No comments about AJS and Matchless Gold Portfolio 1945-1966.

No comments about Buying a Bike (Cycling Resources) (Cycling Resources Book.).

1 comments about Alfa Romeo Berlinas (Saloons/Sedans) (Car & Motorcycle Marque/Model).

1. This os an useful book for ALFA owner. Actually,I'm a crazy ALFA fan(I had 1989 Spider & 2000 156). It's cleaer to know the history of ALFA. You'll know more about the spirit of ALFA and Italian car. It really worthy.

No comments about Classic Motorcycles.

5 comments about Bicycles Locked to Poles.

1. The most poignant visual social commentary about the real struggle between evolution and intelligent design. Put another way: A humorous catalogue of the wear and tear of urban life...on bikes. The photos run the gamut: gritty, sad, cute, weird, witty, bare, depressing, poetic, and charming. Take it too seriously and you'll miss the point.



2. New York City is a chaotic place. It's unforgiving and indifferent but alive with humanity and creative energy. The front lines of this daily struggle between the hopeful and harsh happen right here on the streets and sidewalks. Through bicycles locked to poles, Mr. Glassie captures the casualties of this struggle, showing us the relics of forgotten bikes overwhelmed by New York, yet physically bound to it. He's somehow found a tiny piece of every New Yorker's story and painted a portrait of how defeat can be a thing of beauty. And plus, lots of neat pics of banged-up bikes!



3. I was Really excited about this book- cool title, cool premise- until i got it & looked at it. the pictures are gritty, dark, and not in an artsy kind of way- and are all taken from the same height/angle. Instead of getting down & dirty & into his art, its as if the photographer didnt want to take a picture that would inconvience his walking. (i doubt new yorkers would look at you strange for squatting to take pics of a bike on the street?)
   The coolest picture by far is on the cover, and its not really a wonder why they put it first. i bought it for a gift but after looking at it... maybe ill just frame the cover?



4. Bicycles Locked to Poles is a wonderful book to give to a friend or family member. It is artistic and understated. The way in which Mr. Glassie has sequenced the photographs gives the book real heart and poignancy. Mr. Glassie's focus on the small block radius of the East Village reminds of how much transpires and how much is easily forgotten in a city like New York.



5. Big fan of McSweeney's, and even bigger fan of Bikes, so when I saw an ad for this book I ordered it. I absolutely love it. The photographs are insightfull. The neighborhood and space the bikes exist in are as interesting as the bikes themselves. The legend on the inside cover is a great touch, and the Marvin Minsky quote is one I will keep for good.

No comments about Chilton's repair and tune-up guide, Kawasaki triples.

1 comments about 101 Uses for an Old Harley-Davidson (Town Square Giftbook).

1. The 101 Uses for an Old . . . Series combines humor with a small, short book format to make inexpensive gifts. With a powerful masculine symbol like Harley-Davidson, I expected to be rolling on the floor with laughter on every page. Instead, I found much that was not new to me (photos of early Harleys) and not funny (such as a triangle of Harley riders on Daytona Beach in the 1950s).

   There are a few enjoyable ones:

   A man dressed in a suit sitting in a sidecar while a uniformed chauffeur drives the Harley.

   A woman in a 1920s bathing costume mounting a Harley on the beach while her male companion sits in the sidecar.

   A Harley entirely covered in a buffalo hide with the head atop the handlebars.

   Eight police officers balanced on a moving Harley in acrobatic poses.

   An ad with a police officer on a Harley being served by a car hop.

   A man dressed in a suit riding a Harley with a sidecar full of hunting dogs. It looks like a fox hunt!

   A chicken mounted on a Harley looking like rider from the front.

   A boy and his father astride matching Harleys with the kickstand down, and large identical smiles on their faces.

   A briefly clad Jayne Mansfield with hat askew, posing as a police officer pulling over a car.

   A Harley with a runner on the front and chains on the back tires to travel on frozen lakes.

   A gun-mounted, armored Harley used during the Mexican Revolution.

   A Harley with Christmas tree lights on it (a different view from the one on the cover).

   If you know someone who would like a little Harley nostalgia, and cannot afford a more expensive gift book, this one could work . . . as long as the person doesn't mind a little humor being poked at the idea of a Harley.

   After you finish inspecting the images in this book, think about how you could create a light hearted moment with your Harley.

