2 comments about Ducati Singles Restoration (Motorbooks Workshop).

1. There are many things to annoy the Ducati afficionado in this book - a lack of color pictures, and a lack of the gushing applause for the overall sex appeal and performance of the machines. This book is instead aimed at the brave who actually want to restore a single, and need to know the common pitfalls and problems associated with the bike. So it gets into the ugly details of where the designers went right, and where they went wrong, and offers helpful advice for fixes, straddles of the original design as well as how to keep the original design running (more or less). Needing pointers on the finer details of the restoration work is where this book works best. It is not exactly a restoration manual, but instead is chock full of helpful hints and ways to make yourself stop and think about what you are really trying to accomplish, and provides an excellent set of examples in order to get there; whether it's a cafe racer, a Sunday track bike, or a show bike. Like hanging out in a rustic, homey English shed shooting the breeze with fellow diehard Ducatisti, this book probably won't win you style points, but that's not really what it's all about.



2. Now that you purchased that vintage single, what do you do? Is it worthy of a restoration, a special, or a parts bike? In Mick Walker's book, he walks you through some of the things to look out for as you evaluate a Ducati single for a project. He explains in great detail the intricate craftsmanship that went into these lovely machines (and some of their associated pains as well). But as any vintage Ducatisti knows, you need to acquire good parts and excellent resources while they're still around. If you're thinking of working on vintage singles (for the first time or for the n-th time), then this would be an excellent book to have. Why wait to pick up an excellent resource such as this? Maybe you're waiting for it to become rare, like some vintage Ducati parts and bikes, so you can pay a premium? I wouldn't and I didn't. It's an excellent resource.

No comments about Twisting Throttle Australia: A Kiwi's Hilarious Trip Around Aussie on the Seat of His Pants.

No comments about Checkered Flag (RPM).

1 comments about Suzuki Sv650 1999-2002 (Clymer Motorcycle Repair) (Clymer Motorcycle Repair).

1. Basically, a strip down & reassembly guide. diagnostics sketchy..
   As an example: I'm doing chain & sprocket replacement. The book tells how to dissassemble sprockets, but there's no info on cutting the chain, fitting the replacement chain clip/master link.
   I haven't seen the Haynes manual so I don't know if it's any better.

5 comments about Storm: A Motorcycle Journey of Love, Endurance, and Transformation (Travelers' Tales Footsteps).

1. Storm
   By Allen Noren

   I am an avid motorcyclist, but I found this story very frustrating. It is not so much about motorcycling or traveling as it is about ego and obsession. The author is driven by his compulsion to complete The Trip, despite the horrendous, record-breaking stormy weather, over 6000 miles of northern European roadways. He presses on, focused on all the details of the challenge of coping with a bike in the most extreme weather conditions. But his girlfriend, the pillion passenger, has nothing to do but suffer. She has nothing to occupy her mind but resentment. Cold, wet, allergy riddled, bored, pissed, frustrated... this is what we see of her. She exists on this trip, to hear Noren tell it, like another natural curiosity to be observed while traveling, like the lakes, seasides, forests and of course the storms.

   This book breaks down at the same place that their relationship breaks down. He is a rider, she is a passenger. Never will the passions of the two be comparable. Noren never gets to this point, though. The entire story is told through his obsessive self-centered perspective. We barely get a glimpse of her thinking, and when we do, it is interpreted through Noren's crazed compulsion: she betrays him by losing her connection to The Trip. But he avoids the point that a pillion passenger is passive and detached from the essence of motorcycling, with no control, and a feeling of literal and figurative coat-tailing to the rider. It IS his trip, and she becomes ever more an afterthought to him, as her alienation metamorphoses into her own obsession to have the trip just be over.

   It is inevitable that the reader grows ever more sympathetic to her plight, and ever more convinced that he is little more than a neurotic jerk.

   All that said, the writing is quite good. The book reads quickly. The style is engaging and the observations are unique and interesting. Noren does an excellent job of detailing the inner workings of a motorcyclists' mindset.... As our loved ones will attest, we are all a little obsessive, a little insane.

   The lessons for me: avoid taking my wife on very long trips as a passenger (something I already knew). Make your mate get her own bike, so she can see the trip through the same eyes that you do. Oh, and buy good rain gear and heated clothing, too!




2. A friend gave me this book as a gift and it sat on my desk for several months. Admittedly I was put off by the motorcycling aspect, but I'm sad now that that stopped me from opening it sooner. Last Sunday night I was going to file the book in my bookshelf but decided to read the first page before I did so. Needless to say I couldn't put it down. It's a wonderful tale of adventure, a dream and its reality, love, and, yes, ego. The story transcends the motorcycle and in that way is much more than a biker book. The motorcycling aspects are excellent, however, because the author is not one of those leather clad oafs with a humongous midlife crisis on his back. Rather, the descriptions are beautifully written and invite the reader to feel what it was like too. Well done.



3. This book is 1/2 travel journal, 1/4 relationship journal and 1/4 motorcycle journal. Noren's longtime girlfriend requires comfort (physical and otherwise) along with maturity, and riding a motorcycle through whipping rains and wind on dangerous roads, cars passing you at warp speed, provides none. The journey is an eye opener for him and a confirmation of his girlfriend's adult life needs. The passages describing the colorful European characters are great fun to read, while the relationship passages are just the opposite, albeit transposed in a good way. The ending leaves a bit of a tease. Noren's writing voice draws in any gender reader; he's not a macho Hog-riding hardass, nor is he the other extreme, "the sensitive male." There is enough of the relationship aspect to satisfy female readers, and enough of the description surrounds riding the bike, satisfying to motorcycle enthusisasts. If you enjoy reading motorcycle journeys, this is a good one, with some added aspects that others miss, making it entirely unique.



