Customer Reviews

Bmw Gsing Around the World

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ordered "BMW GSing Around the World" directly from the author's web site. This book is a real rip-off and I'll send it back. It's 170 pages long (instead of 200 as advertised) and 30 of these are advertising for partner companies or for the other books from the same author. Remain 30 pages of text (one third of it for the "Big Dog" ride alone) and around 100 pages of totally uninspiring grainy black-and-white postcard-size pictures of a printing quality that doesn't even match a daily newspaper. Half of these show Mr Frazier's motorcycle in front of a road sign or at a mechanical workshop. The other ones show the motorcycles of Mr Frazier's encounters on his trips along with their owners in uptight poses. Unfortunately nothing is said about these very interesting people except for their citizenship and the model year of their faithful GS... "BMW GSing Around the World" is not only a rip-off but a show of disrespect for other long distance motorcycle travellers.

Altough Dr Frazier is an icon on RTW travel, this book is nothing special. It is very useful if you have a old R80 G/S, since it gives the reader a lot of detail of the technical improvements you should do to the bike in order to make it sort of reliable. The pictures are the lowest quality possible and the book is really expensive for what it is. If you don't have a R80 buy his other book, Riding the World with good quality pictures and great literature. A must for the dual sport rider along with Adventure Motorcycling Handbook. These two books led me to buy a KLR 650 instead of my past dream machine BMW R1200 GSA. It is nice but not as realiable as a cheap japanese machine (plus saved me $ 15 grand). Just like a Toyota and a Land Rover. The other seems to be the best but it is just pure advertising. Hope this helps. Good luck. JP

Gregory Frazier gives us a book that's an homage to his trusted steed, the BMW GS, in particular the BMW R80 G/S. While I do not fault him his chance to say something nice about the bike that took him around the world so many time, having read two other books by him, Riding South, and Alaska By Motorcycle, I was led to expect more. Yet its not that the book itself is misleading. Once you open the cover, before the table of contents, is the rundown of what the book hopes to achieve, a "reflection of these fascinating motorcycles as seen at different points on the globe." This is what Frazier did, supplementing his relflections with what was purported to be one of the largest and widest collections of BMW GS motorcycle photos in the world. Before I speak about the content, I would like to give you the rundown on the book: 145 pages, preceded by a dedication and a preface, and followed by 20 pages of "attatchments" and an authors bio. The 145 pages is broken down into 8 chapters ranging from such topics as his intro to the bike to repair/mods on the bike to various rides and adventures. Of those 145 pages, there are only 39+/- of text, with 203 photos, and 3 adverts over the remaining 106 pages. The attatchments at the end of the book, are adverts for his other books or for videos which cover similar globe-trotting adventures. I guess in retrospect, I expected a book of the same depth as his other two I had read, and was instead given a book that is a picturebook Hx of early model G/S motos. There is very little mentioned in the chapters about more recent bikes, although they are hinted at. So to say this covers 20 years of G/S motos is fair if you look at the pics, but the comments and words of Frazier are directed more towards his beloved R80 G/S than to the other bikes in the range. I would have to say if you are looking at buying this book, that you have a great love of the G/S, and of the people like Frazier who have ridden them "to the ends of the earth", otherwise you may blow through it in a night and wonder what, beyond a typical magazine/newspaper level article, you have just read. Frazier's style is informal, and we can see why he enjoys his bike, if only as a glimpse, but he does offer to take us "rambling" through his adventures, and it's a fun book to flip through; an expensive book, for what it is, but a fun book nonetheless. It's like sitting down at a family dinner, where your Uncle has just got back from a trip, and has a slide show and stories to tell you. Fun and interesting if you like the topic, but otherwise, it may just be something you could have missed.