4 comments about Life is a Road, Get on it and Ride!.

1. As a rider who enjoys reading about riding, I found Daniel Meyer's first book to capture something essential about the need to ride a motorcycle. Even his tales of driving from one Denny's to the next, in search of hot fudge sundaes, were humorous in a quiet, warm, and homey way, and so I eagerly picked up this second book hoping for something of the same experience. I was disappointed. While some of the stories in the first book strained credulity, they still brought a smile to my face. Too many in this collection strayed so far from the believable that they made my eyes roll instead. The author can be forgiven for his quasi-mystical take on life and riding. There is certainly a tradition for this in motorcycle books. But harder to take is Mr. Meyer's need (more in this book) to tell tall tales which unabashedly position him as couragous, heroic, and the object of feminine desire. Rather than capturing the sweetness and "magic" that is often so much a part of ordinary motorcyle riding and the people in it, these stories seem to reflect another kind of ordinariness-- the tendency of some authors to devolve into writing that is theatrical, pseudo-philosophical, and blantantly self-aggrandizing. If Mr. Meyer writes another book I will buy it,(I like motorcycle books) but I will hope for more warmth and less narcissism.



2. More than just a book on riding. Daniel's stories reflect a way of life and living it. Personally, I think he's right on target. I can't get enough of his writing. His style borders on Indiana Jones meets ghandi, a good mix, with a flare toward the dramatic (the magic) an inspirational combination that lights a fire in his reader to follow their dreams rather than fall into complacency. For me the motorcycle has been a valuable tool to find my place in the universe, experience peace and live. This book backs up what I have always known - discover it for yourself, See you on the road...



3. Just finished reading "Life is a Road, the Soul is a Motorcycle", what a great book! Very good read with many wonderful visual images created with words. As close to actually riding as you can get from your chair. If Heinlein, Thoreau, Castaneda & Richard Bach got together to write a motorcycle book this might be it.



4. I have read just about every motorcycle book there is and this book "Life is a Road, Get on it and Ride" has to be one of the worst in the genre. The writing is on par a 7th grade essay. Here's an excerpt from page 8: "Borderline hypothermic, I then soaked me, in several progressively hotter tubs."
   Poor writing skills combine with the author's massive ego and excessively weak environmental introspection to produce one of the most inane book series on the market. The text includes Meyer's attempt at poetry which makes me gag. Read "The Dark Side of the Man" to learn how pathetic and self-absorbed this guy is. Forget these books. They are a waste of money and time.

2 comments about Techno-Chop: The New Breed of Chopper Builders.

1. When I saw the gorgeous bike on the cover I had to buy this. A sculptured frame and single sided rear plus the title "Techno-chop" gives the impression that you are about to see some unusual, technically challenging artistic and creative bikes.
   BUT.........
   Sadly when you read and look at the pictures it's the same old stuff that we have all seen before. Mediocre pictures wrapped up in excessive jounalistic mumbo jumbo. Reading it will send you to sleep. Some parts were boring enough to skip altogether. It appears to me that someone was offered $xxxx to write 5000? words on custom motorcycles and sat down and did it.
   If you are looking for inspiration to do something yourself and fancy the type of bike on the cover, then like me you will be disappointed. I couldn't even find out who made that bike - there is no credit that I can find in the book. You could probably get better information but searching on Google.
   BUY SOMETHING ELSE!!!



2. Mike Seate is an overly-prolific writer whose articles in motorcycle magazines are dissertations and his published books are uninspiring and lazily written. I was excited a few years back to purchase a book on motorcycles and bikers in movies and received not much more than a self-published 'zine. A friend of mine, who is a brilliant writer, is constantly chastised by his mother and scolded by his ( then ) wife for not getting more stuff published. Maybe this friend should try harder to get his writing published ( other than on the internet ) but the flipside is a writer who starts with the idea of cashing in on a craze ( in this case choppers ) and publishes as many books on the subject as possible. "Techno-Chop" adds nothing to the slew of chopper bikes out there. If you ever had a writing class in college and remember churning out an assignment at two o'clock in the morning for a paper due at an eight a.m. class, go back and read one of those papers. It's not unlike Seate's books. Rushed.

No comments about Honda Service Repair Handbook, 50-90 cc Singles, 1963-1971.