This is the definitive, comprehensive guide to motorcycle design. Tapping a deep well of knowledge and a lifetime of experience, motorcycle racer and historian Mick Walker sheds light on the evolution of one of the world's ultimate status symbols and style icons—a development owing as much to history, politics, and technology as it does to image, lifestyle, and design. In a survey that ranges from the late nineteenth-century pioneers like Gottlieb Daimler and Hildebrand & Wolfmüller to present-day manufacturers—Harley Davidson, Ducati, Honda, BMW, Aprilia, and Triumph—Walker sets each model within its historical context and outlines the main technological and stylistic innovations that make each bike unique.