Ducati Belt-Drive Two-Valve Twins: Restoration and Modification (Authentic Restoration Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)The following review is from The Ducatis Unlimited Connection web site (www.duc.org):
There are basically two types of Ducati riders: Those that just ride the motorcycles, and those that are also driven by a 'need to know;' who relish every savory (and occasionally unsavory) detail about these extraordinary machines. If you are the latter type this book is a must have.
Although billed on its cover as an "Authentic Restoration Guide" this book is actually much more. It is a cornucopia of interesting details -- seemingly every detail! -- about the entire line of belt-drive two-valve twins from the earliest pre-production Pantahs down to the latest Monsters, STs, and fuel-injected Supersports.
And, if the breadth of coverage seems amazing (and it is) even more so is the way that Ian presents it. Not just as a lengthy compendium of facts and data, but as an unfolding story of development and change. One filled with cues and, yes, the occasional miscue. Fascinating!
But it's billing as a Restoration and Modification Guide is, none-the-less, correct. Want to know the original color or decal placement on a `82 Pantah? You'll find it here. Interested in learning recommended methods for dealing with the flat spot produced by a Paso 750's auto-type carburetor? That is here, too. Also included -- many for the first time -- are accurate production and distribution figures for each and every model, along with charts that list factory correct tuning data, and such esotery as carburetor specifications, gear ratios, and camshaft valve timing for each model and year. Whew!
Filled with scores of photographs and interesting diagrams, this is a book to read, study, and enjoy. DUC Recommended!

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The 1990s saw Ducati pull itself from near-oblivion to regain its spot among the world's most prestigious motorcycle marques. The recent success of the Italian manufacturer has ensured a healthy restoration and aftermarket scene among the Ducati faithful. This hands-on guide takes owners through the process ofrestoring and modifying 1979 to 1999 belt-driven two-valve machines, including the 500/600/650SL, 750 F1, Paso, 750 Sport, 750SS, 900SS, and Monster. As with all guides in MBI's Authentic Restoration Series, the emphasis is on originality. Hundreds of black-and-white photographs illustrate all the procedures explained, while detailed appendices cover specifications for all the models covered and identify sources for the restorer.

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Faster Pastor Review

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(More customer reviews)Read this book anticipating wonderful things since I love the author's Ballad stories, and her racing books have been good reads, too. But instead of falling short, this one kept right up with the others. There were surprises--I liked the male characters better than Pajan, the main female character. As usual, the descriptions of small town life was what carried this book all the way to the finish line--the different churches were handled well. The descriptions of the Snake Handlers and their church was done quite well without making fun of their beliefs, and for the most part, the churches and their individuality made the humor good humor, without making someone the butt of a joke.
And what a beginning! A car seemingly comes from out of the sky to crash a NASCAR fan's funeral---and the details of safety, car details and even the jail cell friendships--makes for a novel where you don't want the checkered flag to wave!

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Kawasaki Racers: Road-Racing Motorcycles from 1965 to the Present Day Review

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(More customer reviews)Love this book, I am a big Kawa Fan, Kawasaki Road Racers is a good read, lots of interesting people behind the racing teams and different efforts.
A little History of Kawa also, Some Lawerence coverage, I Wish there would be a Eddie Lawerence book. We also need a Revised version or something to this great book. I love the Ninja Bikes(known as Ninja In America).
Good Book with Great Pics for any Kawa' Fan.

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Despite inconsistent support from the corporation, Kawasaki motorcycles and their riders have achieved some extraordinary results. This full-color history, with sidebars providing easily accessible information on significant riders and teams, tells the complete story of Kawasaki's involvement in road racing. The story begins with Dave Simmonds' 1969 125cc World Championship, and continues through the KR 250 and 350 that proved virtually unbeatable from 1978 to 1982, Wayne Rainey's AMA Superbike Championship in 1983 and Scot Russell's in 1993, and the Kawasaki's dominance of endurance racing in the 1990s.

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How to Build Chevy Small-Block Circle-Track Racing Engines (Performance How-To) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book for ideas for building an ultimate street big block. It provides a very thorough tour of professional engine building. Like any race engine build, you have to pay exceptional attention to the details. All the small details in this book made it a very informative read.

