10 Of The Most Influential People In Motorcycling History

Directly, or indirectly, these people have inspired us

In any walk of life, there are those who have gone before and whose inspiration remains for those who follow. Perhaps they invented something or manufactured a product that transformed our lives, or refined that product to the point where it became publicly accepted and indispensable. Then there are those whose exploits or endorsement of a product have helped propel it into the limelight or redefined how it can be used. As motorcyclists, we may think we are independent spirits but, in actual fact, we would be by far the poorer without the inspiration of a bunch of pioneers who came before.

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Film has always been a medium of escapism and inspiration and, for the motorcycling world, no film was ever more important than On Any Sunday, directed by Bruce Brown, who had the same influence on surfing with his film Endless Summer. In On Any Sunday, Brown showcases all the different types of motorcycle sports that you would one likely to encounter on an average weekend, with memorable sequences from the world of flat track racing, hill climbing, desert racing, off-road riding and simply messing around on motorcycles. Featuring the likes of Steve McQueen, Mert Lawwill and Malcolm Smith, among a cast of thousands, is there anyone who hasn't watched this and gone straight to the garage to get their bike out?

There have been superstars of motorcycle sport before - John Surtees, Giacomo Agostini, Mike Hailwood, Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts and Mick Doohan to name but a few - but Valentino Rossi stands head and shoulders above all of them for the influence he has had not only over the popularity of Grand Prix/MotoGP racing, but over motorcycling in general. It was Rossi's good fortune to become a superstar at the beginning of the 2000s, which was not only the start of huge TV coverage but also the beginning of the influence of the internet over every aspect of our lives. Rossi's sublime skill and media-friendly personality, not to mention his on-track antics, propelled the sport into the public consciousness like never before. Even after his retirement, his influence is being felt.

Not the first friends to ride around the world, but arguably the first to do it with a film crew in tow, which spawned a massively popular TV series - The Long Way Round - and book. Not only were the two engaging personalities, but McGregor's acting fame added a new dimension to the proceedings: was this a publicity hungry celebrity out of his depth or was he a genuine biker?

It turned out he was the latter, much to his credit among motorcyclists. Then, BMW pulled off the publicity coup of the century when they gave the boys two R 1150 GS bikes to ride, causing a massive rise in popularity of adventure bikes and adventure riding. Adventure bikes are what they are today because of these two. Thankfully, two follow-up series - Long Way Down and Long Way Up - recaptured perfectly the fun of the first.

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When he was 21, Edward Turner designed and built a motorcycle engine in his spare time. Hawking it around the British manufacturers, only Ariel showed interest and the resulting motorcycle would become the famed Square Four. When Ariel boss Jack Sangster bought Triumph and put Turner in charge, it was the birth of an influence over an industry not seen before or since. Turner's Triumphs were not only fast, thanks to his revolutionary parallel twin engine, but also utterly beautiful thanks to his keen eye for style and a catchy name: Speed Twin, Thunderbird, Daytona and Bonneville were all his, and they all influenced every other British motorcycle manufacturer up to the point of the industry's demise in the early 1970s. Without Turner, the British influence on worldwide motorcycling would have been a fraction of what it was.

In the late 1960s, Harley-Davidson was in trouble financially, which led to the takeover of the company by American Machine and Foundry, or AMF. It was not a happy chapter in Harley's history, but there was one bright spot: Willie G. is the grandson of founder Arthur Davidson and became head of styling at the company in 1969. Designing the Super Glide and the Low Rider, which pioneered the factory custom motorcycle and created an intermediate line of motorcycles between their touring models and their smaller Sportsters. More importantly, he was part of the consortium that bought back the company from AMF and set it on the path to its resurgence from the 1990s onwards.

Like so many countries after the Second World War, Japan was in desperate need of cheap, reliable transport to get the country back on its feet again. Soichiro Honda had started a light engineering business before the war and, after the cessation of hostilities, started manufacturing motorized bicycles. In 1958 the model that would change motorcycling forever appeared: the Super Cub.

The four-stroke engine was simple and rugged, the semi-automatic gearbox easy to master, the all-enclosing bodywork kept the rider clean of road and mechanical dirt and the large (by scooter standards) wheels were much safer on bad roads. It was a bike for everyman, no matter where they lived - town or country - but the real influence would be seen in the U.S., where a clever advertising campaign changed non-motorcyclists’ perception of motorcycles from things ridden by hooligans to an acceptable means of transport. To date, almost 120 million Super Cubs have been manufactured.

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Carmelo Ezpeleta is to motorcycle racing - and MotoGP in particular - what Bernie Ecclestone was to Formula One racing or Bill France was to NASCAR: a single-minded guiding hand that steered it to previously unheard of success and ever bigger audiences around the world. As the head of Dorna, which has owned the commercial rights to Grand Prix motorcycle racing since 1992, Ezpeleta has worked tirelessly to ‘clean up’ MotoGP, turning it into a multi-million dollar business that belie its simple origins, much as Ecclestone did for Formula One. Many of the measures Ezpeleta has implemented haven't been popular, but no one can deny that the sport is infinitely richer - in every sense - than it has ever been.

The Isle of Man TT races have always been an anachronism in a world obsessed with health and safety, and it is no surprise that it attracts its fair share of eccentrics. Guy Martin shot to fame thanks to the documentary Close To The Edge, which showed him as a tea-swilling truck mechanic with a fast (and often indecipherable) mouth and an even faster riding style.

His down-to-earth normality was infectious and pricked the pomposity so often associated with top-flight racing, demonstrating the TT's reputation as the common man's sport, even if their exploits on the 37.75-mile track were anything but common. Walking away from a hideously fast and fiery crash when so many pay the ultimate price elevated him to god-like status, and he has since become a TV personality with an engaging innocence and boundless enthusiasm.

Riding around the world was not especially new - although by no means common - in the early 1970s, but no-one made it sound (or read) better than this British journalist and author. For no clearly definable reason, Simon decided to leave his job and head off into the sunset, starting in 1973 and taking four years, riding a 500cc Triumph which was as far from modern adventure bikes as it is possible to get.

More importantly, he used his writing skills to pen possibly the most influential - certainly one of the best - account of his journey, calling it Jupiter's Travels. To say that this book has inspired more people to get on their bikes and ride would be a massive understatement: without Ted Simon, it is very likely there would have been no Long Way Round and motorcycling might be in a different place today.

Many of us have fixed a motorcycle: many have rebuilt one. But not many of us have built one from scratch, let alone one that then went on to be successful in racing. John Britten was one of those really annoying people who can just about do anything they turn their minds to and do it brilliantly.

When he set his mind to build a motorcycle, he really meant it, making absolutely everything bar the gearbox: engine, suspension, wheels, bodywork, electronics. Not only that but the whole bike was stuffed with advanced motorcycle engineering principles, such as using the engine as the main chassis member, intense mass centralization, alternative suspension concepts, engine data logging and so on. He sadly died from cancer at 45 and the world lost an important innovator.

Harry has been writing and talking about motorcycles for 15 years, although he's been riding them for 45 years! After a long career in music, he turned his hand to writing and television work, concentrating on his passion for all things petrol-powered. Harry has written for all major publications in South Africa, both print and digital and produced and presented his own TV show called, imaginatively, The Bike Show, for seven years. He held the position of editor of South Africa's largest circulation motorcycling magazine before devoting his time to freelance writing on motoring and motorcycling. Born and raised in England, he has lived in South Africa with his family since 2002. Harry has owned examples of Triumph, Norton, BSA, MV Agusta, Honda, BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki and Moto Morini motorcycles. He regrets selling all of them.