MOTORCYCLES & MOTORCYCLING IN THE USSR FROM 1939: A SOCIAL AND TECHNICAL HISTORY

WRITER: COLIN TURBETT PUBLISHED: 2019 BY VELOCE, WHICH SUPPLIED THE REVIEW COPY. ISBN: 978-1-787113-14-5. REVIEW: MARK HOLMAN

Post–world War II Eastern European machines are pretty much unknown to most of us because, other than the likes of Jawa and some Urals, very few were exported here. However, the USSR built enormous numbers of bikes for many years to meet local demand, and the fact that they were outdated technically or were continuations of models that dated as far back as the 1930s gives them an appeal of their own.

The book has some very scathing road test extracts from British magazines, complaining about the poor brakes, electrics, etc. of bikes that got to the UK. It was possibly a welcome opportunity for British writers to unload on another nation’s products, as they wouldn’t have had much to celebrate among their own industry’s products by then!

As well as the machines themselves, such as the IZH-49 and Voskhod 2, author Turbett covers the various factories involved, the export trade, and motorcycle sport in the USSR. I’d never seen a Komet 2 supercharged 500cc racer before.

In many ways, though, the chapter on ‘social aspects’ is the most fascinating, as it shows how essential these bikes were to everyday life throughout the Soviet Union, when cars were rare and road networks were poor. There’s a neat colour section, too, that includes race posters and propaganda material.

With such a wide-ranging topic, I guess this 128-page hardback can’t cover everything, but when you think it starts with the use of bikes in WWII — or The Great Patriotic War, as it was known in the USSR — and ends with sketches of what the well-dressed Soviet motorcyclist wore in 1963, you know it’s going to cover a lot of territory.

It’s fun to come across a book that covers a topic you haven’t read much about before, so well done to Colin Turbett and Veloce for this one.