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When your pride is on the line at the track, it's good to know that you have the best engine possible in your racecar. Whether you're racing on dirt or pavement, whatever class you run, you know that it takes power and reliability to make it to victory circle. Tapping into the knowledge and expertise of some of racing's top engine builders, the author delivers the information you need to put your engine at the front of the field. This book is chock full of tips and tricks that will have your engine making more power--reliably--than the competition. It covers parts selection, block prep, short block assembly, advice on how to get the best results from your machine work, port work, camshaft and valvetrain parts and prep, oiling system recommendations, final assembly, and more. Readers will also benefit from the advice of top engine builder Keith Dorton, and will follow the builds ofan all-aluminum 800-hp dirt-track motor by Clements Racing Engines, a NASCAR Late Model Stock-style restricted motor from Charlie's Automotive, and a Street-Stock engine by KT Engines.

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Motorcycle Tuning - 4 Stroke, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)While the author covers components, principles of operation and general theory, there is very little information concerning the art of tuning a four stroke engine. For someone new to engines in general it may not be a bad investment. If you're fairly knowledgeable already and are seeking to expand your own abilities, you're not likely to find much worthwhile advice here.

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This classic has been completely updated for the second edition. John Robinson, the Technical Editor of `Performance Bikes', explains how various stages of engine tune are reached, and describes typical development work with enough theory to devise apractical development programme. The phenomena described are all known to work - the trick is making them all work together.Engine development is slow and expensive, but the results can be very rewarding, both in competition and in the sheer pleasure of using a motor which is crisp and perfectly set up. Although it is not possible to make all-round engine improvements, other than those gained by careful assembly to the exact stock tolerances, improvements in one area can be `traded' for losses in another: increases in high-speed power balanced perhaps against losses in low-speed power, engine flexibility and reliability.John Robinson takes the reader through the processes which are necessary to make your four-stroke run perfectly. Will be promoted by PERFORMANCE BIKES

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Ford Total Performance: The Road to World Racing Domination, 1962-1970 Review

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(More customer reviews)This book could be considered an alternative to Volume One of "The Dust and the Glory" for readers who aren't interested in flathead-era Ford racing. There is really interesting coverage of the Sixties Indy engine program. A few of the photos are the same as "The Dust and the Glory," and a couple of the paragraphs read like direct lifts from it. There are some factual errors with contextual, non-Ford information (e.g., implying that Mark Donohue raced in the Indy 500 in 1968), but the primary information about the Ford racing program seems sound.

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Performance Welding Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you wanted to know all about what a wonderful guy the author is and want to see photos of everything he has ever worked on by all means buy this book. If you want good information and clearly written procedures and saftey practices buy another. Here's one example: In a side note unter TIG welding, the author says "Be very careful when welding magneseum, as it can catch fire and not be extinguished by nornal means. Consult Chapter 12 on saftey for more information"
OK- turn to chapter 12...
and there is no information on what to do with a metal fire.
Before anyone tries welding mag engine blocks or wheels or anything they should know that if the part catches fire spraying a normal ABC fire extinguisher will not put it out, that it burns hot enoutgh to cause steel to catch fire, and that spraying water on it can cause an explosion as the fire can be hot enough to split water into hydrogen and Oxygen. This is not mentioned in the book. There are many more cases of the information you need shunted aside for personal anecdotes of the authors or the pages and pages of poor-quality filler photos that show off everything the author has ever worked on.
Don't buy it.

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Richard Finch. Metal fabricators of every ilk, whether they're working on race cars, experimental aircraft, or custom motorcycles, will benefit from this updated guide to top-quality welding. Performance Welding demonstrates the newest fabricating techniques and covers the latest in welding equipment. This complete guide written by NASA welding consultant Richard Finch helps a fabricator select the proper equipment, prepare jigs, and effectively weld 4130 steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and magnesium. It also covers plasma cutting, the technique used extensively on Monster Garage that has revolutionized metal working. 2nd ed.

