New Classic Bikes Book

Geoff Osborne and I have just published a new book about classic bikes called "Classics - Great Motorcycles and People."

The website where it can be purchased is www.apexbikes.com

It is also available from Motomail on College Hill in Auckland.

I hope some of you will be interested in a great book and this is also a perfect Christmas present (hint hint).

It’s a high quality publication of 154 pages featuring 10 bikes. There are loads of high quality studio-shot photos of each bike and the words go into detail about the bike, what marque it's from and its place in history. I undertook detailed research before I wrote it.
The bikes featured are:
• Graeme Crosby’s Suzuki XR69 – a rare works example.
• Yamaha TZ750 – is this the greatest Grand Prix motorcycle of all time?
• Ivan Miller’s Suzuki RN400 – a multiple championship winner and one of fewer than 30 works models built.
• From Ken McIntosh’s famous workshop, the mighty Manx Norton, Egli Vincent and Jawa 500 – all showing the engineering excellence that made this small NZ company world famous.
• Ginger Molloy’s first Bultaco TSS125 – featuring a detailed interview with Molloy about his experiences racing on the Continent in the 60’s.
• Russell Burling’s CZ360 twin port - the ultra rare CZ model that changed the motocross world.
• John Nicholson’s Triumph TR5 and Yamaha DT1 - both created new directions in sport motorcycling, two decades apart.
Classics has interviews with motorcycling greats including: Graeme Crosby, John Boote, Ginger Molloy, Ivan Miller, Peter Ploen and Stu Avant.
It also features passionate and talented enthusiasts : Ken McIntosh, Alistair Wilton, Russell Burling and John Nicholson.

Here's a few images to give you a flavour of the book.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psa1728eea.jpg[/IMG]

Attachment 26720

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Not quite a classic, but one of the design engineers on this is a kiwi raised in Kerikeri.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/peter8...7649386193216/

Wow. Not really my cup of tea but I have so much admiration the those guys who can imagine how a radically engineered bike is going to look, and then have the skills to create it.

The same goes with cars. I love going to car shows and walking round the pits at race event just looking on in wonder and astonishment at how people do it.

Shano- you are to be congratulated for putting so much time into a project which you obviously love , the bikes that you have chosen are rich in history and you have wrapped it all up in this fine book.
I hope it sells well and helps fill in many gaps in peoples knowledge of racing bikes.
BTW-Love bikes, watch GP and GP2 , Barry and I still have our Mach IIIs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shano

Wow. Not really my cup of tea but I have so much admiration the those guys who can imagine how a radically engineered bike is going to look, and then have the skills to create it.

The same goes with cars. I love going to car shows and walking round the pits at race event just looking on in wonder and astonishment at how people do it.

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Not mine either Shano, but you have to be proud of your kids :) That was created for under 10K pounds after hours unpaid and in way less than a year!
Congratulations on the book, looks a fine work of passion. On my wish list!
Sorry I hijacked your thread.

To be picky Shane, there aren't really interviews with Crosby, Boote, Miller, Ploen and Avant. It would be more accurate to say they have had their contributions added to the texts surrounding the machines. The Ginger Molloy article is a ripper though, and overall the photography is very good and your research commendable. Some great machinery, sensitively captured. Good job, mate.

Well, the contributions came from lengthy interviews with each person so I'll have to agree to differ. Tracking down Ivan Miller was a fine piece of sleuthing and it was such a pleasure to talk with him in detail - I still have a great photo I took of Ivan, nailing it on the RN400 at Helensville way back. He was a hero, as were Boote and Avant.

Croz and my lives have intersected at various points over the years since I worked with him at Laurie Summers when I left school. He's been very helpful and supportive over this project (he was going to come to the launch but I got trumped by him being the guest of honour at the Moriwaki 40th anniversary celebrations in Japan.)

And Ginger Molloy - he's hugely under-rated in my view. I mean, the man got 2nd in the world 500cc championships riding an H1R! He was a great interview and is a really good guy.

Thanks for the positive comments as well - we're very proud of what we have achieved with this book.

John McKechnie - I'd like to do more of these books and if it happens, one of the bikes I would like to do is Eric Bone's H2. What a history that bike has.

Oldfart - you most certainly can be proud of that kid! No need to apologise about hijacking the thread, it wasn't really a hijack and I enjoyed looking at those photos and thinking "how do they do that?"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shano

.............. I'd like to do more of these books and if it happens, one of the bikes I would like to do is Eric Bone's H2. What a history that bike has.

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Eric - and his leathers! I'm sure they're the same set he was wearing 40 yrs ago!

Thanks to all the guys who have bought the book - it's going very well and the feedback has been excellent. Some buyers have come back and bought extra books to use as Christmas presents coz they were so impressed.

It's just amazing to get feedback like that.

Just thought I'd put this up as an example of another chapter - dealing with the heritage of the Norton Manx 500.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps225e93da.jpg

Best of luck with the book Shane. I hope it all goes well. It looks superb! Great work.