Adventure riding books and documentaries

[Shiner]

I'll have to be in first with a plug for ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'',the most famous motorcycling book ever - DON'T read it,burn it instead.Stupid friggen book.

Sorry to disagree with you Motu, but I enjoyed Zen emensly. A multi layered philosophical novel where a man confronts his sanity and analyses logic systems. He seeks to find Quality through motorcycle maintainence and finds madness instead. I admitt not an easy read, but with persistence I found it to be thought provoking and reflective.

[warewolf]

"Peking to Paris" while not entirely about bikes (there's just one) is a good DVD and somewhat similar to "The Last Hurrah". Mick Matheson, a long-time Aussie bike journo, rode the bike. The story follows a re-enactment of the 1907 Peking to Paris endurance trial, the first major endurance event for automobiles. They used original vehicles...

[warewolf]

'The Perfect Vehicle' by Melissa Holbrook Pierson is a good read.

Initially I thought this book was fantastic, primarily because she manages to get into words thoughts & feelings about motorcycling that I couldn't express. For that reason alone it is worth a read. Negatives are that she is a bit too introspective and like Charley, whines too much.

[pevs]

Rented "The Motorcycle Diaries" on DVD - will watch it tonight or tomorrow. I figure it should be interesting to watch and I've heard it was very well done for a dramatisation.

Did ya like "The Motorcycle Diaries"?
Kinda interesting seeing where Che came from.
As Transalper mentioned tho.. not much about the bike.. but maybe a guide on how not to treat them!
Now.. back to my Long Way Round marathon..

[Wolf]

Quite enjoyed it. After a few minutes I forgot I was reading the English at the bottom of the screen, I was so caught up in the tale.

Definitely got to ride South America one of these years - the scenery looks wonderful.

Definitely a how-not-to-treat-a-bike tale or two in there.

[The Big J]

I thought Motorcycle Diaries was good at pulling the best flavours out of the cities and countries visited, pretty authentic feel of the towns.

"Chasing Che" by a British journalist retracing the trip gives a good insight into his life and some background outside the legend. There is a link to the ISIN on page 2. Also some interesting food for thought about why his guerilla revolution failed and left him surrounded in Bolivia. Bolivians and Argentinians hate each other and the local populace wasn't literate enough to have any idea of communist revolutions elsewhere and was unwilling to listen to a doctor from Cordoba. Book available at Wellington Public Library

[cooneyr]

Big BUMP

While I havent read a lot of motorcycling books and have only watched long way round and race to dakar I think I can highly recomend Lois on the Loose. I've been off work for 4 weeks now and moping around home for the past 3 but about two weeks ago wifey bought a copy for me and I've really enjoyed reading it. It is a very entertaining and inspiring book (I want to do a tour some day).

Cost $28 at our local book store.

Of to check out Lois's web site.

Cheers R

[Wolf]

Big BUMP

While I havent read a lot of motorcycling books and have only watched long way round and race to dakar I think I can highly recomend Lois on the Loose. I've been off work for 4 weeks now and moping around home for the past 3 but about two weeks ago wifey bought a copy for me and I've really enjoyed reading it. It is a very entertaining and inspiring book (I want to do a tour some day).

Cost $28 at our local book store.

Of to check out Lois's web site.

Cheers R

How'd your wife locate it so quickly? It was supposed to be released here in NZ ages back but Whitcoulls kept telling me it hadn't come into the country yet.

I ordered it ages back and it finally arrived yesterday - after I'd run out of spending cash.

[cooneyr]

How'd your wife locate it so quickly? It was supposed to be released here in NZ ages back but Whitcoulls kept telling me it hadn't come into the country yet.

I ordered it ages back and it finally arrived yesterday - after I'd run out of spending cash.

My wife just happened to be walking past Picadilly Books in avonhead mall and noticed it. We didnt know anything about it and wernt looking for it - random discovery.

I think picadilly are on the web if anybody else wants a copy.

Cheers R

[Wolf]

Finally got my copy of "Lois on the Loose" and I'm thoroughly loving it. She writes so well. I find it a lot easier to read than Ted Simon's "Jupiter's Travels".

Quite an adventure - what with insane Alaskan shop owners, rabid Canadian Mounties, Southern Californians and other strange species!

[cooneyr]

Finally got my copy of "Lois on the Loose" and I'm thoroughly loving it. She writes so well. I find it a lot easier to read than Ted Simon's "Jupiter's Travels".

