Winning Motorcycle Engines

This book continues the theme of Classic Motorcycle Engines, which was awarded the Guild of Motoring Writers Montagu Trophy for 1986. Thus the reader will find here comprehensive technical-historical analyses of a further selection of the outstanding designs that have established significant milestones during the past half-century. These engines were all dissected originally in a series of articles written by Alan Baker and myself. The drawings and technical details of the designs are included here, and I have rewritten and expanded the original articles, bearing in mind interim advances in technology. In most cases I have interviewed the original designers afresh, and this has elicited a wealth of information not previously published. I hope that readers may share my fascination with the minds of the very best development engineers, whose ability to identify and solve problems is, in a much broader context, one of the basic mental attributes responsible for mankind's rapid mastery of his environment since his remote ancestors descended from the trees. (from the Introduction)