Motorcycle Books

[KTMphil]

Greg Frazier stopped by the other day, I wasn't aware that he had a couple of new books published.



Dr. Gregory Frazier the well-known globetrotter-author-motor journalist-film producer on an extended pit stop during his record setting attempt at a 6[SUP]th [/SUP]ride around the world, dropped by to promote two of his new book projects, THE GASOLINE TRAMP (released October, 2013) and a 256 page coffee table book DOWN AND OUT IN PATOGONIA, KAMCHATKA, AND TIMBUKTU (dueMarch 15, 2014). Frazier is on an Asian book promotion tour prior to the launch of the DOWN AND OUT book.

Here's a bio on each book:

THE GASOLINE TRAMP:

A previously unpublished 100 year-old tale of the first motorcycle ride around the world. Should be read in conjunction with Motorcycle Adventurer. 216 pages - usual places like Amazon carry it as an ebook.

DOWN AND OUT...

A 256 page coffee table book, an on-the-road autobiography of over 50 years and five times circling the globe by motorcycle. Includes Frazier's racing years and history with BMWs and Indians. A commissioned work by the world's largest motor book publisher, content incorporates 90,000 words and over 300 color images reflecting Frazier's over one million miles around the globe. Frazier said, "I had a little fun with this tome (his 14th published book). I've profiled not only the ground covered but also some of the characters, good and bad, that I've met." The publisher says of writer Frazier, "Dr. Gregory W. Frazier, one of the world's single most well-traveled motorcyclists. Frazier went for a ride, and never came back."

 

[DrGMIA]

Thank you Phil and Jeffrey.

The latest book is selling quite briskly. A stop in Japan found book collectors and motorcycle adventure travel aficionados pre-ordering DOWN AND OUT IN PATAGONIA, KAMCHATKA, AND TIMBUKTU from Amazon Japan. The digital age makes the business of producing, marketing and selling books an amazing process. The slowest element is the output of the author. Although a writer (and photographer in the case of these all color coffee table books) still has to be creative and talented, making the 90,000 words and 300 images an interesting read is ultimately in the hands of the publisher. The publisher of this new book has global distribution and I'm told they've made my works look very good and read well.

A portion of the book is devoted to Asia.

 

[KTMphil]

Ashes to Boonville by Geoff Thomas


Geoff was one of the Horizons Unlimited presenters in Chiang Mai last year, who went around the world on a Triumph Tiger. His book has just been released




Ashes to Boonville - Poor Circulation I ... by Geoff G Thomas

I'm Geoff Thomas, aka Blue88, a motorcycle despatch rider from the fine city of London, a middle-aged man who got incredibly lucky. With a little massaging of circumstances and a rude amount of alcohol, in 2008 I developed a half-baked plan to ride around the world on a motorcycle. In this day and age such mid-life adventures are certainly not uncommon, but I think you'll find that this adventure is a little more unusual than most. The fact that I'm here to tell this story is evidence that the journey around the world didn't kill me, but I hope that my avoidance of death doesn't detract from your vicarious enjoyment of the adventure.
It all started out quite innocently, but as with so many other things in life, my plans have a tendency to change. A twenty week shoestring journey around the world on a Triumph Tiger, a journey to realise the unfulfilled wishes of my late mother, Barbara Thomas, unexpectedly morphed into an adventure without a foreseeable ending. I could point the finger of blame at others: My parents George and Barbara Thomas for first introducing me to motorcycles, my good friend Steve Corby for encouraging me to read Jupiter's Travels and at Ted Simon for writing that iconic book in the first place. I could easily point the finger of blame at any of them, or all of them, but I won't. Everything that's happened, the good and the bad, happened as a direct result of my own actions.
Aside from being amazingly rude, reading a stranger's diary would probably be quite boring, so I hope that Ashes to Boonville reads more like a novel than a hastily written travel journal. However, this is not a work of fiction. Everything written is a reflection of actual events, a record of the many things that happened on the overland journey between England and California. However, in order to protect the innocent, and in many cases the guilty, certain names and descriptions have been changed. However, these alterations in no way change the substance of Ashes to Boonville, only the narrative.

 

[DrGMIA]

The GREATEST Ever ROUND-THE WORLD Motorbike Adventure book, IN CLANCY’S BOOTS.

IN CLANCY’S BOOTS


“More trees should die to support this book. It makes Ewan and Charley look like George and Mildred.” (Colin Bateman)

This new book, just released by Blackstaff Press www.blackstaffpress.com, follows two Irish BMW 1200 GS Adventure sponsored riders as they retrace the route taken by Carl Stearns Clancy 100 years earlier when Clancy made the first motorcycle ride around the world on a 1912 Henderson motorcycle.

Author Geoff Hill had mapped out the Clancy route using my 2010 published book MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER which recounted the original first ‘round the world motorcycle circumnavigation (autographed copies available at The Rider’s Corner in Chiang Mai, Thailand). The idea of re-riding the original Clancy ride 100 years after he had done so was the idea of two other Irish BMW GS riders, Feargal O’Neill and Joe Walsh, who called it The Clancy Centenary Ride.

When Hill and his riding partner Gary Walker started the last leg of their world tour in June in San Francisco, California I joined them with my ‘round the world riding partner on two 1983 Honda 650 Silverwing models and the four of us retraced the Clancy route across the USA, which can be followed here: The Clancy Centenary Ride 2012-2013 - Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

Hill’s new book is a well polished reflection of his blogs from the road and an entertaining historical read for the serious adventure rider or motorcycle long distance aficionado.

Hill humbled me his The Dedication where he wrote “to Carl Stearns Clancy and Dr. Gregory Frazier, adventurers both.” Having spent 16 years researching the original Clancy ride for my book MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER about his record setting global ride and the next four years conducting additional research I learned the term adventurer in the Clancy sense were mighty boots to fill.

IN CLANCY’S BOOTS – The Greatest Ever Round-The-World-Motorbike-Adventure ISBN # 978-0-85640-913-4 is 11.99 Euro.

Kill a tree for a good read, the history lesson is worth it.