Classic Motorcycling

Classic Motorcycling

Classic Motorcycling: A Guide for the 21st Century
by: Rex Bunn
ISBN: 9780954791285
Soft Cover: 280 pages
Dimensions: 17 cm x 23 cm (6.75″ x 9.125″)
Publisher: Panther Publishing Ltd., England 2007
List Price: £14.95 or $34.95 USD
From: Panther Publishing (UK). Motorsport Publications (US).

Here’s another outstanding book from Panther Publishing, one of our favorite purveyors of interesting, unique, obscure and fascinating motorcycle books. Panther seems to be on a mission to make sure motorcyclists never forget our glorious history.

You may recall the other interesting Panther books we reviewed, including The Rugged Road, Des Molloy’s book and video The Last Hurrah and Fay Taylour: Queen of Speedway. We’re so very thankful that boutique publishers like Panther and Crowood Press (The British Motorcycle Directory) remain in business, bringing us books that would surely never see the light of day had the proofs ended up in one of the big publishing houses.

Classic Motorcycling: A Guide for the 21st Century is aptly named; it’s rather like an updated compendium of tricks, tips, techniques and — here’s the twist — strategies that will be most useful to new generations of classic and vintage motorcycle owners and restorers.

I think the time is right for this book, because many of the older restoration guides have become as old and stale as the bikes they cover. Also, we’ve seen a lot of advances and modern technologies that can be applied to the restoration of vintage motorcycles, and Classic Motorcycling helps the reader understand how to utilize tools of the 21st Century to get that old iron up and running.

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Rex Bunn, the author, has several patents related to the restoration of vintage motorcycles, and he’s poured a ton of his knowledge into this book. This is not your normal run-of-the-mill restoration guide with a step-by-step approach to resurrecting that once-in-a-lifetime barn find — it’s more of a personal and thoughtful guide book, covering everything from how to choose the right motorcycle for restoration to how to ride and maintain it.

But that’s only scratching the surface of what’s in the book, because an author could easily cover those topics without getting into too much detail and probably sell a lot of books.

Classic Motorcycling is all about the nitty-gritty details that no one else thinks about, with interesting topics like strategies for choosing countries with the best probability for vintage motorcycle finds; ratios of classic bike owners to motorcycle riders in selected countries; choices for clothing when riding vintage bikes; licensing and insurance issues and lots more.

I have a pretty decent library of motorcycle restoration books and I’d have to say that Classic Motorcycling: A Guide for the 21st Century is the new “must have” for anyone considering this avocation. It’s great to know that the collection and restoration of those beautiful classics is alive and well in the 21st Century, and with books like this combined with the wonders of the Internet, where owners can get instantaneous answers to all their restoration questions, we’ll be seeing many more old beauties on the roads, running better than ever.

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