Sportbike Performance Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Timeless, well worth the money!
Review: What Cameron does best is explaining "why?", as in "why is my bike designed the way it is?". If you want a service manual or a quick suspension setup ("3 klicks of preload, seven of rebound") guide for your make and model, look elsewhere.

Cameron explains every facet of sportbike technology (engine, brakes, suspension, tyres, etc. etc.) by showing the general principles that dictate why it has evolved like it has, and how the same principles shaped the racetrack creations of past decades. If there would be an updated edition covering also the most recent developments (EFI mapping, radial brakes, etc.) I'd buy it, but even this edition covers completely 95% of the sportbikes out there, and 95% of this book applies to all sportbikes. Plus Cameron's writing has a delightful dry wit that never lets you forget that the ultimate key to fast lap times is not in tweaking and tuning and spending $$$, but that the biggest lap time improvements come from learning to ride better.

Rating:
Summary: A "must have" book for lovers of internal combustion!
Review: While Mr. Cameron's understanding of the workings of the modern sportbike is obviously more than adequate to help sportbike owners understand the whats and whys of all aspects of sportbike functioning, he would have done well to have used a co-writer with more writing experience. I found myself having to reread several sections before I could pick out the pieces I was looking for. Many of the drawings were also crude. Very technical, but overall interesting and somewhat helpful to any sportbike owner.