SHOOTING STAR

Abe Aamidor


Price: $29.95

For many years the British motorcycle industry was the largest in the world, not counting low-powered mopeds and scooters and the like. After World War II the motorcycle industry was the third largest source of foreign exchange for the United Kingdom after motor cars and Scotch whiskey. Yet by 1975 the industry was essentially dead. What lead to the fall of the motorcycle industry in Britain, after virtually defining the country for so long?

Shooting Star: The Rise & Fall of the British Motorcycle Industry is the first comprehensive look at the British motorcycle industry with a critical look at business and trade practices that lead to its demise.

The full romance, beauty, and excitement of the machines and especially the top racers who rode them is captured here, but it's all blended for the first time with information about the lesser-known businessmen who built the companies -including Norton, BSA, and Triumph- and then ran them into the ground, as well as a critical look at some of the engineer and designers who were brilliant and badly flawed at once. The failures of the British motorcycle industry are a painful object lesson for the badly strapped American automobile industry at the present time.

About the Author:

Abe Aamidor is an award-winning journalist, author, university lecturer, and lifelong motorcycle enthusiast. He has been a newspaper reporter and has taught journalism at the university level. His first bike was a 1964 Honda Benly 150cc and his best bike was a 1988 Honda Hawk CT 650cc. But his favorite bike by far was a 1866 Velocette Venom Thruxton 500cc which he owned for several years in the early 1970s. He lives in Indiana.