KICK-STARTING A 500CC DREAM!

Valued Classic Racer contributor Phil Aynsley is trying to kick-start his dream – a dream of producing a beautiful coffee table book of arguably the greatest racing motorcycles ever created: ‘500cc Grand Prix Motorcycles, the 2-Stroke Era – a photographic tribute.'

Phil – who takes the pictures and writes our ‘Iconic Metal' sections, says: “The 500cc two-stroke era of racing was a particular and singular era of bike racing that will never be seen again. There was a hiatus at the end of the ‘classic era' at the close of the 1958 season when all the major Italian factories pulled out and then in the late 1960s/ early 1970s we saw the Japanese two-strokes arrive and it was a particularly special period of racing.

“At the very pinnacle was the 500cc two-strokes: the blue-riband class. These top 500 machines were the cream of the crop – these bikes took NO prisoners. They weighed around 130 kilos and pumped out around 180-190bhp at the end of their development. What's more, even in their final season of 2002 they still used comparatively few electronics to tame the wild power delivery.” If you would like to help fund this book, then head to: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ primerbooks/500cc-grand-prixmotorcycles-a-photographictribute