55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent for new travelers, and a good review for the experienced folks, May 30, 2007
This review is from: The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Travel: Tips, Technology, Advanced Techniques (Paperback)
I have been riding motorcycles since 1995. During that time I've taken several trips, from 1 day jaunts around the Chesapeake Bay to journeys of 2 weeks. During these trips I made some mistakes, and learned some new ways of doing things to make the next trip better. I've also received a lot of advice (mostly good) from people, either in person, or from various internet groups and e-mail lists. A lot of the information that I learned, to make motorcycle travel easier and more fun is in Dale Coyner's book. He starts with the very basics. Where are you going, and how will you be getting there? How should you plan your route? Then goes into how to prepare your motorcycle (no matter what type of motorcycle you ride), and how to prepare yourself, both mentally and physically. Then, before it's actually time to go, what do you need to do, so that when you go, you'll be able to go with no worries.
Reading this book is like sitting down with a group of experienced motorcycle travelers and hearing them talk about their journeys and their secrets. Only with the book, you can pull it out at any time and look for specific information to help you out. The full color pictures, maps, diagrams, and sidebar information add a lot of detail to the subjects and help with understanding. It's a great book for a beginner, and a good resource and review for experienced travelers as well.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the book I wish I'd had when I started touring., July 29, 2007
This review is from: The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Travel: Tips, Technology, Advanced Techniques (Paperback)
Imagine that you are in your late 30s, you've never owned a motorcycle in your life, and you want to begin motorcycle touring. Where would you begin to find out? That is the dilemma that I had when I first got into the sport, eleven years and 100,000 miles ago. Mostly, I got information from word of mouth, members of our local BMW club, and blind experimentation.
Someone starting out today, however, would not have as hard a time getting started because of Dale Conyer's wonderful new book, the Essential Guide to Motorcycle Travel, Tips, Technology, Advanced Techniques. What I found was a veritable encyclopedia of information that is just as valuable to this experienced learner as it would have been to my newbie self a decade ago.
The book is organized into sections entitled:
Planning your trip
Preparing yourself
Outfitting your bike
On the road
The section on planning your trip lays out all of the essential questions that must be answered before you leave home. Yes, I've left home with some basics and expected to "wing it" but the result is usually less than satisfactory. Using Dale's checklist and putting some rudimentary planning into a trip is going to pay dividends when you are in a convenience store, asking the Highway Patrolman getting a slurpee if he would stay in the motel across the road. When he answers, "no way," and you end up riding another 30, groggy miles, you will wish you had planned better.
The section on preparation is valuable as well. It covers what to wear as well as what you should have between your ears in the nature of mental preparation.
Something that I'd never seen approached in a systematic way before was "What's all this gear gonna cost?" I must admit, that acquiring gear a piece at a time from vendors at rallies, used from the internet, or at my local BMW dealer was my preferred approach to assembling a crapload of motorcycling gear. I'm not sure that if I had done the budget, I wouldn't have chosen a cheaper hobby, like sailing. Just kidding, anything for boats is expensive.
The largest portion of the book is devoted to farkles, the mechanical modifications that we all make to our machines in search of better tunes, more comfort, more visibility, more MORE. There are chapters on tunes, lights, cockpit electronic countermeasures and position systems, and cameras. Part of the appeal of this book is that there are really useful illustrations showing wiring and set up for electrical connections with relays and fuses.
Finally, the book concludes with the section "On the Road." This section includes a chapter with tips for putting it all together, which gives handy lists detailing what to do at six to twelve months before the trip, two weeks before, the week before, up to the day before. If you have ever had to pull an all nighter working on your bike so you can be ready to meet your buddies at oh-dark-thirty for a six-hundred mile ride, this might spare you that fate.
The last chapter in this section and in the book deals with Contingencies. It is an essential for anyone who decides that they are going cross county on a bike. That is my picture on p. 161. My wife and I had a broken throttle cable in Socorro, NM, over 800 miles from our home in Kansas and a long way from a BMW dealer. We met some good Samaritans that helped us get to a dealer in Albuquerque and back on the road.
This book will help you prepare and execute any motorcycle tour that is more demanding than your local club bike night or poker run. It's well worth the money.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A treasure for the motorcycle traveller!, November 13, 2007
This review is from: The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Travel: Tips, Technology, Advanced Techniques (Paperback)
For anyone seeking information about motorcycle travel, this is THE book to have! Dale does a great job of covering many aspects (dare I say All?) for traveling by motorcycle, and then some. Everything from weatherproof riding gear, GPS, suspension, campers, tents, seat cushions to suggestions for wiring new equipment into your bike can be found in this comprehensive guide. The book is loaded with full color photos. I've been riding a number of years now, and thought I'd kept up on the latest gear and travel info... until I read this book. I've learned a few things and found a few new gadgets to look into. Highly recommended for someone just beginning to travel my motorcycle, or the seasoned rider.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
