Customer Reviews

Mick Walker's Japanese Grand Prix Racing Motorcycles

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For motorcycle lovers this is the best book in years to explain how and why Japanese motorcycles influenced and changed our world. The modern four cylinder motorcycle engine started with Honda's 250 cc four cylinder racer from the early 60's (looks the same as todays engines). If you like small, complex, hi-tech engines (a 50cc twin, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder racer that Honda multiplied into a 5 cylinder 125cc racer and again into six cylinder double overhead cam racer) this book is for you. It details it all with amazing photos and history of ALL of the Japanese brands all the way up to the current MOTO GP racers. Two stoke lovers will not be disappointed. It covers with amazing detail a technological era of racing and competition that shows clearly why racing improves a brand. My only complaint is that the book is not hardbound.

While Mick Walker does a good job of reveiwing the entire history of Japanese racing bikes, more technical information about the machines would have been appreciated. The author tends to focus a lot of space on the riders/events/results rather than a technical/specification analysis.
Overall, this book is a good reference, but it could have been much better.