc and three at 500cc. From 1958 to 1960, he won by a huge margin. In this fully illustrated and in-depth new study, Mick Walker reassesses Surtees' remarkable record and explores the background to his achievement. He recalls Surtee's early introduction to the sport, his rapid development as a rider and his years of dominance. The technical side of Surtees' career - the bikes he rode and his considerable skills as a mechanic and engineer - is covered in detail. The book gives a fascinating insight into the intense motivation that often gave Surtees the edge over his rivals and laid the foundation for the success that followed. As a rider Surtees was not only exceptionally fast, safe and consistent, but he was also technically adept and innovative. His race preparation was meticulous and single-minded, and this professional attitude to the sport marked him out from his contemporaries.

The 2017 championship is analysed by the authors of this classic official annual, first published with the purpose of informing the public of one of the most compelling and fascinating world championships. Among the new elements for this season is the starting grid of race two, which has been revolutionised in relation to the past, with the winner of the Saturday race obliged to start from ninth place. But the variation of the technical regulation is marginal, apart from the confirmation once more of the various other championships, which were tested over many seasons and reserved for the 1000 and 600 cc, the new entry of the small SuperSport 300 stands out. Apart from the authors telling the stories, there is the work of Fabrizio Porrozzi, one of the best photographers of the SBK World Championship.

Offers readers a close-up look at dirt bikes. With colorful spreads featuring fun facts, sidebars, labeled diagrams, and a "How It Works" feature, the book provides a thrilling overview of this exciting vehicle.

From the first race in 1922, the Ulster Grand Prix has been one of the most thrilling events in the international motorcycling calendar, attracting enormous crowds of spectators to watch the world's great riders in action. Now, a century on, the UGP holds a special place in the hearts of fans here in Northern Ireland and across the world. A lifelong fan, Norman Windrum has been attending the UGP for seventy-five years and has an unmatched knowledge of the race and its history. In this new book, he vividly captures the excitement of the event, from Hubert Hassall's win in the first race in 1922 to Tom Herron's magnificent treble in 1978 and the domination of the Dunlop dynasty from the 1980s on. With over 100 photographs, alongside lively commentary and stories, and bringing together statistics about the race from across its entire history, this is the definitive account of one hundred years of the Ulster Grand Prix.

One Man’s Mountain’ is a powerful and energetic memoir describing how what seem to be distant and unachievable dreams can become real and develop into a life’s experience that is way beyond what was thought possible. The book depicts life’s experiences leading from war-time to normal peacetime living. An ordinary suburban lifestyle enables the writer to explore and adventure on two wheels and brings to life a competitive spirit, which causes the writer to see and develop an ambition. The goal to be achieved centres upon an island in the Irish Sea, yet seems beyond reach. The difficulty is that it combined the need to ride and earn a living! Yet strangely, work and play relate.

For over 100 years the world's best motorcycle racers have pitted themselves against the gruelling 373/4 -mile Isle of Man Mountain Course at the annual event known worldwide simply as 'the TT'. The Tourist Trophy meeting - to give its proper name - represents perhaps the greatest challenge that the sport of motorcycle racing can offer. The top names in road racing - Collier, Wood, Duke, Hailwood, Agostini, Hislop, Jefferies, McGuinness, Hutchinson and the Dunlop dynasty - have all considered the pursuit of a Tourist Trophy to be the ultimate goal. From riding the earliest single-cylinder, belt-driven machines with outputs of under 10bhp, to coping with today's sophisticated four-cylinder machines giving well over 200bhp, generations of riders have risked their lives to satisfy the desire to go faster than the next man and to win a TT. In the process they have lifted lap speeds by almost 100mph. Exactly how that huge increase has been achieved is told within these pages, set against the background of the triumphs and the tragedies of the TT history.

Discover the best biking routes around Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Your essential rideout roadbook covering the best biking routes around Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including short trips and longer tours. Discover the best motorcycling roads around Great Britain and Northern Ireland, chosen by the biking route expert, Simon Weir. Each one is explained in depth with all key attractions highlighted in the detailed A-Z mapping. Stunning photographs and easy-to-follow road book directions throughout. Simple turn-by-turn directions and clear maps for every route Ideal size for fitting in a tank bag Short, practical rides for the weekend, most lasting 1-2 hours Comprehensive coverage of every corner of the country 100 great rideouts to discover with your friends