4. I've been feeling trapped in a dull northeast winter and went on a buying spree of motorcycle travel books since I can't ride. I fully accept that most won't be that well written but they stave me over until the weather turns and I can resume my own travels. This book, however, stands on it's own merits and is a great read. Anyone who's ridden a trip when the "magic" just didn't work will relate to this couples differing ways of trying to recapture it - bail or forge ahead. The relationship dynamic keeps the book from being a "then we went here and saw this, then we went here and saw this..." like say Jupter's Travels, and it's also down to earth and not full of itself as say "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence". It relates the discovery of travel and touches enough on riding to appeal to both rider and non and he doesn't insult the reader along the way. I kept putting it down in an attempt to make it last longer.



5. As a motorcyclist and adventure tourer, I had hopes for this book. I find it poorly written, tedious, unfocused. What to call it? It's not detailed enough to be travel writing, not deep enough for journal writing, not engaging in the least. The people and places are two dimensional and boring, and even the author's attempts to describe 'living hell" come across as "living heck." I find myself not caring what happens to the author and his traveling companion, nor would I want to visit any of the places that he describes, though I'm willing to believe that they could actually be interesting outside of the author's stewardship.
   
   
   There are many good motorcycle adventure books (The Long Journey Home, Ten Years On Two Wheels, Chasing Che) to be had. This is not one of them.

No comments about Dirt Rider's Motocross Riding Tips.

1 comments about Kawasaki ZX600 & 636 (ZX-6R) 1995-2002 (Haynes Manuals).

1. Great service manual, tells you step by step how to do things. I was having problems with my 1999 ZX6R and know very little about bikes but now I'm replacing spark plugs, air filters, etc. Doing all my own work saving lots of money.

3 comments about Born to Be Wild: A History of the American Biker and Bikes 1947-2002.

1. Okay, the REAL line from Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" is "I like smoke and lightning." But I'm a little deaf, and that's what I hear. Besides, I DO like smokin' ice cream. But I digress. This is the ultimate biker book. Why? Because it's clearly WRITTEN BY A REAL DAMN BIKER! Not a poseur. I've read so many of these biker books, and it's clear the authors don't know their pipe side from their primary side, but this guy Garson does. This is the real story about real bikers with real bikes, in all their variegated forms. It was great riding through biker history with Garson and his bros at Easyriders. As we say 'round these parts: Live to Ride, Ride to Brunch.



2. I got this book hoping there would be an unbiased yet informed history of the culture behind the bike and the bikers from an American perspective. What you get is an author who is a piece writer for "Easy Riders Magazine" trying to be that informed historian of the biker culture. His endless use of the word "Bro" to refer to the real biker is out of place in todays vocabulary, and doesn't fit in in this book. His obvious use of some website that encapsulates the year to year history of Americana thrown in to give perspective of the art, music, and economics of the subject year is BORING and again out of place.

   As you read the book, you will find yourself saying "Where's the beef". You are always hoping to get to the good stuff. I thought their may be something about the strategic wars and some inner sanctum insight from the bike manufacturers. Nope. Instead you get what amounts to a magazine article spread over way to many pages. There is nothing substantial on Indian, or Excelsior Henderson, or any of the many small yet fleeting American manufacturers that were part of motorcycling history. There is nothing about the people that makes up motorcycling culture. This authors constant need to remind you of the "NP" as he calls them or the "Nicest people", wears thin very quickly. Of course he is making reference to the Honda ads from the 70's. "You meet the nicest people on a Honda". He wants to put the Harley culture in one box and everyone else in another less flattering box.

   Skip this book unless you like reading a 200+ page Easy Riders article on how if it weren't for the Harley's and the Davidson's, There may never have been a motorcycle.




3. I'm giving this book a two star review with reservations... The author spends a lot of time on Harley Davidson and almost totally ignores some iconic machines from our history (Indian, et.al.). On this point I totally agree with the review by Greenham-00, but there is information in this book that makes it a five star work depending on the reader.
   
   The other point you need to ignore is some of the thinly veiled advertising for some Harley custom shops and designers that are blatantly thrown in your face, depending on the chapter's subject matter.
   
   IF you are buying this book for the history of the Harley Davidson company, you have a five star book, but I wonder why he didn't wait to publish this work for a couple of years for the 100th anniversary of the HD company's founding. All and all an interesting read, but a disappointment for lovers of other motorcycle brands from our nation's history.

1 comments about Yamaha Xj600 Seca II Diversion, 1992-1998 (Clymer Motorcycle Repair) (Clymer Motorcycle Repair).

1. Even though I would consider myself an intermediate motorcycle mechanic, Clymer books continually amaze me how easy they make the most difficult job. I had to replace the head gasket on this bike and the whole job (including timing chain replacement) took less than 4 hours ! Without this book, I really would have been in a jam with the valve timing, but Clymer told you all the tips and tricks needed. I strongly recommend this book for novice/beginners who want to make repairs.

No comments about Honda XL-XR 80, 100, 125, 185 and 200 Owners Workshop Manual, No. M566: 1978-1987 (Owners Workshop Manual).