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Racing in the Rain: My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team Review

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(More customer reviews)I've had the distinct honor of reading and collecting motorsports-related literature for almost 40 years. John Horsman's book "Racing in the Rain: My Years with Brilliant Drivers, Legendary Sports Cars, and a Dedicated Team" easily ranks in the top-10%. How often we racing fans spend hard-earned money and countless hours attempting to glean something new from the pages of another racing-related book, only to fill rather empty from the effort. Further, errors of fact abound in many of the titles published over the last few decades (errors easily avoided with a decent editor). Far too often, stories are simply rehashed from older titles, with the same worn-out photos making title after title- not so with Mr. Horsman's book. I found myself exclaiming out loud every few pages after discovering a "fresh" take on something I'd never known, and again, I consider myself well-read. The drivers who were "there", as well as mechanics, and rival team members, will find all sorts of revelations in this book, as well as the secret(s) to John Weyer's / Horsman's successes with the GT 40, 917 and Mirage. Horsman goes down a path seldom taken by authors- namely, calling the shots as he saw them (warts and all), including the mistakes he and others (by name!!) made, as well as the "good" calls / decisions. Some may find the inclusion of specific details as to lap times, set-ups, engine specifications, etc. not terribly necessary, but these truly make the book all the better. I'm one of many knowing the history of the great races and their associated drivers, but have always wished to be schooled in the more technical while reading; Horsman accomplishes this- and more. His recollections on the greats- Redman, Bell, Ickx, Rodriguez, Siffert, Hobbs, etc. are alone worth the modest price of the book. This is another great title from David Bull Publishing and very similar in design and take to Vic Elford's memoirs (another "must" read) and the story of the American great, Walt Hansgen. Bravo again to D.B. Publishing for bringing such great titles to motorsport fans.

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Few can claim that their racing careers spanned the greatest decades in sports-car competition-the 1960s and 1970s-and then extended into the 1980s. Fewer still were consistently successful. John Horsman is one of the fortunate few. Horsman's vivid personal account takes you to the world's greates circuits and puts you alongside the drivers and the crew as you experience things such as Jacky Ickx's prowess driving in the rain, the fiery determination of Pedro Rodriguez and his astonishing come-from-behind wins, and Horsman's exciting solution to the Porsche 917's handling problems, with a tail of his own design.

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Mini Motocross and Pit Bike Performance Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop) Review

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(More customer reviews)I read through the book, and, I like it. The book includes good information about pit bikes. Some of the information can even be applied larger machines. The 'Mini Motocross and Pit Bike Performance Handbook' is good addition to my mechanic resource library.

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Whether it's geared up for racing, tricked out as a pit bike, used to teach kids how to ride, or simply to take a spin, the small motorcycle takes as much care as its full-size counterpart. This book, by one of the world's foremost off-road motorcycle builders, tells you everything you need to know to keep your mini-motocross or playbike running smoothly, safely, and, of course, in style. This comprehensive handbook, the first of its kind, covers a variety of models--mini motocross racers from 50cc to 100cc, and small playbikes from 50cc to 250cc. A complete buying guide helps readers determine which of the small motorcycles best suit their needs. The book provides clearly detailed information on maintenance schedules, procedures, and the tools, materials, and space you'll need. Going that extra mile, Forward Motion's Eric Gorr offers model-specific suggestions for modifying the bikes to improve performance on and off the racetrack. He also includes sample builds of some of the most popular race and playbikes on the market.

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Top Dead Center: The Best of Kevin Cameron from Cycle World Magazine Review

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(More customer reviews)Like Peter Egan's Leanings series of books (and Side Glances collections), TDC is a compilation of Kevin Cameron's Cycle World columns of the same name. For those unfamiliar, Cameron is a literal engineering genius and it shows month after month in his works (or page after page here, as the case may be). At times though, his writing style can become a bit overwhelming even for an adept mechanic to ingest. He is hardly to blame though as he prides himself on tackling subjects that are simply mind boggling. Readers should expect an information overload as nearly each and every page of this book digs into the most intricate mechanical processes and somehow manages to make sense of them.
Cameron has a knack for exploring technologies not only current, but also in their inception and race applications. It isn't uncommon for him to take a look at a mechanism that comes as standard equipment on today's bikes then to jump back to the earliest records of its inception (be it military or civilian), discuss the concept's trial and error evolution, get into how it affected race-bikes in the early 1980's, then relate it back to today's stock iteration. And all of this is a single paragraph of one article.
It is clear his thirst for knowledge is rivaled only by his desire to educate others in what he's uncovered. But realize that unlike Egan's works, this can hardly be considered light reading. Cameron rarely spends time penning fluff or downplaying advanced concepts so that younger readers/ beginners can follow along. His columns dive right into the technicalities and continue to pull the reader along whether they're ready or not. I often find myself reading a paragraph over and over in attempt to separate the flood of interesting facts presented into smaller bits. Having KC's works chronologically organized into a single volume turns a solid monthly editorial into a piece of reference literature worthy of any coffee table; Whether it belongs to a meachanic, rider, or otherwise.


