With the second edition of their book, The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles, Nicolas Stecher and Ian Barry curate the most iconic bikes from the past 125 years
Cool Hunting • Becky Eaton • September 2025
At its most basic definition, a motorcycle is a vehicle with two wheels and an engine. But for those who’ve actually ridden one, it’s so much more than just another way to get around town. “One of the most beautiful things about a motorcycle is the meditative state you reach while riding,” says automotive journalist Nicolas Stecher, co-author of The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles 2nd Edition. “It’s unlike anything else. When you’re driving a car, you can zone out on the highway and think about your to-do list. On a motorcycle, you’re more involved. You can smell the air, you’re part of the world. Cruising through the mountains on a motorcycle was a revelation for me.”
The 198-page coffee table book, published by luxury bookmaker Assouline, beautifully captures this sentiment with a curation of 100 motorcycles hand-selected by Stecher and co-author Ian Barry, Falcon Motorcycles founder and famed custom motorcycle designer. Together, the duo tapped into their passion and deep knowledge of motorcycles, curating a range of unique, well-designed examples throughout history and culture, even including custom bikes and one-of-a-kind gems from famous moments in film.
Paging through this tome is an experience in itself: its hefty 25-pound weight and 16 by 19-inch size is housed in a handmade, protective clamshell case with a metal plaque and magnetic closure. The second edition of The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles features a re-edited list, including 10 new bikes from the 21st century (the first version focused solely on the 20th century).
Adding top motorcycles from the 21st century feels like a necessary update given the surge in technology, creativity and innovation of the past 25 years. “In the aughts and 2010s, people were really going nuts about custom-making motorcycles,” Stecher says. There was a cultural shift away from over-designed choppers and “a lot of people in the motorcycle world wanted bikes that reflected more elegance and old world charm.”
The bikes that made the cut are anything but average — they’re truly rare and memorable specimens culled from this ever-evolving category. From iconic motorcycles like Evel Knievel’s 1973 Harley-Davidson XR750 to the ultra-fast V1000, hand-built by a New Zealand garage hobbyist in the early ’90s, the book appeals to both motorcyclists and design lovers alike.
Stecher and Barry celebrate the motorcycle as a rideable art form while highlighting the engines, stand-out designs and engineering feats that make these particular selections so special. “One of my favorite parts about this Assouline book project was researching the design evolution of the motorcycle,” Stecher says, which started “as basically push pedal bikes with engines haphazardly strapped on, to slowly evolving into project-driven motorcycles. Post-war, a robust era of experimentation and innovation flourished. And then, of course, as technology refined, design moved more like a river, flowing towards a single destination.” Here’s a few of his favorites with the most intriguing design backstories:
“Aeronautical engineer Salvatore Maiorca’s Moto Major 350 was unlike anything seen before its debut at the 1947 Milan Spring Fair, and still unlike anything ever since,” Stecher says. “The jaw-slacking one-off featured innovations like hub-center steering, aircraft-inspired wheels and a rubber-block suspension, but what stakes the Moto Major 350 as an all-time unicorn is its gorgeous, cleanly flowing sheetmetal bodywork — the result of Maiorca’s extensive experimentation at automotive giant Fiat’s aerodynamic research facility. Featuring softly curved steel wrapping nearly every inch of the motorcycle so only its headlight and handlebars peeked through, the Moto Major 350 remains a masterpiece in aerodynamic design.”
“When the NR750 first hit the scene with a wallet-bursting $60,000 price tag, motorcyclists everywhere went into apoplectic shock,” Stecher says. “A product of Honda Racing Division’s innovation, the NR750 could justify its cost due to its Grand Prix-level oval pistons with eight valves per cylinder — something unseen in any other bike ever, and the product of savvy Honda engineers trying to equal the power of the recently banned V8 engines in a V4 setup. Only a couple hundred were ever made, and today they fetch multiples of its initial price tag. But on a personal level, the NR750 is quite easily one of, if not the most, beautiful faring’ed motorcycles we’ve ever seen — a pure ideal of form following function.”
“What can I add to the White’s legacy that hasn’t been gushed over extensively in every motorcycle blog of the 21st century?” Stecher says. “Arguably my co-author Ian Barry’s finest creation, the White culminated everything the brilliant designer dreamt of since we first met in a small, dark workshop in Silver Lake back in 2008, when he first showed his debut Falcon, The Bullet, to pro skateboarder and actor Jason Lee who commissioned the bike (Lee was dumbstruck silent for 10 minutes straight). The White embodies everything Barry always visualized, hand-sculpting and machining every single element aside from the tires and near-impossible-to-find 1967 Velocette Thruxton Venom racing engine — and even that featured custom-made cylinders. Along with the work of contemporary Shinya Kimura, the White erased the line between functioning motorcycle and gallery-level work of art.”
The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles 2nd Edition is available for purchase at Assouline.com.
Resource: https://coolhunting.com/design/celebrating-the-motorcycle-a-feat-of-engineering-and-design/