Bikers’ night in
Home entertainment for motorcyclists
Motorcycle Vagabonds Around the World
By Frank Panthöfer Published by www.motorcycle-vagabonds.com Price £10
A round-the-world trip in two volumes. Part one: The Americas, New Zealand and Australia. Part Two: Southeast Asia, Himalayas, Orient. Paperbacks are £10 each, or there are Kindle e-book editions at £4.99. It’s an excellent read.
A German couple jack in their jobs and spend three and a half years riding 114,000 miles – taking in 64 border crossings – on Honda Transalps. Almost immediately they’re on the road, starting in Canada. Detail gives it the ring of truth – for instance, the way that the simplest thing, like buying a can of WD-40, becomes complicated when you’re in a faraway land.
There’s self-deprecating humour and fine observations on biker culture, running repairs, crashes and borders. It’s life-affirming, warm, fun. And their revertion to being nobodies after three and a half years of being novelties rings true. Colin Overland
Mcqueen’s Motorcycles
By Matt Stone Published by Motorbooks Price £24.99
Stone is the author of Mcqueen’s Machines, a fine book that’s mostly about the actor and racer’s cars, with one chapter on motorcycles. This flips the formula round the other way, to great effect.
Stone has researched the subject commendably thoroughly, conducting fresh interviews with Mcqueen’s Hollywood motorcycling muckers, his race team colleagues and family members.
Chapters look in turn at The Great Escape, the 1964 International Six Day Trial in East Germany, desert sledding in the late ’60s and early ’70s, On Any Sunday, and – in Mcqueen’s later years – his astonishing collection, including many older bikes.
There are wonderful photos throughout, all with properly detailed captions. This is a good read and even better to flick through slowly, and to dream. Bill Noyce
The Loveless
Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery Genre: Drama Price £4.50
More of an exercise in mood than rampant storytelling, The Loveless is a must, this early-’80s film evoking a convincing feel of the ’50s. Here, Willem Dafoe stars in his first credited role and commands the screen as Vance, the Brando-esque leader of his biker gang. While the film is certainly an homage to The Wild One, it stands alone as an excellent directorial debut, boasting an almost fetishised style that effectively balances with a bleak undertone — “We’re going nowhere... fast,” says Vance — to build to a thrilling, violent denouement. Highly recommended. Naila Scargill
The BSA Bantam Bible
By Peter Henshaw Published by Veloce Books Price £30
Not new, but newly available in paperback, this proved to be an unexpected delight. The long-running BSA Bantam is easy to sneer at, being the sort of simple, slow, lightweight two-stroke that most of us have long since left behind (if we ever had the pleasure in the first place). But what becomes very clear from Henshaw’s diligently researched and lovingly compiled book is just how much passion and devotion these bikes continue to inspire among enthusiasts worldwide.
For some it’s about customising, for others painstaking restoration, and for a surprising number – it’s about the riding.
The brochures, ads and other archive material is fantastic, offering a glimpse into the recent past. And even if you skip all the pages detailing the minute differences between a 1962 and ’63 version, there’s still a tremendous amount in here. Bob Farren