Test Ride: Bikes, Camera, Action!

By John L. Stein
Updated on June 13, 2024
article image
by John Owens
Prior to building sport bikes, Eric Buell raced this Ducati in AMA Superbike.

Superbike: An Early Illustrated History is a 192-page book, composed of black-and-white photos by seasoned racing photographer John Owens and copy by longtime technical writer Kevin Cameron, is a fascinating glimpse into the formative years of AMA Superbike racing. This is due to three reasons. First, the visually stunning reproduction and printing of Owens’ photography of the period. According to Editor Matthew Miles, likewise a moto-industry publishing veteran, Owens stayed at the Connecticut printing facility for three days while the book was on press to ensure reproduction met his standards of excellence. It does. Rarely might anything but a premium art book match the production quality of Superbike: An Illustrated Early History.

The second reason is the choice of photography and the way in which the images were created in the first place. Owens isn’t just a race fan and photographer; he is also a former road racer. And if you race motorcycles, you are by nature acutely aware of and interested in their technical details. Only a racer would photograph the details that Owens found. Not only did he capture the bikes, mechanics and riders in action, but, moreover, in the pits where he had liberal access, his fascination drilled into the smallest of details, such as safety wire on a nut, the shredded edge of a slick tire, or the far-away look in riders’ eyes as they anticipate the race start. The types of images that attracted Owens’ attention, reproduced to the exquisite level that they are in this volume, put this book number one in a category of one. It is that special.

The third factor that makes this book so fascinating is the accompanying freewheeling, seemingly stream-of-consciousness text blocks. Everyone familiar with Cameron’s writing knows he gets to the point. There’s no fluff, no fancy lead-in to the topic at hand. The first sentence digs deep into the subject, and he keeps digging from there. Where some people might look at a 1983 Honda Interceptor and wonder in amazement at its purposeful lines, Cameron is just as likely to focus on a sheet metal shroud that funnels air into its radiator. Or he will notice a bike with a front-treaded Michelin tire (rather than a slick), which suppressed the chatter common at the front of the streetbike-based racers. Only a tuner — as Kevin was at the time — who spoke to riders in depth about their challenges, would understand the importance.

Altogether, Superbike: An Illustrated Early History is so detailed that racing fans will want to study every photograph intimately and read every word carefully. Editor Miles says that Cameron received a digital package of 900 photographs and wrote 30,000 words. Of course, this was distilled to the 85 feature photos and texts in the volume; ranging from ten to nearly 600 words, they make the book a quick read.

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