Motorcycles We Loved in the 1990s

The 1990s was the last ’golden era’ of motorcycling in Britain - certainly for today’s nostalgia-driven 50-something bikers. Ground-breaking sports bikes included the likes of Honda’s original FireBlade, Yamaha’s R1 and Ducati’s iconic 916, with Britain’s Carl ’Foggy’ Fogarty taking the latter to glory in the new World Superbike championship. A new breed of ’hyperbike’, led by Kawasaki’s 178mph ZZ-R1100 then Honda’s CBR1100XX Super Blackbird and Suzuki’s Hayabusa, took performance higher than ever before. While it was also the decade that saw the return of historic British brand Triumph, Ducati’s novel Monster 900, Honda’s oval-pistoned NR750 and Yamaha’s wacky hub-centre GTS1000. All of these and many, many more are remembered and celebrated in Phil West’s fascinating book.

Phil West has been a journalist since 1987. He has written for many magazines, including MCN, Bike, RiDE, Practical Sportsbikes, Motorcycle Sport and Leisure. Throughout his career he has ridden and written about virtually every motorcycle since 1970, visited and met key figures at all major manufacturers and interviewed figures from Barry Sheene to Charley Boorman. He has held a number of editor roles on Bike, Motorcycle News, Performance Bikes and MCN, and created and launched Bike Buyer and Biking Times. He has also written several books on motorcycles and lives in Peterborough.