MOTORCYCLES AND MOTORCYCLING IN THE USSR FROM 1939
A SOCIAL AND TECHNICAL HISTORY
This book provides the first accessible English language account of motorcycles in the Soviet Union. Concentrating on the wartime and postwar period until 1990, prior to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, it covers the motorcycles produced, and looks at the way in which they were used at home and exported abroad. Chapters cover wartime, models produced, the social character of Soviet era motorcycling, and wide-ranging sport. With planned rather than market-led production based around copies of pre-war German BMW and DKW models, the industry churned out hundreds of thousands of utilitarian and rugged machines that were very different from the more fashion-orientated machines produced in the West. These motorcycles went under the place names of the producing factories: Ishevsk, Kovrov, Moskva, Minsk and, of course, the large flat twins produced in Irbit and Kiev under the Ural and Dnepr names. With a strong emphasis on Soviet era illustrations, the book provides an insight into a life, based on idealism and ideology that has now passed. Photographs and images, many of them from private family collections, show Soviet bikes as well as popular imports Jawa from Czechoslovakia, and Pannonia from Hungary.
Period Covered: 1939-1990
Models Covered: All motorcycles produced in the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1990.
The large flat-twin four-stroke motorcycles produced in the Kiev and Irbit plants: the M72, K750, M63, Mt11, MT12, MT16, M61, M62, M63, M67; the 350cc twins and single two-strokes produced in Ishevsk; the 125cc and 175cc two-strokes produced in Kovrov and the 125cc two-strokes produced in Minsk. It also covers the Vostok and flat-twin road racing motorcycles plus Jawa and Pannonia 250cc and 350cc two-stroke imports from Czechoslovakia and Hungary respectively
Models NOT Covered: scooters, mopeds, cyclemotors
Product specification
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