Legendary Motorcycles

With a title like Legendary Motorcycles it is always going to open debate as to whether the author Basem Wasef has made the right choices. It could be argued that some are there just because they have been owned by Elvis, Steve McQueen etc and the bikes are not in themselves famous or particularly interesting.

Other bikes like Burt Munro’s ‘Munro Special’ is of course a unique bike because of what it achieved, as is John Britten’s V-1000. T.E. Lawrence’s Brough could be in either camp, but the point is that the 26 bikes profiled in the 175 pages, certainly have a right to be listed somewhere as being significant. So do a few others, so maybe the author will bring out a second volume?

Controversy aside, the book is well worth a read if only to disagree with the choice. However, the facts and the stories behind the bikes are well researched and are interesting. Plus they have been good enough to get gear-head Jay Leno (who knows a few things about significant machines) to write the forward.

This glossy tome uses period as well as modern images to illustrate it and justify the choices as much as the text and is well worth a read if only to give you a point of view to debate the bikes down at the club.

Published by Motorbooks in the USA it is available through Haynes Publishing for £25.00 (www.haynes.co.uk)   

Review by Ian Kerr