Motorcycle Road & Racing Chassis: A Modern Review of the Best Independents [Paperback]

Keith Noakes (Author), Mick Grant (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2007

Any kind of competition breeds a desire to gain a performance advantage over the opposition, and motorcycle racing is no exception.

Cutting-edge chassis design is a major factor in motorcycle performance, including that of fast road machines. This book explores the most innovative designs of recent years, to show how motorcycle chassis technology has evolved into today's highly-technical forms which use advanced materials and techniques.

This book charts the history of fifteen of the most innovative companies. The companies still thriving today, as well as producing modern machines with a wide range of engine options, are finding considerable business rebuilding and maintaining machines built in the earlier years.

Some of the pioneer builders have become household names to the motorcycle fraternity and those written about in this book include: Bakker, Bimota (Italy), Dresda, Egli (Switzerland), Harris Performance Products (United Kingdom), Hejira racing (United Kingdom), Magni (Italy), Maxton Engineering (United Kingdom), P&M, PDQ, Quasar, Rickman UK (United Kingdom), Colin Seeley Racing (United Kingdom), Segale (Italy) and Spondon Engineering (United Kingdom).

With full specifications for many chassis and extensively illustrated throughout, this book is a must for any motorcycle enthusiast and a valuable reference for the trade. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

insidebikes.com, December 2007
Review by Alistair Walker

This Veloce book charts the history of fifteen of the most innovative chassis building companies in biking, from the 50s to the 90s. Author Keith Noakes has chapters on the key names in bike handling design, from Nico Bakker Bimota, Dresda Autos, Fritz Egli, Harris Performance, Rickman, Segale and many more.

There are plenty of pictures to brighten up this softback and the text is a good mix of technical analysis and a strong narrative tracing the rise (and sometimes fall) of the various companies.

Reading the potted history of companies like Dresda, Harris, Bimota, Rickman etc one fact emerges very quickly; the Japanese bike makers of today would still be struggling to make their bikes handle properly without the expert development and endless hours of fettling on track which many European specialists provided for them, mainly at a very cheap cost.

Fascinating winter reading, especially for anyone considering building or modifying their own project bike.

Rapid Bikes, May 2008
Australian magazine
Circulation: unknown

'Motorcycle Road & Racing Chassis' is an absolute must for any motorcycle or engineering nut with more than half a technical bone in their body. Written by Keith Noakes, it focuses on the independent chassis engineers who have stepped ahead of the game over the last thirty years.

Names like Harris, Bimota, Magni, Sponclon and Bakker all have their designs listed. The book is hard to put down and sends the reader on an engineering journey that may start to get the creative chassis juices flowing ...

Classic Bike Guide, September 2008
UK magazine
 
Compiled by Keith Noakes and published by Veloce Publishing, it's a softback of some 175 pages, which takes a good look at 15 of the most innovative frame manufacturers. It examines the history and the specifications of the offerings from Spondon, Harris, Dresda, Bimota, Seeley, Bakker, P&M, Rickman, Egli and others both in race and road format. Well illustrated, a fascinating book with a foreword by Mick Grant.
-

NZ Motorcycle Trader & News, June 2008
New Zealand magazine
 
'Motorcycle Road and Racing Chassis' charts the history of 15 of the most innovative chassis-building companies in biking, from the '50s to the '90s. Author Keith Noakes has chapters on the key names in bike handling design, from Nico Bakker, Bimota, Dresda Autos, Fritz Egli, Harris Performance, Rickman Segale and many more. There are plenty of pictures to brighten up this softback and the text is a good mix of technical analysis and a strong narrative tracing the rise (and sometimes fall) of the various companies.
Reading the potted history of companies like Dresda, Harris, Bimota, Rickman etc., one fact emerges very quickly; the Japanese bike makers of today would be struggling to make their bikes handle properly without the expert development and endless hours of fettling on track that many European specialists provided for them, mainly at a very cheap cost.  This book is fascinating winter reading, especially for anyone considering building or modifying their own project bike.

"As you read through the well illustrated pages, liberally covered with both period black and white as well as color images, you realise why they are included in this very useful reference work." – interbike.co.uk
 

Book Description

Any kind of competition breeds a desire to gain a performance advantage over the opposition - and motorcycle racing is no exception. Cutting-edge chassis design is a major factor in motorcycle performance. This book charts the history of fifteen of the most innovative companies. The companies still thriving today, as well as producing modern machines with a wide range of engine options, are finding considerable business rebuilding and maintaining machines built in the earlier years. With full specifications for many chassis and extensively illustrated throughout, this book is a must for any motorcycle enthusiast and a valuable reference for the trade.  

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Veloce (October 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845841301
• ISBN-13: 978-1845841300
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,792,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Motorcycle Road & racing Chassis, December 12, 2007

By 

Mark Lewellen "VR1000 Racer" (Ozark, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motorcycle Road & Racing Chassis: A Modern Review of the Best Independents (Paperback)

being an engineer and fan of custom sport bike chassis, I read this book with great anticipation. As a pictoral and light history of the covered companies, the book succeeds. As a detailed reference book, or a book that would provide any kind of in-depth technical detail, I was sorely disapointed.
The book is well illustrated, and the author provides some insight into the different companies, but I consider it a light brushing rather than a thorough look at each.
Also, contrary to the publisher's description, I did not find any "full specifications" for ANY chassis, and only a general specification for P&M chassis. Additionally, although the book has a first printing in November 2007, most chapter references seem to predate 2001 except brief paragraph notes at the end of some chapters telling if the company is still in business or not.
I was also disapointed to find that other than a printed ad in the back of the book, there were no names, addresses, web sites, or phone #'s for any of the 15 companies included.
As an interesting quick look at the companies, the book succeeds. As a detailed reference for someone looking for "a valuable refference for the trade" the book is mediocre at best.
I would buy the book from the understanding that it is written with the depth of a magazine article rather than an in-depth textbook on the history of the companies involved.
I hate to sound harsh in reviewing the book, but I have to give the book a C+.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fair to middlin', January 24, 2008

By 

Forrest W. Reynolds (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motorcycle Road & Racing Chassis: A Modern Review of the Best Independents (Paperback)

The book is visually appealing, with high quality paper stock and some great photographs of handcrafted manchines. The book's written content suffers by comparison; there is too much filler in the form of engine specifications (how is this relevant in a book dedicated to chassis design/construction?), not enough content related to chassis specifications or construction, and some grievous editing errors. I would also have liked to learn more about the men who built/build these machines, the stories behind the bikes, but I can't necessarily count this as a fault, as the title hasn't strictly promised this. I don't regret buying it, but I have a more than casual interest in chassis design.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what it seems, March 3, 2011

By 

Gerald - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Motorcycle Road & Racing Chassis: A Modern Review of the Best Independents (Paperback)

The book covers several chassis in a very superficial way, just overall photos and very incomplete commetary, just descriptions of the photos: I AM SEEING THEM! I was expecting more detailed drawings and photos of the different chassis, not photos of complete bikes where the frame is obscured. Also ROB NORTH is only mentioned in passing. WHAT? He made one of the most important chasssis , up there with the featherbed! Was very dissapointing. Also the printing of some photos is really bad. In all only as the most superficial reference book.