Bookshelf

Introduced in 1946, it wasn’t until 1953 that the Vespa scooter became instantly recognized worldwide thanks to the intuition of a Hollywood movie director. William Wyler was “looking for a means of transportation that the entire world could identify as typically Italian” for his movie “Roman Holiday.”  Wyler made his …

A lot can happen in 4½ years. Or not very much. In the case of Triumph, the difference is 16 pages. That’s how many additional pages can be found in the newly-released, updated version of Ian Falloon’s “The Complete Book of Classic and Modern Triumph Motorcycles 1937 – Today.” The …

Like every longtime motorcyclist, Nigel M. Sainsbury has memories of the bikes that have come and gone and, in his particular case, the riding adventures around the world over the years.  Unlike others, though, he has written about his life on bikes in the recently released book “One Down, Four …

It was a Facebook post today on the “Vintage & Classic BMW Motorcycles USA” page by well-known BMW collector Peter Nettesheim on some wheel bearing technology developed by the German brand more than 50 years ago that sent me searching for a sidetracked copy of “The Art of BMW Motorcycles.”  …

As much as some riders might wish it were so, it wasn’t Harley-Davidson (or even Indian) that invented the V-twin engine that has been the staple power plant of motorcycles for well over a century. In fact, the V-twin wasn’t even invented in the United States. No, its origin can …

She lives in the Yorkshire Dales in northern England and has been riding motorcycles for 25 years. Colette Coleman has also been writing about them for a long time, too. Ten years ago, she authored “Great Motorcycle Journeys of the World,” which took riders to exotic and just plain gorgeous …

Celebrating the past and admiring vintage and new models are a part of the motorcycling experience, and two recent books on the iconic Triumph brand enable readers to do just that: “Triumph Motorcycles in America” is a coffee table-style book jammed with pictures and historical data. Written by Lindsay Brooks …

CLIFTON, NJ – It was the near the end of a 20-minute phone conversation last week about her new autobiography that Gloria Tramontin Struck paused for a moment to reflect on her life. “If my brother had taken ‘No’ for an answer, my life would have been so different. So sad, …

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t so hard to predict that rider and psychologist Mark Barnes would be successful writing about motorcycling. In his first column for “Motorcycle Consumer News” some 21 years ago, he wrote that “motorcyclists can be divided into two types.” There are those who are happy to …

Craig Johnson is a best-selling author and a motorcycle enthusiast. His “Longmire” mysteries about a Wyoming sheriff have sold more than 1.5 million copies and been turned into a television series that shifts from the A&E cable network to the Netflix streaming service

Paul Jamiol and Friends By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com Paul Jamiol holds the opinion that bikers are animals. No, not animals like the thugs who attacked the SUV driver in New York in late September or the inconsiderate types who ride with excessively loud exhaust pipes and shatter the tranquility, …

As an avid reader, I sometimes wish that I kept a yellow felt-tipped pen on the nightstand beside my bed.  That way I could highlight catchy phrases and memorable passages in the books that I read. This would make it easy to locate them at a later time because you never …

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com When I was a kid, my parents had a rule of never traveling together on the same flight. Their rationale was that air travel was too risky. This was back in the days before Jetways when airlines flew prop planes like the DC-7 and passengers …

By Bud Wilkinson  Children’s author Beverly Cleary, who turned 95 yesterday, has written 42 books and sold more than 75 million copies of them. She’s introduced generations of youngsters to the joy of reading through the characters of Henry Huggins, Ralph the Mouse, and Beezus and Ramona. As a kid, I read about Henry, Beezus …

By Bud Wilkinson  Christmas is less than three weeks away. Have you put your bike(s) into winter storage yet? Or are you foot-dragging because you don’t want to quit peg-dragging? The bikes can wait. Holiday shopping cannot and RIDE-CT always offers some gift ideas for motorcycle lovers. While some new …