Motorcycle Books: More Than Just Repair Manuals

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > Motorcycle Books: More Than Just Repair Manuals

builds character: Jan 16, 2008; Keep at it.

shacked up with Brenda posted:

The very best motorcycle magazine is Traction E-Rag.

http://tractionerag.com/

It's very, very funny. Likely a good read for anyone, even if they don't offroad.

This is true.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2017 17:54

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 21:01

builds character: Jan 16, 2008; Keep at it.

Would recommend - proficient motorcycling. More about how to ride than about riding, but still excellent and well worth reading.

Would not recommend - motorcycle diaries by che guevara (just didn't do anything for me), hell's angels by hunter s thompson (some folks will love this though so may be worth including).

It's a tough genre without a lot of great books, which is too bad because bikes are great and people should write about them.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2017 20:32

builds character: Jan 16, 2008; Keep at it.

Ridgewell posted:

I am a big fan of Bernt Spiegel's "The Upper Half of the Motorcycle", which was translated into English from the original German, though Amazon lists it only at ridiculous prices.

More than a book on motorcycling, it's mostly an anthropology book, explaining and interpreting human tool use and how this applies to motorcycle riding. The author also wrote an accompanying book with practical exercises which I found helpful in learning to ride (though I have a far way to go).

If anybody has recommendations for practical riding advice, especially for beginners and intermediate riders, I'd be happy to get some.

Proficient Motorcycling.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2017 12:21

builds character: Jan 16, 2008; Keep at it.

The_Raven posted:

+1 on Proficient Motorcycling, Total Control, Jupiter's Travels and anything by Egan.

Here's one that's technical, it is fascinating to see all the variations (mostly in the '90s) that have been attempted in things like suspension and valvetrains that have come to naught because they weren't sufficiently better than the prevailing method. Plus, you'll probably learn a ton about the conventional stuff. My copy is pretty old so it doesn't get into a lot of the modren electronic gimcrackery, though, don't know if it's been updated.

https://haynes.com/en-us/motorcycle-basics-haynes-techbook-haynes-repair-manual

Similar vein, but not exactly the same - I really like the four stroke dirt bike engine building handbook. https://www.diymotofix.com/the-four-stroke-dirt-bike-engine-building-handbook.html Honestly, not very useful for the vast majority of folks but dirt bike engines are both pretty high performance and pretty simple so it's quite helpful if you're either (re)building one or if you're interested in how everything works and the practical realities of assembling everything. Also goes into useful tools and how they work and when I bought it I got both the e-book and the physical copy so that was a nice touch.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2018 20:48

builds character: Jan 16, 2008; Keep at it.

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

I have no use for either of those books but I want to buy them. Help.

I've already put the haynes one in my amazon cart, so you'll get no sympathy here.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2018 23:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > Motorcycle Books: More Than Just Repair Manuals