My featured book for May  is Stanley Woods: The World's First Motorcycle Superstar.  This biography is a most entertaining read and the book is very well illustrated.

This first edition hardback book is loaded with colour and b&w photographs and illustrations, many from his personal artifacts.  

As interesting as his medical receipts, manufacturer bonus statements, snapshots and other ephemera are, the story itself is astounding.  

From his precocious youth to his conning of the English manufacturers into giving him factory rides to his dominance of the sport, he was the standard bearer for the Agos and Rossis of the future.

Its a page-turner, and makes you laugh out loud at the gumption this man had.  I highly recommend it.

May's Brand of the Month is Norton!    I ride a plunger framed 1952 Norton ES2.  As a fan of big singles, I have quite a few thumpers, but I have to say for plonking quickly around the country roads of central Wisconsin, the ES2 can't be beat.  Its not my fastest bike, nor my oldest, but it is a great friend to me and I wouldn't be without it.

Norton is one of the greatest and most enduring marques from the industrial capital Birmingham.  I carry several books about Nortons which you can find via the button link below.

Best known in the USA for the Commando line, Norton motorcycles were in production at Bracebridge Street from the turn of the century using imported to engines, up to the late 1960s when Norton began several decades of ups and downs - mostly downs - and changes in ownership.  

Norton's racing successes were many and varied, but the bikes really shone at the Isle of Man TT.   A Norton twin won the first TT in 1907, and absolutely dominated the island for many years, racking up over 90 first place awards at the event.

The brand survives now in it's latest incarnation as Norton Motorcycles Company , with beautiful modern bespoke bikes rolling out of a new factory in Donington Park.