Those Diner and Motorcycle Guys

Radio is alive and well in this age of podcasts. Those Diner and Motorcycle Guys bring together the holy alliance of diners, motorcycles and talk. Its like fries, salt and ketchup – or like wind, leather and motor oil. Its like Garrison Keeler is your old riding buddy sitting with plate of eggs and tales of the road sprinkled with name droppings of moto celebrities.

I’ll have the pleasure of being in the company of moto adventurer Tiffany Coates (on last weeks show), photographer Sara Laliberte and Grizzly Adams! Tune in early Saturday morning to catch ME live on :  http://thosedinerandmotorcycleguys.com/podcasts.cfm  (the podcast will then be posted for listening at any time).

If you’re an early bird – maybe hitting the road for a great Saturday ride – call in to the show (323) 417-6788.  Go ahead and ask me the burning question- “are there any naked chicks in your book?”

I’ll be talking about how my book Chicks On Bikes made and how I’ve seen the imagery of women motorcyclists change over time. If you still haven’t got the book – now’s the time as its discounted $5 over buying through Amazon.

Also, learn about the inspiring and beautifully made book of motorcycle women in Montana who conga lined across the country to grass roots raise money for cancer. Author Tamela Rich combines her wisdom with full color pages of my photographs in “Live Full Throttle: Life Lessons from Friends Who’ve Faced Cancer”. Check it out here or on Amazon: Live Full Throttle

Here’s the charming host Garrison Leykam and Ralph Deluco:

Live Full Throttle – Life Lessons From Friends Who Faced Cancer

If I were independently wealthy this is what I’d do. Work with a terrific writer like Tamela Rich photographing books about fascinating and compelling subjects like Live Full Throttle: Life Lessons From Friends With Cancer. I’m honored to be the photographer of this beautifully written and produced book.

The heart of this story is a ad hoc group of mostly middle age and beyond women – conga riding around the country in blinged out bikes and pink bra’s strapped on every-which-way. They were independently and boisterously raising money for cancer. Writer Tamela Rich joined up with them two years ago and collected such inspiring stories and life lessons that a book had to be done. The riders culminate the summer of conga fundraising in the tiny town of Shell, Wyoming which embodies the western ideals of both stubborn individualism and close knit comminity.  This principles resonate and parallel with the spirit of bikers as well as the wisdom to be learned from cancer survivors.

Go to Tamela Rich’s website  directly to learn more and buy an signed copy. Or get it at Amazon.com

author Tamela Rich

Photographer Christina Shook

112 full color pages

8×8″

$24.95

 

aches pains and adventure – Beyond Bucharest book review

Beyond Bucharest – by Bob Goddard

book review

I’m not sure the exact age of Bob and Liv as they set off on their Eastern European moto adventure, but I’m going to say somewhat beyond middle age.  Add aches and pains and the normal rigors of motorcycle travel to the monstrous conditions they encounter on the roads of Eastern Europe and even a seasoned motorcycle adventurer would shudder. Beyond Bucahrest is a humbling, humorous and charming read as well as an interesting insight into eastern europe.

Inspired by Ewan McGregor’s moto adventures the husband and wife team set off on bikes from England to the Black Sea in Bulgaria. They themselves would be daunted if they knew what lie in wait.  I won’t plot spoil but the floods are hair raising.

Beyond adventure their ulitmate goal it to visit some of the charitable works of EveryChild. All royalties from this book will go to the UK based charity.

I’ve recently been thinking about what place the aging motorcyclist has in the bike world. While everyone loves a tale of hardship and overcoming or succumbing to the trials and condition of travel, not many address the added issues of age with the candor and good humor that Bob Goddard does. I feel great empathy for Liv and I cheer for her when her hands freeze up so she can barely control the bike but she rallies on.

Bob’s writing wonderfully personable and so very English. I just have to giggle over some expressions like:

What a prize pratt!

Due to road conditions…we were cream crackered.

And speaking of international distintions, do French motorcyclists really wave their foot in greeting?

I recommend buying the book Beyond Bucharest for a good cause and reading it for a good adventure.

Beyond Bucharest book by Bob Goddard

Free Fun on a cold wet week? Wrenched Word and Chick Pix book tour.

Should I apologize about my bad blogging habits, namely the lack of? To anyone who cares, then yes I do. I have so many fun and interesting things to write about.

Here goes my first blog entry of 2010, may many more fab entries follow. Alas it’s shameless promotion that brings me to shout out today.

What free fun can you have on a cold wet Northern California week?

1.21.2010 “Wrenched Words and Chick Pics” Northern California Book Tour, January 2010

What do you do in January when it’s wet and chilly? Or when you’re just too much of a sissy to get out there and ride? Not me, no never me, I’d never show up in my comfy warm dry cage Camry… its just that I’ve got these books I have to bring.