Quite an adventure - what with insane Alaskan shop owners, rabid Canadian Mounties, Southern Californians and other strange species!

I've not read a lot of travel books but I really like the way she writes. I really like the way she describes the events, people and vistas. I also like her attitude to all events.

Cheers R

[Wolf]

I also have got the book and DVD of the Silk Riders. Haven't read the book yet but watched the DVD - bloody excellent.

One of the things I note as a recurring theme throughout the travel books, DVDs and listening to the riders:

People are pretty much OK the World over. Lois was told lots of horror stories about being mugged, raped and murdered "South of The Border" and was told that a woman should not travel alone, yet she survived and was helped along the way by lovely people. When Des Molloy and Dick Huurdeman were travelling through the various -stans and being helped out by total strangers, Dick made the comment "Not bad for the Axis of Evil". Ted Simon was helped out of difficulty in the most supposedly inhospitable places on the Globe.

Popular belief (read "Media-driven propaganda") has the rest of the World populated by "Them" - the baddies - opposed to "Us", who can do no wrong. According to Lois, her own home (England) is listed as a hotbed of rapes, muggings and lethal rail accidents on the US State Dept's web site.

So many people don't venture out their gates because of the horror stories told of "foreign parts" - by people who have never been there and are rehashing and exaggerating tales told by others based on prejudice and misinformation.

[cooneyr]

......One of the things I note as a recurring theme throughout the travel books, DVDs and listening to the riders:

People are pretty much OK the World over. Lois was told lots of horror stories about being mugged, raped and murdered "South of The Border" and was told that a woman should not travel alone, yet she survived and was helped along the way by lovely people. When Des Molloy and Dick Huurdeman were travelling through the various -stans and being helped out by total strangers, Dick made the comment "Not bad for the Axis of Evil". Ted Simon was helped out of difficulty in the most supposedly inhospitable places on the Globe.

Popular belief (read "Media-driven propaganda") has the rest of the World populated by "Them" - the baddies - opposed to "Us", who can do no wrong. According to Lois, her own home (England) is listed as a hotbed of rapes, muggings and lethal rail accidents on the US State Dept's web site.

So many people don't venture out their gates because of the horror stories told of "foreign parts" - by people who have never been there and are rehashing and exaggerating tales told by others based on prejudice and misinformation.

I agree completely with this but would add that it seems to me that the travelers attitude plays a big part. People who tell of horror border crossings, inhospitable locals and general misery seem to be the ones that "expect". They expect the roads to have good surfacing, expect the other road users to behave sensibly, expect a Hilton at each stop, and expect the officials to behave like westerns.

The whole point of a cross continental/RTW trip to me is a challange to see if you can cope with the "happenings" around you while at the same time enjoying it and in our case coping with a motorcycle as the mode of transport.

Cheers R

[vifferman]

I was a bit disappointed with The Silk Riders. Especially after following the adventures of Glen Heggstad which made Borman and his mate look like real softies. And Glen's earlier 'adventure' (being held hostage by terrorist rebels in South America) recounted in Two Wheels Though Terror is also pretty amazing stuff.

[Wolf]

I agree completely with this but would add that it seems to me that the travelers attitude plays a big part. People who tell of horror border crossings, inhospitable locals and general misery seem to be the ones that "expect". They expect the roads to have good surfacing, expect the other road users to behave sensibly, expect a Hilton at each stop, and expect the officials to behave like westerns.

I fully agree that the attitude of the traveller is an enormous part of the equation - not only in the expectations as above, but in the way they react when those expectations are not met.

Any of these buggers regurgitating an exaggerated tale of horror about the "dastardly locals" in foreign parts ever stop to think the person originally telling the tale omitted to tell why the locals were so antipathic? Like the bugger was a mouthy little shit that deserved to have half of an otherwise sleepy little village run him out of town?

Sure, there are bad buggers around in all countries, but they're outnumbered by the good-uns and I've just finished reading the bit where Lois encounters a couple of fake cops trying to shake her down for US$50 - she got out of it unscathed through keeping her head and being prepared. I was practically cheering when I read that.

Need to walk a line between being a babe in the woods and being ultraparanoid - and leave expectations of 5-star billeting, super-highways and western-style border guards behind...

along with the "Prima Donna" attitude...