The Speed Kings

Round and round they flew at over 90 miles per hour, completing laps around high banked 1/4-mile circular motordromes every 9 seconds. The Speed Kings: The Rise and Fall of Motordrome Racing reveals how bicycle racing on wooden velodromes in the late 1890s gave birth to a whole new sport that one magazine said, "made hearts flutter." The story follows the first generation of motorcycle racing in America, when thousands of addicted fans jammed motordromes around the country, sometimes at their own peril.

This book was written by Don Emde, himself a professional racer in the 1970s, following a four-year study of over a thousand century-old publications in his large motorcycle library. Together with many photographs not seen since they were taken, The Speed Kings: The Rise and Fall of Motordrome Racing provides the most in-depth story ever of motordrome racing.

Includes 600 illustrations and 40 chapters over 372 pages. Four-color sepia tone throughout and printed right here in the United States of America!