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The feature articles and columns that have made Cameron a must-read for motorcycle aficionados--stories, interviews, and reports on races and winning technology.

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The Indianapolis 500: A Century of Excitement Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are an Indy fan this is the book for you. Beautiful photos, beautiful design. Comes with a poster. Even has a foreword from David Letterman.

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The Physics of NASCAR: How to Make Steel + Gas + Rubber = Speed Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent book about how NASCAR race cars are engineered to perform like they do. The author is a college Physics professor and the book is written to explain with basic scientific terms and knowledge that the average reader can understand written in a very interesting manner.
The areas discussed include aerodynamics, materials,engines, fuels, tires, shocks, drivetrain and others, and the author spent time with Elliott Sadler and the 19 team both at the shop and the track to help the NASCAR fan understand how things work like they do. I am a long time fan and also an engineer and there was a lot of info that I can use when I give fans pit road and garage tours at Michigan Intl Speedway. This book will help me explain things to the fans in a easy way.
This would also be a great book for a high school aged race car enthusiast/budding engineer to help them understand how school subjects like Physics can have exciting real world applications. I was a big racing fan when I was taking physics in high school and engineering courses in college and the textbook problems we had did not seem very relevant or interesting. A book like this would have made those subjects a lot more fun.
I own many many NASCAR and racing books and this is one of the best. Highly recommended!

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How to Build Horsepower: Volume 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)This book covers every major engine component and is a great primer on combustion theory, while being very easy to read and understand. Diagrams, drawings and photos tell you what to do and why - or why not to do it. Mr. Vizard presents everything within the context of what is practical and worthwhile for "streetability," vs. what else might make sense for all-out racing performance. What a great book for anyone who wants to add HP, even those with no idea where to begin!

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Baja Bugs and Buggies: How to prepare VW-based cars for off-road fun and racing Review

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(More customer reviews)I was very glad to find this book. It is straight forward and full of photographs look at how to beef-up a VW based bug or buggy. There are tons of tricks ad tips in here that aren't HIGH DOLLAR jobs. Simple and easy things to do during your build up that will save you hours trying to go back and fix things later. It should be called How to do it right the First time! It is one of few auto books with real knowledge in it that skips the technical jargon and flashy billet parts and suggests things that will work!
You will be pleased with it wether you are building a Baja, Street Bug, Rail Buggy or Dune Buggy. The air cooled VW motor still rules an always will!

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Two-Stroke Performance Tuning Review

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(More customer reviews)When I found this book I was hoping that it would educate me on how to actually tune a motor. It covers more of how to build a tuned motor. If I were to ever take up engine building I would highly recommend this book. If you are Joe kart racer or Bob moto racer I would put it low on the get list, as it doesn't really give much fingertip tuning tips.
Jeremy

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David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower (SA Design) Review

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(More customer reviews)If your interested in small blocks just buy it. David Vizard is one of the best writers out there and this book has so much useful information that it is a "must have" for any SBC fan. I borrowed and read twice in a week it before decided that I had to have a copy of my own. Its that good! His book, Building SBC's on a budget is another one that everybody needs to have. I would say buy it first and this one second though. David is a Writer, Engine builder, Racer, Machinist, owns a dyno and has done it all his life. Not like most books that are written by Geeks that have never got there hands dirty. This guy speaks to us,,, the gear-heads. He is the modern day Smokey Yunick but instead of drinking, smoking, and chasing whores, (not that there is anything wrong with that), David has spent much time writing what he has learned so that we all can use it. Order it and don't look back. If all the Small Block Chevy books out there these are the first two that you need.

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How to Hotrod Small-Block Chevys: Covers All Small-Block Engines 1955 Through 1972, 265 Through 400 Cubic Inches Review

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(More customer reviews)Covers all the building blocks of performance Small Block engine building. This book was written before all the electronic fuel injection and aluminum heads of the eighties were introduced. So it's really aimed at non fuel injected cars. This is 70's technology, very well written with good photos. A Classic reference book I keep in my toolbox. (I'd rate it five stars if it were newer info.)

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