The Perfect Vehicle

This book a polished winding meditation on the theory and fractiousness of motorcycles celebrates both their eccentric history and the wary pleasures of touring.The New YorkerIn a book that is a must for anyone who has loved a motorcycle (Oliver Sacks) Melissa Pierson captures in vivid writerly prose the mysterious attractions of motorcycling. She sifts through myth and hyperbole: misrepresentations about danger about the type of people who ride and why they do so. The Perfect Vehicle is not a mere recitation of facts nor is it a polemic or apologia. Its vivid historical accountsthe beginnings of the machine the often hidden tradition of women who ride the tale of the defiant ones who taunt death on the racetrackare intertwined with Pierson''s own story which in itself shows that although you may think you know what kind of person rides a motorcycle you probably don''t.