Better Racing through the Printed Word.

In addition to the SoCal Supermoto classes I've taken and Motorcycle Safety Foundation courses I'm required to do as part of serving in the military, I've also started a nice little riding library to help when I just can't get out on the bike. Here are five of the best books I reference from time to get better as a rider and racer.

Less of a technique book and more of an overall motorcycle rider preparation book. I read this one before starting the Keith Code books below. Lee Parks is a former racer and current motorcycle gear designer with a wealth of knowledge. I knew I'd like this book once I saw him dragging a knee on a first generation V-Strom at the beginning of the introduction chapter. This book breaks down riding into areas like chassis dynamics, body dynamics and motorbike setup. By reading Lee's book first, I felt like I was in the proper mindset to start learning new ways to get more out of myself and my motorcycle with the Keith Code books below. He's got a good chapter on fitness for high performance riding that I honestly need to read again (and actually follow). Good for beginners and intermediate riders as well as veterans coming back to riding after a long break.

Keith Code has been in the performance riding field for almost as many years as I've been alive. This book and its companion below are truly the books to read if you are serious about getting into high performance motorcycle racing. Keith is a very cerebral rider. His brain is like a motorcycle riding computer and it shows in his writing style. This book will give you techniques to analyze the track and your riding on it so that you can work on improvements. As I get started racing I will revisit this book many times as the information becomes more relevant as my skills grow.

I'm still reading this one, but it is a great follow up to the first "A Twist of the Wrist" as you would expect. If you have seen the video that Keith Code made with a title of the same name, it seems to be based on this book. In this second installment, Keith breaks down how to control the bike to get the race results you want. I have been able to practice some of them in my around town and longer distance rides. The skills he goes over are good for both racing and better street riding. Some of them can only really be tested on the track and I'm eager to get out to a track day and put some to the test. I recommend getting both "Twists" and keeping them handy to help improve your ride.

This book is not a riding technique book, but it is a book for people building race machines. It is a big book with over 400 pages of great engineering content. And I mean it when I say engineering content. If you are scared of math formulas then this book might not be right for you. It is an advanced builder's book and if you are planning on building a bike with maximum performance in mind then you will like this book. I really enjoyed the chapters on suspension as I can now look at a stock bike and have an idea of what it will feel like just by evaluating how the manufacturer put it read end together. I will be keeping this one around as I get better at fabrication and hope to use some of the methods when I take the Ninja race bike from stocker to rocker.

I picked up this book many years ago from a used bookstore when I had no plans to race. I'm glad I did as it gave me some great help when I was prepping the race Ninja. When I just couldn't find any help on the internet on a few of the safety wire techniques, I remembered I had this book on my shelf. I was quite pleased to find the answer on the pages inside. As with all of these books, I will keep them in my shop with dog-eared pages and bookmarks of my favorite sections ready at hand. The hardest part will be keeping the pages free of oil and grime.

I hope you get something from this post. If anything here are some ideas for gifts your loved ones can get you and you might find them as useful as I have. Stick around as I have been diligently working to plan my first "big track" track day and I even got started doing some nice work on the TX750.

Blue