Top Dead Center: The Best of Kevin Cameron from Cycle World Magazine

by Kevin Cameron

Kevin Cameron is one of the most widely read motorcycle journalists in the world--for reasons that this collection makes immediately and undeniably clear. Here are the feature articles and columns that have made Cameron a must-read for motorcycle aficionados: stories of the racing life; interviews with top-notch racers; profiles of builders and engineers (like John Britten); accounts of changes in the racing world; analyses of riding techniques and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0760327270
• ISBN13: 9780760327272
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Motorbooks International
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A great read

There is so much to learn from this great collection of Cameron's writings. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Priceless!

Kevin's knowledge, insights and memories make for a great read and you will learn something about great bikes and the men that rode and made them. I learned more about my heroes and racers that have become great friends to me. I guess all I could ask for is TDC- 2, the sequel.

A rich insight to motorcycle racing. Wonderful

Many readers of Cycle World Magazine may already be familiar with the monthly columns of Kevin Cameron. This book is a wonderful compilation of the best of Camerons work which centers largely around motorcycle racing - the bikes, the events and the men. The writing is deep, insightful and presents a rich account of motorcycle racing from the early Seventies until now. The contents of the book is broken down in chapters - "The Racing Life", "Racers", "Moguls, Mavens and Mechanics" and "Inner Workings". This provides the latitude for the reader to skip around the book delve into the wonderful tapestry of motorcycle racing. Nixon, Baldwin, Roberts, Lawson and Schwantz; they're all here. Excellent book and a worthy 5 stars.

Clear like glass, crystal etc.

What a great book! Kevin Cameron is the clearest technical writer I know of, and my purchase was a no brainer. I know of no one else who can make the inner workings of an internal combustion engine leap to full-colour life with incredible clarity and detail, and do it so effortlessly that you don't even realise how smoothly the images leap up and you see his point with no deductive effort on your part. The book has sections on racing (insightful, but a bit slow if you're not American), racers (very interesting reading about some not-so-famous, but interestingly driven characters), mechanics (haven't gotten that far down the book yet) and inner workings (about the minutiae of the engines, my favourite section, both from Cycle World and in this book). If you're even slightly into technical texts about motorcycles, you must have this book. KC rocks!

Genius technology writer

Racers who want to climb the sport's greasy pole need the basics: skill, will, energy, luck, focus, money and opportunity. Comparable skills are vital in every phase of racing --machine choice, tuning, tire selection, maintenance, logistics, acquiring sponsorship, managing stress. Another helpful ingredient rises above almost all others: a mentor, sitting patiently alongside, to make sure that we understand what is going on and what to do about it most effectively. Enter Kevin Cameron with TDC, tracing his racing experience over a 35-year career as perhaps the most knowledgeable and capable man in the field, certainly among its finest writers. Individuals may exceed his skills in narrow areas but no one has assembled the 'package' Cameron brings to the task. The book is a four-part selection of 51 of his writings in CYCLE WORLD from 1973-2005, with current, brief introductions, and helps us understand why he is essential reading for serious enthusiasts. In his first section, THE RACING LIFE, Cameron analyzes where most racers are coming from: privateers with limited means, the moments and signposts that created today's scene (e.g. 1974, year of the 'slick'), the art of crashing, the two-stroke/four-stroke conundrum, frames, suspensions, disk brakes (remember drums?), pioneering riders, some of the appalling incidents that doomed many racing efforts. Ever slept in a van, worked 36 hours straight fueled by coffee and junk food? He has. You can, um, smell it on the page. With his second grouping, RACERS, he appraises the great riders--attitudes, character, what enabled them to win: Mick, Wayne, Eddie, Freddie, KR, Kevin. Even if you don't know racing's past greats, their strengths and weaknesses, rendered insightfully by Cameron, resonate today throughout the sport--Colin and Casey, Nicky and Vale. New names and faces, sure, but similar human nature propelling the agony and ecstasy, the triumphs and disasters. MOGULS, MAVENS AND MECHANICS examines some great characters such as Soichiro Honda, John Britten, Jeremy Burgess, Robin Tuluie, Robert Muzzy, Eraldo Ferraci. These are not sketches but insights into the characters, behaviors, skills and motivations that drove these men. He understands not just their external, public personas, but their minds and hearts. In INNER WORKINGS, the last selection, Cameron returns to his roots: what the machine is doing, how to understand it. He has the uncanny ability to reach down to molecular levels to explain what is happening inside machinery and convey it with dazzling simplicity. Anyone can write turgid, complex descriptions of complicated physical processes, and many do. Few can render esoterica in simple, elegant terms comprehensible to average minds. No wonder the NEW YORK TIMES turns to Cameron, often. We're still not plumbing his depths: he's expert in many areas, including aviation and the amazing radials of WWII. Anyone who has ever raced, who is racing or who intends to race, in any serious area of mot