RIDE-CT.com

By BUD WILKINSON

     It hadn’t occurred to me until recently that riding and shopping are a lot alike, although I prefer the former activity and only succumb to the latter when I need something specific, such as 1% milk for the morning coffee.

     They are alike, though. You head out on a ride with a tentative route and destination in mind, but somehow get lured off course by an inviting back road and then make additional unscheduled detours or stops before arriving at your target point, if you end up there at all.

     With shopping, especially grocery shopping, it’s the same drill. You always seem to get sidetracked and grab a few extra items – yeah, you think, as you head down the bread aisle, sloppy joes would go great with a cold glass of milk for dinner tonight, and that’s why supermarkets always put the dairy case at the far rear of the store – and maybe forget the original item that you stopped in to get.

     What prompts this observation is what happened on a recent ride. Being momentarily short on ideas for RIDE-CT, I decided to ride to Border’s in Avon to look for a motorcycle book recommended by Indian restorer George Yarocki (See Indians page) about Rollie Free.

     If you don’t recognize the name, you may know the memorable 1948 picture of a bathing suit-wearing Free – his hands on the grips, his arms fully extended forward and his near-naked torso stretched out horizontally over the back fender of a modified Vincent Black Shadow – setting a motorcycle world speed record of 150.31 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

     The book that I sought was Jerry Hatfield’s “Flat Out – The Rollie Free Story.” Before getting to the shelves at Border’s reserved for motorcycle books, there was, yes, a side trip to the magazine rack to pick up a couple of motorcycle mags and a stop in the romance section to pick up Sherryl Woods’ latest paperback, “Mending Fences.” (Hey, she’s a longtime friend and I believe in supporting friends.)

     Alas, Border’s was flat out of “Flat Out.” However, another new book, “Legendary Motorcycles” by Basem Wasef, did contain did a chapter on Free, so I snatched it from the shelf and then spied another must-have book, “Biker’s Handbook – Becoming Part of the Motorcycle Culture” by Jay Barbieri.

     Arriving home at dusk, I immediately thought, “What are the odds of quickly tracking down the two authors?”

     Barbieri is supervising producer of SPEED Channel’s “American Thunder” program (and “Biker’s Handbook” contains a foreword by the show’s host, Michele Smith), so I went online, located his email address and got off a quick note. Within hours, we were talking by phone.

     It turns out that Barbieri is a Connecticut guy. He was raised in Stratford and attended Fairfield Prep. He decided to write “Biker’s Handbook” after seeing the crush of baby boomers taking up riding in recent years, figuring if they  “buy a Harley or a chopper and don’t shave for three days, they’d be bikers.”

     Not so, said Barbieri. Motorcycle culture is based on authenticity and discovery. Mixing attitude, common sense and humor, “Biker’s Handbook” is a primer for motorcycle newcomers on how and how not to act among longtime riders and what and what not to do.

     For instance, “Do not wear giant logos and fringe on your jacket. Do not wear one of those pseudo-Nazi-style fake helmets. In general, try not to draw extra attention to yourself if you just bought your bike two weeks ago.”

     Barbieri explained, “It’s good idea to keep your mouth shut. That’s a great thing 99 percent of the time.”

     All riders, especially new ones, make mistakes and Barbieri has, too. “I poke fun at myself. The thing I didn’t want to do is preach. My goal as to add some humor, poke fun at some of the things I did wrong,” he said.

     His biggest mistake? “Drinking, and I made it a lot. Don’t get on a motorcycle after you drink. I don’t know what too me so long to figure it out,” he said. In “Biker’s Handbook,” an incident at annual gathering at Sturgis that caused him to stop drinking when riding. 

     While “Biker’s Handbook” is flip and flashy and filled with loads to tips, anecdotes and drawings, “Legendary Motorcycles” is a more serious coffee table-type book with exquisite photography and concise storytelling. Jay Leno provided the foreword.

     Reaching Wasef required a bit more doing. Besides telling of the Vincent that Free rode, “Legendary Motorcycles” also features the bikes of James Dean, the “world’s fastest Indian” of Burt Munro, Elvis Presley’s Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide, T.E. Lawrence’s Brough Superior SS100 and the “Captain America” chopper from the movie “Easy Rider.”.

     It also has Craig Vetter’s “Mystery Ship.” Vetter also designed the Triumph X-75 Hurricane (see Vintage page), and an sent email to him soon secured Wasef’s email address and a phone hook-up later that night as well.

     “I strove to balance it between great big glossy visuals and great stories,” Wasef explained. “Some fell into my lap and others were a bit of chase.”

     Many of the bikes (and riders) in “Legendary Motorcyles” may be unfamiliar to those of us who didn’t ride when we were younger, racers such as Freddie Spencer, Wayne Rainey, Mert Lawwill and even Mike Hailwood and Kenny Roberts. Wasef included them because “they were the heroes of the day.”

     One bike didn’t make it into his book – the motorcycle that Bob Dylan crashed. “No matter how many sources I contacted, nobody knows where that bike is. That bike may be lost forever,” he said.

     While decidedly different, both “Biker’s Handbook – Becoming Part of the Motorcycle Culture” (Motorbooks, $19.95) and “Legendary Motorcycles” (Motorbooks, $34.95) offer something entertaining and worthwhile to longtime riders and to newbies.

     To be totally forthcoming, I’ve only had time to skim each. There’s milk in the refrigerator. Maybe it’s time to pour an extra cup of coffee and curl up with a good book.

(Originally published November 17, 2007 in "The Republican-American") 

Basem Wasef

Jay Barbieri