{"id":272745,"date":"2025-10-01T06:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/?p=272745"},"modified":"2025-10-01T00:31:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:31:21","slug":"the-impossible-collection-of-motorcycles-gets-expanded-edition-of-gorgeous-coffee-table-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/entertainment\/the-impossible-collection-of-motorcycles-gets-expanded-edition-of-gorgeous-coffee-table-book\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Impossible Collection Of Motorcycles’ Gets Bigger With High-Octane Coffee Table Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The famed \u201cBat Pod\u201d from Christopher Nolan\u2019s megahit film “The Dark Knight Rises,” 2008 (\u00a9Thepropstore\/Bournemouth News\/Shutterstock)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“One of the things I love about motorcycles is the variety of people who are fanatics about them\u2014you tend to have this idea of a motorcyclist as either a super trendy tatted caf\u00e9 racing hipster, or a Sons of Anarchy <\/em>denimed-up gangster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vincent Rapide Series B \u201cBlue Bike,\u201d with which Marty Dickerson set a speed record, 1948 (\u00a9webbs.co.nz\/Photo by Neil Campbell)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the truth of the matter is that people who love escaping into the hills on motorcycles are about as varied as they come,\u201d reveals Maxim<\/em> Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher, who also happens to be co-author of Assouline\u2019s<\/a> new uber-luxe The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles<\/a><\/em> coffee table book. \u201cThat means that the type of motorcycles that were built to appeal to these passionate riders over the past 150 years are about as varied as Ben & Jerry\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Uma Thurman as The Bride riding a Kawasaki ZZR 250 in the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 1 \/ \u00a9 Entertainment Pictures\/Alamy)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the second edition of The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles<\/em>, Stecher and co-author Ian Barry added ten new 21st-century bikes to the hundred they collected for the first edition, which focused on the previous century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tamara Dobson, “Cleopatra Jones,” 1973 (\u00a9Screen Archives\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Featuring only the rarest, coolest, and most pivotal motorcycles since 1900, this new edition adds to Assouline\u2019s vaunted Impossible Collection<\/em> series, which has previously shined a light on everything from wines to Patek Philippe timepieces to even Formula One cars\u2014which also happens to be included in our Ferrari F1 feature in Maxim’s September\/October issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(\u00a9 Mike Biggins\/Zero Motorcycles and Huge
Design)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And these aren\u2019t just routine coffee table books, mind you. They\u2019re massive in scale (16 x 19 inches), and boast beautiful time-consuming and rare printing techniques such as hand-tipped images and hand-binding; the 170 images come presented on thick, archival-quality cotton paper with a PVC clamshell case and metal plaque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Barry\u2019s pedigree designing and building museum-level custom bikes under the Falcon Motorcycles marque, and our esteemed editor\u2019s long history in automotive journalism, the hundred bikes assembled here are each a gem worthy of the book\u2019s title. Consider Evel Knievel\u2019s famed Harley-Davidson XR750 on which he leapt over the Caesars Palace fountains, breaking countless bones upon impact when his jump fell awry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Bill Eppridge\/The LIFE Picture Collection\/Shutterstock (12109516a)
Aerial view of contestants in the Mint 400 Motocross endurance race through the Mojave Desert, Nevada, September 1971. Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, contracted to write an article on the race for Sports Illustrated magazine, turned his coverage into the novel ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.’
Mint 400 Motocross Race, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Or early unicorns of engineering, such as Glenn Curtiss\u2019s iconic 1907 V8, for which the famed aviator impossibly bolted a massive 4.4-liter V8 engine onto essentially a glorified bicycle frame to create a true spectacle of mechanical force. Hitting 136 mph, the Curtiss V8 shattered the land speed record and held it for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(\u00a9 Michael Furman\/Private\nCollection)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But which is our deputy editor\u2019s favorite? \u201cThat\u2019s a tough one,\u201d Stecher struggles, seemingly running through the hundred motorcycles in his mind. \u201cI\u2019d say my two favorites are the BMW R7, which graces the cover\u2014an unbelievable one-off specimen of German engineering and art-deco design that was thought lost for nearly 70 years until discovered in 2005 in a BMW warehouse. What a story, and what a bike. And maybe the Britten V1000\u2014a superbike entirely designed and built by a New Zealand madman in his garage, which beat factory teams with infinitely deeper wallets. That\u2019s another thing: I really dig the visionaries behind these bikes, all of them the best kind of rogues and renegades this planet needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(\u00a9 Alexander Babic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, a tome of this rare scale and quality boasts a $1,400<\/a> price tag to match. Find The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles<\/em> (2nd Edition) at Assouline.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Assouline) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared in Maxim’s September\/October 2025 issue<\/em>. Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher\u00a0 on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new edition of Assouline\u2019s $1,400 tome brings the bike bible into the 21st Century.","protected":false},"author":735,"featured_media":272751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_comments":false,"tpd_coauthor":[],"tpd_feed_delay":{"delay_type":"default"},"is_tpd_lists_single_post":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","tpd_franchise_content":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":true,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-01T10:45:09Z","apple_news_api_id":"8cf6d96e-992f-438d-8ef2-940b55d82e71","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-01T10:45:09Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AjPbZbpkvQ42O8pQLVdgucQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"tpd_featured_video":[],"tpd_sponsored_post_logo":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_link":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_width":0,"tpd_sponsored_enable_nofollow":true,"tpd_disable_incontent_ads":false,"tpd_disable_right_rail_ads":false,"tpd_disable_after_content_ads":false,"tpd_disable_header_ads":false,"tpd_disable_sticky_footer_ads":false,"tpd_disable_video_ads":false,"tpd_disable_outbrain":false,"tpd_affiliate_disclaimer":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,75,85],"tags":[2695,636,467,21896,488,26,23,567,635,5,91],"coauthor":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":["post-272745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-news","category-rides","tag-assouline","tag-bikes","tag-books","tag-coffee-table-books","tag-collectibles","tag-entertainment","tag-luxury","tag-magazine-article","tag-motorcycles","tag-news","tag-rides"],"apple_news_notices":[],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/The-Impossible-Collection-Of-Motorcycles-Second-Edition-PRomo-428x241.jpg","coauthors":[],"primary_category":{"term_id":24,"name":"Entertainment","slug":"entertainment","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/entertainment\/"},"fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/The-Impossible-Collection-Of-Motorcycles-Second-Edition-PRomo-428x241.jpg","featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/The-Impossible-Collection-Of-Motorcycles-Second-Edition-PRomo-788x444.jpg","author_name":"Brandon Friederich","author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3d26f7554beb93ff4c65821eeecfcc2440d36286afc5e0e12636760b48e2a1d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_link":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/author\/brandonfriederich\/","post_categories":["Entertainment"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272745"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273289,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272745\/revisions\/273289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272745"},{"taxonomy":"coauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=272745"},{"taxonomy":"feeds","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maxim.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feeds?post=272745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}