Motos - Russie : beaux livres - histoire et modèles

Motorcycles and Motorcycling in the USSR from 1939 - A Social and Technical History

Ce livre est le premier ouvrage en anglais accessible sur les motos en Union soviétique. Il couvre la période de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à 1990 et examine la production, l'usage et l'exportation des motos soviétiques. Les chapitres traitent de la production en temps de guerre, des modèles fabriqués, du rôle social du motocyclisme et du sport moto en URSS.

Plutôt que de suivre la demande du marché, l'industrie soviétique s'inspira des modèles allemands BMW et DKW d'avant-guerre. Des centaines de milliers de motos robustes et utilitaires furent produites, bien différentes des modèles occidentaux axés sur le style. Des usines à Ijevsk, Kovrov, Moscou et Minsk fabriquèrent divers modèles, tandis que les célèbres Ural et Dnepr provenaient d'Irbit et de Kiev.

Illustré de nombreuses photos d'époque, dont certaines issues de collections privées, ce livre offre un aperçu d'un mode de vie façonné par l'idéologie. Il inclut aussi des modèles importés populaires comme la Jawa tchécoslovaque et la Pannonia hongroise.

Caractéristiques

Mit Hammer und Schlüssel: Der Ratgeber für M72, Ural und Dnepr

When the first edition of this book was published in 2003, Russian motorcycles were considered the epitome of "junk on wheels". They were barely suitable for rough driving fun on your own property or as a relatively everyday vehicle for hopeless optimists.
Anyone who dared to take on the Dnepr or Ural adventure back then really had to have a lot of courage and constantly had to defend themselves against the teasing of know-it-alls. Today, around fifteen years later, things are not much better, but the once cheap imports from beyond the Iron Curtain have matured into genuine vintage cars with a constantly growing fan base.

At the same time, the legacy of post-Stalinist mass production has given rise to a small motorcycle manufacturer that builds Russian classics to current standards. Riding a Russian motorcycle - whether old or new - is a very unique attitude to life. It teaches you to be slow, pragmatic and able to suffer.

This book helps with that. It is intended to open up the world of these survivors of times long past, especially to those who are thinking about buying a classic 650 Ural or Dnepr. Or to give the new "Russian driver" a deep insight into the history of these controversial sidecars.

And above all, it is intended to clear up the half-truths and rumors that still persist today at the local bar or even in the specialist press. After more than 100 000 km with his Ural "without any particular incidents" (measured by the world view of a Ural driver), the author set about combining his experiences and interesting facts about history and technology - from the great-grandmother and BMW copy "M72" to the current generation of Ural sidecars - into a guide that quickly established itself as a standard work and is now finally available again as a bound and updated edition.

Caractéristiques

Motorräder des Ostblocks - Bulgarien, Polen, Sowjetunion 1945-1990 (Typenkompass)

It was not only MZ and Simson that drove in the former GDR: in the course of so-called compensation deals, vehicles were repeatedly imported from Eastern Bloc countries.
Since the GDR was given sovereignty over motorcycle construction up to 250 cc by the CMEA states, the CZ and Pannonia, the CZ and Ural were hardly to be found on the road, but all the more so in the countries of origin.

In his usual meticulous manner and extensively documented in numerous, often historical photos, Frank Rönicke offers a comprehensive overview of two-wheeler production in the Eastern Bloc in this Typenkompass.

Caractéristiques