Motorcycle Road & Racing Chassis: A Modern Review of the Best Independents

Keith Noakes spent almost twenty years employed by Ciba-Geigy, a leading world supplier of raw composite materials. A confirmed motor racing enthusiast, has found the introduction and selling of composite technology to the world's leading teams to be a serious, but enjoyable, business. His close association with these teams led him to establish his own composite company supplying components to Formula One and CART teams. Keith Noakes has had a lifetime love of motorcycles and has owned and restored road racing machines, vintage speedway machines and various off-road examples. Although he no longer rides motorcycles he maintains his love and enthusiasm. A large part of his working life has been involved in composite engineering, working in research and development area for a large company who were one of the earliest suppliers of carbon and other fibres in various forms for structural applications. It was shortly after the introduction of this technology to formula one car racing that it was, unsurprisingly, adopted by some motorcycle designers, particularly the innovators in the independent chassis manufacturing companies. The author's involvement with these designers brought him closer to the cutting edge developments and led to him discovering a wide range of highly appealing machines from the many independent manufacturers. The creativity and innovation of these designers and the success of their machines are what inspired the writing of this book.