How about heading out for a night of motorcycle related literature and photography?  Christina Shook and Ed Milich will be touring motorcycle destinations in San Francisco and northern California beginning January 26 2010 to promote their recently released motorcycle books: Milich’s Wrenched: Man and Machine and Shook’s Chicks on Bikes.

Ed doesn’t like to call it poetry, so as not to put off the tough illiterate biker folks. Besides it doesn’t actually rhyme. Ed is an awesome racer who can totally smoke you on the track or on a microphone. His words are raw, funny, dirty, anguished and eminantly readable. See his creds below.

And me, if you don’t know me, here’s what the flyer says:

Christina Shook is a San Francisco based professional photographer. Chicks on Bikes compiles her photographs of and writings on female motorcyclists drawn largely from the San Francisco Bay Area’s diverse population of female riders. The book depicts female racers, commuters, cruisers, and mechanics in their natural environments from San Fransicso’s streets to dirt bike trails, to the racetrack. The hard bound Chicks On Bikes is 154 pages and is $24.99 from www.chicksonbikes.us

Ed Milich is a Los Angeles based writer and contributor to Motorcyclist Magazine, Café Racer Magazine Sports Car Market Magazine, a national roadracing champion (WSMC, AHRMA), proprietor of motorcycle websites Guzzitech.com, Ducpower.com, and Motobastard.com and a professional Mechanical Engineer. Wrenched, Man and Machine, the first book from the Los Angeles based Milich, documents his motorcycle racing, wrenching and riding experiences in largely unrhymed free verse. In March of 2009, Milich debuted Wrenched at the Daytona International Speedway Bike Week Vintage Races where he punctuated the book release by winning four out of four races. Wrenched, Man and Machine is 142 pages and is $15 postpaid at www.wrenchedbook.com

January 2010 Northern California Book Tour stops:

Tues Jan 26 – Subterranean Motorcycles, San Francisco, CA 6:00 PM www.subcycles.com

Wed Jan 27 – Zen House, Point Arena, CA 6:00 PM www.thezenhouse.net

Fri Jan 29 – Santa Rosa BMW Triumph, Santa Rosa, CA 6:15 PM www.santarosabmw.com

Sat Jan 30 – Kilowatt, San Francisco, CA  8:00 PM www.barbell.com/kilowatt

Sunday Jan 31 – Round Up Saloon, 3553 Mt Diablo Blvd  Lafayette CA   3pm

Sun Jan 31 – Godspeed, Oakland, CA 5:00 PM www.godspeedoakland.com

Mon Feb 1- American Sportbike Night, San Leandro 6:00PM www.americansportbikenight.net Ed Milich only

Book Tour Flyer

Heartfelt gratitude for organizing this all to Leslie Kay, editor of Urban Moto. Go see their excellent new website. And Jen Bromme, my germanic soul sister and owner of  Diewerkstatt bike shop in SF – great mechanics for street or race bikes.

Lois On The Loose – a book to crack me up.

 

book review of Lois on the Loose by Lois Prcye

 

I don’t love travel books.  Much as I love to travel, I find reading about others travels a tepid drink of backwash. Of course I readily hold forth on my own travel adventures, which you’ll just have to trust are perfectly woolly tales of danger and enlightenment. But I’m taking my hat off to Lois Pryce and her book Lois on the Loose and I’m waving it enthusiastically in the air.

The one word I’d say in any number of way is: FUNNY!  I snicked, snorted and giggled my way through the book.  The language alone is comically British and I always have a titter when some one says “Crikey!”.

But that’s only half of what carried me through the book chronicaling Lois on her trip from Alaska to the tip of South America upon a tiny 250 motorcycle. What kept me turning the pages was her own focus on the road itself, the drive to keep moving. An obsession to keep on keeping on.

She doesn’t dwell on what she ate at a great hole in the wall restaurant, or how charming the locals at the market, or the political or cultural aspects of the counties she passed through.  The most detailed she gets is at the border crossings and they seem to sum up her experiences ranging from somewhat criminal to charming.

The best bits of the story seem to be the worst bits of the road. I try to keep that in mind when traveling “this will make a great story” as its always more fun than hearing about sunshine and stellar views. Lois suffers so many brutal conditions and stretches of misery that I was left happy to just be an armchair reader.

Oh and the might of the pen. It was a juicy read to hear the antics of her miserable travel companion who would say things like “How do you idiots get anything done in this place? God I’m so fucking sick of useless fucking Peru”. Wouldn’t it be cathartic if you could detail someone’s bad behavior and have lots of people read about it?

Well I won’t be a plot spoiler, just get your own copy and enjoy. I just ordered her next book “Red Tape and White Knuckles” where she one-ups herself and crosses Africa on another wee bike.