It’s bound to be a colossal shit-storm of a winter, all the signs are pointing to cold and wet. For those of us who are not into ice racing, this winter will be the perfect opportunity to over-drink, tear the motor out of our broken BMW airhead, or check out some motorcycling books. Here are a couple I’ve already read, and a couple I’m looking forward to starting:
10 Years on Two Wheels, a photographer’s journey around the world, by Helge Pedersen, Elfin Cove Press, 1993
This is the kind of book that you wouldn’t have been allowed to touch as a child. It is large and beautiful, the photography is perfect, and it chronicles an adventure that is almost too magical to comprehend. Written by a rugged Norwegian dude named Helge who rides 250,000 miles on a 1982 BMW R80G/S, this book was sent to me recently by a friend. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m captivated by the chapter titles alone: “Hashish, Sun, and Chicken”, “Party”, “War”, and “Palm Wine”. This is obviously a guy who does not call the Outdoor Life Network to see if they want to send a film crew along with him as he crosses the Gobi desert. Can’t wait to get started.
Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, Matthew B. Crawford, Penguin Books, 2010.
This book is a short “treatise” written by a guy with a philosophy background about the joys of wrenching in an age of …blogging (ahem!). He’s kind of saying things that some of us have known all along, but it’s always nice to hear it expressed in a more articulate way, a way that is comprehensible to the consumers of New York Times bestsellers. He’s great at describing how removed we’ve all become from understanding the mechanics of how things work, and how this lack of understanding really undermines the enjoyment of those things. Again, this is a discussion I have regularly with the girlfriend, but Crawford breathes a real potency into it. It’s a great book, and I wish he’d write another one that focuses purely on riding and repairs.
No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels, by Jay Dobyns and (probably mostly ghost-written by) Nils Johnson-Shelton, Crown Publishers, 2009
I just can’t root for a cop protagonist, and certainly not one who poses as a biker in order to set up a bunch of Hells Angels (in a case that eventually falls apart anyway- oops! Spoiler alert). This guy is a real douchebag, from his total incompetence on a motorcycle to his love of fist-fighting with people who he decides are “bad guys”. That notwithstanding, it is a very good read as a crime drama and a psychological study, with lots of action and great characters. Dobyns, the meat-head ATF agent who obviously loves pretending to be an outlaw biker, actually gets patched as an official member while undercover, the first and probably last time ever that a cop will wear an Angels cut. In one chapter, rather than actually riding his $20,000 Harley Davidson to a rally, he has the Feds trailer him and his bike to a nearby spot, and then has his Angels vest doused in beer, coffee and dirt in order to give the appearance of having ridden across three states. Pathetic, and highly entertaining.
The Perfect Vehicle: What is it About Motorcycles, Melissa Holbrook Pierson, Granta Books UK, 1997
From the back cover, “At precisely this moment someone, somewhere, is getting ready to ride. The motorcycle stands in the cool, dark garage, its air expectant with gas and grease. The rider approaches from outside; the door opens with a whir and a bang. The light goes on. A flame, everlasting, seems to rise on a piece of chrome.” If a passage like this doesn’t immediately pull you in, then the photos of the author with her Moto Guzzi certainly will. I have not started this book yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
We’ve all already read Hunter S. Thompson’s Hells Angels several times, so of course there’s no need to go over that here.
