The Fast Stuff: Twenty years of top bike racing tales from the world's maddest motorsport

by Mat Oxley

Irreverent, rapier-sharp and always readable, Isle of Man TT winner Mat Oxley has been writing about bike racing for more than two decades, always shooting from the hip, offering a unique perspective of the world’s maddest motorsport. Here is a collection of his best stories, published by motorcycle magazines worldwide over 20 years. Oxley’s fans will relish these insightful, extraordinary, often hilarious tales about the men, the machines and the mayhem. The book is filled with the words of Valentino Rossi, Wayne Rainey, Mick Doohan, Eddie Lawson, Kevin Schwantz, Casey Stoner, Ron Haslam, Steve Hislop, Gary Nixon, Graeme Crosby, King Kenny Roberts and many more. Author of several acclaimed books on bike racing, Oxley is a regular contributor to Bike, Classic Bike, Motor Sport and other magazines, writing stories that get to the root of the racing psyche. ‘The read of the year’ Performance Bikes ‘Packed full of interviews with legends’ Motorcycle News ‘A crackingly entertaining book, full of great stories’ Motor Sport ‘Brilliant’ Classic Bike

Genres: Sports

469 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Adam Vibert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a huge motorbike fan, I massively enjoyed this book and flew through it in a couple of days.

I think the great thing about this book is its variety. It has tales from multiple forms of motorcycle sport, including 500GP, MotoGP, WSB, Flat Track and Endurance racing. There are also many interviews with some of the greats of motorcycling including Rainy/Doohan/Schwantz/Lawson/Rossi.

I particularly enjoyed the stories that were a little 'different', for example the one with the Roberts family, and all the 'top 10' articles. The piece where Oxley interviewed some riders who took part in the Yamaha RD Pro-Am Series was also very entertaining.

A small criticism of this book would be that some of the stories are quite small (I wished some would continue) but I appreciate many of them were written for magazines/websites so not letting that affect my rating!

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining collection of racing anecdotes by one of the sport’s prolific journos and writers. I think this was a limited print run so if you can bag a copy then treasure it.

[Dave Minella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic piece by Mat Oxley

Exactly what we've come to expect from Mat Oxley. A total insider's perspective with no mincing of words or holding back of opinions. Parts of this book will make you long for racing days long gone by, while others with make you eager to see the future of the sport brings. Brilliant account of the triumph, the defeat, the laughter and the agony of the greatest sporting spectacle the world will ever know.