Customer Reviews

John's Alaska, Riding my motorcycle beyond the Arctic circle to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

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I was looking forward to this book quite a bit when I saw it was available for Kindle. Unfortunately it did not meet my expectations. It is definitely a travel log style that marks the miles vs. telling a full story. No real trials, tribulations or personal growth stories here. Just quickly passing miles and lots of gas stops. A significant journey to be sure, just not a great book.

Alaska and Prudhoe Bay is an adventure motorcycle trip that is attainable for most riders in North American. Its far, but not too far. Its challenging, but not too challenging (although doing it on an street bike with street tires makes it harder). There is some danger, but not too much. This book is the travelogue of one rider. It chronicles his day to day travel and how he did the trip. Spoiler alert - there is no major drama on this trip. He didn't get a limb stuck under a rock and half to hack it off, he didn't break-down in the middle of nowhere and have to walk through waist deep snow the last 200 miles. There is no frost bite or wolf attacks. He didn't do this trip to escape a crumbing marriage (at he didn't mention that) or some other major personal drama. He came to no major epiphanies about his life, no life-changing realizations. In other words, he did the ride you most likely want to do.

This book is valuable if, like me, you're planning a similar journey. If you're looking for amazing tales of survival, its not here. But if you looking for information on a ride from a guy that's done it solo, well get that buck out and download it.

On the plus side, this book is relatively short and to the point and organized by day. On the minus side, the author mentions videos and photographs that are not part of the book. As one other reviewer noted, you can find this information on ADVrider.com, but then you have to read it from the forum and deal with comments from the other "inmates" (what ADVrider forum members are called). To read this as a ride report, you would also need to be connected to the internet. Its a better read from an iPad or a kindle.

I purchased this Kindle book based on the 2 other reviews but was very disappointed. Apparently this book came out of a blog on ADVRider web site and having read more than a few blogs on that site about adventure motorcycle touring, this is one of the worst I've read. The author wrote very little about preparing for his trip to Alaska and the Arctic Circle on a Yamaha FJR sport touring bike (which is probably the last bike anyone would think of to do a trip like this). From what I can tell, most of his preparation was reading other blogs on the ADVRider web site but following little of the experience of others. The journal was often poorly written with misspellings, brief daily entries (I guess when he was too tired to write more) and little insight into what he was experiencing.

Save the $2.99 and go to ADVRider and read what others have to say if your contemplating a long trip to Alaska on a motorcycle.

Length:: 1:27 Mins

Here's a trailer video I made of the trip. It had to be formated to 4:3 to upload to amazon. The original trailer is in 16:9 format.John's Alaska, Riding my motorcycle beyond the Arctic circle to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

I have just picked up my copy of John's new book. Very excited to read it! I have had the pleasure of following John on Twitter and reading his blog for a couple of months now.

John's writing style, descriptive nature and attention to fun details are a pleasure to read! I am really looking forward to this read. Just loaded it to my iPad for my next adventure. Congratulations John!

I will be sure to write a follow up once I complete the eBook - but for now I recommend everyone check out [....] and then grab a copy of his book!

Congratulations John!

Joe