I like reading about racing, mainly because I don't get to do it as much as I'd like. I'll read anything: history or technique, two wheels or four, any series. I know there are also great movies, many of which I own, and I can spend hours on Youtube, but I want to talk about BOOKS ONLY. Have any favorites? Any must reads? Here are a few of my faves: Speed Secrets Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots An Unfair Advantage Go Like Hell Race to Win Life at the Limit
"The Privateer" Jon Ekerold's story of his racing life in South Africa and Europe in the 70's and early 80's. Fascinating insight into GP racing as a privateer during those years. "The Kiwi on the Konig" a biography of Kim Newcombe who was the first New Zealander to win a 500cc Grand Prix and finished as runner up in the 1973 World Championship, splitting the MV's of Read and Agostini on what amounted to a home made bike.
Is this the best book about riding techniques? What other books should someone definitely have on this specific subject? Thread jacking alert sorry op...
I'm currently reading "Chris Carter at Large", which is a series of short stories from somebody who has been in the racing world for ages. It has been a fun read so far, just getting to the era of American/Australian domination. Not directly racing related (but racing plays a major part) is "Whatever Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry". The story told by somebody who was there and worked at a high-level for most of the major brands. An interesting piece of history and taught me a lot about an era that was pretty much gone by the time I started riding. On Britten stories, the most popular one is the Felicity Price one, which is authorized I believe. I read a much more extensive "unauthorized" one by Tim Hanna. It is a bit hard to find now, but I can definitely recommend it.
There's a biography of Sammy Miller. I forgot the name and it's probably impossible to get....but if you can find it, it's really good. Half road race and half trials. I bought mine at his museum and had him sign it.
"The Art and Science of Motorcycle Road Racing" by Peter Clifford, might be a bit difficult to find, it was published by the same people who do the Motocourse books. Tim Hanna also wrote the book about Kim Newcombe that I referenced earlier.
Like a novice skier getting dropped off by a chopper on a mountain. Looked cool until the first barrel roll