What is it about motorcycles that is impossible to ignore? This entertaining guide charts the history of the bike from its origin as a cheap means of transport to its modern incarnations: a symbol of rebellion, a high-tech racing machine, and the rich kid's plaything. A passionate biker himself, Richard Hammond, looks at the machines that have propelled people across the world to work, to school—and occasionally to their doom. It is a fascinating sub-culture, and so Hammond also examines bikers of every type, from the happy farmer trundling through fields on his Honda Cub to the Hells Angels terrorizing towns on their hogs.