Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic read!
Comment: This book gave great insight into how the racers at the top level of the sport prepare. It gives great advice and tools for anyone from a local trackday rider who wants to continue doing trackdays all the way up to someone who wishes to reach the highest levels of club racing and beyond.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A little to general
Comment: The author is a bit to general in describing the techniques and skills used in MotoGP and the quotes from the riders themselves offer little in site into the actual techniques used for racing. Trailbraking for example is only basically defined and not detailed in any manner at all. For example they say you should brake in a progressive manor, which his good advice. But they don't really go into why you should brake in a progressive manor or provide any in site into the technical advantages other than "it helps stability". I would have liked a more technical approach and less general advice.
I did think that the chapter on lines was very good however and explained the difference in lines and types of passing in the sport.
Still this a good read for any club racer and even a better read for someone whom wants to start club racing or just wanting to improve at track days. Hell, it might even be a good read for just the MotoGp fan to better help them understand the moves and racing action on TV.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Comment: Every racer, would-be racer and track-day attendee should read and assimilate this book. It is among the best books on racing technique every published, and will provide excellent advice, as well, to road riders who want to improve their daily riding. It will also help the reader understand what he or she is seeing at the races.
The devil, Andy Ibbott proves beyond doubt, is in the details. Rising above being `quick' to being a winner is a long, painstaking (often painful) process, and this book proves it. Racing success comes from meticulous attention to the inner workings of riding well, along with total physical, emotional and financial commitment. It takes years. There are no `instant winners.'
Illustrated with scores of clear diagrams and magnificent photos from Gold and Goose, this is one of the best primers for aspiring racers and those already competing in a difficult and dangerous sport. The photos alone, culled from thousands taken by Gold and Goose of the great racers of the last (approximately) decade show, in detail, what the bike and rider are doing and illustrate the text powerfully--a picture really is worth a thousand words.
In 14 lavishly illustrated chapters, Ibbott covers preparation (emphasizing fitness), how to handle the bike--acceleration, braking, cornering and steering, sliding, racing lines, qualifying, starting, passing other riders, racing psychology, crashing--managing the ambient climate (hot, cold, wet), conserving personal and machine energy and getting on top of the box. Keith Code's appendix on suspension is excellent. Ibbott quotes many of today's champions with explanations of what they do, how they do it and why it works. He puts us right in front of the greats, who answer many of the critical questions we would ask if we had the chance to sit down with them.
There is one area of significant omission from the book, and it's a biggie. It will, beyond every imaginable personal effort, seriously affect a racer's success or failure. It is beyond the cognitive control of the individual rider and will have a lot to do with his or her potential as a racer.
The first is genetic: the physiology of the individual, his or her vision, morphology, reaction times, propriocetive skills and associated characteristics.
The second, closely aligned with the first, is used by military aviation authorities worldwide to screen potential pilots from those unsuited to the task: reflexes, hand-eye coordination, etc., manifest in a racer, for example, in his or her degree of `feel' for what the machine is doing, its deviation from track (e.g. sliding). Anyone interested in taking up racing should be tested for these physiological aspects. It is difficult or impossible for anyone who is not naturally (i.e. genetically) gifted to overcome basic physiological deficits.
The third is psychological: only the tough-minded and strong-willed can win. Adolf Galland, a great WWII fighter pilot, said: "Only the spirit of attack, born in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be." It's the same with race bikes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome read
Comment: Even if you don't ride, this is a very good read. No fancy jargon to confuse the uninitiated and lots of great tips, advice and stories to be useful.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Comment: In my opinion, the best book on the market for sportbike riders and racetrack techniques. Beautifully done, brilliantly written. Andy has more good information here for the advanced rider than any other book on the shelves. This and Nick Ienatsch's "Sportbike Riding Techniques" should be mandatory reading for anyone wishing to expand their riding skills, especially sportbike riders considering going to trackdays, track schools (such as CLASS, STAR, etc.) or actively roadracing.
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