Live to Ride
The Rumbling, Roaring World of Speed, Escape, and Adventure on Two Wheels
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Live to Ride is pure adrenaline—a full-throttle exploration of motorcycles that pushes to the limit, with heart-pounding accounts of riding the greatest bikes of all time, all over the world.
“Live to ride, ride to live.” For many motorcycle riders, these words express life’s guiding principle. Just take a look at the patch emblazoned on the jackets of legions of riders. Whether they’re roaring down an empty highway on two wheels at an insane speed, hopping on for a few mind-boggling loops of motocross, joining in the “rolling thunder” of a veritable outlaw motorcycle club, or just cruising on a Harley on a Sunday afternoon, motorcyclists of all stripes share a common love of the freedom that is riding.
Wayne Johnson, a lifelong motorcycle-lover and acclaimed writer, takes us around the globe and onto the terrain where the most extreme, thrilling forms of riding happen. Johnson shows where it all began more than a hundred years ago when the first motorcycle evolved from the bicycle and lands us on the track today with some of the world’s highest-paid athletes— professional motorcycle road racers. From there we go inside radically different competitions like the vertigo-inspiring “Widowmaker Hillclimb” and the fastest land racing on the planet at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Johnson also offers an inside look at the legendarily secretive culture of biker clubs with firsthand accounts of his own wild rides with an outlaw club. In every one of these venues, you aren’t just passing through as an observer—you are on a bike, racing across new and undiscovered country, the horizon your only destination.
If you have ever wondered what it’s like to climb on a motorcycle and feel its engine roar to life, or have actually done it and felt the rush of flying off into the wild blue yonder, or have simply been intrigued by this iconic part of American culture and history, hold on tight for this irresistible, one-of-a-kind journey into motorcycling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
If it involves a motorcycle, Johnson (White Heat) has it covered: the history of the two-wheeled vehicle, the inner workings of the engines, and the distinct culture of gear heads, from angry outlaw bikers to peaceful Sunday afternoon riders. He explores road racing, dirt riding, hill climbing, and the pursuit of land speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, as well as addressing the traits and histories of different motorcycle manufacturers from Italy, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and America. Authentic characters ride through in droves, including everyone from Ed Free, a rider who set a 150 mph world speed record in 1948 wearing nothing more than swim trunks and shoes, to well-known names like Evel Knievel and Italian road-racing superstar Valentino Rossi. A lifelong motorcyclist who has written five novels, Johnson's passion for riding is unbridled, and his prose sometimes sings like the smooth engine of a Ducati, the expensive Italian bike that is his preference. The narrative voice alternates from second to third to first person, with personal, memoirlike anecdotes among the most engaging. While some of the information may seem excessive or even baffling to nongearheads one bike is described as having "desmodromic, towershaft bevel driven cams" serious motorcycle aficionados will find something to love.