Motorcycling's Most Wanted : The Top 10 Book of Mad Machines, Wild Rides and Even Wilder Riders (illustrated ed)

With 5.5 million motorcyclists in the United States alone, motorcycling is more popular than ever.

As a sport, pastime, and industry, it is compelling in its technical detail and exciting history. And thanks to technological advances that leave the automobile industry in the dust, today's motorcycle performance is eye-popping.

Want handling and zero-to-sixty under three and a half seconds?

You could buy a $250,000 Ferrari, but with less than $15,000 you can take your pick of a Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Triumph, Aprilia, Ducati, or other performance machines.

Then there's the back-from-the-brink success story of Harley-Davidson.

Motorcycling's long history is rich in stunning accomplishments and colorful personalities: pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss set a land speed record of 136.27 mph in 1907 - on a motorcycle with a V-8 aircraft engine!

The mark stood for twelve years. In 1983, Keith Kimber and Tania Brown set out to tour the world on a Honda CX500.

Seventeen years later, they had wandered across six continents and ninety-eight countries. Former McDonnell-Douglas aeronautical engineer Bill Gelbke designed and built the "Roadog," a 3,000-pound motorcycle with a pickup truck's shaft drive and a 152 cubic-inch Chevy engine.

On a whim, "Wild Bill" would ride thousands of miles for a steak and a beer.

In 2004, Susan Robertson clocked 205 mph on a turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa.

The quaintly named Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race dates back to 1907 and is the world's most dangerous organized sporting event, with more than 200 fatalities to date. And "Motorcycling's Most Wanted[trademark]" is not "for men only." Almost almost half of the people taking "new rider" courses now are women.