In 2005 motorbike journalist Dan Walsh headed for South America with his 650 BMW to become a biking drifter, pilgrim, and latter-day heir to Ted Simon. His book documents the travels and travails of a bikeworld rebel.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
"Riding a bike removes the need for clutter, toys, rubbish that other men have to take on holiday. If I want adrenaline, I’ll rush a giddy overtake, not rent a jet ski."
The world through the eyes of Dan Walsh is never less than Technicolor, and always uninhibited, rebellious and on the edge. Not since the days of Jupiter's Travels has one man embarked on such an angry, narcotic-fuelled bike trek around the world.
"For me, Chile will always be South America’s supermodel sister – very beautiful but too long, too skinny, and too expensive to ride, and despite the groovy exterior, unpleasantly right-wing underneath."
Dan has travelled the length and breadth of the world; in Africa, on his XT Desert Rat; across the American continent, on a BMW F650 GS Dakar. Along the way he's visited Buenos Aires, where ‘revolutionary’ means the angry poor invading the presidential palace, not a really small phone that’s also a camera. He's crossed the dry sub-Saharan savannah, which is like riding across a piece of toast with a mouthful of crackers. He's been mistaken for a bum in New York, bashed by deadly tequila in Mexico, contracted typhoid in a dilapidated Bolivian hotel, visited The Most Beautiful Road in the World in Peru, been kidnapped in Kenya and finds that downtown Soweto is about as threatening as Stockport.
"I get my bum pinched by a tranny, my pocket picked by a grifter and get a gun pulled on me by a one-eyed, one-armed midget who’s upset cause I winked at him. These are the days that must happen to you."
Soaked in adrenaline and coruscatingly funny, Dan Walsh is the rightful heir to Ted Simon as the pre-eminent biker-rebel of our generation.
About the Author
In 2005 bike journalist Dan Walsh departed London on an XT Desert Rat headed for Africa, travelling from Dakar to Ghana to South Africa, then on to North and South America. Chancer, grifter, poet, biking drifter, he's the modern heir to Ted Simon. His Bike magazine columns about his travel experiences - lyrical, edgy, fraught with danger, despair and surreal highs and lows - have earned him a vast cult following and he has been labelled as "the saviour of motorcycle writing". Dan still contributes to Bike magazine and is still out on the road. This is his first book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
genius, amazing,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: These are the Days That Must Happen To You (Hardcover)
Dan Walsh may be the most gifted writer of my time. Yes, really. This is an astonishing read of his life as it moved through Africa and the Americas via motorcycle. But this is not simple narrative, not just a good story, not just an adventure or travelog. If he has any fear at all, it is of banality and dishonesty, but not of people, adventure, discovery, and not of being honest about what is driving him.
You have to read this book. You don't have to be a motorcyclist or even a traveller to be moved. But if you're both, it's quite amazing.
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is a book that should happen to you...if you ride!,
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This review is from: These Are the Days That Must Happen to You (Paperback)
Pretty good read but Dan is no fan of the American so if your skin is thin or you are in love with G.W. Bush you may need to be careful. This is probably just me but I ride to get away from politics and stuff like that and he weaves it into the story too much for me. The Days are for sure fun and interesting enough that I can proudly keep it in my moto reading collection. What I really want is to spend the rest of my life on the road like Walsh did for a time.
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's Never too Late for A Happy Childhood.,
By redhandmoto (Virginia) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: These Are the Days That Must Happen to You (Paperback)
or an extended adolescence. Peter Pan in the real world smokes, uses nasty words, vomits in public places, suffers despair, knows why good women leave him, and still resents it; acts-out and tries to shrug-off consequences, is horrified as age catches up, is lonely yet rejects consolation. We get to watch, go back to our desks and homes; he's howling at the moon in our place.
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