Motorcycle Design & Technology: How and Why

Rating:
Summary: This is a book on physics as it relates to motorcycles
Review: Have you ever wondered why your motorcycle's handling changed from the way you intended? This book will clear up all your misconceptions and guide you towards your desired specific task. This is a book for graduate school designers, but presents information that is easily understood. This is brain food for the technicallly inclined.

Rating:
Summary: No More Misconceptions
Review: Have you ever wondered why your motorcycle's handling changed from the way you intended? This book will clear up all your misconceptions and guide you towards your desired specific task. This is a book for graduate school designers, but presents information that is easily understood. This is brain food for the technicallly inclined.

Rating:
Summary: Translation malfeasance
Review: I've only just started reading, so most of this review is based upon visual impression.

The graphs, charts, and diagrams look clear, the text easy to read.

However, the translation could have found a better word than "couple" in chapter 4. Especially since "moment" (or even "force") is a much clearer fit -- try it, substitute either word for "couple" in "... you will feel is the action of a couple on your arms..."

Hopefully, this is the most egregarious problem in the translation.

Rating:
Summary: Generally good
Review: This book is all about the general theory behind suspension, frames, and tires. It provides a host of formulas complete with supporting graphics. Great stuff to impress your friends. What this book is not is a how-to manual for setting up a race bike, and/or resolving the likes or real world scenarios you would encounter on or off the track. The chapter on engines is mostly about vibrations, forces of rotations, and how they bolt into frames. The language conversion (Italian to English) is proper, but not smooth-often making it hard to determine if he's staying on the subject. If you want one book to learn the most from, buy Keith Cameron's Sport Bike Performance Handbook (ISBN076030229). If you have money left over, buy this one. However, this book would be a great (okay...excellent) gift item for anyone that rides street or track performance motos. By the way, it equally covers Italian, Japanese and German designs.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book, with many imperfections
Review: This book is very interesting because it helps understanding the physical behavior of a motorcycle. However it contains many errors and imperfections. E.g.: you can't introduce a formula without explaining the meaning of all the symbols or you cannot write "a.tan" instead of "arctan". If you need a more correct and scientific book, I recommend "Cinematic & Dynamics of a Motorcycle" by Vittore Cossalter, University of Padova.