Bill Ivy had a steely determination to succeed, an almost fearless courage, which meant he never backed away from a challenge, and a love of fashion and fast cars. In this fascinating biography of Ivy, Mick Walker highlights that Ivy was certainly not only a great rider, but also a unique personality. Walker documents a fitting tribute to Ivy's life that will interest any motorcycle enthusiast. When Bill Ivy was fatally injured while practising for the East German Grand Prix in July 1969, motorcycle racing lost one of its greatest-ever competitors. As a tribute to Bill, leading motorcycle historian Mick Walker has written "Bill Ivy: The Will to Win". Bill Ivy was certainly not only a great rider, but also a unique personality. He had a steely determination to succeed, an almost fearless courage, which meant he never backed away from a challenge, and a love of fashion and fast cars. Although only 5ft 2in tall, he more than made up for his lack of stature by his immense upper body strength, which meant he could cope with any size of motorcycle from a 50cc Itom to a 750cc Norton-engined Matchless G15 CSR. It was as a member of the Yamaha factory team that he not only became World Champion, but also set the first 100mph TT lap record on a 125cc machine - only a decade after Bob McIntyre had first achieved this feat on a machine with an engine size four times larger! "Bill Ivy: The Will to Win" is a fitting tribute to one of the world's greatest-ever motorcycle racing stars.

The Hero's Body is a memoir of what it means to be a man in modern America. At just forty-seven years old, William Giraldi's father was killed in a horrific motorcycle accident. Writing here with searing honesty about grief, obsession, shame and identity, he looks back on three generations of men from the blue-collar town of Manville, New Jersey, and tells their stories in tandem: the speed-crazed cult of his father's 'superbikes', each Sunday spent racing fate along the winding back roads of Pennsylvania; the trauma of a son's ultimate loss, and William's attempts to rebuild a self in the manliest costume he knew. For a teen consumed by hardcore bodybuilding, pumping iron was so much more than a sport-it was a hallowed lifeline for a bookish tenth-grader, a way to forge himself a spot amongst his family's imperious patriarchs. A work of lasting literary beauty, lauded by the New Yorker for its 'unrelenting, perfectly paced prose', The Hero's Body is a tale of the working-class male, the codes of machismo and the unspoken bond between father and son.

Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the Superbike World Championship, The World According to Foggy will delight the legions of motor sport fans in the UK and beyond, and will be lapped by those who have enjoyed books by Valentino Rossi, Guy Martin, Michael Dunlop, John McGuinness, Ian Hutchinson and Freddie Spencer. Foggy's scintillating new book takes his fans into the memory banks of this most charismatic and straight-talking of sporting icons, transporting them into the weird and wonderful world of this endearingly quirky hero of the track. The World According to Foggy contains lashings of adrenaline-fuelled bikes and electrifying bike racing, thrills and spills galore, but it will also reveal the man behind the helmet, his passions and frustrations, what makes him still leap out of bed in the morning and seize the day - ultimately, what makes this great man tick and explains his enduring popularity.

Following in his late father's footsteps, Tai Woffinden made his name as Britain's most successful speedway rider ever. Known for his speed on the tracks and his quirky tattoos, he is a popular figure within the sport and beyond it.

With a vast array of titles to his name, including youngest ever Grand Prix World Champion, achieved at the age of twenty-three, Tai has come a long way from his Scunthorpe roots. His love affair with speedway began when his family emigrated to Australia while he was a child, where he became a local champion while still at school. He has not been without his share of struggles, however. In 2010, he lost his father, the popular speedway rider Rob Woffinden, to cancer, which, combined with issues within his team, resulted in a difficult season. Then, in 2019, during his defence of his World Championship, he crashed heavily during a race in Poland and was badly injured, breaking his back.

Such setbacks do not keep true champions down for long, however - Tai will be back, to dazzle his thousands of fans with his unique combination of flamboyant skill and raw courage. Told with his trademark honesty and directness, his autobiography provides an eye-opening insight into the life of one of speedway's greatest talents and most beloved stars.

Jeremy McGrath has been called 'the Michael Jordan of Supercross' by the Los Angeles Times, and in this revealing autobiography fans not only get his personal story, but also a detailed guide on how everyone can become a Supercross racer. The No 1 Supercross racer in the world - who has over 20 sponsors, his own film company, a toy line, Nintendo and Playstation games, and a signature shoe by Vans - talks about his life and the sport. Supercross started out as a redneck '70s sideshow, but thanks largely to Jeremy McGrath it has become a massive extreme sport. Over the last three years, AMA Supercross attendance has mushroomed from 700,000 spectators a year to 1.5 million. This book will satisfy even the most hardcore fans, as it not only gives you the life and times of Jeremy McGrath, but acts as the calling card to the entire sport by including unique sections on how to become a Supercross racer, the workout regimes, fixing common bike problems, and more.

