Haynes Press Centre Haynes Press Centre  
  Download area
     
The Grand Prix Motorcycle cover
Released in 2009


The Grand Prix Motorcycle


The Official Technical History


Kevin Cameron
Foreword by Kenny Roberts Sr


Publication: Out Now

RRP: £30.00
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978 184425 528 3


Told with style and great technical insight by acclaimed author Kevin Cameron, The Grand Prix Motorcycle is the development history of 500cc and MotoGP road-racing motorcycles from 1949 to the present day. Intense competition, rapidly changing technology, and input from the world's best riders all contributed to the important design choices that ultimately led to today's MotoGP bikes - and to the modern production sportbikes.

Each year's championship-winning machine is described in a short essay with an accompanying data panel, and there are 14 longer features on the various "eras of design" in championship racing. The narrative brings together the many and ever-evolving influences of engine design, materials, tyres, and chassis to reveal what technology has provided to help riders win races.

Unlike Formula One cars, which have little in common with road cars, either technically or visually, MotoGP motorcycles are not greatly different from everyday production sportbikes. They use virtually all the same technologies as their production counterparts, and closely resemble them. What's learned in this year's racing season affects the design of next year's production bikes. This continual process of evolution has created the procession of modern motorcycles depicted in The Grand Prix Motorcycle.

Author Kevin Cameron is the technical editor of Cycle World and began writing for its predecessor, Cycle, in 1973, but he never intended to be a writer. To hasten recovery from higher education, he began building and tuning racing motorcycles in 1964, before an experiment by an editor who wanted an insider's view on the fast-developing American 750cc racing scene. Cameron's strength as a technical journalist lies in his ability to present apparently complex physics or engineering matters in simple terms of familiar phenomena and everyday experience.

 

Review copies available


Notes to Editors:

The information on this page is supplied courtesy of Haynes Publishing, please credit accordingly if you intend to use it. For further information, or to request a review/competition copy Please contact Chris at Eventageous PR Ltd on 01452 260063 or email info@eventspr.co.uk


Haynes Publishing

Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ
Telephone: 01963 440635 Fax: 01963 440001 E-mail: sales@haynes.co.uk www.haynes.co.uk

Haynes Publishing is a trading style of J H Haynes & Co Ltd.
Registered in England, Number: 1449587 Registered Office: Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ
     
 
PDF download
 
Click to download PDF fileClick to open press release in PDF format
 
Complete zipped release
 
Click to download complete PR packageClick to download zipped release. Includes hi res JPEG images, PDF document and text in MS Word format.
 
Hi res images
More about opening TIF images

In IE6 or Netscape 7 on XP - normally the image will open in a new browser window. It may open in a Windows Fax and Picture Preview window, whilst the file itself is downloaded to your temporary Internet folder.
To open the image with your preferred editing software, right-click on the image in the Preview window and select the programme from the list displayed. If the programme is not listed click on 'Open with...' and choose from the programmes listed.

If the Preview window is blank - the file has still been downloaded to your temporary Internet folder. To open the image in your image editing programme just follow the instructions given above.

<Click to close window>
More about opening images...

Click to open image fileClick to open hi res jacket image
(this may take several minutes)
 
 
Release text
 
Click to open text-only fileClick to open release text
in MS Word format.