Motorcycles: The Impossible Collection

Ever since the first one was invented in 1884, motorcycles have been synonymous with a type of cool not generally attached to other vehicles. Think The Great Escape, Easy Rider, or Terminator 2. For many people motorcycles represent the ultimate freedom, just a rider and a machine with unlimited possibilities.

Photograph by Henry von Wartenburg

Photograph by Neil Campbell

A new book, Motorcycles: The Impossible Collection, published by Assouline, is a look back through 100 of the most important, iconic, and downright outlandish motorcycles of the last 140 or so years. From early wooden frames with bolted-on engines to futuristic silver bikes more at home in a sci-fi film than on the road.

Photograph by Giovanni Cabassi

Photograph by Michael Furman

Highlights from the book include the 1973 Harley-Davidson XR750, a racing bike favoured by the legendary American stuntman Evel Knievel, which he used from 1970 to 1977, as well as the 1948 Vincent Series Rapide. The Vincent was used by Rollie Free to break the U.S. land speed record in 1948, reaching 150 miles per hour, and is known the world over for an iconic photograph of Free lying horizontally on the saddle wearing only a swimsuit.

For film fans, the collection features one of the most iconic movie motorbikes of the 20th century, the so-called Batpod from 2008’s The Dark Knight. Alongside this modern icon is perhaps the single defining image of the motorbike from the 20th century, the 1969 Easy Rider bike ridden by Peter Fonda in the film of the same name.

Photograph by Max Scheler

Altogether, Motorcycles: The Impossible Collection provides a thorough account of the most iconic, groundbreaking, or downright weird two-wheelers in the history of the vehicle. While obviously a treat for motorcycle enthusiasts, even nonriders can get pleasure out of flicking through the pages and imagining themselves on the back of one of the featured bikes.

Photograph by Michael Furman

Photograph by Alexander Babic

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