From the 1950s through to the 1970s, Hughie Hancox worked at the Triumph Meriden factory in various capacites - a fitter, a member of the famous Royal Corps of Signals Motorcycle Display Team, in the experimental department (where he actually worked on the prototype Bonneville), and eventually as one of the legendary Triumph testers.This latter role provided countless unique experiences with some of the most iconic British motorcycles ever manufactured. The story of production testing at Meriden has never before been published, and this intimate and pragmatic account comes straight from a man who was at the heart of it. With many previously unpublished pictures and service bulletins, plus helpful advice on problems that still exist with the bikes today, this is a unique book about a fascinating time and place in British industry.

Following in his late father's footsteps, Tai Woffinden made his name as Britain's most successful speedway rider ever. Known for his speed on the tracks and his quirky tattoos, he is a popular figure within the sport and beyond it. With a vast array of titles to his name, including youngest ever Grand Prix World Champion, achieved at the age of twenty-three, Tai has come a long way from his Scunthorpe roots. His love affair with speedway began when his family emigrated to Australia while he was a child, where he became a local champion while still at school. He has not been without his share of struggles, however. In 2010, he lost his father, the popular speedway rider Rob Woffinden, to cancer, which, combined with issues within his team, resulted in a difficult season. Then, in 2019, during his defence of his World Championship, he crashed heavily during a race in Poland and was badly injured, breaking his back. Such setbacks do not keep true champions down for long, however - Tai will be back, to dazzle his thousands of fans with his unique combination of flamboyant skill and raw courage. Told with his trademark honesty and directness, his autobiography provides an eye-opening insight into the life of one of speedway's greatest talents and most beloved stars. (c) images; not to be copied or reproduced without permission.

Experience the ragged edge of road racing ... In over 120 stunning full-colour photographs, Stephen Davison gives a thrilling insight into the road racing scene and the lives of the riders. Join him for some incredible action from star riders such as John McGuinness, Robert Dunlop and Ryan Farquhar. And find out what goes on away from the adrenaline-charged race scene - the long hours at the day job that pays the for the racing; the longer nights in small, draughty sheds building the bikes; the banter of the paddock; the struggle to overcome the pain of crash injuries; the abject misery of defeat and the sheer joy of the podium. Available for the first time in paperback, this is a vivid and uncompromising portrait of road racing by the sport's number one photographer.

With a foreword by Carl Fogarty 'A worthy and fitting tribute to the King of the Roads' - Irish News Joey Dunlop's story is one of towering triumphs and desperate tragedies in almost equal measure. Born poor - dirt poor - with no running water, no electricity, he was the definition of the everyman hero, in what must be considered one of the world's most extreme sports - motorcycle road racing. He remains the most loved and most successful road racer of all time. Joey Dunlop won the hearts and minds of millions during his thirty-one-year career, culminating in the year 2000 at the Isle of Man TT when, grey-haired and bespectacled, he cemented his reputation as the greatest TT rider in history by regaining the F1 crown for the first time in twelve years. But in road racing, tragedy is never very far away. Joey lost his life in an accident in July of 2000. It was just weeks after his final TT victory. More than 60,000 people attended Joey's funeral. Over twenty years on, the sport has never truly recovered. Every motorcycling lover knows the legend of Joey Dunlop but now, for the first time, they can get to know the man himself. This definitive new biography is by turns hilarious, triumphant and tragic; it is Dunlop's story as it has never been told before - by those who were part of it.

The Superbike World Championship for modified "production" bikes was inaugurated way back in 1988, with high performance machinery normally destined for the road taking to the tracks for the first time to dispute a full championship season. The American Fred Merkel riding a Honda won the first two editions in 1988 and 1989. This was followed by a Ducati triple with titles for Raymond Roche in 1990 and Doug Polen in 1991 and '92. In the years that followed the likes of Carl Fogarty, Troy Corser, Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss came to the fore aboard equally well-known bikes also raced in the same period by Pier Francesco Chili, perhaps the best-known Italian Superbike rider prior to the advent of Biaggi and Melandri. These 25 years are revisited for the first time in an official book that, season by season, reviews the technical, sporting and human stories of each championship through the ever-accurate texts of Claudio Porrozzi and above all the spectacular images of his brother Fabrizio, for years the official SBK World Championship photographer. Championship standings and statistics complete a book that is sure to be source of reference for all fans.