Superbike: An Illustrated Early History Book Review

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<i>Superbike: An Illustrated Early History</i> by Kevin Cameron and John Owens is a spectacular new book on the “toddler” years of superbike racing, 1976–1986. (John Owens/)

Kevin Cameron is a technical writer you may have heard of. You are less likely to be familiar with photographer John Owens, but he is no less worthy of your attention. Cameron and Owens have known each other since the 1970s, and their friendship and professional relationship are the foundation of their spectacular new book, Superbike: An Illustrated Early History.

Well, their friendship is important, but perhaps the foundation should be stated as “individual geniuses at work.” It’s just not common for two people with this skill level to document and absorb eras in this way, then work together to make it into a creative piece of this magnitude then, or decades later, as in this case.

The legendary California Hot Rod Ducati campaigned by <i>Cycle</i> magazine editors Phil Schilling (standing) and Cook Neilson. (John Owens/)

“A couple of years ago, John handed me a computer with hundreds of photos on it,” Cameron says. “I started writing and suddenly there were 30,000 words. The memories just came pouring out.”

This underlines the fact that the book is not an exhaustively researched account of the results and evolution of Superbike racing’s early days.

Thank god.

What we have is John Owens’ incredible technical skill with film (he processed) and manual-focus cameras allied with his sensitivity to narrative human moments and technical details, as well as capturing spectacular action. This is paired with Kevin Cameron’s supernatural ability to observe/retain/contextualize/catalog information and an unparalleled career of access to the greatest talents in racing. Cameron has a great brain and a lot of 3 by 5 note cards.

Owens’ action photography is excellent but he made a point to get moments in time like this with team boss Rob Muzzy talking to Eddie Lawson on his Kawasaki superbike. Photo reproduction in <i>Superbike</i> is excellent. (John Owens/)

When you read the book and look at the photos, it seems weirdly preordained that Superbike would be produced.

Kevin has called himself a “soulless technician” in his own writing. But he is as much an observer of the human machine and its soft, beautiful, flawed interior as he is a technician. In 25 years of working with him at Cycle World, I have never known him to be soulless.

Erik Buell on a Ducati with taped lights before so many of his own scratch-built racebikes went to the track. (John Owens/)

“After doing the book, I realized I learned something about myself,” Cameron says. “In this case, tapping into memories that were in really good shape even though it had been decades. It was like they wanted out. Our children [his three sons with wife Gweneth] were all born early and it was like they were restless: ‘Let me out of here, I have s—t to do.’ That same thing is the way it was with the book. I wasn’t terribly interested in superbikes at the time but I was surprised by how much I noticed.”

Yoshimura’s Don Yasuda doing things to the bare cases of a race engine—a thing not often seen in today’s superbike paddock. Moments like these litter the book. (John Owens/)

One insight I am peculiarly qualified to add here is that Owens’ work with his Nikon cameras is incredible for the subject and equipment he used. I coincidentally own and currently shoot a Nikkor C 500mm fixed f/8 mirror lens exactly like the one Owens used to take at least 15 spectacular photos in this book. It is a lightweight (an advantage of mirror lenses), very sharp lens that is dark to look through (the mirror means you can’t change the f-stop, a disadvantage of the design) with a shallow depth of field. I shoot film as a hobby with this lens and sometimes get a sharp shot of moving objects such as motorcycles, cars, and aircraft. I could never show up at a race with this lens to work and come away with a reliable product. This adds to my awe of Owens’ product here. Beautifully, on page 187 of this 191-page book, Owens describes (too briefly) his “Cameras and Film.”

Owens’ eye for mechanical detail and composition is fantastic. We see cooling fins and carburetor return springs and other fabricated items that tell the story of the time. So many other photos show the detail of safety wire on brakes and other parts with texture, depth, and clarity that are a testament to the quality of the original negatives and the scanning work done to prepare them for this book. (John Owens/)

Owens thanks his friend Jim Rohan for “coming out of retirement” to work the “raw scans into images with tonal range I only would have dreamed about.” He also thanks John D. Ulrich of Roadracing World and John Fourde for assisting with “the names of the mechanics and the dates for a multitude of shots in the book.”

The role of professional editor in this era of “influence” is underappreciated. Matthew Miles operated as editor here and it is clear his precision and perspective guided and honed Superbike into the disciplined and accurate product it is.

The greatest racers have tremendous memories and capacity for thought—and perhaps worry more than the rest of us as part of their drive to succeed. Here, Freddie Spencer leans against hay bales lining a concrete wall at Loudon in 1979. (John Owens/)

“His role is very important because many of the initial photos were of people on dedicated racebikes, TZs and so forth,” Cameron says. “Matthew looked at the whole thing and said “I think we should just treat Superbike.” It was agreed. Then he took preproduction galley proofs around to Freddie Spencer or Kenny Roberts or any of them in the book and asked, ‘Who’s this mechanic in this photo?’ and nailed down a lot of things I’d gotten wrong. And of course you know what wonderful memories riders have.”

“This book never would have been finished if Matthew had not stepped in to assist,” Owens says.

I’ll have to ask Miles about the treatment of “foot peg” as two words instead of “footpeg” in at least one instance. (This is where I’d put a smiley face in.) The only thing I would wish for is an index so that I could find my heroes and favorite bikes or tracks, but as I look at the variety of photos and locations, this doesn’t necessarily look practical.

I will not describe Superbike much more than this because it is better, and I feel necessary, just to own the $75 book ($90 for a signed copy). I say this: Cameron and Owens have technical prowess and human sensitivity for the subject that are impossible to match from the era, and certainly difficult to equal on any related subject today. They have shared it. If you like racing and motorcycles and (gasp!) people, you should have it. Get it from superbikebook.com.

Superbike is the most beautiful and concrete techno-artistic record of motorcycle racing I have ever read.

Superbike: An Illustrated Early History, by Kevin Cameron and John Owens

ISBN: 979-8-218-25250-2

Printed in the United States of America

191 pages

superbikebook.com

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[Simon Davey]

Those pictures, wow!

Looks really interesting.

Took a while for the link to load, but got there in the end.

[Simon Davey]

Expensive though....