Coffee Table Books - Part Un - Motorcycles

We are looking to move into our new house sometime late next year. Apart from the all the furniture, furnishings, appliances et al. We were also looking to expand our library. As avid readers, my wife and I already have a bookshelf full of books. We wanted to add some coffee table books to the lot. So like all things these days, we researched and researched. We must have gone through literally hundreds of books. So I decided to draw up a list of Coffee Table Books that we really liked (but did not necessarily buy).

The list became a little ponderous, so I broke it up into categories. This first list of many is on Motorcycles. They are in no particular order or preference.

• Superbikes of the Seventies - Roland Brown : Features the most amazing bikes from the 70's. An era of fantastic performance, unecumbered by pollution controls & efficiency ratings, and evolving style.

• Cafe Racers of the 1960s: Machines, Riders and Lifestyle - Mick Walker : The pictures are in Black & White and there is a lot of text. Cafe Racing (which was about racing from a cafe and back) is back in vogue. Perhaps the right time to pick up a book like this.

• The Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Archive Collection - Darwin Holmstrom : There cannot be a list of Motorcycle books without one a Harley Davidson. This one is a visual treat for The HD fan. Over 400 pages of mostly photographs and an efficient history of HD with info sometimes not found anywhere else.

• Legendary Motorcycles - Luigi Corbetta : Due to be released later this year and talked about a lot in the trade press pre-release. The book features hundreds of photos and talks about different manufacturers like Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Moto Guzzi, Triumph, and Yamaha amongst others.