How Your Motorcycle Works

Your Guide to the Components & Systems of Modern Motorcycles

by Peter Henshaw

This booklet is part of a series published by Veloce for the Royal Automobile Club in the UK which will reward readers’ commitment to wanting to help themselves by learning more about their bike with a 20% discount on their next service call! It’s small enough to take along but obviously you’ll want to read it before you ever need it!

A motorcycle looks simple enough but modern ones are quite complex and have more things going on that are no longer in plain sight so a novice would do well to learn its inner workings. The book assumes no prior mechanical knowledge and many illustrations (mostly supplied by manufacturers, with some close-ups borrowed from other Veloce books) make it plain and simple to see what does what and how one thing translates its activity to another.

Beginning with a discussion of the different types of bikes the book devotes most of its pages to descriptions of processes in the engine, and a shorter section to the transmission. These two parts are in fact so clear that anyone with a need to know about engines—from lawnmower to automobile—would benefit from them. One chapter deals with bike-specific parts (frame, suspension, wheels etc.) and another with electrics. A 2-page “Help Yourself” section is really more about preventive action and sounds/smells to pay attention to rather than specific troubleshooting tips. A brief Glossary explains bhp, torque, mpg, HT, TDC, stoichiometric ratio and ECU, and there’s an Index.

Henshaw was editor of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure magazine before becoming a freelance contributor to a number of transport-related magazines from bikes to tractors and has written some 20 books. He doesn’t own a car and uses a bike year-round so you know he knows how to keep ‘em running. Now you will too.

 

Copyright 2012, Charly Baumann (speedreaders.info).

How Your Motorcycle Works
Your Guide to the Components & Systems of Modern Motorcycles
by Peter Henshaw
Veloce, 2012    [In US: Motorbooks]
80 pages, 90 illustrations, softcover
List Price: $19.99/£9.99
ISBN-13: 978-1845844943

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