This richly illustrated book is dedicated to motorbikes and how they have become a lifestyle of their own, influencing our society on many levels: literature (Jack Kerouac, Herman Hesse etc.), fashion (Perfecto jackets), movies (Easy Rider, The Wild Angels etc.), celebrities (Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen to name a few). Motorbikes are a symbol of freedom, of emancipation, of another way of living, of imagining another kind of life, close to counterculture. Discover the greatest figures of motorbikes and dive into the famous Continental Circuses with pilots such as Giacomo Agostini, Phil Read, Mike Hailwood and Bill Ivy thanks to exceptional photography from different photo archives.

In 1947, 4,000 motorcycle hobbyists converged on Hollister, California. As images of dissolute bikers graced the pages of newspapers and magazines, the three-day gathering sparked the growth of a new subculture while also touching off national alarm. In the years that followed, the stereotypical leather-clad biker emerged in the American consciousness as a menace to law-abiding motorists and small towns. Yet a few short decades later, the motorcyclist, once menacing, became mainstream. To understand this shift, Randy D. McBee narrates the evolution of motorcycle culture since World War II. Along the way he examines the rebelliousness of early riders of the 1940s and 1950s, riders' increasing connection to violence and the counterculture in the 1960s and 1970s, the rich urban bikers of the 1990s and 2000s, and the factors that gave rise to a motorcycle rights movement. McBee's fascinating narrative of motorcycling's past and present reveals the biker as a crucial character in twentieth-century American life.

What happens to gender at 120mph? Are Harley-Davidsons more masculine than Yamahas? The Gendered Motorcycle answers such questions through a critical examination of motorcycles in film, advertising and television. Whilst bikers and biker cultures have been explored previously, the motorcycle itself has remained largely under-theorised, especially in relation to gender. Esperanza Miyake reveals how representations of motorcycles can produce different gendered bodies, identities, spaces and practices. This interdisciplinary book offers new and critical ways to think about gender and motorcycles, and will interest scholars and students of gender, technology and visual cultures, as well as motorcycle industry practitioners and motorcycle enthusiasts.

DIVA photographic chronology of some of the fastest, most stylish, and most individualized bikes in motorcycling history./divDIV/divDIVOriginally used as a slur against riders who used hopped-up motorcycles to travel from one transport café to another, “café racer� describes a bike genre that first became popular in 1960s British rocker subculture—although the motorcycles were also common in Italy, France, and other European countries. The rebellious rock-and-roll counterculture is what first inspired these fast, personalized, and distinctive bikes, with their owners often racing down public roads in excess of 100 miles per hour (“ton up,� in British slang), leading to their public branding as “ton-up boys.� Café Racers traces café racer motorcycles from their origins in the mid-twentieth century all the way into modern times, where the style has made a recent comeback in North America and Europe alike, through the museum-quality portraiture of top motorcycle photographer Michael Lichter and the text of motorcycle culture expert Paul d’Orléans. Chronologically illustrated with fascinating historical photography, the book travels through the numerous ever-morphing and unique eras of these nimble, lean, light, and head-turning machines. Café Racers visually celebrates a motorcycle riding culture as complex as the vast array of bikes within it./div

Barbieri explains everything a new rider needs to know to become a real biker. By sharing the lessons he learned the hard way, Barbieri gives the new biker a head start to become more comfortable, credible, and knowledgeable about the motorcycle culture.

