Product Description

The amazing story of Kiwi motorcycling legend, backyard engineering genius and land speed record holder Burt Munro. Munro was the archetypal eccentric, ‘number-eight-wire’ Kiwi inventor. He took an original Indian motorbike and modified it in his Christchurch shed so that it was capable of extreme speeds. With this bike he broke several international speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1967 (he was clocked on several occasions at over 200mph). From small town Invercargill in the 1920s to heroic deeds in the USA, Munro was still inventing (and planning another ‘assault on the salt’) up until his death in 1978. This is very much a true-life ‘little guy beats the odds’ story; Munro still holds several records in the US – as a mark of respect the category he raced in was ‘frozen’ for all time. The publication of the book has been timed to coincide with the movie, The World’s Fastest Indian, directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2192 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

About the Author
Tim Hanna is a former advertising copy writer, he has also written for television and is a motorcycle enthusiast in his own right. He has personal connections to director Roger Donaldson.

Customer Reviews

See the film and read the book
The book provides a wealth of detail of the work carried out on the engine and the incredible near death accidents whilst racing motorcycles throughout his life. The Indian was not his only motorcycle and if you wantr to find out the other motorcycle he raced you will need to read the book. He lived for motorcycling and the book makes a good read for all motorcyclists and enthusiasts - a man who lived life to the full and a book to inspire to others that they too can reach their goals. Well researched and a book to be read again and again.

One-sided biography
In the introduction, the author admits that in the lack of information, some of the descriptive aspects of the book are shall we say, `up to the writer's prerogative'. Whilst the technical and factual aspects of this book are extremely informative and interesting, I felt that I had only read half of someone's life story.

From his childhood, and throughout his quest for speed, the book portrays Bert as some sort of tragic mechanical doyenne to the God of speed - something that he couldn't help but pursue. Whilst his undoubted mechanical and engineering skills, combined with his single-mindedness and nerves of steel are beyond question, it was the darker side to Bert that I found more interesting - and missing.

As a man who was chasing speed records right up until his death on a 50year+ old motorbike he was undoubtedly a hero, but his dedication to his dream left a tight-wad man without a wife (left), or many (good) friends. Whilst this is perhaps more of a character assessment of Bert than the book itself, an acceptance on the part of the author that Burt was not only a speed freak, but frequently a plainly unpleasant man, would have been welcome.