During the 1960's a subculture of American motorcyclists became the subject of a intense media attention, its members quickly cemented in popular representation as lurid anti-heroes by virtue of their stylized embrace of danger and their efforts to live radically contingent lives of sublime depravity. Working within an anti-modern tradition that dated back to the turn of the century, the student counterculture of the period, in particular, found this figuration of the biker subculture to be seductive, adopting the biker as a model of its own ethos of insurgent presentness and an icon of its carnivalesque aesthetic. The counterculture responded to the biker particularly insofar as he represented the type of marked whiteness that this new generation of youthful insurgents was attempting to cultivate; he was identified as a hybrid, liminal figure and closely associated with the entropy of the frontier, which played a central, if ambivalent, role in the counterculture's critique of technocracy. And it is in this capacity that the biker has remained a fixture of popular discourse. His uniquely customized motorcycle, or chopper, offered a rebuke to Detroit and its priorities, becoming symbolic of an alternative relationship to technology that was fundamentally nostalgic and hostile to the hegemony of technologized rationalism. The chopper provided an evocatively paradoxical piece of undomesticated technology, elaborating the American tradition of vernacular engineering and serving as another avatar of the frontier, even as it embraced certain elements of the post-war years' populuxe aesthetic. It was a bit of bricolage, a strangely ephemeral and intimately personal machine that, like pop art, combined mass-production and handcraft, and its enthusiasts expressed a nostalgic desire to experience the technological sublime and the dislocations of nascent modernity.

'Discovering the Motorcycle'' is an extraordinary history of motorcycling from 1867 to the present. Each of the 12 chapters of this remarkable 510 page book is devoted to a major aspect of motorcycling; ranging from historical discussions of the machines that lead the way to today's modern sportsbikes, to vintage classics, choppers and bobbers, off-road machines, cafe racers, touring bikes, customs, a history of motorcycle racing, electric motorcycles, the motorcycle's impact on society, and great motorcycle museums. The book honors motorcycling's great makes, with over 1,000 photographs and illustrations. A special chapter is devoted to the four-hundred-year history of the engine. This book is an ideal addition to any motorsport enthusiast's library, and makes a perfect gift for the motorcycle enthusiast.

Easy Rider. Motocross Grand Prix. James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. The motorcycle is a global icon of untamed freedom, symbolizing a daring and reckless lifestyle of adventure. Yet there are few books that chronicle how and when this legendary vehicle roared down the open road. Motorcycle explores the roots of the rebel’s ultimate ride. After early incarnations as a nineteenth-century steam-powered bicycle and multi-wheeled vehicles, the modern motorcycle came into its own as a cheap, mobile military asset during World War I. From there, it rapidly spread through modern culture as a symbol of rebellion and subversive power, and Motorcycle tracks the symbolic role that the bike has played in literature, art, and film. The authors also investigate the international subcultures that revolve around the motorcycle and scooter. They chart the emergence of American biker culture in the 1950s, when decommissioned fighter pilots sought new ways to satiate their desire for thrill and danger, and explore how the motorcycle came to represent the untamed nonconformity of the American West. In contrast, smaller scooters such as the Vespa and moped became the utilitarian vehicle of choice in space-starved metropolises across Europe and Asia. Ultimately, the authors argue, the motorbike is the exemplary Modernist object, dependent on the perfect balance of man and machine. An unprecedented and wholly engrossing account, Motorcycle is an essential reading for the Harley-Davidson roadhog, bike collector, or anyone who’s felt the power of the unmistakable king of the road.

Dozens of lively international case studies that help readers put core marketing principles in a real-world context From market research to positioning and brand management to customer relations, marketing is the engine that drives innovation and growth in the modern business organization. This latest addition to the acclaimed Pathfinder series, like its popular predecessor, The Strategy Pathfinder, features a unique blend of core concepts and brief, international case studies. A refreshing contrast to traditional marketing texts and references, which tend to be prescriptive and directive, The Marketing Pathfinder offers professionals and marketing students alike an effective way to contextualize the marketing decisions they'll make in the real world of business. Not another one-size-fits-all marketing toolkit, The Marketing Pathfinder functions as a dynamic, interactive resource Each chapter presents a set of core concepts, frameworks, and tools, followed by five or more short, lively international case studies illustrating how the concepts and tools can be applied in the real world The case studies are specifically designed to encourage readers to pursue additional independent research and to encourage them to articulate and defend their decisions Throughout, the emphasis is on the reader as a marketing professional in the thick of it and responsible for the decisions they make